HD backup question

edited June 2004 in Hardware
this isn't exactly a hardware question, but this seemed the most appropriate place to put it. about a week ago i couldn't start my computer. it would hang during startup every time. after some complications and fix-it attempts i eventually formatted and everything was okay. today the same thing happened again. i suspect there is something wrong with my hard drive, which wouldn't surprise me since it's about 4 years old and sounds like a coffee maker. does this sound like a hardware issue to anyone else? also, assuming it was a hardware issue, if i were to back up my system and registry and then restore it to a new hard drive, would it work? thanks!

Comments

  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited June 2004
    Sorta hard to even guess at this because if the drive is failing how will you know if you can get a good backup off it? If the probs were intermitant you might be able to get a good "image" in between moments of flakiness? But maybe not.

    Can you give us more info? Like what kind of drive and what OS are you running etc.. What tool or utility you plan to use to backup even.

    (grin) I have had folks say their drive sounds like a lot if things but "coffeemaker" was a first.. Grinder... Washing machine and many misc powertools have been given but..... "coffeemaker" (grin)?

    There are utilities from many drive manufactures that can diagnose and test their own drives.

    Tex
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited June 2004
    Here are the links to the major manufactures.. You can download the one you need. All of them use a bootable floppy.


    Western Digital Newer Drives... http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/DlgDiagv504.exe
    Western Digital Older drives... http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlgdiag28.zip
    Maxtor Diagnostics... http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe
    Hitachi/Ibm... http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft32_v373_b25.exe
    Seagate... http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/download/seatoold_en.exe

    Gobbles
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Gobbles wrote:
    Here are the links to the major manufactures.. You can download the one you need. All of them use a bootable floppy.


    Western Digital Newer Drives... http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/DlgDiagv504.exe
    Western Digital Older drives... http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/dlgdiag28.zip
    Maxtor Diagnostics... http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe
    Hitachi/Ibm... http://www.hitachigst.com/downloads/dft32_v373_b25.exe
    Seagate... http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/download/seatoold_en.exe

    Gobbles
    Wow.. now that's a post! :eek::respect:
  • edited June 2004
    well, my real question isn't how to fix the problem. I'm just wondering if a restored backup of my system (files and registry) would be functional, or if i would have to reinstall all the programs anyway. this is all assuming i could get a good backup.

    thanks for all the links!
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Problem is, we are trying to politely say a good full backup cannot be assumed to reliably happen from a drive with troubles-- the opposite is much more likely to happen. Part of data might be and probably is recoverable, full set probably not. AND, if a full backup hangs in mid backup, then whole backup is basically bad if you use backup software especially if you are backing up to CD as most backups intended to write to CD write index on last CD, and if full backup hangs you get no index to recover data with 'cuz last CD never gets completely written.

    To even decide whether to try a full backup, best thing to do is run a mfr diag quicktest, and the quick test should not write to or change any data on HD-- it is a read-only and SMART query integrity test for modern drives, and form old ones repeated reads are done to check one read against another. These run from bootable floppies. So, if quicktest passes, then TRY a full backup with more confidence, but if not figure on getting what you can backed up file by file or folder by folder or some mix of that.

    I hate to say this is something I can't answer, so I will say cannot answer right at all until drive has been quicktested.
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