hard drive dying--need advice

Sorry if this has been addressed, but I don't have time to dig for information. My hard drive may die tonight. I'm computer-repair illiterate. I have an old hard drive the same size as the one that's terminal. What's the simplest way to transfer my old system onto the useable drive? I've downloaded a few progs and I'm getting confused by capsules, etc. Also, if there's no time to transfer the system in some manner, can I just switch out the drive? Will my old bios recognize the new hard drive? Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

Deeding on the drive it should work but you may have to reinstall windows.

Simplest way to transfer files would be to put them on CD's

What makes you think the hard drive is going to die?

 

If the second drive is blank and formatted, you could use something like xClone to copy everything over from the failing drive.

 

I agree, if the second drive is at least as large as the data on your suspect drive, XXClone works great. Just clone it, then make it bootable (XXClone will do that for you).

Easy and free! http://majorgeeks.com/XXCLONE_d5534.html

If you suspect your drive is failing, clone it immediately, once it goes your data is pretty much gone! Unless you want to pay a lot of $ for data recovery. If it turns out you have a problem besides the hard drive, you are only out some time. Good luck, keep us posted!! :cool

 

oops.. I wasn't clear.

what I have are two used hard drives: the sick one in my computer, and one from my older computer.

What's the best way to transfer my entire system to the older, used hard drive? Some sort of image? They both run xp.

Thanks so much for your help

In answer to someone who asked: I think my drive is failing because it has been up for about five years and has developed some very loud noises. Also, the system has become unstable, and Checkdisk has been running when I boot, which it never did before. It always says it is repairing things.

 

Re: oops.. I wasn't clear.

Well, XXClone? Honestly, if your spare drive is that old, clone it, and then order a new hard drive, then clone again.

HD's are cheap these days.