Downloadable Computer Game

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.

Downloadable Computer Game 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!

Downloadable Computer Game Recent Stories from around the internet

downloadable computer game

MTV Games and Harmonix announced today that Foo Fighters’ best selling album, The Colour and the Shape, will become the seventh complete album to join the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content. Selling more than 2 million copies in ...

Rock Band Brings Foo Fighters album the Colour and the Shape to the ... - Game Info Wire

THQ Inc. THQI and JAKKS Pacific, Inc. JAKK today announced that WWE ® SmackDown ® vs. Raw ® 2009 is now available at retailers throughout North America. Celebrating its 10 th anniversary, the latest addition to the leading fighting videogame ...

Alone, You're Great; Together, You're Unstoppable in WWE(R) SmackDown ... - MSN MoneyCentral

Sling Media no longer wants to be put into a box--the theoretical kind, anyway. Previously just a maker of hardware like the Slingbox, and related software, the company is now thinking bigger. With the official launch of Sling.com fast approaching ...

Read all '"Web video"' posts in Crave - CNET News

One would think the awesome power of today's consoles and easy access to games in downloadable form would make publishers steer clear of retro compilations, but not Sega. They've just announced a 40 game strong compilation of classic Sega Genesis ...

Sega Reveals Splotchy 40 Game Mega Drive Compilation - Kotaku.com

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - (Business Wire) There ’ s no looking back! DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. studio (NASDAQ:ERTS), today announced that the highly acclaimed first-person action adventure title, Mirror ’ s Edge TM has shipped to retailers ...

This Holiday's Hottest Video Game, Mirror's Edge Ships to Retailers ... - Earthtimes

THQ Inc. and JAKKS Pacific, Inc. today announced that WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is now available at retailers throughout North America. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the latest addition to the leading fighting videogame franchise delivers the ...

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Ships - Game Info Wire

Summary: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is a good game but one that falls short of its potential. The Roster Editor is a welcome addition, Create-A-Finisher could be deeper but is a great first effort, the Inferno Match is over-the-top but fun, and Road ...

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 - News.com.au

According to Sony in Japan the PSP's AdHoc Party service that enables you to connect to an AdHoc Internet connection via a PS3 using the software downloadable to PSP is now ready to go. Game such as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G are available for the ...

Sony PSP: AdHoc Party Beta Begins - Spong

Fourth chapter of hit franchise features all-new game mode, 100 levels, collectible artifacts, and intriguing mystery to solve DALLAS (November 6, 2008) – MumboJumbo, leading developer and publisher of casual games, has unveiled LUXOR: Quest for ...

MumboJumbo Introduces LUXOR: Quest for the Afterlife™ for PC - MCV

Cooperative Band Experience, All-New Controllers Including Guitar, Drums and Microphone, Robust 86-Song On-Disc Set List, In-Game Celebrity Appearances and Innovative Music Studio Combine for Unprecedented Music and Gaming Experience. Over 20 Tracks ...