Hard Drive gone bad, cloning?

[incognito84]

My Samsung 320GB Hard drive is giving me some problems. I've been using the drive for about four months and started having problems last night. I haven't changed any hardware in awhile nor am I using any hard drive temp. applications or anything. I haven't made any major software changes either aside from the usual.

The problem is that its stuttering/freezing up on occasion. It got so bad that it wouldn't turn on until I let it "cool off" for a bit. I opened the case up and checked the connections, then swapped the PSU 4-pin cable and the cable connecting it to the mobo (I also changed the socket). Same problems, which lead me to believe its the hard drive itself and not my computer.

I also put my old 120GB HD in and it ran perfectly with no problems.

I've had this happen before, years ago with another hard drive and it was simply a matter of the disk itself going bad.

Anyway, I was wondering if I should clone it? The last time I cloned a drive (not even sure if "clone" is the right word) it caused some problems. This was a long time ago too, like back in the 90s. I'm going to go buy another 320GB drive and see about cloning it because I don't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling hundreds of apps, games and other stuff.

What is a good program for this? What do you suggest? Thanks.

 

[huron]

You can clone/image a drive. With the right program, it is pretty straight-forward. It does save tons of time that you would spend reinstalling. I usually build a computer, install the OS, install the necessary programs, then image. I can install other things after that, but at least I have a base image, so I don't waste my time installing again.

I personally like Acronis and have used it many times. I like it better than Symantec, but that may be a personal preference. You can usually find it for less than $30. It's good to keep a program like that in your arsenal.

 

[Paperdoc]

IF you buy your new HDD unit from Seagate or WD, they will give you very good cloning software free for download from their websites. The "trick" is, the free stuff will only make the clone TO a disk from that supplier. This is all to make it REAL easy for you to replace your old drive with a nice new one from that maker.

So, if you buy a Seagate drive, download from their site Seagate Disk Wizard. If you buy from WD, get their Acronis True Image WD Edition. Make sure you get the manuals for this software. Both are actually customized Acronis products and they do cloning PLUS a whole lot more very well, so get the manual, too!

Given your description, maybe Samsung would replace the drive you have under warranty. In that case, you'd have another Samsung drive. Check their website for offers of a similar cloning tool you could use to move to the new (replacement) unit you get. The hassle you run into, though, MIGHT be that you have to send them your faulty drive for inspection before they will replace it, and then you can't clone! Maybe the solution is: buy someone else's drive and clone to it first. THEN talk to Samsung about replacing the faulty one. You could end up with two good drives that way.