[paulinspain]

Hi Keith,
Yes I have another PC, Theo’s (my young sons), I think I can see where your going with this.

I just checked the hard drive on my PC, which I know has the XP installation. It’s a Seagate ST3160212A with 160Gbytes. So not too big.

I Know one of the drives on my computer has around 200GB plus free, but it’s set up as a serial ATA Raid drive. With the other drive backed up . Will that be any good to work with? Could I plug that into my sons mobo?

I also have a 200GB external Hard drive with only 46GB free. I think though, I need to go out a buy another HD for what your thinking of to transfer the files.


Paul

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I need to check something for this

Hope to get the data you need off this drive then you can format it comprehensively with this, though not just yet

It should be possible without buying another drive, unless this one proves to be damaged

To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Click this to download Boot and Nuke

Click this for a guide to using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so to format a 200 GB Hard Drive, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

Did you get anywhere with memtest

Click this for a guide to using Memtest



Click this to download Memtest



Run it overnight if possible

[Retired Tech]

I need to check something for this

Hope to get the data you need off this drive then you can format it comprehensively with this, though not just yet

It should be possible without buying another drive, unless this one proves to be damaged

To completely erase all data on the drive(s)

Click this to download Boot and Nuke

Click this for a guide to using Boot and Nuke

Use the autonuke option, which could take 8 hours or so to format a 200 GB Hard Drive, then when you run Windows set up, check it is creating a RAW1 partition on C, if the drive letter is different, restart the PC and it should default to C

Did you get anywhere with memtest

Click this for a guide to using Memtest



Click this to download Memtest



Run it overnight if possible

[paulinspain]

Hello again Keith,

Do you think it's worth me trying the following codes: Bootcfg, Fixboot and Fixmbr in Recovery Console?

Or did we do that earlier?
Paul

[Retired Tech]

You can try them, even if you already did

It is more likely you will end up moving the drive to another PC to get the data off, then at least you will have other options

[paulinspain]

Sorry,
I was eating when you sent your reply.
I didnt do the MEMtest as I cant get it toreboot. But Judging by this reply I missed something so I’m going to re-read it. Then attempt the test.
Cheers, Paul

[Retired Tech]

If the PC is set to boot from the CD Drive then hard drive, unless you got the floppy version, it will run without any OS at all so it should be OK

[paulinspain]

Hm!
A tad confused here I'm afraid.
I downloaded memtest to my sons PC, Formated a new floppy, opend the file as per instructions & got:
Error: Can't find "rawwrit.exe". This programe must be in the same directory as the install script.
Installation failed!
Press any key to continu...

WELL ITS IN THE SAME FILE

I hadnt installed it earlier as I thought that the file had to be installed on the PC that memtest was going to be checking?
Do I copy the whole file "install bat,memtestp & rewrite" to the floppy or just the "install bat" file?
Sorry if I come across a little dim, but I dont see how it would work if I only put "install bat" on the floppy then run it on my PC.
Looking forward to your reply,
Paul

[Retired Tech]

Did it not run like this

To make a bootable Floppy from within Windows

First you would download the memtest utility to a directory on your Hard Drive, you would make a directory called memtest and download it to C:\memtest\ on your Hard drive, then using WinZip http://www.winzip.com (or extractnow from my signature), extract it to the same directory.

Please use a brand new floppy disc and do a fresh full format on it, if there are any bad sectors just throw it away and get another one.

Click on the install.bat file in the directory where you downloaded and extracted the files and follow the on screen prompts to make the memtest boot disk.

Enter BIOS set up, change the boot order to floppy drive then hard drive, put the Floppy in the system you want to test and boot the PC

As to moving the drive to another PC

Jumper the drive as slave and connect it to the center connector of an available IDE connector...the machine should pick it up as an IDE slave, either primary or secondary will be ok.

Even if it's left as a master (jumpers), the raid array will still be chosen as the boot drive...the extra drive will show as IDE Master rather than Primary Master (SATA).

[paulinspain]

Good evening Keith,

Memtest is up & running you will be pleased to hear. So I will leave it alone until tomorrow. I just hope that we don’t have a Spanish power cut in the middle of the night.

Re your most recent email I see what your saying, I think. The connecting it to the center slave connector is no problem.

Is your idea to then install XP Pro to the drive in the raid array, followed by moving all the files on what was the “C” and now a slave drive then to reformat it using BOOT & Nuke or a normal reformat?

Or have I got this wrong?

Obviously there's no rush for an answer tonight with Memtest now up & running.

Many thanks
Paul

[Retired Tech]

If any version of XP is on the PC you transfer the drive to, you should be able to use that to get the data off by exploring your drive and copying data, copying will more likely happen than move

Once you have copied the data then you can put the drive back in your PC and use boot and nuke

[paulinspain]

Aha!
So, Put the troublesome drive on “Slave” on my son’s PC, and copy the files I want & need to keep, over to it and my external USB2 hard drive. Sounds easy enough.

Can I copy programs that I have installed this way as well? And if so will they run or is there a way to make a mirror image of them so that they will run?

As I said Keith there’s no need to reply tonight as I know you have a lot of other guys on the net your trying to help out too.

Speak to you later,
Paul

[paulinspain]

Hello again from sunny Spain,

Here’s the current result of MemTest:
WallTime –16:15 Cached -512M RsvdMem-84K MemMap-e820-Std Cache-On ECC-Off Test-Std Pass-52 Errors-0 Ecc- Errs-

Cannot see anything wrong there myself but then I'm not the Specialist.

Should I move on to the next stage of connecting my hard drive to my sons PC as a slave and transfer the files etc that I wish to keep?

Cheers, Paul

[Retired Tech]

If you can get the data you need off the drive then we can go from there

Good news with the RAM memory

[Crustyoldbloke]

I will be away from the forum until Thursday 9th November 2006

[paulinspain]

Hi Keith,
Sorry I’ve not been around, as I have been pretty ill the past few days. I am up and about now though for how long I’m not too sure.

I took out what I believed was the correct hard drive & set it up as a slave on my sons PC. It’s just dawned on me though that there is an awful lot missing. My conclusion is that this particular HD is not the prime HD that I believed it to be. Which means that XP Pro is on one of the serial ATA Raid drives! Sugar! Plus like a fool there are no Windows files on this HD. How could I miss that one?

Problem here is I don’t have an SATA port on my sons PC. I see that Maplin do a USB2 to IDE adaptor at £19.99 plus Vat & p&p, that seems to enable one to plug in an ATA HD via a USB2 port. Am I correct? Am I looking at the right things & can you please suggest one?

I see that Amazon also do a Adaptor for Mainboard IDE Slot £24.99
http://www.amazon.co...t/dp/B00062RXU2

http://www.maplin.co...;ModuleNo=35057

But the big saving comes with a SATA 2-Port PCI Controller Card S-ATA Raid 0/1 w/ at only £11.99 plus p&p from Aria pc at http://www.aria.co.u...omm.asp?ID=7730 This or similar is a whopping £27.99 from maplin!

Thanks for your help in this matter,
Regards Paul