DVD drive problem what to do now?

Discussion in 'hardware' started by gautam7, Jul 23, 2011.

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  1. gautam7

    gautam7 Registered Member

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    Hi friends, to day i noticed that my dvd drive is having problem reading and writting CD or DVD. Actually it failed to burn two cd and dvd so far, so i am thinking my dvd drive has failed. I only use dvd drive to install my OS nothing else. So i am thinking i won't replace the drive. BUt now the problem is if i ever need to install OS then what should i do? I am thinking to solve the problem by making a clone of my HDD to an external HDD. I have a 1 TB external and paragon system back up 10 special edition. ( my friend give me the key which he got from some give way i guess). Now my concern is will i be able to boot from my external HDD if i make a full back up with paragon if ever the need arises. I am considering to do full back up every two month and incremental back up everyday. Is this a good idea?? Please help also if you have better suggestion then i wellcome that too.


    with regards
    Gautam

    PS: my os is windows 7 32 bit. I have five partition in my internal HDD which is 160 GB. The OS drive is 40 GB. Also is there some software to run which will test my dvd drive?
     
  2. Cudni

    Cudni Global Moderator

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    Backup is of course a good idea but i would purchase a new dvd drive.
     
  3. jonyjoe81

    jonyjoe81 Registered Member

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    see if paragon software will let you make a pendrive bootable. I know acronis does among other imagers. That is what I use to boot my netbook in an emergengy, works excellent for me.

    you can try unebootin or universal usb installer to try and make one to boot your ISO file on a pendrive.

    If you make a bootable pendrive, you can use mobalivecd to test it without rebooting your computer.
     
  4. gautam7

    gautam7 Registered Member

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    Hi jonyjoe bootable usb is a great idea i just googled about it and the instructions seems easy enough. I will make one. Just one question i have a 8 GB pendrive right now so if i make it bootable will i be able to use it generaly for other thing like transfer file from one to other PC or do i have to foramat it for other use.
     
  5. J_L

    J_L Registered Member

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    Are you sure it's having read problems? Can you boot from the Windows install disc or Paragon recovery disc?

    Paragon can restore you OS after a reboot. Windows has to be bootable, and Paragon uncorrupted though.
    You can create a system recovery boot entry via Manage Backup Capsule as well. That should be faster than CDs or USBs.
     
  6. jonyjoe81

    jonyjoe81 Registered Member

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    The pendrive has to be empty because to make it bootable it will reformat it. But once you make it bootable, you can add more stuff to it without it affecting the boot capability.
    My pendrive has the acronis boot capaility plus I added more stuff to it in a folder I named extra and it will still bootup to the acronis recovery screen.
     
  7. gautam7

    gautam7 Registered Member

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    Well i tried today to boot from the windows 7 repair disk and to my surprise it booted successfully. But i am sure earlier i failed to read and write 2 or 3 CD or DVD. Whats going on with this drive does this mean its some early sigh before total failure?
     
  8. J_L

    J_L Registered Member

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    Since it failed before, I don't think it's reliable. You should use the other methods, at least until a new DVD drive.
     
  9. gautam7

    gautam7 Registered Member

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    Thanks everyone it seems i would need to replace the dvd drive but till it finally fails i think i will go with the idea bootable usb. Thanks again for all the help and suggestion. Have a nice day.
     
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