What to do when your hard drive is about to fail?

• DeadliestWarrior34

  

  Delete System 32. It should clear up some room.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  DeadliestWarrior34;1307459 wrote:Delete System 32. It should clear up some room.

  This.
• TedSheckler

  

  DeadliestWarrior34;1307459 wrote:Delete System 32. It should clear up some room.

  
  Can confirm.
• Pick6

  

  Do it right this time, and buy a Mac.
• fan_from_texas

  Alright, I just want to clarify.
  
  I can order a new internal hard drive, and I think I can install it easily enough. I've confirmed that it's compatible with my laptop.
  
  All documents/pics/music/etc. are backed up through SugarSync or to an external hard drive (which isn't big enough to image my existing hard drive, so I don't believe that simply imaging it will work).
  
  My question is this: If I swap out the existing hard drive with a new internal one, will I need to reinstall the OS completely? I would assume so, but my laptop didn't come with Windows install or other recovery media, so I'm not entirely sure what I'll do when it comes to that.
• TedSheckler

  

  Yes, you will need to reinstall Windows and all your programs.
  
  I would guess that there is a partition on your old hard drive with recovery files, but I've heard if you can copy that to a new hat drive.
• dlazz

  Pick6;1307506 wrote:Do it right this time, and buy a Mac.

  
  Macs have hard drives too, and they're just as prone to failure
• Pick6

  

  dlazz;1307589 wrote:Macs have hard drives too, and they're just as prone to failure

  Was a joke. I've never owned a Mac. Not surprised you bit though.
• dlazz

  Pick6;1307591 wrote:Was a joke. I've never owned a Mac. Not surprised you bit though.

  
  I bit because it's something an actual Mac user might say
• gut

  I'm not 100% sure, but if you get something like EaseUS Partition (free), you can exactly copy the partitions of the old drive (you'd have to get an external bay, as little as $30 or less). Would save some time and might be the easiest thing to do. Of course, you'd have to make a bootable USB to use EaseUS on a brand new drive.
• WebFire

  Don't make it harder than it has to be. Move your personal data off the hard drive, which you already did. Buy a new hard drive and install it. Install Windows...hopefully you have the correct DVDs and keys. Put your personal files back on.
  
  None of that other shit is needed. This isn't a corporate Raid 10 server.
• WebFire

  Because if it was you could just hot swap that bitch.
• fan_from_texas

  WebFire;1307618 wrote:Don't make it harder than it has to be. Move your personal data off the hard drive, which you already did. Buy a new hard drive and install it. Install Windows...hopefully you have the correct DVDs and keys. Put your personal files back on.
  
  None of that other **** is needed. This isn't a corporate Raid 10 server.

  
  Ty, ty.
  
  I have burned recovery DVDs from the recovery partition and ordered a new hard drive. We'll see how this goes.
• dlazz

  fan_from_texas;1307662 wrote:Ty, ty.
  
  I have burned recovery DVDs from the recovery partition and ordered a new hard drive. We'll see how this goes.

  Should be pretty straight forward as long as you have the appropriate discs.
• fan_from_texas

  Thanks, all. HDD came yesterday; swapped out, put the new one in, used the recovery disks to reinstall factory defaults, downloading everything back from Sugarsync now. Pretty painless, all things considered. Thanks for all the help.