Hard disk error- repair or replace help please!

*manda*

I went to do a restart earlier on my PC as it was running a little slow, and when it reloaded it brought up a system error message advising a hard disk error and to repair or replace it and back up now. I am currently doing a back up, which is taking ages- am doing it onto DVDs and it's taken 7 disks so far?! I'm not entirely sure if this has been right either as when it's told me to replace the discs I have, then it's said afterwards about waiting before you eject so the disc can be used on another computer!?

So what do I do next? I really have no idea, and don't want to take it somewhere for them to rip me off. I'm not desperately precious about anything on there- there are photos but mostly they are on laptop as well, or already in a photobook so that's not the end of the world. Very few documents. OH tends to mainly use it for facebook/email and games. It is on most of the day so I may use it if just checking online for something but otherwise I tend to use my laptop (which I think it also on it's last legs).

Before I started to back up it said to print off the disk name- don't know if this means anything- ST37505S28AS ATA device

It's a dell inspiron- less than 18 months old. I have actually had nothing but trouble with it.

TakeThis

Don't stress if there is nothing important. Run chkdsk for now. You do so by right clicking on the C: drive and selecting Properties > Tools > Check Now. Allow it to fix any errors it finds.
It will ask you to restart the computer in order for the error checking to begin.

*manda*

Thanks- It's still backing up - i'm at 58% and it's taken 3 hours so far. Is that normal? I have to say I don't think it's been backed up since I've had it....

robmar0se

You have tried to do the right thing, however backing up to cd/dvd disks is not really practical. What you need now and going forward is a proper means of backing up your precious data. External hard drives are readily available, and really recommend, before you do anything else, is to get one and back up your stuff asap.

After you have done this one can get into the Win 7 (I assume) and run diagnostics, one often finds that running initially Miccrosoft's checkdisk (chkdsk c:/r), will not only give you a report on the disks condition (and whether it should be replaced), and also attempt to repair any wobblies.

Here's an exampple of a USB external hdd, shop around, you may do better, but all the main hdd manufacturers do them, different sizes too. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Ministation-500GB-Portable-Drive/dp/B004KSRM0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337013450&sr=8-1

*manda*

Yes I'm definitely going to get an external HDD- as I said I think my laptop is on it's last legs too so it makes sense to back that up fully onto something that isn't likely to drop dead on me. However, there is no way I can get one today hence the most readily available source being CD/DVD.

The PC seems to be working fine at the moment, not that I'm particularly using it, it's just backing up.

-TangleFoot-

*manda* wrote: »

ST37505S28AS

It's the model number, which in this case identifies it as a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB. The 'S' you've typed appears to be superfluous as the only result Google provides links straight back to this thread.

*manda*

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

It's the model number, which in this case identifies it as a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB. The 'S' you've typed appears to be superfluous as the only result Google provides links straight back to this thread.

Yep you're right- it was me reading and typing it from paper- the middle S was an error.

-TangleFoot-

*manda* wrote: »

...the middle S was an error.

And we now know for sure that you're talking about a desktop rather than a laptop.

*manda*

Just a quick question about an external HDD- looking at that one you pointed to on Amazon- I could order this for delivery tomorrow, and could back up properly onto that. Could I back up everything from this desktop, and laptop even though one is 7 and the other Vista? Are they relatively idiot proof?

robmar0se

Two things here 1) Quickly backing up yr important data to avoid any risk of loss ASAP
2) Deciding how & what you want to backup going foward

If you are happy with the disk copies you've made then we can bypass step 1,

What and how - I personally just backup personal files and current system drivers (windows 7 can be downloaded) - some like to have a clone of the system which they can restore without having to go through the palava of doing a fresh install.

I'll only refer to data backup, and I do them incrementally, ie each week my backup program, just adds to the backup new/changed files (benefit is its quicker). If you do this, you need to judge how much data you are likley to need to backup over the next 3-6 years?

So if you're backing up 2 systems, you may need a bigger external hdd, maybe 1tb? - there are over 2000 of them on the Amazon site alone - http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A340831031%2Cn%3A%21340832031%2Cn%3A429884031%2Cn%3A430544031&bbn=429884031&ie=UTF8&qid=1337019447&rnid=429884031

Most of these external hdd's come with a backup program, you need to give it parameters so that it knows what to backup and when (assuming you set up a schedule - or you can do it on an ad hoc basis, the latter is better for lappies as the hdd is unlikely to be always connected).

I'm sure others will provide more info, but I've tried to be brief...

*manda*

Thanks- I've ordered the 500GB for now for delivery tomorrow. My laptop will die eventually- have had it 4 years and it's very slow, but that's something I'll sort out later. The main thing is having the pictures from that somewhere safe- the actual laptop may not be replaced, as I have a notebook and it seems a bit pointless having both. As long as I can back up my laptop onto the HDD it should have enough capacity - I don't think i'm a particularly heavy user.

My Desktop (aka problematic hard disk) is less than 18 months old- so obviously I have no intention of replacing this yet! I'm doing a full back up to disk now, but will back up to HDD tomorrow when it arrives. I think it's something I'd only need to back up infrequently as it really is mainly used for websurfing. The only programmes on it are web related or printer drivers- which I have disks for. As long as Windows is safe - I can reinstall everything else as needed. i.e. itunes, printer, open office. I have some documents, but very few and most of those are probably not esssential, so I can just back up essentials to HDD in future.

Thanks for the advice- and brief answers are fine by me - as long as they're idiot proof!