timOleary said:
I use Windows XP pro. My PC has two WD SE16 WD2500KS SATA 250G hdds.
When I start the PC in the morning I am hearing a whirring noise
coming out of the PC and I think it is the C drive.
Where can I read up on how to add a drive, and mirror everything on
the current C drive onto the new drive?
What is a smart choice in an enterprise grade HDD?
I am thinking the warranty has expired on the drives.
Thanks
Get imaging software, such as Acronis True Image.
Make a complete image of your drive, on an
external (USB-connected) drive. If you need to buy
an external drive to do this, look on it as a good
investment, you can use it to back up your machine
routinely for a long time afterwards.
Check it with the imaging software (now is not the time
to find that you made an image with a flaw in it, which
could happen if there are any bad regions on the
external drive).
If you feel at all nervous, make another image on
your external drive, and check it too.
With the imaging software, make a recovery CD,
better yet make two, CDs are cheap and you want to be
sure.
Buy a replacement drive (bigger than the old one is good,
and gives you room to expand for little cost).
Remove the old C drive and install the new one.
Read the instructions that come with the new drive
first -- opening your computer up gives you the
opportunity to do all kinds of damage, such as
touching the wrong things without grounding yourself
to the machine, etc.
Using your recovery CD, boot up and recover the
complete image you made from the external drive.
Test everything to make sure it works properly.
If you had anything private or sensitive on the old
drive, destroy the disk in it (I use a little kitchen torch
to destroy data surfaces) before throwing it out -- after
all, it didn't completely fail and somebody could have
no end of fun with the data on it (such as stealing your
identity, pretending to be the owner of your copy of
WinXP or other software you bought and installed,
etc. at great length). But don't be in any hurry to
throw it out -- work for, say, a few months first to
be sure all your programs and data are ok.