Cable Television On Computer

Hard drive failure. What I did

Yesterday I had to change my hard drive and had a few issues that I was able to fix.

The problems started in the morning when my wife called me and told me that the computer would not boot. We have been having trouble with our hard drive for a while now and I was able to fix each time by just reseting the PC. This time though the computer was not seeing the hard drive. Using tools and knowledge that I had I had to do the following:

Install new hard drive

First of all I had to install the new hard drive. I was able to do this by disconnecting my CDR and leaving myDVD drive, two old hard drives in the machine, plus a new 80 gig drive with a 16 meg cache. I was unsuccessful at loading Windows though as I kept getting an error as the Windows setup was starting, after loading the drivers I would get an error that it could not load the setup. I switched to my CDR from the DVD drive and had no problems.

Setup Windows

I successfully did a quick format of the new drive (thanks for that new feature Windows XP) and successfully loaded Windows XP. This is pretty basic as I use a CD that not only has Windows XP on it but also has Service Pack 2 for XP slipstreamed onto it.

Rebuild hard drive partition table

After I booted to Windows I saw that my old drive was not showing up as a drive or a partition. If I right clicked on the partition in Disk Management it knew that the drive existed but could no longer find a partition on it. Windows Disk Management said that the drive was healthy, My first attempt was to create a partition but not to format the partition as I did not want to lose the data for good. I fought with this for a couple of hours as I did not back up lately and the wife would kill me if I lost all of her data. In the end I was able to use Test Disk from the Filesystem tools of the Dos Ultimate Boot Disk. It ends up that the partition table had a start but not an end and the program was able to fix this….whew I would have been in trouble….

Migrate Windows and Office data

After I had the old drive back I went into the BIOS and chose to boot from that drive. I was able to boot to the old Windows XP installation easily enough and did not want to keep any of the data there but thought it would be a good idea to transfer my Windows settings using the file and settings transfer wizard in Windows. I saved the settings using the wizard and chose this as the old computer and in the destination I chose a folder I created on the new hard drive called “transfer files”. I then decided to transfer only my settings as I knew that I was going to have to reload my software and would be manually copying over the file structure from the old drive to the new drive.

I also moved all of my settings for MS Office using the Save my Settings Wizard from the MS Office 2003 tools section. I was able to copy the settings, which come across as an OPS file to the same place as my Windows Transfer Files and Settings.

After I had moved the settings and files over I rebooted and went back into the BIOS and changed my first boot to the new hard drive and it’s windows XP installation. I was very happy to see that after running the wizrds for transfering the settings and after reloading MS Office 2003 I was able to move over my mail folder and saw all of my email, contacts, and best of all my email addresses (Still had to fill in the passwords for email but that’s OK). After a relogon I also had all of my desktop settings back includig the background picture of my daughter and the animated Pingu cursors.

Copy data from bad drive

Next I just did a blanket move of all of the files from the old hard drive to new into a new folder that I created in the root of the drive. I did this simply to save time as I am not sure about the stability of the old hard drive and fear that I will lose it again.

Reload software

I have started reloading software but as usual I am going to be slow about the move this time. I will install some of my favorite freewares and will install Streets and Trips, Adobe Acrobat, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop Elements and that’s it.

I have roughly followed about half of my Reloading Windows tutorial but since I have both drives functioning at the moment I have tried to cut some corners and make this work well as well as getting my wife up and running quickly for her work stuff this morning.

Cable Television On Computer stuff to buy

Pal Pc Tracker - Stops Computer Theft!
Computer software that allows you to find your Pc anywhere in the world if it's ever lost or stolen!

How To Make Money Working From Home!
A practical, Step-By-Step guide to start making money on the Internet using your computer!

Cleaning Computers - Secrets Exposed!
How To Start Your Own Profitable Computer Cleaning Business - Step By Step Business Kit!

Cable Television On Computer Recent Stories from around the internet

cable television on computer

Popularity of TV Service Reflects Consumer Desire for an Alternative to Cable AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Marking the one year anniversary of AT&T U-verse (SM) in Central Texas, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced that AT&T ...

AT&T U-verse Marks One Year Anniversary of Giving Central Texas ... - PR Newswire

W HAT: HDNet to broadcast LIVE HD coverage of the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour for a rendezvous with the International Space Station, the twenty-seventh such meeting. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080324/HDNETLOGO ) The mission of ...

HDNet to Broadcast Live High Definition Coverage of the Launch of ... - PR Newswire

A still from security cameras shows Ramazan Mohammed spraying bullets from his AK-47 assault rifle around the lobby of the Serena Hotel The police interrogators fell silent as Ramazan Mohammed entered the cramped room that gave off the whiff of new ...

The failed suicide bomber who changed the war on terror in Afghanistan - Daily Telegraph

Communication professor Barbara Wilson is one of two lead researchers on a study released today on children's educational programming on commercial television stations. The study showed one in four TV... Click here for more information. Commercial ...

Quality, quantity lacking in children's educational TV, study says - Genetic Engineering News

Watching the boob tube once meant having to consume your entertainment in front of an actual television. But these days, if you miss an episode of Grey's Anatomy or Heroes and forgot to set the DVR, no problem: You can catch up online for free with ...

The Best TV on the Web - PC World

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former teen music idol Jesse McCartney is shaking off his family friendly image and giving audiences a glimpse of a new, darker side next week playing a murder suspect on TV crime drama "Law and Order: SVU." NEW YORK ...

Television News - Reuters - Yahoo News

If YouTube and Hulu are to become Web movie houses, will they be the online equivalents of those gleaming multiplexes where all the latest releases appear? Or will they be the revival houses that screen only outdated flicks? Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM ...

YouTube film service unlikely to be as profitable as iTunes - CNET News

Once operational, all 900,000 Medicaid recipients will no longer use their Social Security Number as an identifier. MADISON (AP) - The state of Wisconsin's transition to a new computer billing system for Medicaid and other programs is on track to be ...

Transition to new computer system on schedule - CBS 58

Concurrent CCUR is a leading provider of real-time Linux-based computing technologies for commercial and government markets. Industries served include cable and telecommunications providers, defense and aerospace contractors, automotive manufacturers ...

Concurrent President and Chief Executive Officer to Present at Needham ... - MSN MoneyCentral

As the change from analog to digital television broadcast looms, you may hear some terms you don't know. This glossary should help you prepare for the switch. Analog: Traditional, less-efficient and lower quality system that uses radio waves to ...