Hard Drive Failure????

[DonnaB]

Hi There,

Think my HD may be failing. First, a few black screens have occurred on bootup. After normal shut down this A.M., it booted into the BIOS screen, after noisy boot. I simultaneously pressed Ctrl + Alt + Del expecting to get Task Manager. Got Advanced Options Menu. Pressed enter, booted to Windows normally. And just now, got louder than usual "whirring" noise on bootup, which went on to boot into Windows normally.

Question is: What would my options be if the Drive totally fails? I've got Personal Data saved. And all I have is Recovery Disks for this laptop. Would those be able to be installed on a new Drive if needed. I'm under the impression that I have a Smart Drive. Wouldn't that warn me if the Drive was failing? No warnings yet! And what type of Warning should I look for? So, how should I prepare for HD failure?

Also, how do you feel about HDTune? Yes! I used it and saved info. to Documents. Stated HD temp is 127, and climbing.


Posted concerns on KSOD here > http://www.vistax64.com/general-discussion/272959-ksod-questions.html

Gateway ML6714 Laptop
Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2080 @1.73GHz
2.00 GB 32-bit
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2
Firefox, IE8

Thanks,
bbbluz

 

[Ashvin Busviah]

Is this a laptop or a desktop..
You might need to remove the hard drive.. connect it externally to another computer and do a full back up of all your data..
Then install a new hard driv in the computer, install the windows and drivers then reload your data
or you can image your faulty harddrive to a new one and replace it to your computer.. this can be the easiest way but the hard drive might not be able to get imaged if it is getting clutters errors.. or not readable..but pretty sure you can access it as been externally plugged to another pc..

I you do not have any hard drive imaging software.. you can use acronis free trial
Download free trial versions of Acronis products and Documentation
You can image your actual hard drive to another one just by booting from cd..

 

[DonnaB]

ashvin,

Thanks for your reply. As I posted above...it is a laptop. And I do have all my personal data saved to an external.

I do have recovery disks. What I was wondering is....If I get a new hard drive, can I re-install the whole Operating System from the recovery disks I have? They are particularly for this machine. Are they the same as a Retail/OEM Disk that you buy with an OS??? Or do they just contain the recovery console, drivers, etc.?

Thanks for the link above...I may need that!

bbbluz

 

[Ashvin Busviah]

the recovery disk will contain all the setup.. doesnot matter if you are using a new hard drive..
Connect the new hard drive and give it a go.. but do not wipe off your old hard drive at this stage..

 

[DonnaB]

:D Thanks ashvin!

 

[DonnaB]

As posted by ashvin:
but do not wipe off your old hard drive at this stage..

Why, may I ask? Just in case there is a chance that the OS does not install properly from the recovery disks?

And..... would it hurt to go ahead and be prepared, by creating an image of the OS with the Acronis imaging software?

bbbluz

 

[Ashvin Busviah]

the best option would be creating an image from the acronis software and mount that iimage to your new hard drive.. so you will get al your data/ programs etc.. but this might fail if your hard disk get clutters error..

 

[DonnaB]

Thanks ashvin! Did that! Now, I'm just waiting for the ultimate to happen. But, I'm prepared for that "special" day! Thought there was no need to hurry, since I have everything backed up. Might as well get all that I can out of this drive, right?

Your advice was educationally rewarding, if I might add!

:D bbbluz

 

[Ashvin Busviah]

lol cheers