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Hard Drive Going Bad
It looks as if my main C Drive is going out ... My system shuts down randomly some evenings
and when I reboot it the drive is pretty noisy and finally as it spins enough (3 - 5 monutes) it begins to quiet some ...
I have recently upgraded the motherboard to a Pent 4 3.0GHz and it appears to give off a lot of heat ... so it may be due
to the HD overheating ? But definitely it is going bad ... I am running XP Pro with SP2 ... I have three HDs in the system, too
bad my boot drive is going out ...
Now to my question ... what is the easiest method of swapping to a new HD ?
I know when I upgraded my motherboard, I had problems with XP ... will the same problem occur with
changoing HD if I Ghost the drives ?
What else do I need to know and do ?
I probably have to do this this coming week ... the drive is making more noise more louder and often ...
I will probably change cases as well since he fans need to be better ...
and when I reboot it the drive is pretty noisy and finally as it spins enough (3 - 5 monutes) it begins to quiet some ...
I have recently upgraded the motherboard to a Pent 4 3.0GHz and it appears to give off a lot of heat ... so it may be due
to the HD overheating ? But definitely it is going bad ... I am running XP Pro with SP2 ... I have three HDs in the system, too
bad my boot drive is going out ...
Now to my question ... what is the easiest method of swapping to a new HD ?
I know when I upgraded my motherboard, I had problems with XP ... will the same problem occur with
changoing HD if I Ghost the drives ?
What else do I need to know and do ?
I probably have to do this this coming week ... the drive is making more noise more louder and often ...
I will probably change cases as well since he fans need to be better ...
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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If you are using Windows XP / Win 2K Operating system you have an Option to take Backup within the Windows Enviroment. This is a Built in tool and hence does not incurr in additional costs.
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.
Back up the OS to the Other HDD and then I am sure its easy enough to restore the back up to the replaced hdd.
For more assistance in taking the backup using Native Windows Bacup utility refer the link
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
Hope that helps
Cheers
Sinu
Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup.
Back up the OS to the Other HDD and then I am sure its easy enough to restore the back up to the replaced hdd.
For more assistance in taking the backup using Native Windows Bacup utility refer the link
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/bott_03july14.mspx
Hope that helps
Cheers
Sinu
You can also Ghost the operating system, and then do a in-place upgrade. This will keep all your files where they were, but you will still have to reinstall all drivers and programs.
Pro: driver reinstall assures you that the system uses most up-to-date and correct drivers.
Con: you will have to reinstall all programs.
Just an option...
Pro: driver reinstall assures you that the system uses most up-to-date and correct drivers.
Con: you will have to reinstall all programs.
Just an option...
Why would you have to reinstall the OS if you ghost it from one disk to another. This makes no sense - if all the other hardware is remaining the same.
I have a small comment regarding your heat problem due to the new processor and the idea of changing cases.
I may change the case but it won't make your heat problem go away or the noise problem.
What you need to replace is the OEM Intel cooler. Those new Prescott CPUs produce a lot of heat and cooler works at the rate of 4500rpm in idel mode and reaches 5500 rpm and higher during CPU load.
So best choice would be Zalmans cooler: AlCU or CU cooler - ALCU dissipates less heat but only around 2 degrees less. There are 2 great models - CNSP-7000BCu or AlCu - which is a smaller version and suites mose of the cases and motherboards and another one is the newest CNSP7700Cu or ALCu which is fantastic and it has 120mm vent in the cooler which works really slow - no noise and dissipates heat VERY GOOD!
Go for it - its not very expance but its essential for Prescott CPU.
(Not such a small note - I hope you'll find it useful, though offtopic)
Good Luck.
I may change the case but it won't make your heat problem go away or the noise problem.
What you need to replace is the OEM Intel cooler. Those new Prescott CPUs produce a lot of heat and cooler works at the rate of 4500rpm in idel mode and reaches 5500 rpm and higher during CPU load.
So best choice would be Zalmans cooler: AlCU or CU cooler - ALCU dissipates less heat but only around 2 degrees less. There are 2 great models - CNSP-7000BCu or AlCu - which is a smaller version and suites mose of the cases and motherboards and another one is the newest CNSP7700Cu or ALCu which is fantastic and it has 120mm vent in the cooler which works really slow - no noise and dissipates heat VERY GOOD!
Go for it - its not very expance but its essential for Prescott CPU.
(Not such a small note - I hope you'll find it useful, though offtopic)
Good Luck.
When I swap hard drives I have always used maxblast and tell it to drive copy, and I haven't had a single problem copying for hdd to hdd. I havent ever had to reinstall programs or drivers.. The one thing that I would do if it wont boot after you put in the new hdd is to fdisk and make sure the partition is set to ACTIVE.
Good Luck
Good Luck
ASKER
I just got done changing to the new HD ...
I got a little lucky ... The drive which was going bad ended up not being the boot drive, but the second drive with just data ... so all I had to do
was copy the data over ... I replaced the case at the same time that has four fans so it sould have much better air movement ...
Thanks
I got a little lucky ... The drive which was going bad ended up not being the boot drive, but the second drive with just data ... so all I had to do
was copy the data over ... I replaced the case at the same time that has four fans so it sould have much better air movement ...
Thanks
Then why not Split the Points among each of us ? It would have been more fair then !
ASKER
I don't agree ...
The first answer is what I was doing ... I already created my boot Ghost Disk, already removed the data HD and installed the new one to begin
Ghosting ... I then noticed the noisy drive noise was gone ... hence why I found out that it was not the main bootable drive ...
It was the first answer and even though it was not necessary at the end, it was the first solution.
Thanks
The first answer is what I was doing ... I already created my boot Ghost Disk, already removed the data HD and installed the new one to begin
Ghosting ... I then noticed the noisy drive noise was gone ... hence why I found out that it was not the main bootable drive ...
It was the first answer and even though it was not necessary at the end, it was the first solution.
Thanks
1. Ghost your current HD to a new HD, you start exactly where you stopped.
2. Take advantage of the time to do a total reinstall, but I would suggest using the Windows Files and settings transfer wizard to move all your data over.
Whatever you do don't hesitate! Leew is right.
If your HD is failing every minute you wait brings you closer to total data loss. You should be able to change the HD without causing an XP /activation problem, M$ took HD swaps into account and I believe it's considered a "small" change by the system as long as the new HD "wakes up" on the same Mobo Windows has just used.
Get thee to a store and get an HD now as there's not much more you need to know.