Hard Drive Failure Immenent

[V_R]

Bugger....

I think my primary drives on the way out.... Got home from work today, stuck on bios screen 'CMOS checksum error' I know thats probably the battery right, so ill change that. No problem.

Rebooted pc, No checksum error, No overclock. (Loud) Click, click, click, then booted up with no problems.

Seems to be working fine now, just did a full back up and drive fitness test, No problems reported at all.

I aint going to take any chances, i will be buying a new disk....

I'm thinking a nice 160 maybe 200 gig Samsung Spinpoint, anyone got any better ideas?

Oh, the dying disk is a Hitachi/IBM Deskstar, Not the best i guess.....

TIA

 

[Ian]

Oh dear - I've had all of my IBM "deathstar" drives fail on me!


Maxtor have always been good for me, but I think any of the other main makes are pretty good too nowadays. Just be sure to get one with a 3/5 year warranty.

Out of interest, what do you use to backup you drives?

 

[muckshifter]

Well ... the IBMs were called "Deathstar" drives ...

and yes, the 'click of death' can be heard without hearing aids.




EDIT: must type faster ...

 

[V_R]

I have a second drive, a Seagate Barracuda 120GB. I use norton Ghost to do a full backup and i all so got all 'my documents' favorites etc backed up again.

Tell me thats ok....

 

[Ian]

Yup, it should be - hopefully you can re-flash another drive and start use it just the same

I'd make a CD backup of the really important stuff too though, just in case!

 

[V_R]

Maxtor have always been good for me, but I think any of the other main makes are pretty good too nowadays

The drive before this was a Maxtor 120, that died too, and the same day so did the hard drive in my xbox!

I dont have much luck with these things do i.......

Yup, it should be - hopefully you can re-flash another drive and start use it just the same
I'd make a CD backup of the really important stuff too though, just in case!

By that i take it you mean format and load the ghost image? I was concidering doing a fresh install, but that is a bit of a pain in the a**.

Third or forth one down here seems ok, any good?

 

[Ian]

Yup, just load the ghost image onto the new drive.

Both of those drives look good, but if you have SATA headers I'd get a SATA drive if possible (simply for future upgrades). I forgot how cheap drives are getting now, I could do with one myself as I've only got a few GB left.

I've heard good things about the new Samsung drives so far, and they are supposed to be pretty quiet.

 

[V_R]

No SATA here i'm affraid...

My Motherboard

Actually, i have been thinking for upgrading....But i cant justify the cost to go A64 & PCI-E. (I would have to go X2)

However i did see a DFI AGP MB on OCUK I know AGP is on the way out, but i could get that, a SATA disk and a 64 bit CPU of some kind and keep my 68GT, 2gig XMS and the rest of the pc at the moment....Then get a PCI-E mb and vid card later on.

Or would that be a waste of money?

 

[floppybootstomp]

VR: Is your dying drive actually an IBM or a Hitachi model?

If it's IBM, no surprises, if it's Hitachi, I'm surprised as since they took over the IBM franchise they've gained a good reputation for quiet, fast, reliable drives.

I've said it before but I've had every major make of hard drive fail on me except Maxtor, for some odd reason, although of lots of peeps who've had Maxtor have suffered failures.

I have a Samsung 160Gb PATA drive on my main machine for storage, slim, quiet, must be about 6 months old now, bought it on Chris Postill's recommendation, so far so good

Actually, this Samsung was the first Samsung HDD I've ever bought, so make that Maxtor and Samsung haven't ever gone wrong on me

I think buying any of the major makes is Ok, it's always a gamble and if you ask which hard drive's best on a forum people will give you advice based only on their own experiences, which is kinda natural I suppose.

And you'll find that their replies give no clear winner.

It all depends on the batch from the factory, rather than the make. So, as Ian said, just make sure you get one with at least a three year warranty.

 

[V_R]

Everest says its an IBM Deskstar.

Just going to order one of the Samsung 160's now..

 

[ChristopherP]

Ive got a drive thats been yelling "imminent failure" to me for months on end now.
Still works ok!

 

[TriplexDread]

Ewww yes IBM say no more

 

[V_R]

Yeah, i know. You live and learn and all that.

Lets hope this Samsung will be better than the last....

I think i will do a fresh install, may aswell if i dont do it now then i probably never will!

Question: I have SP2 on a cd that came with a magazine when it was first released, should i use that for the install or should i download it from the MS update site? I am thinking that there will be an updated SP2 on the windows update website?

 

[Ian]

SP2 is just a finalised version of builds, so they will be the same but you'll just need extras from MS

I'd just do it all online in one go if you have broadband anyway, as it will be much easier (you'll need to get some updates either way ).

 

[Anon_F]

I would suggest downloading SP2 from Microsoft site.
On the issue of hard drives, i bought an external one that i backup everything on to just in case, it's 80GB so plenty of room, i do this as i have had 2 hard drive failures on my current 1 year old pc

 

[muckshifter]

Question: I have SP2 on a cd that came with a magazine when it was first released, should i use that for the install or should i download it from the MS update site? I am thinking that there will be an updated SP2 on the windows update website?

Go online ... there will be more there anyway.

 

[floppybootstomp]

SP2 is SP2, it hasn't changed since it was first issued.

So, to save time I'd install it from your CD then go online and load all the latest MS critical updates and WMP 10.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

I've slipstreamed my XP Pro with SP2 onto one CD, that saves time.

 

[Adywebb]

Nope, your not the only one Flops - I've done the same with mine

 

[V_R]

Fair enough, so download or cd, no difference then. I just thought if i used the cd it would be slightly quicker than d/l it. I know theres going to be a load of other stuff to get so i am expecting that!

I've slipstreamed my XP Pro with SP2 onto one CD, that saves time

I hear good things about doing that, but i dont have a clue how to do it, will have a look in a bit.

Thanks for the help so far peeps, much appreciated.

EDIT: Quads post about Autostreamer looked good but the links changed.

 

[Adywebb]

This gives a pretty clear tutorial on how to do it V_R:

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp