Hard disk is going to die

[Ray]

I got a warning message from the computer saying my hard disk is going to
die and am going out to buy a replacement hard disk. Can someone advise me
how I can replace the installed programs on C drive in an efficient way.

Thanks,

Ray

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ray" <[email protected]>

| I got a warning message from the computer saying my hard disk is going to
| die and am going out to buy a replacement hard disk. Can someone advise me
| how I can replace the installed programs on C drive in an efficient way.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Ray
|

Clone it from the old to the new using Norton Ghost, Acronis TruImage or other software.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

And do it SOON! The longer you wait the less chance you will have in
"saving" the hard drive set up.

Also, you should note that most hard drive manufacturers offer a software to
"clone"/migrate to a newer hard drive. This may be included in a retail
boxed hard drive kit and is also usually available for downloading off their
web site.

 

[Uncle Joe]

I got a warning message from the computer saying my hard disk is going to die and am going out to buy a
replacement hard disk. Can someone advise me how I can replace the installed programs on C drive in an
efficient way.

Thanks,

Ray

Is getting a system message that one's hard drive is going
to fail a regular occurrence? It seems odd to me. Would
like to know exactly what the message said. Imagine the
consternation naughty malware would cause by popping
up such a message and having everyone take the message
at face value. Everyone would be rushing to buy new drives.

Since I maintain an Casper XP clone on my D drive, I'd
be inclined to run HD manufacturer and chkdsk diagnostics
before buying a new hard drive.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Uncle Joe" <[email protected]>

|
| Is getting a system message that one's hard drive is going
| to fail a regular occurrence? It seems odd to me. Would
| like to know exactly what the message said. Imagine the
| consternation naughty malware would cause by popping
| up such a message and having everyone take the message
| at face value. Everyone would be rushing to buy new drives.
|
| Since I maintain an Casper XP clone on my D drive, I'd
| be inclined to run HD manufacturer and chkdsk diagnostics
| before buying a new hard drive.
|

It could be a S.M.A.R.T. generated message.

And yes... the following is a good idea...

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

David

I had an 80gb Maxtor go down (lost it's partitions).. the Powermax basic and
advanced tests showed the drive as OK.. however, I started a low level
format on it, and gotten a failure code and message that the drive was
actually failing.. personally, I think that some of the HDD diagnostics
programs have no worth at all..

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" <[email protected]>

| David
|
| I had an 80gb Maxtor go down (lost it's partitions).. the Powermax basic and
| advanced tests showed the drive as OK.. however, I started a low level
| format on it, and gotten a failure code and message that the drive was
| actually failing.. personally, I think that some of the HDD diagnostics
| programs have no worth at all..
|

Sorry to hear that experience. I know I have used the SeaGate and WD daigs. and the errors
codes helped me to get warranty replacements. with Dell however, they made me use the Dell
Diagnostics before I could gert a RMA.

I do know that there are mechanical issues that can cause a drive failure and won't be
picked up by the respective manufacturer's diagnostic in all instances. In those cases, I
had to run the diagnostic software under warm (been used for a while > than an hour), cold
(system not used overnite) and then retested till I got an error code.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

David

What surprised me was that the first tests suggested that all was OK when it
eminently wasn't, the drive having summarily dumped the partitions.. had I
not attempted a low level format, I would have set the drive back up only to
see it crash again in the none too distant future..

Comments made to Maxtor fall on deaf ears.. nothing changes..

 

[Guest]

I tried to use Norton's Ghost software (v9.0) and it would not install as SBS
2003 is a "non supported OS". I would be happy if somone could tell us both
how to clone it.

I also tried Max blast from Maxtor and it only worked part way. The new disk
would fail to start sql server. A Maxtor rep told me that Maxblast is not
supported for a server OS.

Gary

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "garyc" <[email protected]>

| I tried to use Norton's Ghost software (v9.0) and it would not install as SBS
| 2003 is a "non supported OS". I would be happy if somone could tell us both
| how to clone it.
|
| I also tried Max blast from Maxtor and it only worked part way. The new disk
| would fail to start sql server. A Maxtor rep told me that Maxblast is not
| supported for a server OS.
|
| Gary

It doesn't have to be installed on that PC. All you need to to do is get it installed on
*any* PC (BTW: Norton Ghost 9 also includes Ghost 2003) and then create a Ghost Boot Disk.
It is the Ghost Boot Disk that will be used to clone the old disk to the new disk.

 

[Guest]

I have managed to install it on another PC but there is no option to create a
boot disk. The original Norton disk is bootable, so, if I understand you
right, the process would be,
1) boot server off of norton disk
2) create backup image of old drive
3) restore that image onto new drive

Am I getting close ?

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "garyc" <[email protected]>

| I have managed to install it on another PC but there is no option to create a
| boot disk. The original Norton disk is bootable, so, if I understand you
| right, the process would be,
| 1) boot server off of norton disk
| 2) create backup image of old drive
| 3) restore that image onto new drive

You could create an image and restore from teh image. Howeverm, that requires a third party
media.

Lets say that hard disk "C:" is going bad and is the master on IDE channel 0

add the replacement drive as a "D:" drive as a master on on IDE channel 1

Now clone disk "C:" to disk "D:".
{ clone, master on IDE channel 0 to master on IDE channel 1 }

When done...

Remove the "C:" drive on IDE channel 0. Move the replacement drive on IDE channel 1 to IDE
channel 0.

BTW:
IDE channel 0 -- Primary IDE controller
IDE channel 1 -- Seconday IDE controller

 

[Guest]

We must be talking about different software. When my Norton 9.0 ghost disk is
booted, it gives no option to clone or copy. It provides for restoring a
backup image previously created. That image it looks for can only be created
after installing it to the PC. Therefore, I am back to the original problem
that Norton will not install to sbs 2003.

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "garyc" <[email protected]>

| We must be talking about different software. When my Norton 9.0 ghost disk is
| booted, it gives no option to clone or copy. It provides for restoring a
| backup image previously created. That image it looks for can only be created
| after installing it to the PC. Therefore, I am back to the original problem
| that Norton will not install to sbs 2003.
|

I can't speak for Ghost 9. I can for Ghost 2003 and that is included with Ghost 9.

If Ghost 9 does not do a disk-to-disk clone then that is really stupid since that is a major
part of the Ghost software !

Find Ghost 2003 on the instrallation CDROM. Install it on a PC, create a Ghost Boot Disk
from the Norton Ghost Boot Wizard. Boot from that created floppy disk and from the menu
choose..

Local --> Disk --> To Disk
Choose the source drive
Choose the destination drive.

Any specific questions you may have on Ghost 9 I suggest being posted in;
symantec.support.network.ghost.general
or
symantec.customerservice.general

 

[Ray]

David,

Thanks for your useful information. The warning was generated from SMART as
below:-

SMART Failure Predicted on Primary Master: Maxtor 4D080H4
Warning: Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive.

I downloaded PowerMax to check my 80 GB hard disk and found Pass on quick
and full test. Anyway, I will replace the hard disk. I got a 40 GB and 80
GB to replace the original 80 GB hard disk.

I downloaded MaxBlast4 in order to copy drive C to the new 40 GB hard disk.
The drive C partition is just 25 GB. Can I use the MaxBlast4 to copy the C
partition onto the new 40GB hard disk as a boot disk without using Ghost
software. Same will be applied to D partition that will be copied to new 80
GB hard disk.

Ray

 

[Ray]

David,

Could you please tell where to locate the Ghost 2003 in Ghost 9 disk.

Thanks,

Ray

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Ray" <[email protected]>

| David,
|
| Could you please tell where to locate the Ghost 2003 in Ghost 9 disk.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Ray

Sorry, I couldn't -- sorry. I just know that it is included.
It might just be in a folder on the CDROM with a file called GHOST.MSI.

 

[Anna]

From: "Ray" <[email protected]>

| David,
|
| Could you please tell where to locate the Ghost 2003 in Ghost 9 disk.
|
| Thanks,
|
| Ray

Sorry, I couldn't -- sorry. I just know that it is included.
It might just be in a folder on the CDROM with a file called GHOST.MSI.

Ray (& David):
I believe it was a separate CD that was included in the retail, boxed
version of Ghost 9. If you purchased the OEM version of Ghost 9, it was not
included as I recall.

You can purchase Ghost 2003 (download) for a trifling sum ($4.99) from
http://www.tekdealers.com/?pg=product_details&ref=956846551&productID=89

I see http://www.tekdeal.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=GHOST2003
advertises the CD version for $15.90 (includes shipping).

No doubt other online vendors carry this product as well.

It's a worthwhile investment in our opinion. We *much* prefer it for
*direct* cloning of disks (partitions) to other disks (partitions) in
comparison with Ghost 9. (We've yet to work with Ghost 10 but I'm of the
impression it's not much different from the 9 version where *direct*
disk-to-disk cloning is involved). Ghost 2003 is simple to use and
straightforward in design. We've used it to clone hundreds of hard drives.
Anna

 

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Anna" <[email protected]>


| Ray (& David):
| I believe it was a separate CD that was included in the retail, boxed
| version of Ghost 9. If you purchased the OEM version of Ghost 9, it was not
| included as I recall.
|
| You can purchase Ghost 2003 (download) for a trifling sum ($4.99) from
| http://www.tekdealers.com/?pg=product_details&ref=956846551&productID=89
|
| I see http://www.tekdeal.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=GHOST2003
| advertises the CD version for $15.90 (includes shipping).
|
| No doubt other online vendors carry this product as well.
|
| It's a worthwhile investment in our opinion. We *much* prefer it for
| *direct* cloning of disks (partitions) to other disks (partitions) in
| comparison with Ghost 9. (We've yet to work with Ghost 10 but I'm of the
| impression it's not much different from the 9 version where *direct*
| disk-to-disk cloning is involved). Ghost 2003 is simple to use and
| straightforward in design. We've used it to clone hundreds of hard drives.
| Anna
|

Thanx Anna for that informative reply ;-)

As a side note...

For dealing with mass situations, I used the Symantec Enterprise Ghost 7 ~ 8 versions. The
GHOST.EXE utility on the Ghost Boot Disk made from the Ghost wizard on the Enterprise
version was similar in functionality to the Ghost 2003, retail, version with just a few
exceptions.

 

[Ray]

Dear Anna & David,

Yesterday, I tried to use MaxBlast 4 to copy the bootable partition C to the
new drive but unfortunately failed. The copy process automatically stopped
at about 35% and asked me to run checkdisk & defragment on the source disk.
I did it three times following the instructions but still failed. I gave
up. This process took about 2 hours to make a copy of 30% of a 25 GB
partition - very slow.

I installed Ghost 9 on the old disk and copy the partition to a new drive.
It took about 40 minutes to complete the process in Windows environment -
very fast and no plain at all. Luckily, my old drive can still boot into
Windows environment. If the drive fails to boot into Windows environment, I
cannot use Ghost 9 as it does not come with Ghost 2003 that said to be
working in DOS mode without using the OS on old hard disk.

Ray