Replacing hd query

[pjp]

It appears primary hard disk is in danger of imminent failure as pc had hard
time booting today. It was hanging at BIOS screen showing IDE channel
probing at primary channel ide 1 (of 1 & 2). When I took away power to
primary hard disk it passed where it was hanging on boot, going on to
indicate it saw secondary hard disk on ide1 and cd burner and dvd burner on
ide2. As expected, it stopped booting instead asking for an OS to boot from
"somewhere" I reconnected power cable to primary hard disk and thankfully
it came alive and all "seems" well. Funny S.M.A.R.T. shows no indication
even using WD's own software?

Given the above, keep pc running and get new hard disk pronto. After
checking local prices I prefer a WD250 gig as believe pc will support it
(2.8Gz, XP-SP2 Pro).

It's likely I can put the new hard disk in as a swap for one of the ide2
channel devices easily and get pc to boot again. Little risky but might
even be able to do a "hot swap" while pc is rebooting to insure primary hard
disk stays recognized.

So, my question is?

What's best, easiest, cheapest. most reliable way to "clone" existing hard
disk onto new hard disk then take out old primary in ide1, put new hard disk
on primary ide1 and reconnect ide2 device was temporarily used by new hard
disk?

It comes to mind booting with a Linux live cd such as new Ubuntu might make
it easy to just drag and drop from old hard disk to new hard disk. Would
this work?

Old hard disk can go in another pc on Ethernet in house and assuming it
still will come alive, I'm willing to let it live out whatever days it has
left just being a catchall copy/backup/replaceable multi-media server disk

 

[philo]

It appears primary hard disk is in danger of imminent failure as pc had hard
time booting today. It was hanging at BIOS screen showing IDE channel
probing at primary channel ide 1 (of 1 & 2). When I took away power to
primary hard disk it passed where it was hanging on boot, going on to
indicate it saw secondary hard disk on ide1 and cd burner and dvd burner on
ide2. As expected, it stopped booting instead asking for an OS to boot from
"somewhere" I reconnected power cable to primary hard disk and thankfully
it came alive and all "seems" well. Funny S.M.A.R.T. shows no indication
even using WD's own software?

Given the above, keep pc running and get new hard disk pronto. After
checking local prices I prefer a WD250 gig as believe pc will support it
(2.8Gz, XP-SP2 Pro).

It's likely I can put the new hard disk in as a swap for one of the ide2
channel devices easily and get pc to boot again. Little risky but might
even be able to do a "hot swap" while pc is rebooting to insure primary hard
disk stays recognized.

So, my question is?

What's best, easiest, cheapest. most reliable way to "clone" existing hard
disk onto new hard disk then take out old primary in ide1, put new hard disk
on primary ide1 and reconnect ide2 device was temporarily used by new hard
disk?

It comes to mind booting with a Linux live cd such as new Ubuntu might make
it easy to just drag and drop from old hard disk to new hard disk. Would
this work?

Old hard disk can go in another pc on Ethernet in house and assuming it
still will come alive, I'm willing to let it live out whatever days it has
left just being a catchall copy/backup/replaceable multi-media server disk

The best cloning utility (IMHO) is Acronis True Image


whatever you do though...do NOT try to hot swap anything on an IDE channel

 

[Robert Pendell]

The best cloning utility (IMHO) is Acronis True Image


whatever you do though...do NOT try to hot swap anything on an IDE channel

Well you can but I wouldn't recommend it. I did it a few years ago for
a specific reason (I think it was me working on my XBox) and it didn't
end quite how I wanted. The part for the IDE controller for me wasn't
an issue. It was when I hooked up the power.

If you are not careful you can cause a short when you hook up the power.
I was very lucky when I did that. The over voltage protection in my
power supply kicked in and shut the system down before any damage
occurred but the next person may not be. All I remember was a bright
white light for about a second then the system kicking off real quick.

It would be very dangerous and foolish to attempt to hot swap any kind
of hard drive or anything that has a power hookup directly to the power
supply unit. You can damage the unit, damage the computer, or worse.

The last thing I want to read is something similar to the kid who
wrapped his XBox 360 in plastic then dropped it into a aquarium full of
water (while it was running) thinking it would cool his XBox down. That
didn't end so well...

Oh and you can still damage your IDE controller too. That is the other
reason why you shouldn't do it.

--
Robert Pendell
(e-mail address removed)

"A perfect world is one of chaos."

Thawte Web of Trust Notary
CAcert Assurer

 

[Big Al]

The best cloning utility (IMHO) is Acronis True Image


whatever you do though...do NOT try to hot swap anything on an IDE channel

If you are okay with hardware, the right way or should I say less risky
way to do this is:
Make your old drive master
make your new drive slave
Put the new drive in the machine (and this means boot and format it as D
run acronis and clone from old drive to the new
shutdown
remove your old drive
make the new drive master and put back in as the only drive.
and then boot with just the one drive.

This seems to work every time for me. If you picked the right options
(not hard to read and pick) in Acronis, then it will copy from C: to D:
and when the D: reboots (your new drive) it will on the fly make it C:
like it should.
I've used acronis to change drives in my laptop several times. I
install the new drive in a USB enclosure and do it. Same thing 2nd D:
drive.

Some people have issues leaving both drives in the system even though
they swap master/slave or something else. And on reboot things just
don't work right and your new drive will come up as D:/ And this means
all your programs won't work since C:\program files is no longer there.

Also the best thing about all this is, you don't screw with your old
drive so you still have it as a backup. Its kinda fool proof.