hard drive

My wifes laptop keeps getting the message the hd is going bad and i should back it up. I have an external Hard drive I would like to set up to boot from till I can buy her a new drive. How do I get everything from her old drive to the external and make it my boot drive.

 

Well you should clone the hard drive to the external drive. I use EZ Gig II Cloning software.

Then set the computer to boot to USB. Here is some helpful info on doing that.

 

If you are getting a message that the hard drive is going bad, I do not recommend cloning the OS (Windows) and software. If any of the files are corrupted due to the old drive's condition, they will clone/transfer as corrupted onto the new drive. You should only do this as a last resort if you don't have the restore CDs and license codes for your software.

Booting from a USB drive can be iffy. Although workarounds may be available, Windows has Digital Rights Management (DRM) features that often prevent or cause issues trying to boot it from an external drive.

My advice is:

* Do a "drag and drop" copy of all documents, pictures, music, etc. immediately (this will make them available to use on any PC). Be sure to include files outside of "My Documents" (Quicken, QuickBooks, tax software, etc.).

* If you're running XP/Vista or Win 7, use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" to copy everything off the old drive (unlike the "Drag and Drop" copy, the transfer file will not let you open individual files or copy data from Quicken, tax software, etc.).

* Be sure you have the restore disc(s) for your PC. If the restore is on a partition on the failing HDD, you can try cloning it to a partition on the ext. hard drive (however, if it's corrupted, you may still end up needing a CD or DVD from the mfr. to do the restore).

* Replace the drive, reinstall Windows, reinstall any software (Office, Quicken, etc.) then use the "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" to restore desktop settings and most documents. For Quicken, tax software, etc. you will have to do this manually from the "drag and drop" backup copy.

Hope this helps.

 

Making sure something is doable is very good advice before starting ANY project, PC or other things.