Help with hard drive problems

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woltej1

woltej1

Splendid
Nov 15, 2010
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So a couple months ago my computer got in the habit of getting stuck in a boot cycle. Then occasionally it would be extremely slow once booted and the hdd light would stay on constant. I figured it was starting to fail but hdd's were expensive at the time so I decided to wait since it was still capable of normal operation and nothing too important was stored on it. Now that hdd prices are back to normal, I ran a seagate tools for DOS cd on my hdd and it showed at least 5 errors and said that my hdd failed some important tests. Does this mean my hdd is shot and I need to get a new one or not really? And if so can anyone point me to a resource on how I can transfer things from my old hdd to the new one without having the bad sectors or bad data affect the new hdd.

FYI, the hdd has been fairly stable since those episodes a few months ago, but I do notice the hdd staying on constant every now and thing for extended periods of time without reason for it to be on.
 
Solution
Barhumbug
Yes, it could be an indication that your disk is failing but it could still work for a few weeks/months. If the errors ever occur in the boot sector you will suddenly find the computer won't boot.
If the drive has been stable for a while, run the tools diagnostic again and see if errors are still detected.
In any case, make sure all your important data is backed-up on other drives.
If you do get a new drive there are loads of resources on the web on how to 'clone' your old drive to the new one. This process only clones the data, so bad sectors, etc aren't copied. Obviously you'll need to do this before the drive fails completely.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/3300729/how-to-clone-a-pcs-hard-drive/...
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Barhumbug

Barhumbug

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Jul 26, 2013
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Yes, it could be an indication that your disk is failing but it could still work for a few weeks/months. If the errors ever occur in the boot sector you will suddenly find the computer won't boot.
If the drive has been stable for a while, run the tools diagnostic again and see if errors are still detected.
In any case, make sure all your important data is backed-up on other drives.
If you do get a new drive there are loads of resources on the web on how to 'clone' your old drive to the new one. This process only clones the data, so bad sectors, etc aren't copied. Obviously you'll need to do this before the drive fails completely.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/software/3300729/how-to-clone-a-pcs-hard-drive/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2421302,00.asp

To avoid 'bad data' you'll need to re-install from scratch - Operating System, drivers, programs. Its a tedious process but at least you know the system is clean.
 
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Solution
woltej1

woltej1

Splendid
Nov 15, 2010
3,534
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24,960


this may be a stupid question, but is there a way to install my OS clean without having to buy another copy of it, or if I find my OS disk can I install it again. I'm actually fairly familiar with computers, just never have had this situation come up or dealt with it before.
 
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smorizio

smorizio

Titan
Jan 22, 2010
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if you had the retail disk and still have the oem number digital rivers has the iso you can download. if you do find your windows disk all you do is plug in the new drive and unplug your old drive with the pc off then boot from the windows install cd and install windows on the new drive.
 
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