Hard Drive starting to go.

[SP33Demon]

Ok, so I think these are the last days for my hard drive. I've had it for about 4 years and I think it's about done, it makes clicking noises and my system will freeze up or reboot when this happens.

I have my OS (winXP) installed on this drive (files are stored on another), and was wondering what the next best step would be to transition to a new hard drive to reinstall the OS. I was going to use another hard drive I have, create a partition on it, and install WinXP on it. Are there any utilities that could somehow back up my failing hard drive system files and transfer them to the new partition?

Thanks,
Rob

 

[meltdown75]

You could use Norton Ghost, DriveImage, etc. There are a few different utilities out there that do it just fine. I believe there might be one in the Software forum, in the "replacements for commonly warez'd programs" thread.

My WD 60gb had the same problem a few months back so I picked up a WD 120gb to replace it. Best of luck.

 

[Creston]

"Are there any utilities that could somehow back up my failing hard drive system files and transfer them to the new partition? "

I wouldn't really bother with backing up your system files, to be honest. Take the time to simply install fresh, that way you won't have any potential issues with bad sectors that didn't get read / data corruption etc on your new disk. You'll probably have to reinstall all your apps anyways.

But if you do want to make an image copy, I would recommend Ghost. It's not cheap but definitely worth the money.

Creston

 

[SP33Demon]

I'm going to try to clone the drive tonight using Acronis True Image software. Will let you guys know how it goes

 

[Kaiser__Sose]

If i were you i would just back up the files that you need and Re-Install the OS and apps. A failing HDD might not create a perfect image of the system files and then you will experience crashes/BSODS with the new drive and re=install anyway. And this way you will also have a new fresh and clean install of you OS.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: Kaiser__Sose
If i were you i would just back up the files that you need and Re-Install the OS and apps. A failing HDD might not create a perfect image of the system files and then you will experience crashes/BSODS with the new drive and re=install anyway. And this way you will also have a new fresh and clean install of you OS.

Yeah, I figured the same thing. The hard drive completely died on me last night, luckily I have important files backed up. Unfortunately it died right before I was about to clone it, bummer. Ordered a 74GB Raptor to replace it. Thanks for all the help though.