What should I do now?

[Jenks]

Hello Fellas,

Five or six weeks ago my computer wouldn't boot.   It gave me a blue screen error.   Long story short, for good reason or not,  I replaced the hard drive.   Installed fresh XPpro, game, etc., and resigned myself to hoping a data recovery service could get my pictures, music and doc's for me.  Yeah, I have poor backup habits.    Anyway.....
A few weeks later I came across some information that the drive may not have been "bad" afterall.   So yesterday I plugged it in the second slot (SATA) and after booting, windows saw the drive.   However, when I tried to access it, the OS said it "wasn't available, may be at another location...."  I right clicked, properties, tools and selected error check and fix errors and bad sectors.   After it completed the operation....success!   I could access my files!   Then this morning I tried to access them and I got a "The drive is not formatted. Would you like to format?"   Uh oh!   I rebooted the computer and tried again and OK, this time it's working.   Which brings me to my header question.

My thought is to drag and drop, copy paste, etc, my files to the new drive (C:).   But is that the right way to go? Is there some other utility.   Or..is there something I'm missing?   Or should be doing first?   Some bios setting I need to change.  Or simply back up the E: drive to the C:...... In other words..... "What should I do now?"

Your thoughts and advise are very much appreciated.

<S> Jenks

[Tigger29]

Yes you have the right idea.  If the drive is working, the easiest way to do it is to make a new folder on your desktop and name it whatever.  This folder will be located on the new hard drive.  Move this folder to the right edge of the screen.

Now open my computer and open the old hard drive.  You might need to access users/my documents on that drive to access whatever you need.  If it says "ACCESS DENIED" then you need to go through the advanced properties for that locked folder and "take ownership", but this will only apply if you have selected the option to "keep other users from accessing those files".

Once you find what you need, just drag the entire folder over onto the new folder you made on your desktop.  You might need to resize the folder a little so you can see the new folder, but you'll see what I mean.  This will copy all of the files into the new folder.

When everything is copied over you want to keep, then you can wipe the old drive using some kind of disk wipe software (there are many free ones available, but I don't know what works the best - I'm sure others will chime in) as a format isn't going to really be enough.. that is if you're paranoid about someone getting personal information off of your old drive.  Otherwise, you can disassemble the drive and physically smash it to bits with a sledgehammer or the like.

You'll probably want to scan the new folder when you're done copying with an antivirus program, just to make sure you're not bringing over anything that's infected.  Then, you can move whatever files are in there to wherever you want.

IF the old hard drive quits working again, and if you can't get it to work try putting it in the freezer for an hour or so.. sometimes that brings them back to life just long enough to get what you need off of it.

[gyrene81]

Freezer (20 minutes is all I use but 1 hour should work too), and/or spin the drive counter clockwise 2 or 3 times.

Question, does the drive make any sort of ticking noise when it stops being readable? If so that's the read/write heads, if not then you probably have a bad sector zero, which is tougher to overcome.

[Bizman]

In case you'd like to copy entire folders instead of dragging and dropping files one by one, I'd recommend the free Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier. It won't stop in the middle of nowhere, should there be a file unable to be read.

[Jenks]

Thank you!, gentlemen. 

Gyrene, I don't recall hearing anything unusual from the drive.

A copying I will go!

[Tigger29]

Now consider yourself lucky.. usually what a hard drive goes you can't get anything off of it.  Now it's time to learn from your mistakes.

Consider buying an external hard drive for back up purposes.  You can use imaging software such as Acronis, however there are free alternatives out there to make it convenient.

Also, if you have a WD drive, you can download a free copy of Acronis HERE

[Jenks]

Oh yeah, already know I'm lucky. Thats how I get my kills in the MA.

And I'm about half way saved up for an external. If I get some more work in the next couple weeks I'll have it then.

[cattb]

You also get a second hard drive and install it in your computer and just use windows back up utility to back up certain files.
I use a second hard drive for back up but I also use a key drive for smaller backups for apllication software that I use more often.
Like Tigger said use acronis similar software and backup  your OS.
Newegg just had a special,(though over now) a 1TB western digital black 5 year warranty. TNewegg or other places always seem to have hardrives on sale.

[Kazaa]

JENKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chalenge]

This is what you need: http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm (SpinRite 6)

[Jenks]

Hiya Kazaa! 

[ImADot]

This is what you need: http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm (SpinRite 6)

Yep.  Works miracles on "dead" drives - as long as the BIOS recognized the drive.

[Jenks]

This is what you need: http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm (SpinRite 6)

I'll check it out thanks.  And the Unstoppable Copier worked great!  Thanks Bizman.