Inspiron 8200 Hard Drive

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Since last evening, there is a most annoying/frightening
noise coming from my machine.

I think it is the hard drive and it is 'whirring' sort of
noise. It goes on for a while and then stops, only to restart.

The reason I am particularly concerned is that my hard drive
was replaced (free by Dell) in November. To transfer
everything, I went to a computer support shop and they were
able to recover EVERYTHING and it 'only' cost $200. (yes,
files were backed up and I do have original s/w, but did not
look forward to resetting all the customizations)

Not looking forward to going through that again.

Anybody recognize the symptoms and have a recommendation?

--

Rex's Mom

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Rex's Mom wrote:
>
> Since last evening, there is a most annoying/frightening
> noise coming from my machine.
>
> I think it is the hard drive and it is 'whirring' sort of
> noise. It goes on for a while and then stops, only to restart.
>
> The reason I am particularly concerned is that my hard drive
> was replaced (free by Dell) in November. To transfer
> everything, I went to a computer support shop and they were
> able to recover EVERYTHING and it 'only' cost $200. (yes,
> files were backed up and I do have original s/w, but did not
> look forward to resetting all the customizations)
>
> Not looking forward to going through that again.
>
> Anybody recognize the symptoms and have a recommendation?

Before you lose your next hard drive, I'd suggest going out
and buying some type of "imaging" software. The program will
make an exact copy of everything on your hard drive, including
all customizations. Should your hard drive crash, you just
copy this image to the new drive. (Note that you should create
images, frequently, so as to have a recent image at all times.

Two programs that come to mind are:

Acronis True Image
(http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) and

Symantec Ghost
(http://sea.symantec.com/content/product.cfm?productid=9).

Notan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Notan wrote:

> Rex's Mom wrote:
>
>>Since last evening, there is a most annoying/frightening
>>noise coming from my machine.
>>
>>I think it is the hard drive and it is 'whirring' sort of
>>noise. It goes on for a while and then stops, only to restart.
>>
>>The reason I am particularly concerned is that my hard drive
>>was replaced (free by Dell) in November. To transfer
>>everything, I went to a computer support shop and they were
>>able to recover EVERYTHING and it 'only' cost $200. (yes,
>>files were backed up and I do have original s/w, but did not
>>look forward to resetting all the customizations)
>>
>>Not looking forward to going through that again.
>>
>>Anybody recognize the symptoms and have a recommendation?
>
>
> Before you lose your next hard drive, I'd suggest going out
> and buying some type of "imaging" software. The program will
> make an exact copy of everything on your hard drive, including
> all customizations. Should your hard drive crash, you just
> copy this image to the new drive. (Note that you should create
> images, frequently, so as to have a recent image at all times.
>
> Two programs that come to mind are:
>
> Acronis True Image
> (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) and
>
> Symantec Ghost
> (http://sea.symantec.com/content/product.cfm?productid=9).
>
> Notan
As luck would have it, I have Symantec Ghost having
previously purchased NSW Professional. Have never downloaded
it, but...this might be the time.

Thanks

--

Rex's Mom

 

[george]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Notan" <notan@ddress.com> wrote in message
news:42331EDE.C46CF1AA@ddress.com...
> Rex's Mom wrote:
> >
> > Since last evening, there is a most annoying/frightening
> > noise coming from my machine.
> >
> > I think it is the hard drive and it is 'whirring' sort of
> > noise. It goes on for a while and then stops, only to restart.
> >
> > The reason I am particularly concerned is that my hard drive
> > was replaced (free by Dell) in November. To transfer
> > everything, I went to a computer support shop and they were
> > able to recover EVERYTHING and it 'only' cost $200. (yes,
> > files were backed up and I do have original s/w, but did not
> > look forward to resetting all the customizations)
> >
> > Not looking forward to going through that again.
> >
> > Anybody recognize the symptoms and have a recommendation?
>
> Before you lose your next hard drive, I'd suggest going out
> and buying some type of "imaging" software. The program will
> make an exact copy of everything on your hard drive, including
> all customizations. Should your hard drive crash, you just
> copy this image to the new drive. (Note that you should create
> images, frequently, so as to have a recent image at all times.
>
> Two programs that come to mind are:
>
> Acronis True Image
> (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/) and
>
> Symantec Ghost
> (http://sea.symantec.com/content/product.cfm?productid=9).
>
> Notan

A really nice piece of imaging software that I bought when I went to a 7K60
drive
in my Inspiron 8200 is called "Casper" (as in the friendly Ghost)...it will
run directly
from XP and does copy EVERYTHING and you can change partition sizes up or
down.

George

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Check the processor fan first. They can create quite a noise when the
bearings dry out.

> Since last evening, there is a most annoying/frightening
> noise coming from my machine.
>
> I think it is the hard drive and it is 'whirring' sort of
> noise. It goes on for a while and then stops, only to restart.