New Hard Drive

[Guest]

I had a crash, formatted and reinstalled xp, then found that the hard drive
is damaged. Now I need to get a new one. If I tell the people at the shop
to save my old data onto the new disk, will this interfere with my installing
XP onto the new disk? Or must I tell them to save my old data onto one of
their disks, bring home the computer, install XP, then take it back to the
shop to have the old data put on to the new disk.
patscga

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I had a crash, formatted and reinstalled xp, then found that the hard drive
is damaged. Now I need to get a new one. If I tell the people at the shop
to save my old data onto the new disk, will this interfere with my installing
XP onto the new disk? Or must I tell them to save my old data onto one of
their disks, bring home the computer, install XP, then take it back to the
shop to have the old data put on to the new disk.
patscga

I think you're asking the wrong question. Your post implies
that you do not believe in backing up your files, that you do
not have a backup medium, that you rely totally on the
integrity of your hard disk. Sooner or later you are likely
to get caught badly with this approach. The iron rule of
computing states that you must back up all important files
to an independent medium once a week.

I would never ever give a disk with important files to a
repair shop. It's not their data - why should they treat it
with care? They probably think that the data is not
important, because they know that you cannot be
bothered to back it up yourself.

The solution: Buy a backup disk and a caddy, then start
backing up your data. It will cost you less than $100.00!

After backing up your data, your original question will
obviously become irrelevant.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Buy a backup disk and a caddy, then start
backing up your data. It will cost you less than $100.00!

I've had good luck with the removable trays (a.k.a "caddies")
by Kingwin. They're cast aluminum, and the ones with a
raial fan in the bottom of the removable tray really keep the
drive cool. They have a lock, too. See:
http://kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=35&ID=95
Google.com and Froogle.Google.com searches will find
the rack-and-tray set in the mid- to high-20 dollar range, and
extra trays in the 12-15 dollar range.

Round cables also help if there's a long distance between
Master drive and Slave drive and to keep the case interior
relatively free for air circulation. I like the ones with the aluminum
braid which helps in shielding. One of many retailers is
Silicon Valley Compucycle:
http://www.svcompucycle.com/cables-ata-100-133-round-cables.html
My searches have found them to have a good combination of
price and range of selection.


*TimDaniels*