hard drive about to go!

wenger08

Hi my hard drive sounds like it is just about ready to pack up.

Making some really awful grinding sounds. Its years old maybe 7 or 8 years old, so i think its about due time to pack up?

My question is what do i do next?

Everything is pretty much baced up, and i have a copy of win xp on disk.

Do i just buy a new hard drive and install windows onto that? Should i wait for this one to pack up first before i bother?

Thanks

rmg1

Whatever you do, don't wait!
Check your backups are up to date, get a new hard-drive and replace the current one a.s.a.p.
You should be able to install XP onto it without any issues (you may have a few problems with activation as it's already been done but a call to MS should sort that).
The it's just a case of restoring backups and installing all your programs again (depending on the type of backup you do).

wenger08

Thanks mate

Should i buy a new hard drive and install windows onto it now?

How would i do that with the old hard drive still in the machine though?

And how much should i be looking at for a hard drive?

I dont need anything huge to be honest, dont download movies or tunes that much. Plus this pc is quite old now (8 + years) so dont want to spend alot of money on it either...

thanks for the help

Shuaibf1987

rmg1 wrote: »

Whatever you do, don't wait!
Check your backups are up to date, get a new hard-drive and replace the current one a.s.a.p.
You should be able to install XP onto it without any issues (you may have a few problems with activation as it's already been done but a call to MS should sort that).
The it's just a case of restoring backups and installing all your programs again (depending on the type of backup you do).

DEFINATLY TRUE DONT WAIT YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN TI WIL LGO THEN YOULL LOSE EVERYTHING:j

Shuaibf1987

wenger08 wrote: »

Thanks mate

Should i buy a new hard drive and install windows onto it now?

How would i do that with the old hard drive still in the machine though?

And how much should i be looking at for a hard drive?

I dont need anything huge to be honest, dont download movies or tunes that much. Plus this pc is quite old now (8 + years) so dont want to spend alot of money on it either...

thanks for the help

yes buy the new hard drive install windows on it, you can have bother hard drives into the one machine and just simple drag and drop, you can get and average 250gb hard drive for less than £35:rotfl:

Figment

Shuaibf1987 wrote: »

yes buy the new hard drive install windows on it, you can have bother hard drives into the one machine and just simple drag and drop, you can get and average 250gb hard drive for less than £35:rotfl:

This isn't strictly true.

With the machine being 8 odd years old it's likely to have IDE drives. To install a new IDE drive alongside an existing one requires that the drives be set as master and slave, or set to use Cable Select, in which case the position on the cable decides which is the master drive.

Also, if the OP adds the new drive then installs XP onto it, on reboot the PC will have two drives with active partitions, which will potentially cause issues on startup.

Also, a novice reading your instructions may think he can simply drag and drop the system files to the new drive.

andy2004

my suggestions

1. take the side of the PC and examine the Motherboard to see if it has a sata connection, will be Black, and L shaped.
if yes, buy a sata, connect it, and remember you'll need to install sata drivers to boot from it, from the motherboard cd
clone IDE drive to Sata drive, add sata drivers, disconnect cable to ide and test sata boots. you may need to change a setting in the bios.

option 2.
buy a Sata Hdd and a SATA to IDE bi-directional adapter.
like this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC-Bidirectional-IDE-SATA-Converter-SATA-IDE-Adapter-/330749995983#vi-content

the HDD will cost around £55 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata500gbto1tb/st500dm002.html cheapest 3.5in sata i could find.
plug the adapter into your motherboard, plug the cables into the drive.
treat it then like a 3.5in Pata hdd drive. you shouldnt need the sata drivers.
clone the IDE/Pata drive onto the Sata drive, and boot as normal.

Figment

Seems a lot of messing about for little gain. I'd just stick a P-ATA drive in and be done with it.

imho

When my hard drive was about to go i ran Balearic Advisor it told me what hard drive i was using. I then ordered it on-line and got delivery the next day.Fitted it and installed Windows Xp which was simple as you should have the Windows key on your computer.Hardest bit was downloading so many Windows updates it took me days to do that.
I have never installed a hard disk before but looked on utube and could see it was simple but make sure you get the right hard disc like Figment advised.

closed

Backup using disk imaging software

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx and create a boot cd.

Then find out if there is actually a problem with the hard disk (or just wait to see if it fails) before buying replacements, by doing a hard disk diagnostic - find out the disk brand in device manager, and look on the manufacturers website for diagnostic software, or see if there is a diagnostic boot menu built into the pc.

If the head was really grinding against the platter, you have far more symptoms than noise - sure it's the hard disk, could be fans, or just more swapping going on as a result of bloat/insufficient ram - (see speedup sticky if thats a possibility)