Switching HD questions - please help

[october]

Ok I am getting a new hard drive shipped to me because my old one developed errors. The computer still boots and works, and I don't know in which programs the errors occur.

When I put in the new drive, I know the best thing to do would be to reinstall windows and all my software and start over with uncorrupted stuff. Would it be bad to take it to a computer store and have them copy my old HD contents to the new drive? Could they find and fix the errors? Or should I just take the time and reinstall myself?

-october-

 

[CornMaster]

Originally posted by october
Ok I am getting a new hard drive shipped to me because my old one developed errors. The computer still boots and works, and I don't know in which programs the errors occur.

When I put in the new drive, I know the best thing to do would be to reinstall windows and all my software and start over with uncorrupted stuff. Would it be bad to take it to a computer store and have them copy my old HD contents to the new drive? Could they find and fix the errors? Or should I just take the time and reinstall myself?

-october-

If it were me, I would do it all myself.

Because of the corruption on the drive there is no guarantee that the data is uncorrupted. Actually.....I can almost guarantee that the data IS corrupted, and coping it to the new drive could copy this corruption with it. While the hard drive will be new and working fine...the data will still be corrupted from the old drive, and you could end up having the excate same problem.

Plus I'm cheap. And wouldn't let anyone work on my baby.

 

[damunzy]

Reloading all your software is good practice. I usually do it 1 to 3 times in a 6month period. XP has been pretty good about not having to do it that often (after I installed it for a second time).

 

[october]

Ok so I get the new hard drive replacement and I open my computer up and switch them.

Then when I boot up the first time, what do I do? Boot with the windows 98 CD in the drive? What do I do in the BIOS for the new drive to get it partitioned and recognized properly?

 

[ceebs]

Check in your bios for the boot order. get it to boot from the cd first. choose the option to boot with cd-rom support rather than boot to windows system. Check that you have all the disks and drivers that you need before you start ( I can't stress how important this one is. If you don't then you could end up doing it all over again in a few hours, It's usually one of those things that you learn by experience, but take a tip now and do it right the first time. save yourself the pain)

run fdisk from your cd (it's on there somewhere) to partition your drive follow the instructions and if it says it's already partitioned into one section ready for installation then you may as well leave it alone.

then run format to set the disk up for recieving data.

next step install whatever flavour of windows you are using.

after that the first thing to do is to put the motherboard driver disk in(if you have one) to set up your hardware. do what it tells you after that the next thing is to add any other devices that havent successfully installed so far (probably your video card and soundcard) using whatever disks came with them

Last of all install your modem software. If you have an internal modem this will probably be the biggest pain out of the lot. if your buying a new modem buy an external one. I have spent more time trying to wrestle uncooperative internal modems into action than anything else.

Any other requests just get in touch

 

[october]

Is it necessary to format the hard drive after I physically hook it up in the computer?

 

[ceebs]

either that or you are going to have to plug it in to another computer first..

the best idea would probably be to mount your new hard drive in the same mount as your old hard drive and transfer the cables across to the new one. then run through the fdisk/format procedure.

after installing the os and all the drivers then connect up the old drive using the cables for your CD drive. transfer all the files you really really want to save (saved games, email, documents) theres no point transfering your programmes as they won't work without the registry settings. and you're only trying to transfer the absolute minimum because you don't know what is corrupt on your machine

then reattatch your cd when you've got everything you think you need and reinstall your software.