posted
Ok my computer is a year and a half old and lately its been acting funky.
I shut down tonight to reboot and nadda. Get an error telling me my hard drive is in eminate danger of failing.
I got out my system restore disk and did a back up of all the files, Im assuming to the C drive. It made a partition on it for the back up files. Tried many time to boot to normal but no avail. Finally, perhaps by luck I got it to boot to windows. That's why I'm here typing this. I plan to take it down to the computer lab store in the morning for what appears to be a new hard drive.
My question is will I have to re-install everything thats on my computer now or should the computer guy be able to copy everything I have on the drive now over to a new drive so I dont have to go through the hellish nightmare of reconfiguring the entire setup I have now?
thanks if anyone knows the answer. Now I'm gonna go pour a drink and get whacked. I love my computer when it works but I swear I'd shoot it with a gun if I had one, especially when they crash.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
posted
the hard drive ..Its goona die any second. it may reboot once more. it may reboot 5 times more.. its an unkown.
first, make a boot disk for windows for your machine. Do not turn off your machine. Next if possible backup esential files to a cd.
next: go get a new hard drive.
if possible, prepare it in another computer IE, format it and get it ready to install to your new machine
oh yes. a backup partition on a failing HD is all to often useless. . The failing is usually in the electronics section and not the hardware...
Third. turn off machine and install new hard drive as master and old HD as Slave..
Boot machine and copy all yer important files to new HD.. thats it.. if yer lucky... you may have to use DOS commands to get yer important files back,,, if not you have at least a possible back up..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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Being the savvy guy you seem to be, you might want to think about a ghost program and an additional hard drive. it will keep and update and an exact copy on the additional drive on your system, that way in an event such as this you just switch drives and no lost down time or reconfiguring.
I beleive powerquest corp makes one. They make drive copy or as it is called something like disk image now.
-------------------- Bob Rochon Creative Signworks Millbury, MA 508-865-7330
"Life is Like an Echo, what you put out, comes back to you." Posts: 5149 | From: Millbury, Mass. U.S. | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Bob, I'm sorry to hear about your hard drive problems. These guy's know a lot more about computers than I do so I can't offer any additional help there but if you want, I'd be happy to shoot it for you. (and don't worry, I promise I won't hit your snake)
-------------------- Chris Elliott 1longshot@classicnet.net cell 62084two2232 Posts: 686 | From: Scottsdale, AZ & Anthony, KS, USA | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
bob, 1st thing id do is open up the computer, check all your cable connections. if their all tite and makin good connection ok. heres a little unknown thing you can do. when you feel the h/s is dyin, go ito the computer and unscrew it from its mounting....turn it upside down...and put it back into mounting bay. sounds really dumb i know but ive had this work on a couple that wouldnt run in mnormal position. if you get it up and running, just burn all your files(not the program) to cd's.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Listen to what Curtis said to do hard drives are very cheap now a days so buy a new larger one and save your files. Then when everything is saved over to your new drive you should be able to send your old drive in for warranty and have it replaced.
When it comes back you can save your work files to both drives it is a bit redundant but it is just a little cheap insurance. Then every month or week or when ever, burn a copy of your files to a CD-ROM disk as a back up.
good luck
-------------------- Steve Eisenreich Dezine Signs PO BOX 6052 Stn Forces Cold Lake, Alberta T9M 2C5 Posts: 774 | From: Cold Lake | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
I already have a second slave hard drive installed that is strictly for data job files on this machine which is my primary work/design station.
My other computer is setup with a raid drive on it so that one is available in a pinch although I dont prefer using that box. It more or less a network terminal that I only use for cutting vinyl and digital printing on.
This machine that Im on now is the primary brain with all my important stuff on it.
Im still running it now from the last successful boot. Just waiting for my computer guy to call and see how I can minimize my down time.
I hope its not long. I have a ton of stuff going on.Thanks for all the advice everyone.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
posted
bob...that sux about your computer..hopefully he can transfer all the info from your old drive to a new one...what brand computer is it? i have 3 dell computers up stairs with everything loaded on them just incase something like that happens...but i know i always end up tweeking things on one and not the other so i'm sure i'd have headaches too. well you would have gotten your panel yesterday but ups screwed up! the package was all the way in pa on april 1..then the idiots routed it back to mass...dumba$$es...you should have it today. let me know if its in one piece..i insured it. i'm sorry about your computer and hope everything works out quick and easy!
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
A reallygood back up program is Mackup MyPC by stomp. u can try it for free. It can do all back up functions in auto mode, by a schedule, or manual to cd's or other hd's on the networks or just about any storage media there is. It is just about the most versatile backup program ive seen.
You can set it so all machines on ahe network back to another machine on the network. Hopefully nothing is lost.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Well its now Thursday night. I bought a new 40 gig hard drive. I was lucky enough to transfer the entire contents of the bad drive onto the new one through Ghost software so no major reinstallation headaches ruining my weekend.
Strange thing is that I still get a warning of an iminant hard drive failure at boot up even on the new drive. I figure the bad cluster or whatever was causing the problem was carried over to the new drive. I know nothing is wrong with the new drive because it does boot up to windows now.
I have no logical explanation as to what was really wrong but I have piece of mind knowing my system is still up and running.
I'm still determined to figure out what the problem is and I'll let everyone know if I ever find the answer.
BTW... I discovered that a lot of todays new computers do not come with the operation system discs... A recovery disc is not the same thing as a restore disc guys and gals so make sure you do in fact have a copy of your operating system or your will be screwed.
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
posted
That is correct. The deals you see where you get a machine for $899 are good deals. But you must call the company to get teh install disks.
I just purchased a HP for my dad and did not include the win XP and other software disks. I called them and their claim is that there is a recovery partition on the HD. Yes that is true. However, if the HD fails yer out of luck.
They will give you all kinds of reason for not including the OS and other software disks. Just keep insisting that you want them and they will finally comply.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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