failing hard drive with OS on it

[smallblock]

I beleive my new hard drive (5 months) that has my OS installed on it is beginning to fail. Can I buy a new hard drive and copy everything from the failing one to the new drive before things get worse? I could reinstall all my software again but that takes me a good portion of the day to get everything back up and all the updates re-downloaded.

Thanks.

 

[Elbatrop1]

You can use Symantec/Norton Ghost to take a "snapshot" of the one hard drive and transfer it to the other one. YOu should be able to boot off of the new one with all of your files right where you left them.

 

[Blitze105]

great suggestion!
or u can set up windows xp on the new hard drive, and just use your old prime one as a slave and then copy what u want onto the new. but i suggest using norton ghost.

 

[SHAWN]

Ghost rocks

 

[Elbatrop1]

^^That doesnt answer his question

 

[ShoobieRat]

^^That doesnt answer his question

He's padding!...

smallblock, yer best bet is probably to just slave that failing drive under your new one, create a new install on the new drive, and just transfer over your important files. A clean install is always best. Then you can just use the old drive for unimportant storage and games and stuff.

 

[Inaris]

Problem with the above solution is that as the drive dies, it will cause trouble for your current system. General slow down will be the big one. Ghost is the easiest way to do it, as long as the drive is going.
You need to run Checkdisk on the old drive first and see if it really is going bad. if it doens't report any errors then you have nothing to worry about. if it does, then you need to ghost the drive off onto a new one. it's the best solution you have. The ghost will not take the bad stuff. it only takes files that are readable and will setup your box as it was before. then you just need to run checkdisk again and defrag. This is to rearrange the data back to a better configuration.

Good luck

 

[ShoobieRat]

If the slave drive dies, it'll simply drop off the system (unless he's using it at the moment). Current controller technology is a lot more forgiving than it used to be. You can actually reach in and yank out the IDE drive while the computer's live, with no problems (other than that you'll probably damage the drive yer yanking out).

 

[smallblock]

Thanks guys, but it just bit the dust. I did manage to copy all my files and address book, website favorites before it died. I am going to pick up a new HD today and start reinstalling everything. I will look into the warranty info for the dead unit after my computer is back up and running. I am having Counter-Strike Source withdrawl already!!