BleepingComputer.com: Possibly Dying Hard Drive, Critical Data On Board

Hello again,
My 120g HD (master) is not acting right for the last couple days (had a free-ware virus scan go ape - now it's really loud, like it's stuck in low gear) and I'm afraid it will only get worse.

My HP came with XP Pro pre-installed (3yrs now) & have no disk, and while I of course have a "work around" for this part of the problem - I'd just as soon NOT go through the endless updates, etc.

My OS, book keeping (QB), mucho software, etc, is all here in a nice neat compartment - updated and configured exactly as I'd have it...and I would like to keep it that way .

I have a 250g (SATA) slaved on a separate controller (obviously) used primarily for vid/storage and mostly empty, but I'm not sure if this will help me at all.
Also my 120 is "D:\" and my 250 is "C:\ " ...that's right - you heard me.

Is it possible to take the whole she-bang and plop it on another drive and still have it function? Am I an idiot?

Yes, I searched this and didn't find a close enough scenario for my comfort.
Yes, I recognize this might potentially be categorized as an XP query.
and Yes, I really am grateful to you for taking the time to school me on this one.

Hi .

<<Also my 120 is "D:\" and my 250 is "C:\ " ...that's right - you heard me.>>

I hope that's a misprint. It indicates problems which may create other problems.

First of all...if the hard drive is really failing, any attempt to perform disk operations is in jeapordy. That means that any attempt to read, move, backup...might not work.

That being understood, it sounds to me like you need to duplicate your boot partition on a different partition/drive. To do that, you need a couple of things:

a. A program which does this function for you (such as Partition Magic/Drive Image 2002). There are others that do this, but I just happen to be familiar with Partition Magic/Drive Image 2002.

b. A hard drive/partition which is large enough to contain your current boot partition, the one with XP installed.

Assuming that you can do a disk image of that partition (boot partition) to another hard drive, I think you'd still need to do a repair install of XP to get the letters correct...but you don't seem to be bothered by that .

This is the software that I would suggest: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/produ...res-backup.html

Of course...please read/understand the instructions before attempting usage.

Louis

Always a pleasure Luis ,
I report back with an outcome.

So my report is rather embarrassing , but I feel obligated to share the lesson with those as negligent as myself in the hopes of sparing someone some potential headache...

I decided to do some spring cleaning - in several ways - and I'm happy to report that the symptoms that I was experiencing in my first post are entirely alleviated .

First I ran my uninstaller on everything less than critical, expensive, or too cool to do without - jettisoned the jetsam so to speak.
I even removed FF as it was eating more and more CPU these days - ran CCleaner then a clean install.

But most importantly, I powered down (rare for me), cracked open the case and cleaned the out of this thing. I mean I broke out the Dust-Off, Q-Tips, rubber gloves, static bracelet - the works. It was pretty bad. But after powering off I pulled the power supply, removed the case, and went to town (careful with the Dust-Off as it WILL release moisture on occasion, and this can hurt the innards).
You could perform open-heart surgery in there now. Then I closed her up and what do you know; quiet as a tomb.

I will of course take the preventative measures (Acronis looks like just the thing - thnx Lou) but for now I'm pretty stoked guys.

LOL...glad you solved it.

I think that many users would find their systems more responsive and efficient...if they did something along the lines of what you did (a little maintenance on the machinery, a little maintenance on Windows).

And it won't hurt to begin systemic backups of your system...for that next time which may not prove to be so easily remedied.

Happy computing .

Louis

Just a quick note:
Drive Image XML (free) + Comodo Backup (free) are proving to be most useful!!! (Google them yourself ya lazy so-and-sos)