- Feb 22, 2014
- 2
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- 4,510
To start-Hi Tom's Hardware! This post belongs here mostly, but would apply partly to the Windows 7 section.
So my laptop (running Windows 7 Home Premium) HD is dying. Ran Dell diagnostic tool and it came up with error 2000-0142 (indicating physical/hardware problems on the disk). Not making any weird noises, but I can tell its on the verge of crashing w/ severe data loss.
Now here's the problem. I need to keep the exact image. Reinstalling isn't an option-because there is some specialized software on the computer which an IT firm installs at a high cost and on a time schedule which will really mess me up badly(potentially cost my job).
My question is: if I create a bit for bit image of the disk and then I dd that image to the exact same type of drive, will it boot up?
I've never restored a windows image before, I think ddrescue/dd is the way to go, not sure if I'm supposed to just /dev/sda, or.. any expert input here would be great.
Some other specifics about the install, it's a defacto Win7 install, with presumably an MBR and a c: drive partition using the remainder of the disk space.
I suppose the root question here is will Windows 7 have a problem when it sees a new HD, with a new serial number?
An additional question, if someone knows the answer to would be great-
It's a 500GB Western Digital WD5000BPVT - should I get the exact same type of drive or would it work with any other 500GB drive? I could probably put it on a larger disk and resize with gparted if I so needed the extra space perhaps?
Any input here is really appreciated. I didn't find an exact verbatim post like this, so I hope it can be helpful for all who find this forum post.
TIA
J
So my laptop (running Windows 7 Home Premium) HD is dying. Ran Dell diagnostic tool and it came up with error 2000-0142 (indicating physical/hardware problems on the disk). Not making any weird noises, but I can tell its on the verge of crashing w/ severe data loss.
Now here's the problem. I need to keep the exact image. Reinstalling isn't an option-because there is some specialized software on the computer which an IT firm installs at a high cost and on a time schedule which will really mess me up badly(potentially cost my job).
My question is: if I create a bit for bit image of the disk and then I dd that image to the exact same type of drive, will it boot up?
I've never restored a windows image before, I think ddrescue/dd is the way to go, not sure if I'm supposed to just /dev/sda, or.. any expert input here would be great.
Some other specifics about the install, it's a defacto Win7 install, with presumably an MBR and a c: drive partition using the remainder of the disk space.
I suppose the root question here is will Windows 7 have a problem when it sees a new HD, with a new serial number?
An additional question, if someone knows the answer to would be great-
It's a 500GB Western Digital WD5000BPVT - should I get the exact same type of drive or would it work with any other 500GB drive? I could probably put it on a larger disk and resize with gparted if I so needed the extra space perhaps?
Any input here is really appreciated. I didn't find an exact verbatim post like this, so I hope it can be helpful for all who find this forum post.
TIA
J
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