• From: Austin, TX
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 184

Topic: Hard drive help

So it looks like my hard drive is dying.. it makes clunking noises on bootup but seems to run fine once booted so I always leave the computer on.  I'm glad it is my system drive and not the one with all the data on it.

I'm still using IDE and doing a full upgrade to a new setup with SATA is not an option right now.  Don't really want to mess some adapter either.  My data disk is full so I could use that as the new OS drive and get something bigger for data.  Should I go internal or external?

Seems like an internal IDE would be a total waste once I get a new computer w/ SATA later down the road but an external would still be useful for backups.  Are the externals real slow over USB and meant mostly for nightly backups etc. or can I be using it day in and out pretty transparently?

  • ramos
  • 2bots 1 oil can
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 507

Re: Hard drive help

Backup the data on your system drive, if it dies between now and when you upgrade, you'll be OK.

If it doesn't, then you can just upgrade.  You can take an image of your drive, save it onto an external drive and load the image back on the new HD when you upgrade.

  • Registered: 2008-07-08
  • Posts: 1,077

Re: Hard drive help

if its a lot of data maybe it will be worth it to buy a firewire or usb2 interface as a pci board and dump it to an external. USB takes for damn ever sadly. I also had a wack ass problem that i couldnt copy files larger than 3gb onto my external, from an old mac...

go external, and wait a while for the data to copy, better safe than sorry!

  • From: Amsterdam
  • Registered: 2008-11-15
  • Posts: 72

Re: Hard drive help

while your at it, install a s.m.a.r.t tool. This monitors hd's and report errors. At the moment i use "hd sentinel". If there is some serious problem with your hd you are at least warned by the software.

  • rude66
  • robot des duivels
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  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 1,844

Re: Hard drive help

internal and external can be switched easily. an external drive is nothing more than an internal drive in a small case that has a standard power supply and usb or firewire in/out.. you can always swap drives, dvd-recorders, etc from internal to external once you have one external case..

good tip about the s.m.a.r.t. tools!

  • From: Austin, TX
  • Registered: 2008-07-07
  • Posts: 184

Re: Hard drive help

yeah i'm getting smart errors from a reporting tool and was getting them at boot up a few days ago but it is still chugging along.  i was hoping to get something that i could reuse in a new computer but i just ordered a new IDE drive from western digital.  they have a customer loyalty program where if you type in the serial number of the old drive they'll give you a discount on the next one.