hard drive problems

[chas2008]

just need a bit of advice , PC wouldnt boot up on the 1st attempt, came up with insert boot disc, or something like that , anyway booted up on the second attempt. Im assuming its the harddrive playing up, been a bit noisy lately.
I would like to get one step ahead before i get a total failure am i right in saying it the easiest option would be to get a second drive (internal) piggyback it on the original , copy the complete drive to it then just keep it as a backup ready to fit when the original finaly goes tilt.
Is it that easy or just wishfull thinking ?

[ChuckFickens]

it's pretty much that easy. but not quite.

You can't copy the actual system or any installed programs over though, but you can copy all your data

Windows and all your programs will have to be reinstalled onto the new hard drive once it is made the boot drive.

[chas2008]

Ah, i wanted to copy the whole operating system !!..thought it sounded to simple......not to worried about programs i tend to keep my PC fairly lean and clean got all the various discs etc. JUst not certain my manufacturers version of XP ( e machine) will load onto a new drive..

[ChuckFickens]

it should install no problems

I would put the new drive in as a master and install windows on it and use that straight away and have the old drive as a slave so you can rescue all your data from it.

Then if you have any problems installing windows for any reason you can always revert back to booting from your old drive to get you back up and running quickly.

Download and keep a copy of all the drivers you might need before installing though

[chas2008]

i was just under the impression some of the manufacturers operating systems would only load on there PCs possibly some program loaded that would only allow it, or is that just a myth ?

[rojash]

Or you could use a program like Ghost or Drive Image to create an image of you old drive on the new one. This will create a complete bootable disk with your OS, drives and programs all ready to run.
Frankly though, I wouldn't then wait for the old one to fail, but would immediately swap to using the new drive.

http://www.drive-image.com/

[ACtheTROLL]

This is a15 day full function trial

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/ migrateeasy/

If you look in tesco at the PC mags ... there is almost always a free copy of XXXX which will do the job as well