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Summary: Replacing a hard drive is not terribly difficult, but if you're worried about losing data, then perhaps replacing the hard drive isn't all you should do. My son's hard drive is having serious problems. I was wondering how hard it is to install a new hard drive and copy files from the old hard drive. My husband is an electrical engineer and has installed a hard drive on one of our computers before. The main thing I don't know about is if we will be able to copy his files from the old hard drive. He has a lot of music files that he has recorded and doesn't want to loose them. Replacing a hard drive isn't terribly difficult, and I'll point you at a couple of articles I've found on line with step by step instructions. But your question raises a couple of important issues that I want to touch on first, that I think everyone needs to be aware of. • You haven't been backing up, have you? It actually frightens me how many people - or even businesses - use their computer(s) and simply assume it'll always work. Or that data will always be recoverable. As someone who's spent many, many years working with this technology please trust me when I say: it doesn't always work, and data is not always recoverable. And that's as true today as it was 25 years ago. Perhaps even more so. So why do I jump on you about backing up? Because if you had been backing up, you wouldn't have needed to ask the question. Besides not having to worry about losing files in general, a good, up-to-date backup is one way to transfer data from one drive to another. So let's kill two birds with one stone. Go out and purchase a USB external hard drive. They're big, they're not particularly expensive, and they often come with really good backup software included. I happen to have three Maxtor drives that I'm very happy with. Then: "Regardless of exactly how you do it, though, please
start backing up. You won't regret it."
You're Not Done Now, install that backup software that came with the drive (or get a good backup package, see the links below), and set up a daily or weekly backup of your computer to your external hard drive. Once that's in place, your computer could die completely, and without warning, and you'd still have all your data. Regardless of exactly how you do it, though, please start backing up. You won't regret it. Note: I should also mention that one could leave the old failing drive installed, and move it to be the secondary drive. Then you could copy directly from it to the new drive without requiring the external drive. I avoid that here because the drive is failing - I don't want to risk messing around inside the computer until the data has been copied off and safe on the external drive. And of course the failing drive is no good as a backup drive after we're done, because it's failing. Getting that external drive is an important step to staying backed up in the future. Related:
• Recent Comments
Maxtor drives can use a utility called "MaxBlaster" (available FREE from Maxtor's website). This utility will copy a drives contents from one drive to another COMPLETELY - Including the operating system. No further installation or re-installation of software is necessary. Posted by: Keith Almond at August 17, 2006 05:25 AMWhile I agree that the Maxtor utility might be of some use, I have often found that doing a complete rebuild is the best option (and I think Leo would agree). If you have to go through all this trouble to begin with, why not start out with a clean and uncluttered machine. One can only "wash" Windows so many times before a reinstall is needed anyway. The day to day activity just clutters it up too much. Posted by: Mark at August 17, 2006 09:18 AMThere have been some recent articles regarding hardware that is thrown away or recycled. Whether you're planning to throw away or give away your old hard drive, just make sure all data from it is erased or encrypted. There is a way that people are able to access the old data so just for future reference, don't just toss the thing once you're done copying the files from it.... http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=101264">Second Hand Drives yeild First Class Data Posted by: mroonie at August 17, 2006 12:44 PMkeith almond is right maxblast does do drive to drive transfers works like a charm i use it all the time ive transfered my operating systems +music and movies once or twice a year to larger hard drives from a forty gig to 300 gig and so on........ Posted by: bill at August 18, 2006 12:55 AMIn response to Mark's point: Since the hard drive is failing anyway, the only fail-safe way to destroy the data on a hard drive is heat, and lots of it. Your oven might go hot enough, but if you're really paranoid, find a blacksmith. When it comes to getting the data off, there's a program called ddrescue available on Linux, that is supposed to read as much data as possible from a failing drive while minimising wear on the drive (ie so it doesn't fail completely halfway through the copy). Posted by: tw at August 20, 2006 06:25 AMTW: No - Don't microwave it if you like your microwave... But the data recovery places charge a pretty penny for what they do. If all you want to do is discourage prying eyes, a .22 long rifle (err... in the drive, not the prying eyes) will probably do it. But neither a .22 nor a campfire seems to clean a drive beyond OnTracks recovery... for that, it appears you need special equipment like a cross-country UPS truck with no padding in the packaging. [Page 2: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1911132,00.asp ] A blacksmith'd probably do... probably just a little "quality time" with a sledgehammer will work just as well. Me, I just put it in the trashcan with the garbage and cat litter (used). If the want my secrets that badly... Posted by: Thor Johnson at August 21, 2006 06:51 AMI use a drill press and drill a few holes through the device, making sure to hit the platters. Voids the warrantee though :-). Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at August 21, 2006 09:09 AMThe last time I replaced a hard drive with a new one I had a problem with windows and some other programs in the process. WD has a program that said it would transfer everything from one hard drive to another and it did, but windows and some other programs still needed to be re-installed. Don't want to go through this hassle again. Is there a way to just copy and use the new hard drive? Posted by: Alan at November 6, 2006 01:08 PMAlan, if your hard drive is failing then it might not be a good idea to ghost it, but ther is an option if you dont want to install any programs over again. Symantec Ghost is a good example of a program that creates a image of your hard drive. It can then be completely restored on a new hard drive or even on a whole new computer. Im too lazy to give u a manual, but google it and ull get alot of hits :) Posted by: Molle at April 18, 2007 06:19 AMWill backing up also back up the programs or just files? I have several old programs that I no longer have the install disc. I would like to copy my old drive to a new drive ...OS, programs, files. Is it possible? Posted by: Alex at June 19, 2007 10:05 AMPost a comment on "Replacement hard drive: how can I copy files from a failing drive to its replacement?":
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