please suggest approach t save my stuff

[timOleary]

I use Windows XP pro. My PC has two WD SE16 WD2500KS SATA 250G hdds.
When I start the PC in the morning I am hearing a whirring noise
coming out of the PC and I think it is the C drive.
Where can I read up on how to add a drive, and mirror everything on
the current C drive onto the new drive?
What is a smart choice in an enterprise grade HDD?
I am thinking the warranty has expired on the drives.
Thanks

 

[philo]

I use Windows XP pro. My PC has two WD SE16 WD2500KS SATA 250G hdds.
When I start the PC in the morning I am hearing a whirring noise
coming out of the PC and I think it is the C drive.
Where can I read up on how to add a drive, and mirror everything on
the current C drive onto the new drive?
What is a smart choice in an enterprise grade HDD?
I am thinking the warranty has expired on the drives.
Thanks

A new drive will typically come with cloning software or the mfg may
have it on their website.

Open the machine and disconnect the drive you suspect to confirm the
problem.

Then if the drive you suspect is indeed the one making the whining
noise...yes I'd definitely replace it

 

[Andrew E.]

If you had IDE hds,then xps own XCOPY would work,but dont think it does
with SATA..With a faulty hd,download the WDC DOS hd check utility,install
to a floppy,boot pc to floppy (maybe a cd version is available).Usually the
simple scan version will pick up a flaw,otherwise use the extended one..

 

[Anthony Buckland]

I use Windows XP pro. My PC has two WD SE16 WD2500KS SATA 250G hdds.
When I start the PC in the morning I am hearing a whirring noise
coming out of the PC and I think it is the C drive.
Where can I read up on how to add a drive, and mirror everything on
the current C drive onto the new drive?
What is a smart choice in an enterprise grade HDD?
I am thinking the warranty has expired on the drives.
Thanks

Get imaging software, such as Acronis True Image.
Make a complete image of your drive, on an
external (USB-connected) drive. If you need to buy
an external drive to do this, look on it as a good
investment, you can use it to back up your machine
routinely for a long time afterwards.

Check it with the imaging software (now is not the time
to find that you made an image with a flaw in it, which
could happen if there are any bad regions on the
external drive).

If you feel at all nervous, make another image on
your external drive, and check it too.

With the imaging software, make a recovery CD,
better yet make two, CDs are cheap and you want to be
sure.

Buy a replacement drive (bigger than the old one is good,
and gives you room to expand for little cost).

Remove the old C drive and install the new one.
Read the instructions that come with the new drive
first -- opening your computer up gives you the
opportunity to do all kinds of damage, such as
touching the wrong things without grounding yourself
to the machine, etc.

Using your recovery CD, boot up and recover the
complete image you made from the external drive.

Test everything to make sure it works properly.

If you had anything private or sensitive on the old
drive, destroy the disk in it (I use a little kitchen torch
to destroy data surfaces) before throwing it out -- after
all, it didn't completely fail and somebody could have
no end of fun with the data on it (such as stealing your
identity, pretending to be the owner of your copy of
WinXP or other software you bought and installed,
etc. at great length). But don't be in any hurry to
throw it out -- work for, say, a few months first to
be sure all your programs and data are ok.

 

[Tom J]

Get imaging software, such as Acronis True Image.
Make a complete image of your drive, on an
external (USB-connected) drive. If you need to buy
an external drive to do this, look on it as a good
investment, you can use it to back up your machine
routinely for a long time afterwards.

My son just sent me a 2TB IoSafe USB hard drive and Acromis True Image
backup software. I just finished the image backup to the new external
drive and it went like clock work. A caution - I did read the very
long manual that came with Acromis before even starting the install.
I'm sure that saved me the troubles many have with this software!!

Tom J

 

[timOleary]

My son just sent me a 2TB IoSafe USB hard drive and Acromis True Image
backup software. I just finished the image backup to the new external
drive and it went like clock work. A caution - I did read the very
long manual that came with Acromis before even starting the install.
I'm sure that saved me the troubles many have with this software!!

Tom J

I wish my kids would send me something for a change.

My drives are still working
so far I'm booting fine but experience says it is onlt a mattter of
time.
I see ACRONIS is a free download off WD site. Is this a full version,
and what are the conditions for D/Ling?

I had a trial version of ACRONIS and I didn't like it, especially how
it was showing up during POST. I bugged their tech support and did
everything they could think of and I still get the line in POST even
theough the s/w is gone.

Since I am dealing with the boot disk, what are the rules? my
impression was the boot disk should be tnamed c drive and it should be
internal as opposed to external.
I already have a WD Caviar Blue 500G usb I use occassionlly to back up
my D drive, but was using copy and paste and not ACRONIS or other
backup sw.

messing with the boot drive is something new to me, so I'm hesitating
and reaching out for suggestions.
I am getting ready to order a Caviar Black 500G from newegg.
Thanks for the feedback

 

[Twayne]

In

If you had IDE hds,then xps own XCOPY would work,but dont think it
does with SATA..With a faulty hd,download the WDC DOS hd check
utility,install to a floppy,boot pc to floppy (maybe a cd version is
available).Usually the simple scan version will pick up a
flaw,otherwise use the extended one..

XCOPY can NOT back up a sytem drive with operating system installed on it,
while XP is running. Xcopy will NOT copy files "in use" which there always
are with windows.

The advice to download Western Digital's hard drive diagnostics however is
excellent. It will evaluate the drive and indicate its overall health and
whether it's healthy or not.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Twayne]

In

I wish my kids would send me something for a change.

My drives are still working
so far I'm booting fine but experience says it is onlt a mattter of
time.
I see ACRONIS is a free download off WD site. Is this a full version,
and what are the conditions for D/Ling?

It's a full version, but time limited. Check the site for the time limits.
In general there are two excellent choices for imaging software: Norton
Ghost and Acronis True Image. Either should work well for you. I use Ghost
because I like the exra bells & whistles that come with it, but Acronis TI
appears to be equally good at the backup end of things with the exception I
don't think it will clone drives.

I had a trial version of ACRONIS and I didn't like it, especially how
it was showing up during POST. I bugged their tech support and did
everything they could think of and I still get the line in POST even
theough the s/w is gone.

No comment: The POST comes from an EEPROM AFAIK so how it could indicated
anything about Acronis is, well, probably a misinterpretation.

Since I am dealing with the boot disk, what are the rules?

BACK UP! Back up your C disk as one backup, and then the D and any remaining
data disks you may have. Be sure you have the Emergency Recovery Disk or
whatever it's called in Acronis if you choose them, to boot from in case you
have to recover everything from scratch.

my

impression was the boot disk should be tnamed c drive and it should be
internal as opposed to external.

That's normal, yes. Many PCs will not boot from an external drive anyway.

I already have a WD Caviar Blue 500G usb I use occassionlly to back up
my D drive, but was using copy and paste and not ACRONIS or other
backup sw.

Properly managed and learned, you'll no longer have to do that with imaging
software.

messing with the boot drive is something new to me, so I'm hesitating
and reaching out for suggestions.
I am getting ready to order a Caviar Black 500G from newegg.
Thanks for the feedback

New hard disks should come with software to clone the old, failing disk to
your new drive. If it's not with the drive, and I didn't receive any with my
WD drive, then look on the website for a free download to get it.
Worst case, you could use your imaging program's catastrophic recovery
boot CD to get the new drive up and going as long as you've partitioned and
formatted it first. That's where the mfr's cloning software is a big
advantage.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[JD]

I wish my kids would send me something for a change.

My drives are still working
so far I'm booting fine but experience says it is onlt a mattter of
time.
I see ACRONIS is a free download off WD site. Is this a full version,
and what are the conditions for D/Ling?

I had a trial version of ACRONIS and I didn't like it, especially how
it was showing up during POST. I bugged their tech support and did
everything they could think of and I still get the line in POST even
theough the s/w is gone.

Since I am dealing with the boot disk, what are the rules? my
impression was the boot disk should be tnamed c drive and it should be
internal as opposed to external.
I already have a WD Caviar Blue 500G usb I use occassionlly to back up
my D drive, but was using copy and paste and not ACRONIS or other
backup sw.

messing with the boot drive is something new to me, so I'm hesitating
and reaching out for suggestions.
I am getting ready to order a Caviar Black 500G from newegg.
Thanks for the feedback

I use Acronis True Image Home 2009. Since it's backup software, it's
going to have to run when windows starts.

I took at look at the WD version you mentioned and it appears to be a
full version of Acronis but it will only work if you have WD HDDs.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

Why don't you D/L a copy of it, install it and see if you like the way
it looks. Since you still get the Acronis at POST, you don't have much
to lose. ;-)

Maybe you should also D/L the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows?

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3&lang=en

 

[timOleary]

I use Acronis True Image Home 2009. Since it's backup software, it's
going to have to run when windows starts.

I took at look at the WD version you mentioned and it appears to be a
full version of Acronis but it will only work if you have WD HDDs.

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

Why don't you D/L a copy of it, install it and see if you like the way
it looks. Since you still get the Acronis at POST, you don't have much
to lose.  ;-)

Maybe you should also D/L the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows?

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3〈=en

Thanks JD.
That link explained it completely. I forget right now the exact line
of text that flys by when I boot up revealing that Acronis is still in
there.
The AcronisWD is pretty new it seems. And there doesn't seem to be any
time constraint: it'll work indefinitely. seems like a pretty good
deal.
Maybe if the sw detects a non WD drive it don't work seems fair
enough.
one plan is to get the Caviar Black 500G; partition it in
two.Download the AcronisWD clone my C drive over to the new drive, and
then see what's next.
I'll d/l the manual and study it for a while
Thanks again to all repliers

 

[JD]

Thanks JD.
That link explained it completely. I forget right now the exact line
of text that flys by when I boot up revealing that Acronis is still in
there.
The AcronisWD is pretty new it seems. And there doesn't seem to be any
time constraint: it'll work indefinitely. seems like a pretty good
deal.
Maybe if the sw detects a non WD drive it don't work seems fair
enough.
one plan is to get the Caviar Black 500G; partition it in
two.Download the AcronisWD clone my C drive over to the new drive, and
then see what's next.
I'll d/l the manual and study it for a while
Thanks again to all repliers

I've never seen the AcronisWD software until you mentioned it, so yeah,
I think it is pretty new.

I think the restriction is it won't work on non-WD drives but aren't all
your drives WD?

Since you're hearing noises I'd do all this as quickly as possible but
so quickly to over-look the instructions.

I've only used the Acronis clone function one time but there are options
as to what to do with the remaining space on the drive you're cloning
to. It seems like when I used it, it over-writes any partitions on the
drive. Hopefully the manual will explain it better than I can.

While you're studying the manual, why not go ahead and order the HDD you
want? I've had good luck ordering from both TigerDirect and NewEgg. In a
pinch or a hurry, I've been know to pay a little more and go to
notsoBestBuy. They're more expensive but returns are easier.

 

[JD]

A small correction: I'd do it NOT so quickly as to over-look the
instructions.

 

[timOleary]

A small correction: I'd do it NOT so quickly as to over-look the
instructions.

It's sort of a bearing chatter. It reminds me of a sintered bearing
which has gone dry. the message that comes up when i boot is
"starting acronis loader, press F11 to run acronis recovery manager"
I'll contact Acronis to determine if this will cause an issue if I try
to install AcronisWD

I have too many hdds and not enough organization!
I got the two WD 250G SATA in the PC, another of the same model WD
250G SATA in a usb box tied to a usb router to share with my wife;
then i got a WD 500G SATA in another USB box, which I was using to
back up the D drive. for a while.

The AcronisWd manual says the SW will work with any WD drive, so I'm
OK.
I like Newegg over all the others, but TigerD runs a close second;
we needed a few PCs for my wife and daughter and Newegg doesn't really
do much with refurbished or recertified computers, but Tiger Direct
does.
Newegg has a pretty good sale on a Caviar Black 500G, so even if my
inventory of drives doesn't indicate that it is essential I buy yet
another, I think I will anyway.
I got to read the manual
thnks

 

[JD]

It's sort of a bearing chatter. It reminds me of a sintered bearing
which has gone dry. the message that comes up when i boot is
"starting acronis loader, press F11 to run acronis recovery manager"
I'll contact Acronis to determine if this will cause an issue if I try
to install AcronisWD

I have too many hdds and not enough organization!
I got the two WD 250G SATA in the PC, another of the same model WD
250G SATA in a usb box tied to a usb router to share with my wife;
then i got a WD 500G SATA in another USB box, which I was using to
back up the D drive. for a while.

The AcronisWd manual says the SW will work with any WD drive, so I'm
OK.
I like Newegg over all the others, but TigerD runs a close second;
we needed a few PCs for my wife and daughter and Newegg doesn't really
do much with refurbished or recertified computers, but Tiger Direct
does.
Newegg has a pretty good sale on a Caviar Black 500G, so even if my
inventory of drives doesn't indicate that it is essential I buy yet
another, I think I will anyway.
I got to read the manual
thnks

You said you removed Acronis some time back, correct?

Have you ever hit F11 to see what happens? I'm not saying hit F11.

You could also go to, Start, Run, msconfig, Startup tab and see if
Acronis recovery manager is listed. It should show you where the file is
located. Some programs don't uninstall themselves very cleanly.

 

[Anthony Buckland]

Pressing F11 on startup is the way you access Acronis
True Image without starting your OS, Win XP in this
discussion. You can do various things, but the usual
aim is to start a partition, such as C:, restoration. If
the disk is new or the data on it has been sufficiently
corrupted, you use an emergency CD instead. Or you
wish to high heaven you had created an emergency CD
when you could.

 

[JD]

Pressing F11 on startup is the way you access Acronis
True Image without starting your OS, Win XP in this
discussion. You can do various things, but the usual
aim is to start a partition, such as C:, restoration. If
the disk is new or the data on it has been sufficiently
corrupted, you use an emergency CD instead. Or you
wish to high heaven you had created an emergency CD
when you could.

I understand what you're saying but I thought timOleary, the OP, said he
removed Acronis True Image so he shouldn't have the option to start it?
That's why I ask if he had hit F11.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I use Windows XP pro. My PC has two WD SE16 WD2500KS SATA 250G hdds.
When I start the PC in the morning I am hearing a whirring noise
coming out of the PC and I think it is the C drive.
Where can I read up on how to add a drive, and mirror everything on
the current C drive onto the new drive?
What is a smart choice in an enterprise grade HDD?
I am thinking the warranty has expired on the drives.

Get an external backup solution. The "Seagate Replica" is a good solution
for most.

 

[timOleary]

Get an external backup solution.  The "Seagate Replica" is a good solution
for most.

Hi fellow forumers

pressing F11 does nothing
the only other manifestation that there still is a presence of ATI is
I get stopped while loading the new acronis wd
the message says newer flles already exist in the computer and nocando

i used the acronis removal tool,
i checked all the files listed in the manual un-install sheet. none
were there except
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\.tib
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AcrSch2Sv
which i removed.
Also the was a discrepency the manual un-install sheet said
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tdrpman174"
but instead I found
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tdrpman228"
I left it in.
Also the acroniswd manual says it is possible to upgrade the acroniswd
to acronis home form the acronis website for money.
Acronis is around $30 on Amazon.
i read on some forums ghost is worse than acronis, but at my
competence level, i think my own limitations are the real issue not
the software

I created a new support issue # with acronis and will wait for them to
reply.
__
there are lots of forums with lots of folks complaining about having
probs with acronis: bad images, unable to uninstall, etc.
that's why i lost interest in it last year. but once again am facing
the need to create an image and also set up a backup procedure.

 

[JD]

Hi fellow forumers

pressing F11 does nothing
the only other manifestation that there still is a presence of ATI is
I get stopped while loading the new acronis wd
the message says newer flles already exist in the computer and nocando

i used the acronis removal tool,
i checked all the files listed in the manual un-install sheet. none
were there except
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\.tib
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AcrSch2Sv
which i removed.
Also the was a discrepency the manual un-install sheet said
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tdrpman174"
but instead I found
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tdrpman228"
I left it in.
Also the acroniswd manual says it is possible to upgrade the acroniswd
to acronis home form the acronis website for money.
Acronis is around $30 on Amazon.
i read on some forums ghost is worse than acronis, but at my
competence level, i think my own limitations are the real issue not
the software

I created a new support issue # with acronis and will wait for them to
reply.
__
there are lots of forums with lots of folks complaining about having
probs with acronis: bad images, unable to uninstall, etc.
that's why i lost interest in it last year. but once again am facing
the need to create an image and also set up a backup procedure.

Acronis has a free trial period:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

I don't know how long the trial period is.

Should be long enough for you to install, try a clone of the HDD and see
if that works?

 

[timOleary]

Acronis has a free trial period:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

I don't know how long the trial period is.

Should be long enough for you to install, try a clone of the HDD and see
if that works?

this is correct. but
If and when Acronis responds to my issue, maybe I can find the files
that are hiding and proceed with installing acronisWD. BTW I didn't
see anything in processes that seemed to be associated with Acronis.