Compaq Computer Software

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.

Compaq Computer Software 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!

Compaq Computer Software Recent Stories from around the internet

compaq computer software

SALT LAKE CITY , Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Sparxent, an IT and business solution provider focused on the middle market, today announced that Enrico Pesatori, a senior technology executive with more than 40 years of experience, has been appointed to its ...

Sparxent Appoints Enrico Pesatori, Former President of Tandem ... - MSN MoneyCentral

Last Friday, Wal-Mart announced a selection of in-store discounts, including a 15-inch Compaq laptop for $298, that would be part of a one-day, in-store sale . That day, November 8, has come and gone, but what about the remaining supplies of the ...

Read all '"cheap laptop"' posts in Crave - CNET News

Last week, I reported on how to make your own iPhone stand using a simple binder clip . I'm still a huge fan of all things free , but if you watch a lot of videos on your iPhone and suffer from a disease that forces you to spend money, get your stand ...

Justin Yu - CNET News

Well, flat-screen TVs and mobile phones are still in, but cash-strapped shoppers are likely to shun anything closely linked to entertainment in the home or car because such electronics are seen as dispensable in an economic crisis. That includes ...

Bluetooth headset least desirable holiday gift - Economic Times

At Hewlett-Packard's San Diego campus, Glen Hopkins strides toward the technology giant's latest inkjet printer, coming to market next year. CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune Technician Jim Henley (right) operated the controls of Hewlett-Packard's ...

Hewlett-Packard's Inkjet Web Press, which was developed in San Diego ... - San Diego Union-Tribune

Red Hat, Inc. RHT , the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Micheline Chau, President and COO of Lucasfilm Ltd., and Jeff Clarke, President and CEO of Travelport, Inc., have joined Red Hat's Board of Directors ...

Micheline Chau and Jeff Clarke Join Red Hat's Board of Directors - MSN MoneyCentral

The browser wars have claimed at least one casualty: elegant software. In the rush to deliver more and more features to an exploding market, industry leaders bundle existing code and technology into hastily assembled new browsers. The resulting ...

Norse Coders - Wired

HP Compaq 6530b all-purpose laptop Nvidia to ship Tegra chip by mid-2009, CEO says AMD lays off 500 staff as financial troubles continue Intel set to launch Nehalem November 17 MacBook Pro is built to last Asus N10Jc Mini-notebook Atom could ...

Wellness comes home with new Intel device - Reseller

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a rousing endorsement of cloud development in Australia today at a Live Web Rally event entitled Liberation Day. An animated Ballmer paced the stage for more than 45 minutes as he gave an emphatic speech about ...

Ballmer Stumps for Azure Down Under - VisualStudio Magazine

October 2008 brought us the exceptionalness of Joe the Plumber, the continued deterioration of the world economy, and the Philadelphia Phillies' first championship in 25 years (not too mention the first ever World Handwashing Day !). But plenty of ...