Need to replace hard drive - ATI 2009 Home

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by elindi, May 4, 2009.

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  1. elindi

    elindi Registered Member

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    Hi! Glad to find you here, hope you can help with my question . . . I've checked out multiple threads but don't see the answer I'm looking for.

    I am using TI Home 2009 on a Compaq PC running Vista Home, with one drive, partitions are C for my files and D "Factory Image" - I am led to understand the D partition is for recovering the system to its day-one state. I have made the recommended recovery disks as prompted by the manufacturer, and also made (but not yet tested) a bootable disk from within Acronis.

    A recent scheduled diagnostic of my system revealed errors during the surface scan of the drive. The test failed to read multiple sectors of the disc, with a resulting error code: HD535-2W - I understand this to be an indication that the drive may fail at any time. (FYI all of my recent backups using TI were completed after choosing "Ignore All" when confronted with the above sector-reading errors. The log indicates that the most recent backups were successful.)

    I have contacted HP and am now in receipt of a new drive (same size as the original), which I am to install myself (groan). The new drive has nothing on it, and I am advised by HP that I must use the HP recovery discs to boot the machine once I've replaced the drive, which will restore the system to its original state. I am hoping to avoid this by using my backup and TI bootable disk.

    My backup is on an external drive - I understand that I need to test the TI bootable disk to be sure I can see this drive, and will do so before proceeding further.

    I may have received bad advice that with a TI backup and TI bootable disk, I don't need a backup of the D partition. Given that I DON'T want to roll back to the drive's original state, I have backed up only the C partition - now I am wondering if this is correct.

    Do I need to back up the D partition as well? Are the HP recovery disks I made an adequate substitute? Should I boot from them first, and then from the TI boot disk to restore my apps and data, or just do another image of both the C and D partitions?

    How likely is it that the bad sectors will compromise my backup?

    I am not looking forward to having computer guts on my desk and hope to do this right in one pass - any help you all can offer will be most welcome!

    Regards
    Eve
     
  2. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    The HP recovery disks that you made will put back the D part should you ever go back to Factory Restore, so don't worry about not backing it up with TI. If you don't need the space taken by D, and you prefer to have it, then go ahead and make another backup by putting the check mark against Disk 1. But don't delete the previous backups of C only. Btw, I would make this Disk 1 backup using the Rescue CD. You have to test the CD anyway, so this is the ideal time.

    Changing the hard drive is not so hard as it may seem - in fact sometimes it is easier to change a laptop drive that a desktop drive. With the battery out and the system unplugged, lay the laptop upside down on a soft cloth and look for a small panel with an "icon" of three circles one on top of the other - this represents the hard drive. Usually there are two screws to remove. So remove this panel and see if the drive is there. Some drives are in another holder (caddy) which in turn may be held by 4 screws. If so, remove these and gently slide the assembly away from the connector end. There is usually about a quarter to a half inch of space at the back end of the drive to enable sliding it away from the connector. Once you got the drive out, unscrew it from the caddy, if there is one, and reverse the procedure to install the new drive.

    Once the drive is installed, boot with the Rescue CD and do your Recovery using the Disk 1 backup.
     
  3. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Eve,

    That's all I ever do and I've never had a failed restore.

    It depends on how much file system damage has taken place.

    Just replace the old HD with the new, empty HD, boot from the TI CD and restore the image. You should restore the MBR as well.
     
  4. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    It all depends on the location of that D: partiton, but don't worry, there will be a way to get the system restored.

    Just to be on the safe side and to try for the easiest restore, I'd make a backup now and select the entire drive. It will have your latest data, and could make the restore process very easy.

    As long as the first HP recovery disk is bootable, this set should be adequate for restoring the system to the as purchased state.

    That's unknowable. My crystal ball is cloudy. :) If your system is running normally with all programs working, it may not make any difference. On the other hand, the restored image may have problems. You will know after you restore it.

    First, check the Hardware User Guide from HP for your model (it's online if you don't have a copy) to see how to replace the drive. HP loves to create cute cases that require special steps for simple jobs like repacing a drive. It's best to be aware of that before starting. Also check the jumper setting on the drive after you remove it and set the new drive to the same setting if it isn't already set that way.

    Restore the last image (of the entire drive) to the new drive and see if it boots and everything runs normally. If it does, you are done. The ~5Gb used by the HP recovery partition isn't worth bothering about in my opinion, and it migh be useful some day for putting the system back to the as purchased state. This backup also has the greatest probability of booting since it has all the partitions in the same order as the original drive.

    If the system doesn't boot, or if some applications don't run correctly, you can restore just the C: partition from one of your older backups. Keep going back to older backups until the system boots. You can also restore the MBR and Track 0 from these backups.

    If you have to use a backup of C: that's so old that it lacks important data, you can mount the full drive backup and pull the needed data files out of that backup.

    Let us know how it works out and what backup you finally succeeded with.
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2009
  5. elindi

    elindi Registered Member

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    Yeow! Thanks everyone for the helpful answers :-*

    jmk I am going to follow your advice - the D partition is a little over 9GB, not the 5 you mention, but it seems worthwhile to complete the package while I'm at it. Less second-guessing for me, and it will be good to have once the old drive is toasted . . .

    You and Brian both reference the MBR - scratched my head and guessed that means Master Boot Record. Forgive my ninnyness but flute players don't learn this stuff at school - how does one find and restore it? Does it just come up as an option at some point in the process, or is there a special ritual for that?

    DwnNdrty in my next life it will be a laptop but no easy escape this time.

    I will check back to let you all know how things came out - thanks again!
     
  6. DwnNdrty

    DwnNdrty Registered Member

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    Oops! My bad ... don't know why I had the idea it was a laptop. Good luck with the changeover of the drive and restore.
     
  7. elindi

    elindi Registered Member

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    Update: I was able to boot from the rescue disk, and started the full system backup including the D partition, but the backup failed.

    I received the following error message during the second phase of the backup, at Module 11: "Failed to open the file {0} for read {1}. Below the log entries was an error code, "1,001 (0xB03E9)".

    Just to be sure I tried to validate the archive and received the message "File is corrupted."

    The previous backups (of partition C only) appeared fine when I checked to see if they were there, but I did not try to restore from there. I had already validated them at the time they were created, most recently this afternoon, before logging into this forum for the first time.

    My inclination is to go ahead with just the C partition. Thoughts?
     
  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Yes. Do it.
     
  9. elindi

    elindi Registered Member

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    Dear Everyone . . .

    Thanks so much for helping me get through my first HD change. I just completed the restoration process, and everything looks fine.

    FYI, the first attempt to restore only the C partition failed, although the TI boot disk worked fine and went through the whole process. I ended up using the HP recovery disks to go back to Day One state, then rebooted with the TI disk and then did the restore of C and the MBR.

    For some reason, my D partition has a lot less on it than the old one did. Head-scratcher there, but as I say things look good and all my critical apps are loading fine.

    Pardon me for saying, I hope I won't have to see you again soon, but it's good to know where to go.

    Thanks again! :cool:
     
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