[Macboatmaster]

Good luck please let us know.

The question regarding email was related to ensuring that if appropriate you had saved your messages if you were using Outlook etc where your saved messages were in a file

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HI .. sorry I have been unable to start my drive installation. However today I tried to get familiar with the inside of my tower and was pleasantly surprised that it doesn't seem that hard.

I do have a question that a friend of mine told me and worried me. He said that if I cloned my infected drive I will cloning I might erase my stuff and OR if I clone it, many gigabytes of useless windows files that may cause the drive to fail before you are able to copy entire drive.

Please I trust in you guys tremendously. Is this a possibility? I ask because this will be my first time and do not wish to erase my stuff or ruin my new drive ....

By stuff I mean my programs .. not my files because I have saved all that I needed on my external drive ...

[Lexy610]

HI .. sorry I have been unable to start my drive installation. However today I tried to get familiar with the inside of my tower and was pleasantly surprised that it doesn't seem that hard.

I do have a question that a friend of mine told me and worried me. He said that if I cloned my infected drive I will cloning I might erase my stuff and OR if I clone it, many gigabytes of useless windows files that may cause the drive to fail before you are able to copy entire drive.

Please I trust in you guys tremendously. Is this a possibility? I ask because this will be my first time and do not wish to erase my stuff or ruin my new drive ....

By stuff I mean my programs .. not my files because I have saved all that I needed on my external drive ...

[happyrock]

While Mac is out playing golf
let me clear this up for you
when you clone a hard drive the new cloned drive is exactly like the old dry that means if the the operating system was screwed up in any way shape or form on the old drive the new drive will have this exact same problem just with a little more free space
if the old drive had spyware or malware the new drive will to

your friend that is advising you is not very knowledgeable it would be best to double check anything he tells you...

If you suspect you may have malware you should get all cleaned up before cloning the drive

[Macboatmaster]

I endorse what my colleague happyrock has said.

You should not be surprised by that as he stands above me in technical knowledge.

However your questions have indeed already been answered BEFORE your last post, and indeed you have also raised the issue of the advice from your friend before.

May I draw to your attention one of my first posts on this subject

I appreciate that your existing OLD drive on which you were working with my colleague CompCav in the Malware forum,has bad sectors, and that is the reason for replacement.

I would try this, before you resort to starting all over again.
http://knowledge.sea...91en?popup=true

If the disk can be cloned to the new hard drive, then hopefully any errors caused by the bad sectors, MAY be recoverable, as they were on that drive when you were working with CompCav

Before you do that, I would ensure that you have your personal data backed up to your also purchased external drive.
eg your docs, images and audio files

If the Seagate image clone does not work you have not lost anything and can then go down the path of the reinstall outlined by my colleague Alzeimer

Taking it in order, I seem to remember that CompCav my colleague, assisted you in our Malware forum and pronounced, as far as was possible your computer to be clean of any infection, so if I am correct the question of cloning an infected drive no longer exists - as far as we can know.

If we now address the issue of the bad sectors - the clone will either work or it will fail, if that is not stating the obvious.

If it works, then the data that was originally on bad sectors, now having been rewritten to good sectors and those bad sectors marked bad to prevent data being written to them. then please be assured that the clone is the best way.

There is NO OTHER way to preserve your programs, for which you do NOT have the installation media.

Taking now the prospect that the clone will FAIL - please see my quote from the previous post - you then are facing the reinstall.

So in summary I respectfully suggest that your choice is as it was many posts ago, You either try it, or you decline and simply start all over again, apart from your personal data backed up on the external drive.

I hope you do not view that statement as being anything except helpful, but you have already raised the issue of your friends advice

Another question will I lose all my programs? Like my word, paint shop pro (i have 3 of them installed in that pc, and many other programs that I dont think I have the disc too) Someone said I will also lose my windows and all that came with the computer ..is this true? Will I be able to get it back?

to which I replied

That someone has advised you incorrectly

IF THE clone of the drive works, you will have exactly what you have now - that is why it is called a clone.

as against the use of the recovery partition on the old drive which will revert it to factory condition or the use of the reinstall medium DVD if you had that

Please NOTE IF IT WORKS
However the overall statement that you will lose all is incorrect.

The chance of it working 100% is lessened by the evidence of the failing drive - however may I ask this - What choice do you have - and the answer is none.

If you already had a complete image backup WHEN the drive was good - and then the separate back ups of your docs etc the situation would be more guaranteed

So in summary, the honest answer is we DO NOT know, and no one else can know until you try it - how successful it will be.

If it works it is the best way forward.

If it fails you have not lost anything

If it does work - you will NOT lose your programs, nor will you lose windows.

[Lexy610]

I thank you both for your time and advise....

However I did not mean to offend or upset anyone. It was not my intent. When I first asked that question it was not because of my friend it was I who asked and wanted to know. But because I have been on and off your forum I did not remember that I had already previously asked about losing my data/info. I do apologize for asking the same question again but like I said I am not on here everyday and did forget I had asked that previously. I am a nurse, teacher and have 3 kids so my mind is not always there lol. My apologies again.

You are both right and yes your colleague CompCav did help me with my infections ... he was super nice and very kind and knowledgeable.

I was not taking the advise of my friend, I listened and decided to ask you guys. That's how I learn by asking.

I do trust you guys and have been in this forum in the past and you all have been helpful and have always helped my issues with my computers, and I do appreciate all of your time and help.

I do hope I am allowed to continue to be a part of your forum.

I am going to try to work on my internal drive today and will keep you all updated...

[Lexy610]

HI ... I have d/l and installed the disc wizard onto my failing computer and have installed the new hard drive .. however once the computer is turned on it doesn't seem to be detecting my new drive. I am thinking I will get a pop up stating it has found my new drive? But yet it hasn't done anything since I installed it. I even went to my computer and I do not see it listed just my old c drive ... Im I doing something wrong??

I put new drive into adjacent brackets (there was an extra one beside my old drive) I then plugged in the white head into the other white head that was already in computer beside old drive which according to manuals and other info it is my source of power ... I then took the interface cable which I believe is to connect the new drive to the mother board?? If this is correct then nothings happening ....

[Macboatmaster]

Firstly you have not upset anyone.

We are just pleased to try and help.

I was only trying to point out to you that we could not really assist further until you tried it.

In relation to the new hard drive is it seen in the BIOS that is the setup screen normally accessible on F2 or delete on first post

Is it seen in device manager that is start , right click my computer (computer on Vista and 7) click properties then device manager

Is it seen Disk management, that is Control Panel, Admin Tools, Computer Management, disk management

If it is seen Disk Management format it by right clicking partition if you wish and then it will be seen in my computer

Unfortunately I have to go offline I have been out at work until an hour ago and am back at work 2100 until 0300 and then back at 0900 Sunday so I will not be back online until 1900 Sunday, but someone else may come in if you need to ask another question.

PLEASE to be assured that you have not offended anyone.





Windows XP


STEP 3 - Format the drive
1. Right-click on the drive / device you want to format then select Format.

[rshaffer61]

I would like to also state that Happyrock and Macboatmaster are both great techs and spend as much time that is needed to bring your issue to a resolution. Since Geeks are from all over time zones differ a lot so please don't be upset if you do not get a immediate reply.
I have been made aware of this topic so I am watching it also in case neither of them respond back within a day of your last post.

[Lexy610]

Thank you so much and I understand ... I appreciate you taking the time to reply while at work. And I do appreciate you are watching my posts rshaffer61 .. I am extremely patient

I am in my computer management and I clicked on "disk management" however there is only one drive and I believe it is my old one

[rshaffer61]

OK from the size of the drives I expect these are IDE drives. By that I mean they use a flat grey ribbon and I imagine there are 3 connections on the ribbon. One goes to the motherboard and I think you have both the hard drives connected also to that same ribbon?

[Lexy610]

No I do not see a flat gray ribbon with 3 connectors .... I am going to take a picture and post it .. if you could give me a few min because I am going to have to snap it with my cell to then mail it to myself to then upload and post here .. sorry.

[Lexy610]

failing drive is the left new drive is to the right ....[attachment=59096:photo14.JPG]



This one is the cable connecting drive to motherboard RED CABLE ... [attachment=59097:photo15.JPG]

And this one is self explanatory .... [attachment=59098:photo16.JPG]

Edited by Lexy610, 21 July 2012 - 11:54 AM.

[rshaffer61]

Strange it is showing your hard drive as IDE when it is in fact SATA

[Lexy610]

I am just as confused

[rshaffer61]

Was the old hard drive 500 gigs?