Hard drive

Is My Hard Drive Failing?

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Reader Jerry wrote about a problem he was having when he tried to make a backup image using Acronis True Image…

Terry I want to make a hard drive image for a backup so that when I have to reinstall my windows and programs all I have to do is copy the image to the drive I want to use, what is a good program to use I tried acronis and I couldn’t make it work. It kept saying that certain sectors could not be read so I told it to ignore them (else it would not continue) and when it finished I tried using the drive and it would not boot. I’m using XP.
Jerry

I wrotte to Jerry to tell him thatt if certain sectors of a hard drive can not be read, it sounds like the hard drive is failing.

IDE and SATA hard drives have…

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Filed Under: Hard drive, Hardware, PC Repairs, Terry's Computer Tips

Computer Problems Opening Zip Files

By terry Leave a Comment

Long-time subscriber Irving wrote to ask:

I have XP SP2. I downloaded a zip file to my desktop. I then clicked the icon and ran into a problem. The screen started to “blink” and I couldn’t do anything. CTR-ALT-DEL couldn’t do anything. I had to shut down with power switch. Tried again…..same problem. This has also occurred on other downloads and blinking screens when trying to install with a click on icon on desktop. What can cause this?? Irv

I wrote back to Irving to suggest some possibilities.

1) a malware program in the zip file – did you scan it after downloading? what did you scan it with?

2) a program that attempted to change your graphics card resolution or other setting, and couldn’t do it right – or didn’ want to…

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Filed Under: Hard drive, HowTo, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting

Catastrophic Hard Drive Failure

By terry Leave a Comment

Reader Jeanne Wright wrote me about her recent hard drive failure:

My computer just crashed and I had to have a new hard drive installed. Is there any way to get the information on my files and folders from the old hard drive? If so, where can I find someone to do this? Needless to say, I had NOT backed up my computer before all this happened. Thanks!

I wrote back to Jeanne to say that, depending on the nature of the hard drive failure, her data may or may not be recoverable at a reasonable price.

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Filed Under: Backup, Hard drive, Hardware, PC Repairs, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Upgrades

Why Back Up Your Computer?

By terry 1 Comment

As a long-time personal computer user, I learned the importance of backing up my data long, long ago.

There are just too many things that can go wrong when you’re working on your computer. Whether it is a hard drive that goes bad (or a floppy, in the old days), or a mental lapse on the part of the user, it is easy to lose the critical file on which you’re working. Or, maybe your computer has gotten infected with a virus or a rootkit, such that you decide that reinstalling Windows is the easiest thing to do.

How many times have you opened a file with the intent to make a new version of it, then edited it, and accidentally saved it again with the original name? I have, so I doubt that you’ve missed that thrill. Fortunately, I make daily backups of my data, so that I can recover from those brain failures.

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Filed Under: Backup, Hard drive, HowTo, Storage, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Vista, Windows XP

Serial ATA Drives and PC Problems

By terry Leave a Comment

Reader Ian Holland wrote after reading one of my Special Edition Newsletters, which sometimes go to email subscribers:

Hi Terry,

Just read your VERY absorbing newsletter, I have a ( moronic??) question about those SATA hard drives.

I recently ( 2006) built 5 pcs for the office ALL with SATA drives, and they are all the same spec as this one at home with regards to RAM ( 2gb) and processors ( all Pentium 4, 3.5GHz) . So, to all intents and purposes they should be more or less the same ( all ASUS mother boards the same make and type, all with the same version of XP Pro Corp) –except the ones at the office are all on a network to ADSL (yukk!) this one is on a small home network (4pc’s) to cable broadband ( much better!).

The pcs at the office with minimal data installed are all far, far slower at moving files, searching, transferring data ( I ran a comparison with the same 36,588 images / 2.94 Gbytes) and also with downloading, than the one here on IDE at home.

I also get many more sudden “blue screens” ( “windows has shut down to prevent damage to the system….”) at the office machines, usually when running, e.g. three video editing programs, Nero 7 DVD burning, + maybe four large downloads and some word processing all simultaneously-

-at home I NEVER managed to get these messages at all, however hard I work the processor / RAM.

My question ( as an ignoramus!) is this;-

What is the purpose and advantages ( if any!) of going to SATA drives when they are patently less reliable, and lower performance than the “old” IDE ones? It seems to be yet another marketing ploy for us to shell out more money again.

I seek real elucidation here….

Thanks for an ever-improving newsletter, Ian.

Ian,

SATA (Serial ATA) is actually capable of much faster communication than is the PATA (Parallel ATA) interface.

The fact that you’re seeing significantly faster performance on one machine than on the other 4. Despite the 4 being on an office network, they should not be markedly slower than the home machine.

Here are some fo the things that come to mind:

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Filed Under: Hard drive, PC Repairs, Terry's Computer Tips, Troubleshooting, Upgrades, Windows XP

Adding a SATA Hard Drive to Your System

By terry Leave a Comment

In order to use a hard drive with an existing Windows XP system, you have to prepare the hard drive before Windows XP can use it.

The good news is that you can do this in Windows XP while WinXP is running, and even while you are doing something else.

To do this, you want the Disk Management part of
Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management , Storage, Disk Management (Local)

This will display the multiple hard drives (Disk 0, Disk 1, etc) and the partitions on them.

Right-click on the SATA drive and create the partition size you want and then format it (NTFS format, unless you have a particular reason that you want FAT32).

Filed Under: Hard drive, Hardware, SATA, Storage, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows XP