Well yesterday i got hit by the kernel stack inpage error. I was using utorrent to download a large file and my whole system froze up completetly in gradual steps. then i get the BSOD. This is the first bsod of this type i have ever had.

That got be worried, so ive been collecting stuff to back up on this computer. Namely tax records, family photos, written work and stuff. I have it all sitting on my desktop in one folder, it holds about 520mbs.

The only method to backup files i have available right now is a dvd burner. I put in a blank cd and burned all the files, but about halfway through it pops up with:

"data error cyclic redundancy check" for some of the pictures.

When nero finishes burning it rescans the CD and it gets to 57% before freezing and aborts the scan. At first i thought i might have been burning the cd too fast, so instead of using 52X i tried all the speeds down to 24X. All of them produced a corrupt CD.

When i opened up the CD, none of the files were working. A word file would open in MS word and i get the message that this format is not supported and the text turns into 8 pages of the square symbol. But the same file sitting here on my desktop works fine!

Im really in panic mode now because my usual method of backing up data is not working and the computer has been making strange noises recently. Namely, it sounds like something inside the computer (i suspect the hard drive) is spinning down as if losing power, then suddendly spins up again and makes a click sound.

Could you try another method such as a pen driver, or an external/internal hard drive?

Are you using external USB burner or is it internal? Some external drives will cause these errors.

Is the noise your hearing a grinding noise? If your getting a grinding noise it could be the DVD drive. What kind of noise is it making? Clicking, grinding, etc. Another question is do you here it all the time?

Bad disc. drives will cause the CRC error when trying to read data on the discs, after it trys to read data a couple time and false it will display a CRC error. Usually right before the error happens your drive will probably grind and whirl away - your PC may also become a little slugglish to.

@Sterling

I'm not very familiar with alternate options, more on that in a sec.



The drive is a 52X DVD reader/burner. This is the first time ivi'vead problems with it. I can remember instanced where it would turn out a bad disk, but re-doing the job would usually fix that, not so in this case. I'm not sure if the problem is the drive, it reads disks fine and i installed a game off this cd drive just fine a short time ago. When the drive is burning the sound it makes does not fluctuate much and nothing seems strange about it.

The noise i hear is very rare. Its pretty hard to describe it but most spinning objects create some sort of "whine" when spinning. This noise changes pitch at different speeds and fades away when the motor revs down.

When the noise happens its like a motor inside the computer losing power for a moment and then the power suddenly kicks in again and it gets back up to speed. I know for a fact this is not the DVD drive because it happened once when i had the disk tray open.

I need to know what other options i have to back this comp up. I only have a few ideas at the moment.

I have a Pentium 333 with a 40gb hard drive, could i take the hard drive out of that one, plug it into this computer, OS and all, copy the data over and store the hard drive?

I'm pretty sure flash drives will not work, my sister had an ipod shuffle and when i tried to configure it on this computer it told me i have the wrong type of USB port, or that they were not fast enough.

One of my friends reccomended packing everything up into a RAR file and hosting it in parts on some webhost like megaupload or rapidshare, is this feasible?

Taking the 40GB drive out would be a fast way to back up your data. Have you ever set up a slave drive on a computer before? If not let me know and i'll walk you through it. As for the flash drive thats not going to work for what your wanting to do.

Depending on how much data you going to compress the second hardrive would be your best bet.

After you get your data backed up you could lessen to the devices inside to figure out the problem. Most Hardrives will start making a clicking noise or start to loose data as the sectors start to go bad. If theres a power problem with the HD its usually sudden.

If you have fears of the HD then getting that drive in and backing up would be the first step. Then try to figure out whats making the noice. I'll check in to see if you need instructions on setting up the drive.

So if i yank the other drive out, and install it here as a slave drive it will boot up normally with the windows 98 installation on the second drive staying dormant? And if my current drive goes kaput will the second be affected at all?

if so, sounds like a plan.

Thing is, i know setting master/slave has to do with moving pin connectors around, but is there a standard position for each setting? I remember coming across a HD that had no markings on the pins and i ended up guessing.

Setting up master/slave is with jumper pins located on the back of the drive (same side as the IDE cable connection). Most drives have a diagram that will tell you where to move the jumper to make it a slave drive. If its a western digital drive there is letters right by each pin.

Take the old drive out and change the jumper to slave, connect it to the same IDE cable as the main hard drive and connect the power connector. Boot your machine to see if it shows up in My Computer. If its there your ready to go:

Your copy of 98 will be dormant and copying to it won't hurt the drive or OS in any way, if your main drive crashes the slave shouldn't be affected. If you want you can always remove the drive after you back up your data.

On the slave drive your going to want to set up a folder to copy to thats not on the OS's root folders. That way if your computer crashes you just need to change the jumper back to master and boot up the 98 drive and get your data.

C:\Backup folder <This is your new folder you create> (don't copy it into C:\Windows or C:\Programs files unless you really want to.)

Hope this helps let me know if you need more assistance, I've tagged the topic.

Thanks for the help, ill put the drive in on saturday when i get some time off. Ill tell ya how it goes.