My primary HDD on my home PC is starting to flake. I think that the HDD is freezing up after running more that say a hour or two. A immediate reboot after I notice the freeze up will not find the primary HDD which cause the reboot to hang. If I turn the PC off inthe back wait a coupe of hours, the reboot will work. Any ideas on how to replace the primary HDD (with my OS on it) as painlessly as possible? I have an open IDE slot so I am thinking that I can just "copy" the old primary to the new primary. My concern here is that the boot sector won't be make the trip. BTW the HDD is question is a IBM.
Not sure if this is the easiest, but I'd: 1) Put a new HD in as the primary IDE as the Master. 2) Install your OS on your new HD. 3) Put the old drive in as the slave (don't forget to change the jumper setting). 4) Change the BIOS to read the slave (if it's not already setup). 5) Copy your non-OS/non-software data over before your old HD goes belly-up. 6) Reinstall your software programs. You may be able to save a step by just copying all the files, but I think that most programs have reg settings that you'd have to somehow get over and I don't think you could just copy the reg file over. Or if you have a burner, burn your HD now and just start over with a new HD. Just my 2 cents.
But it may not be your HD. It could be memory, motherboard or video card. I'm not a hardware guy so take any advice from me with caution.
No Worries... while it could be other components that are causeing it, the most likely cause is drive failure. Most new drives come with installation software that include a utility for copying your old drive to the new one. Follow the directions inthe package and you should have no problems, if the drive will continue functioning for an hour or so after boot, that should be enough time.
