Saving my data?

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:30 pm

What's the easiest way to go about replacing a main hard drive (the one windows is installed on)?
I think mine is about to die and I've got a BUNCH of programs and varied settings on it. Not to mention I bought an oem Windows key so I've already used my install.
It's just been starting to do funny things, like games will randomly say that they can't save to the cache, or icons will randomly change. My computer totally locked up twice.

Anything would help. I really don't want to start over again!

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:39 pm

Install another hard disk, as a slave, format it, then use a hard disk cloning program (Norton Ghost, or a variety of others). It will make an exact copy of your drive; you can then destroy the old one - yes, knacker it beyond a hacker's tinkering!

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:04 pm

bacteria wrote:then destroy the old one - yes, knacker it beyond a hacker's tinkering!

To permanently kill all your data on the drive (after you copy it of course), use Boot and Nuke. Careful though, it's easy to wipe all drives in the computer when using it. I'd suggest only having the one you want to wipe in the computer when you run it, just to be safe.

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:17 pm

I know this sounds like a stupid question. But, is there a way to make sure that it's my hard drive? Are there any diagnostic apps that anyone would recommend? I would hat to go through all of that only to find that it was may memory or something.

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:20 am

To be frank, most problems like you mentioned are solved by reformatting your hard drive and re-installing Windows, along will all your apps and games. Make a backup first (naturally) of all your important data so you can copy them back to your hard drive later; you will of course lose your game saves, but hay-ho.

Hard drives normally start making a whining noise when they are about to fail, if yours is doing so, it is about to croak. If it isn't, it may still die (they are mechanical devices after all), but try the reformat/reinstall first. If Windows refuses to accept the OEM key you have bought, use a patch key to bypass (a "keygen" or similar) - not your fault after all if you bought a key and it no longer works. Windows can get funny about users having to change their mobo or hard drives, it assumes sometimes that the user is trying to install the operating system on a different computer and tries to stop you doing this and tries to force you into paying AGAIN for another key for the same computer, which isn't fair.

Mikeyman64 · Post by **Mikeyman64** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:32 am

I think I'll try that first. Though I do hate it. I guess it's time to put the DL drive to use again.

I've got good amount of experience in the art of "Hard Drive Formatting and Windows re installation". So I know how save the saves.

Thanks for the info.

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:06 pm

is there a way to make sure that it's my hard drive?

Absolutely! Open a command prompt and type

Code: Select all

chkdsk /f /r c:

If it tells you it has to preform the action on reboot before Windows loads, let it and reboot. This will fix any file system errors it finds and have it try to recover information from bad sectors.

If you're still having problems, get another hard drive and clone the old one to the new one ASAP. The longer you let faulty drives go, the worse off you are.

If you want to take another crack at fixing your existing drive, you might need to pull out the big guns, Spinrite and Norton Disk Doctor.

You should be able to use the OEM disc again, especially if you didn't need to activate.