Replacing Hard Drive

I don't fully understand these last few posts - so I'll stick with Brian's recommendation. As Dirty Harry once said: "a man's got to know his limitations". HD arrived this afternoon, so I'll work on it this weekend.

One question comes to mind. What would happen if I restore an image with bad sectors? Couldn't I then correct that with chkdsk? Hopefully that won't be the case - I have images going back about 2 months - so I should be alright.

 

Any corrupted data on those sectors would be imaged as well. It could or couldn't cause problems depending on what that data is but it is a crap shoot. I'm actually have a project now where I'm going to have to do that and save what I can from a disk that's dying for someone. I wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary. This disk has a lot of financial records and will no longer boot and chkdsk can't fix it.

 

Didn't work - got lots of options I didn't understand. SP would not allow me to select the new blank HD as a restore volume. Apparently, I am supposed to configure it or initialize it somehow. I can't find any clear directions as to how to do that. I'm way over my head on this - so I'm giving up - just don't have the time.

Thanks anyway.

 

Len, don't give up. Initializing a HD is easy. I'm surprised SP won't do it for you. Initializing is just writing boot code and a disk signature to a HD.

Can you connect the HD to any computer. Boot the OS, open Disk Management. You should get a pop up window asking you to initialize the Disk. Choose MBR and not GPT. Done.

If you don't get a pop up right click on the "Unknown" disk, click Initialize Disk.

Let me know how it goes. We'll get you there.

Edit... I forgot you have a laptop. Do you have a partitioning CD? Boot the CD, create a partition on the HD. Delete the partition. That will initialize the disk.

 

If you have a USB disk case, you can put the disk in it and initialize it. If SP can't make you a boot CD, there are free programs that you can quickly download for this task. The free versions of both the Aomei and Easus partition programs can initialize a disk for you and both can make boot Cds. There are many others as well.

 

I really appreciate the comments, but I've put the old hard drive back in the computer - my wife will run with it until it dies and then we replace the computer. That's the plan. All data is backed up.

Again, I don't know much about what you are suggesting -don't have a partitioning CD and don't have a USB disk case.

What's really infuriating is that Shadow Protect documentation at their website is out of date and does not link to the screens I am seeing.

For someone like myself, I'm beginning to think I'll skip the imaging software and just have a restore cd to start over from scratch when something goes wrong. It doesn't happen often.

 

Len, I'm willing to take you through the steps gradually. No trauma. You will enjoy the experience. Your choice.

Restoring an image will be a lot less work than installing an OS, installing drivers, installing apps, tweaking the OS and apps, copying data, etc.

 

Sorry to get too technical. I assumed you had more experience with this sort of thing than you had. I would suggest accepting Brian K's offer and start by posting pictures of the screens that you are having trouble with and then it would be easier to walk you through it.

 

Len, everything can be done from the SP CD. It is easy. Two minutes for me. Longer for you.

 

Len, this should help.

I assume your image is on a USB external HD. Have it connected.

Boot the SP CD
#1 choice
don’t select Network Support
When SP has loaded, select the Disk Map tab (I’ve found it is better to create the partition manually)
Your internal disk will be described like this

Unallocated space (*:\)
250 GB Not Formatted

Right click in the rectangle and click Create primary partition
Change the Size field to 145 GB (slightly larger than your old partition)
Accept the rest and click OK
Click OK for the reboot

When SP has loaded, select the Disk Map tab again
Your internal disk will now have a partition described like this

Unknown (D:\)
145.00 GB NTFS

D: might be C: or some other letter. It doesn’t matter as this isn’t Windows, it’s the recovery environment.
Unallocated space follows the partition
Right click in the 145 GB Unknown partition rectangle and click Format
Put a tick in Perform a quick format, accept the rest and click OK

Select the Wizards tab and click Restore Wizard
Browse to your image
On the Restore Destination window select the 145 GB Unknown partition
Leave tick in Finalize the volume…
On the Specify the restoration options window do this….
Tick in Set partition active
Tick in Restore MBR
Dot in Restore MBR from image file
Tick in Restore disk signature
Tick in Restore Disk Hidden Track
No tick in Hardware Independent ……

When completed, close SP and remove the CD
Vista should load

Any questions?

 

Brian -

This is very kind and helpful - you've gone way beyond the call of duty here.

I will give this a try sometime soon - I just can't do it right now. This is the opening of tax season here in the U.S. so I am extremely busy - when things start to subside, I will follow your instructions. (It's Sunday night and I'll be working until 3:00am.)

For now, the computer is limping along with the old hard drive.

Thank you for your patience - wish I could reciprocate in some way. (I would offer to do your taxes, but I know as much about taxes in Australia as I do about imaging.)

Regards,
Len

 

Len,

I'm pleased to help. Although I've done a few successful restores using the above method there is one refinement I'd like to add. Prior to this line: "Right click in the rectangle and click Create primary partition" perform the following.

Right click in the rectangle and click Edit Policy.
Click in the Layout Type line and you will get a drop down arrow. Choose MBR.
Click in the Partition Start Alignment line and you will get a drop down arrow. Choose Sector. The Partition End Alignment should be Sector. If it isn't, make it sector. ie Sector in both.
Click in the Offset From Disk Start line. Change 1 to 2048 (type it in).
Click in the Disk Start Offset Units line and you will get a drop down arrow. Choose Sector.
Make sure 2048 is still present in the Offset From Disk Start line.
Click Close.

Now go to "Right click in the rectangle and click Create primary partition" in my tutorial and create a partition. It will be 2048 sector aligned.

I know you won't make a mistake but let's say you make 10 mistakes and the restore doesn't work. No problem at all. Just do it again. You can't make a blank 250 GB HD any worse than blank.

 

Brian K -

Tax season is over and I revisited this issue. I followed your instructions and everything worked well. I replaced the HD and restored an image. This computer was a backup for my business, so I couldn't risk fouling anything up (or taking the time to do anything with it) until tax season was over. In any case, thanks again for your help and patience.

Len

 

If the imaging program made an image of a disk with bad sectors, and it got around those errors, there's a chance that the files which used those suspect sectors would be corrupt. 1 bit could be flipped. In some files this is irrelevant like a .BMP picture or personal journal text file. You might end up with a single pixel being a slightly different shade of green, or a mis-spelling of word. In a .JPG file it could cause half the picture to not display, in an audio file it might manifest as near in-audible click, in a spreadsheet it might move the decimal point or change $900,000 into $800,000 for example.

The best way to discover what files are bad is to get a list of bad sectors using a diagnostic program. Then you can use another program to see what files are using what sectors. Then you can examine the files manually, individually, and see if they pass muster. In many many cases they do not.

Bad sectors are bad, and contain bad information. Utilities may make the disk usable again, by prompting reallocating of those bad sectors from pool of spares. And that is perfectly acceptable and normal. Something disks automatically do on their own even!

HDD is basically a black box, data-in and data-out. It will do its best to correct internal errors. When it can't, data in that area is lost or corrupt.

One thing I like to tell a lot of people (home users of 1 or 2 systems) is that computers are disposable. We already know that here. Your data isn't. It's really helpful to take time and care and be aware of exactly what your irreplaceable files are and where they're at. In case of issues, you replace all your hardware and just re-install your data. Working this way helps when its time to migrate to a new OS or new system entirely. Just a thought that some folks have found helpful.

I hope that makes sense and if you want clarification on something just give a holler.

 

Len, thanks for the feedback.

 

If even one bit is out, it is going to give a checksum error, indicating the entire cluster is bad, which, in turn will likely result in a corrupt file. I don't see it changing green to light green or a 9 to an 8. I see it changing the file, or major chunks of the file into gobbledygook.

If you create an image of a disk that has bad sectors, those "bad sectors" will not be written to the image file. Instead, the corrupted data in those sectors will be written to the image (if the image software does not choke at that point) and then the corrupted data will be copied to the new disk - not the bad sector. Therefore, chkdsk would have nothing to correct.