Harware going down

[Hans_Petter 1]

As you may know my disk C is dying slowly. I was down for a couple of days since it wouldn't boot. Eventually I got it working and managed to run Scandisk. It isolated more bad sectors and it's OK for the momement.Questions: When I get another disk to replace the bad one I'll need to reinstall Windows. If I start out with a clean disk my upgrade version of Win98 will not install. I know that there's a way to get around this by copying parts of my current installation to my healthy disk F and point the installation check to these files. What does the installer look for to decide that I'm eligible for an upgrade? I've got plenty of disk space and might copy the entire OS for that matter but that's an overkill.My flightsims are safe on disk G and won't be affected, except for losing the registry entries. Strictly speaking, the sims may run fin without being registered. To make them register and preserve all of my tweaks and add-ons I might reinstall the sims, then delete all of the new folders and paste my current directories into the it.Good ideas are much appreciated. best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest]

Sorry, i can't help with much... but you should only have to make a backup of your registry, go into regedit and go to file->save or something like that, and save it to a healthy drive, then, when you want to get back, just double click the and it will be re-imported into the registry

[Guest juvat2]

Hi Hans,Sorry to hear about your "c" drive problem. I just installed a new ata133 HD to replace my old ata100 8gig "D". I kept my original "C", Hopefully, this can help in some way. Here's what I had to do to completely copy the contents of the old "D" to the new "D". Oh, this is copying a Maxtor brand to another Maxtor and using Maxtors free downloadable hd utility, "Maxblast Plus versions 1.27s".1. The source drive needs to be configured as the primary master and the target drive needs to be configured as the secondary master (any other configuration will cause the copy to fail). 2. Insert diskette and restart machine. 3. The program will run through some routine operations. 4. Select the language of your choice. 5. Answer the questions that apply. 6. View the License Agreement. 7. Select Advanced Options. 8. Advanced options will bring you to another screen. You will want 9. to select "Copy Entire Partition". 10.At this point you will want to follow the on-screen instructions.Those are the instructions given at the Maxtor sight for:" Maxblast Plus versions 1.27s and newer provide an image copy utility that will allow you to copy all the information from one hard drive to another drive. The software currently only supports FAT16 and FAT32 partitions created under the Windows 95, 98, 98SE, and Windows ME operating systems. Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP are not currently supported regardless if the partition being copied is FAT32 or not (NTFS partitions are not supported either)."Hopefully the manufacturers of your HD's were thoughtful enough to provide this type of free utility.If you need further assistance, Anantech.com has a tech support area on their message board, I would suggest doing an extended search for "replacing(copying?) "c" drive", or something of that nature. If you find a way to completely copy your "c" drive, then you wouldn't have to worry about re-installing windows, and the registry should copy as well.I sincerely hope this is a help to you Hans,Jim B.

[Guest CaptRolo]

Hans;I agree ,and I had to replace my "C" drive because it was slowing down (bearings I think) and the disk utility that came with new one ,will let you copy entire drive .I have used Maxtor and Western digital both . As long as you can get into old drive it will work.CaptRolo

[Hans_Petter 1]

Well, my latest hobby is to run Scandisk :-( I thought that I got it right for some time last night when it finished reporting all errors fixed. I used the computer in the morning and it was AOK. As I booted up tonight the problems were back. It just clicks and hangs during booting, reporting unable to read etc. I finally got in and ran Scandisk again. It's been a couple of hours and it finishes without fixing all of the errors. (It resumes all the time, stating that some program (or, Windows itself) has been writing to the disk). Then it finishes stating that some errors remain. I've been running my AV scan without detecting any viruses. Last night my AV detected and nuked Klez during an email download so I know that it will catch that one.So, there's a way to copy my old OS to a new disk. I'll look into that. However, my main question remains unanswered (I think): How can I make an upgrade version of Win98 install on a clean disk? I'm in no position to dish out $ 400 for a "full" OS at the time and besides, I AM eligible for the upgrade version since I've got it installed already. Since this OS dates back to Win 3.11 it might be a good idea to make a clean install. If you don't hear anything from me for some time, rest assured that I haven't given up on FU3. I'll be busy rebooting, running Scandisk or reinstalling Win98 on a new disk :-)Anybody got a full English version of Win98 (preferably SE) for sale? ("Full" meaning that it will install on a clean or wiped disk).best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest phil]

Hans, I'm pretty sure I've installed an "upgrade" Win98 onto a clean hard disk before. If I remember correctly, the install routine recognised that it was a brand-new, clean disk and not an upgrade. It then asked me to insert the full version of an older MS OS. I just inserted my original Win 3.11 CD and the install routine was happy. The installation then continued without any problems after the upgrade CD was put back into the drive. Maybe you could give this a try?phil

[Hans_Petter 1]

I swapped the disks and reinstalled Win98 on the good drive. It took a Win95 install disk to make the Win98 upgrade happy. I'll spend some time reinstalling apps, fixing paths etc but now my OS is healthy again. My flight sims are on the other partition of this healthy drive, formerly G and currently D. I believe that the FU sims will be happy without reinstalling them, as long as I fix a couple of paths within the directories.best regards,Hans Petter

[Guest phil]

Good news Hans. http://www.plauder-smilies.de/happy/xyxthumbs.gif Now hopefully you can get away from all the computer housekeeping chores and start using your healthy system for enjoyment. :-)phil

[Guest]

Ralph B.Hans,I know this is probably a dumb question,but have you ever run your defragment program? with my system. sometimes when my computer is acting crazy.(especially when flying) I run the defrag and it helps a lot.just a suggestion.:-wave

[Guest Quaxo]

Hans, I read of your problem too late to be of some help, but as far as I know there IS a simple way to copy an OS on another drive... You need a OS boot floppy, the one that Windows wants to make during installation. You can just copy (even from within Windows) your old C to the "primary" partition of your new empty drive. (avoid copying the windows swap file, located in "c:windowswin386.swp"). Then you can turn off the pc, unplug the broken HD, set the new HD as primary master, and reboot with the boot floppy. When you are at the "a:>" prompt, you type "sys a: c:" to transfer the boot/system files, and when this is done, you can remove the floppy and reboot. And the old system should be running from the new HD!! I've done that more than once, and it worked.Well, maybe this could help someone else, as you have already solved your problems!Cristian

[Hans_Petter 1]

Yes, defragmenting is a good thing provided the disk is healthy. The first sign that mine bas bad was that the defragmenter hung and reported that it couldn't run since the disk had errors. Then I ran Scandisk, eventually got it to isolate some bad sectors and ran the defragmenter again. This worked for a while. Then I got more bad sectors each day. Bottom line, the defragmenter is great for optimizing the data exchange on a good drive but it cannot help a disk that keeps developing bad sectors. Scandisk may fix this if it's a one-time occurrence, as in some data becoming corrupt. What it can't fix permanently is a disk that keeps losing good surface area by the hour. The disk surface may be scratched and physically damaged and will just keep "fraying" as the loose end of a rope. best regards,Hans Petter

[Lars Peter 0]

Hi Hans.It's Good to see you back online here.Many HD.problems could appear when you really don't want them.There is no warning's to this.Hope you are doing fine!Lars Peter.:-wave