Hard drive About To Crash

[bajazza]

OK, my computer is giving me warning signs that its about to
croak....its running XP, about 3 years old. Compaq. What happens is
when its turned on, you'll get the Compaq screen, and nothing else.
You have to wait until it goes into standby mode (2 mins) then move
the mouse and it'll bring you to the Windows startup screen and
everythings OK from there. My question is how can I take EVERYTHING
thats on the HD and dupe it onto a new HD? Including the OS? Any help
would surely be appriciated!
Jay

 

[John McGaw]

OK, my computer is giving me warning signs that its about to
croak....its running XP, about 3 years old. Compaq. What happens is
when its turned on, you'll get the Compaq screen, and nothing else.
You have to wait until it goes into standby mode (2 mins) then move
the mouse and it'll bring you to the Windows startup screen and
everythings OK from there. My question is how can I take EVERYTHING
thats on the HD and dupe it onto a new HD? Including the OS? Any help
would surely be appriciated!
Jay

That really doesn't sound like an HD problem to me but to make sure you
should run the proper diagnostic software from the HD's maker to verify
your suspicions. If it tells you that there really is a drive problem then
obtain a replacement HD and a piece of cloning software. There are a number
of options for the software but if you buy an HD made by some makers
(Seagate comes immediately to mind) you can download free cloning software
from their website. Install the HD on a secondary channel in the computer,
run the software, perform the cloning, remove the original HD and replace
it with the new HD. It is just about that difficult. There may be other
little things like jumpers and BIOS settings but with a fairly modern
computer using SATA this should be no problem.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I have a similar problem. My XP Pro system's drive is very old and I have
no installation CD. Can I purchase a hard drive (not new) and install as
a secondary, THEN somehow copy my current C: drive onto the other drive.
What command would I have to use?

You won't use any command available in XP. You need 3rd party software;
please see my reply to the OP (original poster).

I understand I may have to (somehow) convince XP to boot to my fresh
drive when the old one fails, but how.

It's actually very quick and easy if you have the tools available.

HTH
-pk

 

[John McGaw]

I have a similar problem. My XP Pro system's drive is very old and I have
no installation CD. Can I purchase a hard drive (not new) and install as a
secondary, THEN somehow copy my current C: drive onto the other drive. What
command would I have to use? I understand I may have to (somehow) convince
XP to boot to my fresh drive when the old one fails, but how.

Many questions; hope you can shed some light. Thanks.

EW

Again, what you need is cloning software. Acronis True Image is one
example. If you are installing a Seagate or Maxtor drive (new or old
shouldn't matter) the company will _give_ you a limited version of Acronis
which will only work with their drives and this will allow you to make a
copy of your original drive to the new drive: operating system, programs,
settings, data -- everything. Given the price of new drives it seems
pointless to me for you to buy a used drive but that is certainly up to
you. If you obtain a larger drive as a replacement the software can
automatically scale up the drive partitions. I don't know if other drive
makers have similar software but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

"Convincing" the computer to boot from the new cloned drive should be no
problem. You clone the old drive and then disconnect it so that the
computer will have no confusion about where to boot from. If you go through
the procedure carefully it is quite easy as long as you have normal manual
dexterity, can follow instructions, and aren't prone to dropping drives
onto concrete floors.

John McGaw
http://johnmcgaw.com

 

[Patrick Keenan]

OK, my computer is giving me warning signs that its about to
croak....its running XP, about 3 years old. Compaq. What happens is
when its turned on, you'll get the Compaq screen, and nothing else.
You have to wait until it goes into standby mode (2 mins) then move
the mouse and it'll bring you to the Windows startup screen and
everythings OK from there. My question is how can I take EVERYTHING
thats on the HD and dupe it onto a new HD? Including the OS? Any help
would surely be appriciated!
Jay

Absolutely you can, and it's easier now than ever before. Plus, you can
move it all to a much larger drive.

For the way I do this, which involves another system, what you need is:

- the new drive - one that matches the connector type of the old one (IDE
or SATA). IDE drives have a wide ribbon cable (nearly 2" wide). SATA
drives use a narrow cable, around 1/4" wide.

- another system with XP or Vista

- a way to connect both drives, the old and the new, to the other system
(the "host"). USB2 drive cases or adapters work great for this, or if the
system has extra drive connectors of the same type (IDE or SATA), you can
use those.

- cloning software, such as the free Acronis TrueImage trial. Some drives
come with cloning software, or you can download it from the manufacturer's
site; it's nearly the same size. You need a high-speed connection as the
installer will be over 100 meg.

Install the cloning software on the "host" system and reboot. Remove the
old drive from your system, and attach the two drives to the "host" system
by whatever means you chose. If you're using the host system's internal
cabling, you must power it OFF before doing this.

For IDE drives, you may have to adjust jumpers depending on the connection
method. For drive cases or adapters, it will likely be Master or no jumper
at all. If you opened the case and attached on the internal connectors, you
may have to adjust jumpers on all the drives. Make a note of the original
jumper settings!

Now, launch the cloning software. If it's the True Image trial, choose
Pick A Tool, Manage Hard Disks, Clone Disk. Choose the Manual mode if your
new drive is a different size than the old one. Step through the choices,
telling it to KEEP old data, and choose the Proportional method - this will
enlarge the partitions so that you will use all of the new larger disk.

Click OK till done, and let it go. When it's done, disconnect the drives,
reset the jumpers on the new drive as the original one was, and attach it to
the system.

Turn it on, and you're done. This whole process usually takes me about an
hour.

If error messages appear during this process, such as Disk Read Errors, you
may have other problems that have to be addressed differently. You can try
ignoring them - since you are doing nothing to the original drive, you can
come back for another try.

If you don't have access to another system, you can also just install the
cloning software on your PC as it is, then attach the new drive and clone to
it. However, if your PC is giving you problems, this may not be as
reliable as you want.

This said, the problem may not be with the hard disk, and this may not solve
the problem.

HTH
-pk

 

[harvey]

OK, my computer is giving me warning signs that its about to
croak....its running XP, about 3 years old. Compaq. What happens is
when its turned on, you'll get the Compaq screen, and nothing else.
You have to wait until it goes into standby mode (2 mins) then move
the mouse and it'll bring you to the Windows startup screen and
everythings OK from there. My question is how can I take EVERYTHING
thats on the HD and dupe it onto a new HD? Including the OS? Any help
would surely be appriciated!
Jay

Take it to a local PC shop, where they should be able to " Ghost" an
image of your hard drive
and install it on another one, thence put the new one in your PC

 

[HeyBub]

OK, my computer is giving me warning signs that its about to
croak....its running XP, about 3 years old. Compaq. What happens is
when its turned on, you'll get the Compaq screen, and nothing else.
You have to wait until it goes into standby mode (2 mins) then move
the mouse and it'll bring you to the Windows startup screen and
everythings OK from there. My question is how can I take EVERYTHING
thats on the HD and dupe it onto a new HD? Including the OS? Any help
would surely be appriciated!

It may not be a drive problem, but instead a HEAT problem.

That is, the computer won't work until it gets warm enough internally to
correct a cold solder joint or barely-connected cable.

Here's a test. After the machine has been running properly for an hour,
completely power down the computer. Then turn it back on. Does the symptom
you describe above repeat? If not, you may have a bad motherboard or cable
problem.