Well, this is a kick in the pants.

I have three HDDs. C: is on an elderly IDE 120gb. I am pretty sure it is failing, there is a high pitched whining sound that gradually increses in volume until it becomes quite loud. It was doing this infrequently, but now it's all the time. If I let it cool the noise vanishes...for a while.

I am pretty sure this means the drive is on its last legs.

My options are limited.

In my PC I also have a 160gb External USB 2.0 drive...all my archives are on there including all my WorldWorks stuff. The other day it was emitting a "hot plastic smell and seemed warm to the touch, with that drive I can shut it down, which does not give me access to my files. I can start it up and copy off what I need though.

I have a 3rd HDD, a 160gb internal SATA drive I had lying around. My cunning plan was to clear a partition on it and copy the entire contents of C: over to it, then re-letter the partition as C. Rebbot, hope it sees the SATA as C and unplug the ide drive.

I cannot copy the files as they say they are in use. Any ideas anyone????

Yikes, its getting really loud, have to shut down. I'll check back later.

All I can suggest is to reinstall the operating system on the 'good' drive, then have it be primary. You could then copy over all your data files.

If you're looking to take an image of your existing hard drive then there are a number of utilities to do that. Image, swap drives, apply image. That might work as well.

I'm sure others will be along with better advice.

I am REALLY opposed to re-installing, tyring to find a way around it.

Just rebooted quickly after a few minutes down, the noise is really quiet. I have a rubber hose handy to try and pin down the source of the noise.

Is there anything on that C: drive you cannot afford to lose? Do you have a backup on a drive that isn't about to die? If you have just one copy of something important on those messed up drives, then copy them off to something before you do anything else--a quick, dirty fix is to make a yahoo account and email the files to yourself. (Unlimited storage for saving attachments, or so they say, though there's probably a practical limit to the size of files you can save this way.)

Becky

If you're using Windows XP, you'll have some major issues with SATA drives. My roommate had to slipstream his own copy of XP 64 with the proper drivers because it didn't natively support SATA.

In any case, GET THAT INFORMATION BACKED UP PRONTO. I don't want to see you lose whatever financial data you've got or see the WIP meter run backwards on the WWG site.

Everything is pretty much backed up already, but it would be a colossal hassle to restore it from DVDs. I think I am kind of screwed.

I just plugged the SATA drive in and it worked. Are there issues with SATA and XP?

Whew, thats a nice cheap drive. Can you order from Anitec, Denny?

I have had it on for a few hours, trying to get the whining noise to start again so I can pin it down. It refuses to cooperate.

This XP install dates from May 2007, so It's not TOO old. If I get the new drive I will probably wipe it.

My version of XP is Home, an OEM copy I got from a local computer shop. Hope that cooperates too.

Replace it like others have said:

500gb from Newegg for $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136073

1 TB from mWave for $108
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx ... ia=AA73228

These are both companies I have used and trust.

1TB! Wow, that's amazing. Didn't know drives came that big.

It's time [haha!] to rebuild my PC yet again, this rig is gettin' old. Every time the standards are different, I have to re-invent the wheel every time it seems. This is a single-core Celeron at 3.06 Ghz. 2 Gig cheap ram and a really horrible Mobo. The BIOS has bare-bones options, it's funny.

With deals like that, its a wonder the whole economy doesn't collapse!

Oh wait....

Ok, my ducks are in a row for re-install. Tried to image the drive, no go.

So I unplug the 160 g drive from the wife's PC, plug it into my other SATA plug, and it freezes at the bios, where it is detecting the HDDS, and before I can get into the BIOS. The drive makes a ticking sound like it is searching. I unplugged it, boots fine. There are no jumpers for master or slave, what the heck am I doing wrong??

Is your drive still present? Is it also SATA? Does it have a jumper set? If so, how?

Also, how could you try to image without the other drive in place?

Sorry, I am dealing with three drives here. The dying IDE, the first SATA which works ok, and my new SATA which does not seem to work.

There is only one jumper, for 1.5 g/s or 3 g/s. No other jumpers, it's a Seagate barracuda.

Their are motherboards that share I/O for SATA and IDE giving you the option of only one or the other. Can't say for sure if thats the case here, but its a possibility. I would say try each drive by itself to see if the computer will boot. Then every combination you can think of to see if theirs a conflict.

Oh god someone set up a paypal donate button somewhere and I will pledge $50AUD and I truly hope others do also.

I don't have the foggiest about system building but I do know that Paul could really use a new system...that just might pump out another edition of the Mall or something with cardstock goodness a tad faster.

Chop, Chop people - Pledge now.

Lord Abaddon of Wormwood