Hard Drive Failing

[bjtheman1]

My HD on my desktop is about to die, I'm going to get a new HD later today. What would be the easiest way to transfer data from the old to the new one? Current HD in desktop is a 320GB Sata\ 7200rpm

Never had to do this before, considered an external hd but didn't know if that was a good way or not?

[Tx Redneck]

A disk image is preferred so you can pick up were you left off.

[bjtheman1]

A disk image is preferred so you can pick up were you left off.

Don't I have to use a certain software to do that?

[Tx Redneck]

Yes, check your pm's.

[bjtheman1]

Alright, put in new HD in computer and it keeps coming up with "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter"

[Ratt]

Alright, put in new HD in computer and it keeps coming up with "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter"

That's because there's no operating system on the new drive and you need to (and here's where I might start talking out of my ass because I don't know exactly how you're going about this) change the bios to boot from cd instead hard drive.

[Tx Redneck]

Did you format the drive and create a partition or did you image the old drive to the new one?

[CJ]

Alright, put in new HD in computer and it keeps coming up with "disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter"

Toss in your windows disk, and set your computer to boot to your cd drive. XP, Vista, and 7 all have disk formatting/partitioning built into the install process.

[bjtheman1]

Did you format the drive and create a partition or did you image the old drive to the new one?

Um, neither. I backed up my stuff on an external hd then installed the new hd and got this error. (had all this done before I got your pm) Now I'm creating recovery discs to use when booting up in hopes it works.

[Tx Redneck]

Ok, the new drive is neither formatted or partitioned nor does it have an OS on it unless you did a fresh install. I supplied you the simplest solution unless you're wanting to start over from scratch, software and all. This means getting ALL the updates for windows..... whereas my suggestion allows you to pick up right where you left off but on the new hdd.

[bjtheman1]

Ok, the new drive is neither formatted or partitioned nor does it have an OS on it unless you did a fresh install. I supplied you the simplest solution unless you're wanting to start over from scratch, software and all. This means getting ALL the updates for windows..... whereas my suggestion allows you to pick up right where you left off but on the new hdd.

Once again Tx Redneck helps me out, his route was easier than I expected.

[Tx Redneck]

Now store the old hdd somewhere safe so you at least have that to pick back up from should you have a failure again.

Also, use the program I provided to do backups to your external. They can be scheduled so you have no interaction aside from making sure the external is connected.