transfer info from old hard drive to new one

Hello (once again :-D)

Thanks for the info on how to run / use the hdd scan program! As for a backup program. I do have Acronis True Image Home installed on the laptop running Vista (and actually had to use it when I had to replace the failing hard drive on the laptop a short time ago)

I also have the acronis software that came with the Seagate Free Agent external hard drive; which I am currrently using on the other xp pro machine. The acronis software that came on the seagate free agent external does make a complete image of the drive and you can make a bootable media disc as well with that program - it just doesn't have all the other options that the true image home software includes.

Once I get a chance I was going to install that software onto this Dell as well or maybe I will try the macrium reflect since you did suggest it when the drive started to fail (only never got the chance since it died first).

 

hello,

I found the .pdf file and I did run the smart test with hdd scan. I had my suspicions about this hard drive but until I can get one I thought I would put it in and see what happened. I did find a new Maxtor 80gb IDE drive for $20 (with a 1 year warranty - but it is on ebay and I'm not so sure about buying a hard drive on ebay).

Anyway, I ran the test and like I said, I did have my concerns about this hard drive and according to the test there is a red x in the section for the "Power On Hours Count - value 001 / worst 001 Raw Hex - 0000000001_2C0D Threshold 001

And a Yellow Exclamation Mark for Ultra DMA CRC Errors Value and Worst 124 Raw Hex 0000000000-004C Threshold 000


I'm not sure what that all means but I think I had better just leave the system alone for now until I find another hard drive for it and then do an image of it and transfer it to the new hard drive.

Lisa

 

Yep sounds like it's time to look for a new HDD :cry, I have bought lots of things from ebay without any real problems, just make sure that you pay through paypal so that you are protected and check on the sellers history, you can pick up new drives very cheaply now. All that hard work done only to find that the drive is just about done in, well at least now you know how to work things through now . Keep us updated about how you get on with the new HDD and install of OS.

Best Regards

Iain.

 

I did shut down the pc after doing that test and have disconnected everything from it for now - don't want to turn it back on until I have another drive in hand at which point I thought that I would then plug in everything, turn it on, install backup software and create an image and the bootable media disc and then replace it with the new one.

I don't want to go through everything I just had (which was because the original hard drive was failing and died while online to get the backup software). This time I will copy the backup software to a flash drive using my laptop and then copy it to the dell after I have the new drive.

I guess I will try using ebay for the hard drive then - the prices are pretty good and I always use paypal to pay for any purchase I make on ebay. I have been doing some looking around and have seen some that state "manufacturer refurbished", others say "seller refurbished" and of course there are some that are new; and Lots of used hard drives stating that they have been either pulled from a working pc or tested and reformatted and some also state zero filled / checked for bad sectors / no bad sectors or some other similar statements.

I'm thinking that I will stay away from the used ones no matter what they are claiming since I don't want to find out in a month or two that it is failing. There is one seller stating seller refurbished and 1 year warranty through them and I contacted them to ask just what they mean by that and they said So long is the defect is not caused by physical abuse by the end user we will replace the drive for 1 year.

The one that I was looking at that stated it was a new Maxtor hard drive had information stating it had a 1 year warranty and down below stated 6 month warranty so I contacted them and they apologized for the mix up and said that it is a 1 year warranty through them which I didn't understand either if it is in fact a brand new unit wouldn't it be covered by Maxtor (who I think I read is now owned by / a part of Seagate).

This can be so confusing. (I'm glad it wasn't this confusing when looking to replace the hard drive in this laptop a few months ago - it was less than 3 years old and started to fail).

Thanks Again,

Lisa

 

I did a check on my drives and I also have the CRC check issue. This can be the result of a bad cable or an IDE cable longer than 18". The Power on issue is due to the fact that the drive is getting close or surpassing the manufacturers MTBF (mean time between failure). You probably have had that drive powered on for quite a long time. The first issue isn't that bad but the second bears watching. If other parts show read, then it would be indicative of a failure about to happen. I definitely would not use it as a system drive.

A description of SMART attributes.

 

Thanks for that info.

The length of the cable is 18" so that can't be the reason for that result.

Maybe I had better look into getting a new cable as well - just to be on the safe side. I did look at it and it looks good but I'm guessing that with all the wires that are inside that cable it could very easily have just one wire inside the whole cable that has a slight crack or something in it and one would never know just by looking at it.

 

Thanks for that info.

The length of the cable is 18" so that can't be the reason for that result.

Maybe I had better look into getting a new cable as well - just to be on the safe side. I did look at it and it looks good but I'm guessing that with all the wires that are inside that cable it could very easily have just one wire inside the whole cable that has a slight crack or something in it and one would never know just by looking at it.

Okay, I was just at ebay and did a little bit of searching for a cable. I found 18" IDE / EIDE Hard Drive Flat Ribbon Cable 40 pin ATA PATA 3 Connectors; Flat ribbon IDE cable, three female connectors for motherboard and two devices.

40-pin IDE/EIDE/ATA/PATA Hard Drive 80-conductor cable.

18 inch long - UDMA 66/100/133

Works with any IDE/EIDE device: hard disk drives (HDD), CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW drives.

That would be better than just the 40 pin / 40 wire cable - is that correct?



Also, do you personally think that going with a manufacturer refurbished hard drive is acceptable? Not so sure about the seller refurbished ones and definitely not the used ones.


Thanks

 

Only buy the 40-pin IDE/EIDE/ATA/PATA Hard Drive 80-conductor cable. Do not buy the 40-conductor cable. Do you have a 40 conductor or 80 conductor cable now? Before you buy, try re-seating the cable you have and also the power connector or try a different power connector from the power supply. One note, if you replace the cable, it will still show a yellow. You will have to pay attention and see if there are more errors. On my drive, my worst value is 198. Personally, I would not worry about it unless you see that error amount increase in a short period of time.

 

To be honest, I don't actually see anything listed on the cable stating if it is a 40 conductor or 80 conductor cable. I just recall reading somewhere that the 80 wire (40 pin) cable is better than the 40 wire - but don't really recall where (which is why I was asking your opinion.) I know that it is a 40 pin and I am guessing it is 40 wire - I just thought that I read somewhere that the 40 pin 80 wire was better - not sure what is meant by 40 conductor.

According the the Dell site the hard drive that came with the unit was
ATA-66 or ATA-100 Ultra DMA hard drive

The cables are: Primary IDE channel 40-pin connector on PCI local bus
Secondary IDE channel 40-pin connector on PCI local bus
Floppy drive 34-pin connector

https://support.dell.com/support/edocs/SYSTEMS/dim4400/specs.htm#1101572 I don't see any other information there to tell me anything.


I took the cable out of the tower and the information printed on it states:
HUNG FU (looks like su or something like that) AWM 2678 E97252-H VW-1 105º C 105V 30 AWG 15AL27-711
On the back it states : 5F946 BIZ 09 JAN 02


As for making sure that the cables were seated properly I made sure of that prior to even starting the whole process and checked before taking it out to read the cable and all cables are securely attached.

I wasn't thinking of just replacing the cable - plan on getting a hard drive for it no matter what. So with a new hard drive and cable that error may still be there?

 

With a new hard drive, that error will not be there unless the cable is defective. You can tell the difference between the 40 and 80 by counting the wires on the ribbon. It also has a blue connector at the motherboard. 80 is necessary for anything over ATA/66 so you will need a new cable because your new drive will probably be Ultra ATA/100. Hope this helps.

More info here;

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCable80-c.html

 

I have been doing a little bit of research trying to figure this out and the one thing I am certain of is that the Dell uses cable select drive cables. In fact, the link you have just given me is one of the sites where I have just been reviewing information on the cables.

The cable does have a red thin stripe going down the outside edge on one side and after some time (trying to figure out just how to count the wires) it is has 80 wires (if each ridge on the cable is a wire).

So when looking for a new cable (80 wire of course) do I need to look for something that states cable select or doesn't that really matter? I do know that from what I have read that the cable select means that if there are 2 hard drives in the tower that both are set to cable select and the cable designates which one is the primary and which one is the slave.

 

I just did a quick review of different cables at ebay and if you have the time (doesn't have to be right away) just so that I am sure I am looking at the correct type of cables. Like I said it doesn't have to be right away - especially since I am still trying to decide if I want to go with a manufacturer refurbished vs. seller refurbished (???) or just stick with a new hard drive

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-IDE-40-Pin-80...035?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483c1b820b

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Ultra-DMA-A...742?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb06541be

http://cgi.ebay.com/18-40-Pin-80-Wi...981?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4152b4a24d

http://cgi.ebay.com/IDE-Ribbon-Cabl...171?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae16ec71b

I also intend to purchase from within North America for this item as well as the hard drive.

Thanks again for EVERYTHING!!!

 

Hello,
Of all of those links, I recommend the following.

http://cgi.ebay.com/18-40-Pin-80-Wi...981?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4152b4a24d

 

Hello Again,

Thanks so much for your input on which cable would be best. I thought about taking the cable out of the other desktop and trying it in the Dell but that HP is a mini tower and it is a real pain in the butt to do almost anything on the inside of that thing.

Besides - for the cost of that cable ($6) I would rather just get the cable than to take the chance of trying out the HP cable in the Dell and taking the chance of giving that hard drive less life (and possibly die on me while doing the image of that drive) and having to go through the whole mess of a complete clean install on the replacement hard drive when I do get it.

I think that I have it narrowed down to 2 different hard drives.

One is a Maxtor DiamondMax 16 4R080L0 80GB 2MB 5400RPM 3.5" Desktop IDE Hard Drive (133 MBps / 13ms seek time / PATA interface / DMA/ATA-133 (Ultra) Fast Drives / it is 1" thick (which is how thick this hard drive is now so I know it will fit in the one bay - the original one was only about 1/2" thick & 20GB) and it is listed as new.


The other one is a Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80 GB ATA-100 Hard Drive 7200RPM 2MB Cache IDE/EIDE interface hard drive (seek time 8.9ms / 100 MBps / and is 1/3" thick) and this one is listed as being manufacturer refurbished.


Both are just $20 so there is no difference in the cost but I am not sure which one would be a better choice. From what I have read going with a manufacturer refurbished unit isn't a big deal and can save you money but both of these are similar so I don't know if I would be better off with the drive that is ATA-100 with 7200 RPM or the one that is DMA/ATA 133 & 5400 RPM.

Any suggestions?

Thanks Again

Lisa

 

The Maxtor would be the faster drive for transfers even though the seek time is a little more. Seagate purchased Maxtor so support should be available. WD is still in existance. Support for that drive might be better but I am not sure. You could check both sites and see what is listed for these drives. Either drive would be fine. Maybe somebody here can give their thoughts on these drives.

I did find the Maxtor for $16 but not sure what shipping is.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=4R080L0-NDW-R&cat=HDD

Some reviews on the WD drive.

http://www.google.com/products/cata...tput=nojs&cid=17661999583432092392&os=reviews

 

Thanks so very much for your input. I had been trying to do a search to see just what the differences are between going with ata100 7200rpm hard drive or ata133 5400rpm hard drive.

The only site I have been able to find so far was http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=1796

and according to the post "if u want a hard drive that can transfer large files faster go for the ATA133, but if u want a drive that can transfer small files faster go for the 7200 rpm." "7200 RPM is faster...ATA133 can almost never be achieved and/or sustained for very long. Most people can't even use ATA100 which is why soon serial Hard Drives will be taking over. There simply can't be enough data pumped to fill up ATA133" but that was also back in 2002 and it really didn't tell me a whole lot but just like you said the ata133 (the maxtor) would be faster for transfers.

I know that I was a little bit concerned when I replace the hard drive in this laptop about a month ago since the failing drive in this was a 5400RPM drive with 8mb of cache and the one that I was looking at was 7200rpm with 16mb of cache. I was a bit concerned about the 7200rpm running too hot but so far things are fine with that drive and I really don't notice any difference in the way it runs now with this hard drive vs. the one that was in it originally but the one in the laptop is SATA so I was really trying to figure out the 100 vs 133 part of the equation

According to the WD site regarding manufacturer refurbished / recertified products they all carry a 6 month warranty but the one listed on ebay is stating a year - contacted them and they said that it is a year and the handle the warranty and will replace the drive if there is a problem

The Maxtor states it is new and has a new pull / date code of 2003. But I'm guessing that it really doesn't matter a whole lot which one I get - especially since it is just going to be used once in a while - since I do use this laptop all the time now.

I just found the WD at newegg.com as well and it is stated as being recertified there http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Suggested&Description=22-136 and has an open box only return policy and 90 days limited parts & labor.

The other thing I have figured out is that there is one seller on ebay that has at least 2 different seller names - not sure why that it.


Again, Thanks for all the assistance.

Lisa

 

Just wanted to update you on how things went. I was able to get a 160GB WD Caviar Blue WD1600AAJB Hard Drive (brand new) for a total of $31.01 (including the excessive shipping charges).

I installed it into the Dell machine last night and started to (well at first it was more of a botched attempt) install the image of the other hard drive that I made using the Seagate Disc Wizard program. I did eventually get the information / image installed on the new hard drive - which took a lot longer than I expected it to (guessing it is may be due to the fact that the ram is less than 400 in it (but can be upgraded to 2GB - which I am going to do).

Anyway, the pc is up and running just fine. I went to WD and registered the drive so that I have the warranty on it as well (3 years) and everything seems to be working well (it only took something like 6 or more hours to transfer that image to the new harddrive and it was about 6 or 7GB in size!) It was a much faster process when I did the same thing with the laptop and a hard drive that is 250GB in size and has about 50GB of used space including the entire windows vista program and the recovery partition.

Out of curiosity I did run that hdd scan again (with the new harddrive and cable) and no problems. --- I did run the hdd scan on that other harddrive after installing the new drive cable as well as installing it in another pc and the test results were the same on that drive in all instances.

I am now finishing the process of downloading and installing the assorted anti-spyware and malware programs on the pc and I still have to install the office program on it as well - although I was thinking that I might try out that open office program instead.

I may do some research and see if there is any way to easily transfer some of the programs that are on the other desktop running windows xp professional to this desktop pc running windows home (without having to go through the whole installation process for each of them).

Again, Thanks So Very Much for all your help.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Thanks for the feedback, it's always good to hear that things have gone well. I hope you are still going to keep posting here at MG's, it is a great little community we have here .

iain.t :major

 

I will most definitely be coming back to this forum as well as checking out the downloads available on the home page. I agree, this is a Great Little Community and I have gotten help and referenced other posts on more than one occasion and no one has ever steered me wrong.

Again thanks for everything!