Hi According to Windows and other installed utilities my hard drive is expected to fail at anytime. I get the Windows Warning and when I start up my pc the first screen I see,which I have never seen before, comes before the Boot menu select screen. It is by American Megatrends that shows: "Initializining USB Controllers USB Devices Auto Detect AHCI Port I - IDE Hard Disk ..................AHCI Port II - .......... ..................USB Mass Storage Device Auto Detect AHCI Port I Device Error Press F1 to continue" I then see the normal boot menu - press F12 screen and then Windows 8.1 and all programs start up normally and are fully functional. I also see the Windows Warning of a possible imminent Hard Drive Failure telling me to Back Up Everything. I close that and my PC continues to function as fast as ever while apparently my hard drive is on it's last legs. It appears, that the most critical of the warning signs is a S.M.R.T. Test result showing that "Reallocated Sector Count" is less than threshold. There are other less than ideal test results but it appears this is the most critical, Is there anyway to correct this factor without removing the hard drive, or is the drive doomed? All is backed-up of course. Hopefully I will be able to view any reply before the drive is toast
hawki, My son noticed SMART warnings on his laptop recently. The HD was replaced and an entire drive image was restored. All done in less than an hour. With backups you are prepared for the inevitable.
S.O.S I am handicapped and my survival literally is dependent on on an active internet connection for such things as ordering groceries from Safeway delivery service and other necessities from Amazon. I only use approximately 80 gigs of my 500 gig hard drive. Could I install Windows 8.1 and other critical programs on an external hard drive, I only have USB 2 ports so I understand this would be slow. If I could obtain a 100 gig external hard drive, how would I install Windows onto it and use it as my primary drive as an emergency measure until I can have my PC's hard drive replaced?
This works. Use a HD, not a flash drive. Buy a 500 GB USB HD. Your current HD should work to create the USB OS. http://tweaks.com/windows/52279/how-to-create-a-windows-to-go-usb-drive/ Also, TeraByte has usbboot.tbs script which will do this automatically. Also, you can connect to the internet without a functional HD. Use a WinPE boot CD or UFD. This trial will work for a month... http://www.lsoft.net/bootdisk.aspx#download
Running the internet from an Active@ CD is the simplest solution if your HD fails. But sometimes a failed HD will prevent anything from loading until it is disconnected. You don't need a HD to access the internet.
