Computer Education Institute

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.

Computer Education Institute 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!

Computer Education Institute Recent Stories from around the internet

computer education institute

G etting a college degree isn't easy for Watina Green. She's juggling a heavy course load of entertainment-management classes with a full-time job as an executive assistant. Despite her best efforts, every once in a while she can't make it to class ...

In class, anytime - Baltimore Sun

Now is the time to earn the credentials you need to take your career to the next level and online learning might be a way to help you do that. The International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Institute (IPSCMI), the Institute for Supply ...

Are you ready for online education and training? - Purchasing.com

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute has reached an agreement with the Korea University of Technology and Education to promote cooperation in engineering education. The institutions will also promote applied research of mutual interest ...

Rose-Hulman Enters Education Deal With Korean University - Inside Indiana Business

Santo Domingo.- Valverde province senator Odalis Rodriguez said there's a need to fight violence and crime that affects modern society with greater incentives for vocational and technical education, and sports . Rodriguez spoke in the inauguration of ...

Dominican Telecom opens computer salons in Montecristi - Domican Today

At South River High School, two-dozen members of the school's dance company recently took third place in the "decorated by children" category, in the Kennedy-Krieger Institute's annual "Festival of Trees," a Christmas tree decorating competition and ...

Around South County: South River students' dance tree nets $250 for ... - HometownAnnapolis.com

MENLO PARK, CA -- 12/11/08 -- SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, today announced it will lead the Technical Assistance Center on Outcomes for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschool Children with Disabilities ...

SRI International to Lead Technical Assistance Center for Early ... - Earthtimes

Civic Arts Education 45th Anniversary Exhibition Established in 1963, Walnut Creek's Civic Arts education program now serves some 16,000 city residents annually; it's the largest community art program in Northern California, offering classes in ...

CRITIC'S CHOICE - East Bay Express

Also appointed were new Editors for Saturday Vanguard; Sunday Vanguard and their deputies; Group News Editor, Deputy Chairman, Editorial Board, and Political Editor. Godfrey Amuka-Pemu Mr. Godfrey Amuka-Pemu, former Assistant General Manager is now ...

New management changes in Vanguard - Vanguard

SCOTTOWN — It has now become a county effort as at least two band booster organizations are joining forces to help 12-year-old Ervin Ray White. This summer the Symmes Valley Middle School student was diagnosed with a childhood cancer called ALL or ...

Support grows for Symmes Valley student - Ironton Online

Share AS education becomes increasingly trend-driven, the class of 2008 is likely to study law -- perhaps attracted by the lavish lifestyle of solicitor Gerald Kean -- or accountancy, architecture, design or media. Recent figures from the Central ...