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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Hard Drive Failure Imminent, need some guidance
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 10/08/2013 05:59:36 PM · #1
Hello DPC,
It has been awhile since I have entered a challenge but I have been checking in on results a few times a week. I was hoping someone could guide me through or to a solid tutorial for replacing my hard drive. I think the problem stemmed from having a completely full 1 TB hard drive for about 9 months. I knew this was not safe, and am lucky to get a a warning about the hard drive failure. I am running Windows 7 64 bit. A few days ago I received a message telling me parts of my hard drive were starting to fail and back up and replacement were necessary. I tried to create a back up but received error code 0x81000037, shadow files can not be read. This led to a path about reparse points that I could not follow. I have created a system image of my hard drive on an external drive and a system recovery disc. I also backed up all my images and files on a separate hard drive. I feel safe that all important data is duplicated.

I had a few questions if anyone has time to help me out.
With a system image and a system recovery disc, can I simply install a new hard drive and then have the system image put all the data onto the new internal hard drive? If so, can someone either give me a step by step, or point me towards a tutorial that they think is good?

Any recommendations on hard drives? I believe I have an extra bay for a solid state drive, but I could just simply get a larger internal hard drive and have backups to an external drive.

I have no PC maintenance experience really but am mechanically inclined and can follow directions.

Thanks DPC,
Joe
10/08/2013 06:18:15 PM · #2
For sure, if possible, put your operating system and programs on a SSD and then run a larger, conventional drive for data storage. But I don't know the answer to your restore question.
 10/08/2013 07:20:22 PM · #3
I had my main hard drive crash in August with my other data internal drive ok and well backed up. Computer warrantee had ended five months earlier. Unfortunately, I hadn't created a system image file. Had to install a new hard drive, install the operating system from the system restore disk, install over 100 windows updates, then reinstall each and every program from backup files or original disks, then restore data from backups. That took several weeks of evenings. To my dismay, my alternate internal hard drive ended up hosting all the restored system. Not ideal since it is just as old (4 years) as the one that failed. So I decided to get another new drive to be my main C boot drive.

Next step at the end of September was to use Shadow Protect to (1) make a C drive image file on an external drive and (2) burn a restore environment disk. Then removed the recently reinstalled but old drive and inserted a brand new blank internal hard drive. Used the restore environment disk to get access to my internal and external drive, set up new drive partitions to match the old drive, then restore the entire drive including system files from the system image file. Much faster than what I did in August. So it can be done. But watch the terminology closely. System restore disk is not the same as recovery environment disk. And you do need a system image (gets all the system files and structures that are missed in simple backup copies). My new drives are Seagate and seem to be working very well. Edited to add: I am using Windows 7 64 bit.

Message edited by author 2013-10-08 19:22:45.
 10/08/2013 07:49:48 PM · #4
if the hardware failure corrupted any system files, restoring a complete image from a backup could potentially restore the corruption.

if you don't have a lot of customized apps that need to be installed, i'd generally favor a fresh windows installation.
 10/08/2013 08:48:55 PM · #5
Joe, good to see your name and face on DPC again.

Back in the halcyon days of Vista (I cannot voice otherwise polite names for it)
I was forced to do a complete system re-install, and I did it by myself.
Darn right I'm bragging. It was complicated.
anyhow, while I cannot remember (thankfully) all the steps that were necessary,
I do remember there were tutorials on line - from Microsoft - to do this task.
So, poke around, and ask Microsoft and see what they can come up with.
Here's wishing you well.
:)
 10/09/2013 04:56:56 PM · #6
Thank you everyone for your input. Does anyone have some suggestions for a new hard drive? Go with a solid state and large capacity Hard drive for storage? Just one internal hard drive? I know newegg has a 72 hour sale right now I believe. Thanks for the help.
10/09/2013 11:09:18 PM · #7
Not sure if this helps...but I use multiple external hard drives. Move the bulk of your photos (I'm assuming) off your internal hard drive to an external and back it up to the "cloud" (my word). I have Western Digital HD's, they do a back up everyday of my internal HD as well as what I have on the EHD PLUS I back up to a "Cloud" system (my son-in-law set this up...it's all smoke to me). This way I know that all of my systems are always backed up and accessible if needed. I've been doing now for quite sometime because I lost a internal hard drive on my laptop, but thank goodness I was able to retrieve my files. Otherwise I would have been screwed. The chances of your external hard drive failing is slim and when full..you can't put anything else on them. The stress and strain (again my words here) on your internal hard drive holding all those photos is just to much for it, it will eventually crash. I try to really limit what I put on my internal hard drive everything else (photo wise) is off my HD to my EHD.

Maybe you already know this...but I just thought I'd put it out there.
 10/09/2013 11:32:36 PM · #8
Originally posted by jdannels:
Thank you everyone for your input. Does anyone have some suggestions for a new hard drive? Go with a solid state and large capacity Hard drive for storage? Just one internal hard drive? I know newegg has a 72 hour sale right now I believe. Thanks for the help.

Absolutely do the SSD and a second drive for storage. You'll never look back.
 10/10/2013 12:02:53 PM · #9
When you buy some SSDs, you get most of what you need to do a transfer. For instance, I bought an Intel SSD for one of our laptops, and it came with the software to mirror the existing drive to the SSD. The only catch with the Intel software was that the SSD must not be attached via USB, so in the end I wound up using third-party software. No biggie. In the case of a desktop system, you'd be attaching the SSD via an internal SATA connection anyhow, so you could use the provided software.
One "catch" is that by its nature this kind of software mirrors *everything* on the drive, so if there are things you don't want to carry along, you need to move them off first. It sounds like you have already moved your critical data off.
It's not a bad idea to just start fresh either. A clean install has its advantages, but also its downsides, namely having to install and update everything. If you go this path, make sure you have all your product keys before you start. One nice thing about this path is that the old drive you are removing will still be bootable, so you can redirect your boot to it if required.

Message edited by author 2013-10-10 12:03:35.
 10/10/2013 12:08:12 PM · #10
Do be sure to deactivate any licences (Photoshop, etc) that might be on your system before you remove the drive - that'll keep you from needing to call and beg Adobe for a key later.
 10/10/2013 12:11:17 PM · #11
Originally posted by jdannels:
Thank you everyone for your input. Does anyone have some suggestions for a new hard drive? Go with a solid state and large capacity Hard drive for storage? Just one internal hard drive? I know newegg has a 72 hour sale right now I believe. Thanks for the help.


For the HD, go with a WD Black Drive--they are very high performance. I just did the same thing because my system drive was giving me problems. A SSD would be a good boot drive too, but in that case, get the Black drive as your data drive.

You don't have to buy the same size drive, you can have the cloning software either partition the newer drive or just upsize the image.

I use Macrium Reflect for imaging and cloning, but as Kirbic said, SSDs come with clone software, and in fact, I think there's free software as well up on their site.

10/10/2013 03:26:47 PM · #12
The ioSafe N2 Is a Disaster-Resistant Backup Drive (NY Times review)
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