Hard Drive Failure

[A Random Guy]

Ok guys, I need some help with my computer, but before I get to the problem. I'll start off with the specs.

Got my computer nearly two years ago now, it started off as a Compaq Presario SR5240AN Desktop PC:

• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
• AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
• 1024MB RAM
• 320GB 3G (SATA2) hard drive
• NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE 3D
• SuperMulti Drive with LightScribe Technology
• PS/2 Mouse and Keyboard

and over time I tinkered around with it, some upgrades.

• Added 1GB Ram
• New graphics card, from the on board crap to a decent Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT 512MB GDDR2
• Replaced PSU with a higher wattage

The problem started a couple of weeks ago. The hard drive would start clicking, in two click bursts, every ~10 seconds. While it was doing this, most of the computer would freeze up. I say most because sometimes Winamp would stop and start plating music between the pairs of clicks, and sometimes it would just keep going as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

Over a few days, the problem got worse, it would freeze up more often, and it was making using the computer a pain. I told my friend, and he suggested I try a disk check.

At first I ran the disk check as is, without any parameters, and it said there were some things wrong, so I ran it with /f and /r, now it said there was nothing wrong, so foolishly I left it alone.

By this time during start up the BIOS was reporting that the hard drive would suffer iminent failure, and I should bacukp, which I already have.

So now I got my new hard drive, a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB. All installed, formatted, and ready to be used.

And I have tried cloning the hard drive, but to no avail.

First I tried Runtime's Shadow Copy. It says it can do a straight hard drive to hard drive clone, but it failed mid-way.

Re-format.

Then I tried Macrium Reflect. This was a total pain. I couldn't find a straigh HD to HD copy, so I created an image of old HD, whic had to be put on new HD, then I had to move the image to old HD, because I can't restore it onto the HD it is on. then I restored the image to the new HD.

Oh god it was promising, everything worked, all the logins were there, they had the right little pictures. But when I go to login, it sits for ages saying Preparing Desktop, then it goes to a plain blue gradient and a cursor. Nothing else.

Ctrl+Alt+Del > Task Manager > New Task > Explorer.exe

Nothing looks right. Missing all my Icons, quick launch items, and my wallpaper. A popup in the tray. Something about not being able to load the profile, using a temporary profile. All the user folders are empty, on all 3 logins.

I should mention that on the first attempt at creating an images, macrium reflect told me it failed, and I should do chkdsk /f, so I did, and this time it said it fixed some stuff. Everything worked fine, no clicking, except once. One time while unistalling some stuff so I coul move the drive image.

I need some help, because I am not sure how long it will be before the whole click click freeze saga begins again, until the point where I have to chkdsk /f every day to keep myself sane.

I honestly would rather get my computer set up on the new HD now then have to fuss around later.

I would like to be able to just clone the HD so I don't have to uninstall the junk that would come with using the recovery disks I created, and then installl everything again.

And I have my doubts about the whole system recovery thing anyway, as in here it says I need to remove any recently added internal hardware, which surely would mean having to put everything onto the old, failing HD, which would get me no where.

So, what do you think would be my best option to get my computer running smoothly?

[<('.'<)]

The only thing I can find anywhere about any of those applications failing is when data is corrupted to begin with. As in, your backup is corrupt. Not saying that IS the case. Did you happen to try repairing windows after the clone? And are you sure the drive is the correct format?

The only application I know to work and have seen in action is Norton's Ghost. Give it a try if at all possible!

http://norton-ghost.en.softonic.com/

[bridgetbruston]

It may Logical Failures.This forms the simplest, least severe and the most easy to cure hard drive failure case. However, the level may vary from simple file deletion, curable through simple hard disk recovery software, to the harsh file system corruption, which may need advanced utilities. The spot point is where you find your file inaccessible or the system becomes slow in response or the application may start behaving abruptly or the system may not start at all.

[A Random Guy]

I tried Norton Ghost, and it still comes to the same problem.
I used Copy My Hard Drive in the Tools section, which had some advanced options.

• Check source for file system errors
• Check destination for file system errors
• Set drive active (for booting OS)
• Disable Smart Sector copying
• Ignore bad sectors during copying
• Copy MBR

I only ticked Copy MBR, as in a 'tell me more' link it said it should be used if copying from C:\ to a new, empty drive.

I don't think there was much point to ticking Set Drive Active, as I believe it is the same as changing the hard drive boot priority in the BIOS.

Is there something I am doing wrong, or is it just not going to work?

(sorry, but I don't think I understand what you said, bridgetbruston. And my files are all accesible, system doesn't seem slower, programs don't behave abruptly and my system hasn't not started. :/ )

[Strider]

Hello,
Here's what I think I see in this thread, Random Guy: your hard drive is failing. SMART monitoring confirmed that when it told you via the BIOS to back up your data. I suspect that the cloning software hits a read error and crashes. You might try one of the data recovery programs. I've used GetDataBack, but there are several. I looked around on the GetDataBack site (actually Runtime software) and their program will make a disk image. Maybe it will be able to handle the errors. The software is pricey, but GetDataBack has a demo mode that will tell you if it thinks it can recover data. You might try a phone call to their (or a different data recovery software) tech support and ask if it can create an image from a disk with errors.
Good luck. HTH,