Need Computer Help

Paul Allen

Paul Allen

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Paul
I have a Dell Inspiron 600m and I'm getting a low disk space warning. I believe it's only a 30 gig drive. I'm assuming that these are standard drives that I can buy at Best Buy. After I install a larger drive how do I transfer the data to the new drive? I'm not a computer expert and I don't want to lose what I have so if I'm in over my head tell me so.

Thanks in advance for you responses.

Paul
 
Make CDs of the data before you swap the drives. After you get the new drive installed and loaded back up with your aps load in the CDS and download away.
 
That's one way, but honestly, you can have the Geek Squad do it for you, transferring O/S, Apps and data in one fell swoop.

All you need is a partition copy then a partition enlarge. NOT for the casual user to attempt - HIRE A PROFESSIONAL, but much more certain to get everything.
 
Greebo said:
That's one way, but honestly, you can have the Geek Squad do it for you, transferring O/S, Apps and data in one fell swoop.

All you need is a partition copy then a partition enlarge. NOT for the casual user to attempt - HIRE A PROFESSIONAL, but much more certain to get everything.
Click to expand...

Geek Squad = Professional???? :eek::eek::eek:

Not IMHO!
 
Greebo said:
That's one way, but honestly, you can have the Geek Squad do it for you, transferring O/S, Apps and data in one fell swoop.

All you need is a partition copy then a partition enlarge. NOT for the casual user to attempt - HIRE A PROFESSIONAL, but much more certain to get everything.
Click to expand...

smigaldi said:
Geek Squad = Professional???? :eek::eek::eek:

Not IMHO!
Click to expand...

C'Mon, Scott. They know how to clone a hard drive. And it only costs $150 or so plus any interesting data you have you have on your hard drive.
 
Yeah I figure even the Geek Squad can do a simple clone & expand...
 
For that much, you can buy a larger internal drive and decent external drive for backup.
 
Back in the olden days, when disks were much smaller in capacity , we used to do something called "deleting files". I believe that current filesystems still support this operation.

So this suggests the question "what's on your hard drive that you can get rid of"? Look for software packages you don't use any more, or old porn you don't _really_ need any more.

Getting rid of old stuff is by far the cheapest and lowest risk.
-harry
 
Personally, I would just go buy a USB external hard drive and move your personal files to that. It will also serve you well when that Dell decides to go to Dell hell, as they are wont to do with very little advance notice.

In fact, since I'm working on a Dell right now, I think I'll take my own advice and go to the computer store TODAY.
 
I would buy TWO larger hard drives, an external enclosure, and a copy of Casper . Make sure the drives are of the correct interface.

Then I would perform usual hard drive maintenance on the existing drive (cleanup, chkdsk, defrag) clone it to one of the external drives, and then install that drive into the laptop.

Next I would take the second new drive, put it in the enclosure, and use Casper to clone the internal drive to it once a week (or more often). Then if the internal drives bites the dust, you swap in the external drive and are back in business.

(That's the way I back up my own Windows laptop, by the way.)

____________________
-Rich, whose a$$ has been saved by Casper on many an occasion
 
Keep in mind the original poster has a Dell Inspiron, which is a LAPTOP, thereby rendering it impossible to install a second internal drive and also making most easily-available hard drives incompatible for an internal swap.
 
Paul, with your name all you need to do is call someone at Microsoft and they'll help you for free! Otherwise, there's a lot of good advice above. I bought a 100GB drive at the same time I bought my dell laptop, put it in an external USB enclosure, and cloned the factory drive onto a partition in the new drive. I then swapped them.
 
Ken Ibold said:
Keep in mind the original poster has a Dell Inspiron, which is a LAPTOP, thereby rendering it impossible to install a second internal drive and also making most easily-available hard drives incompatible for an internal swap.
Click to expand...

That's what the external enclosure is for, Ken. I do it all the time. The only thing you have to do is pull the interface adapter from the drive and put it on the new one when you install it. It comes right off.

Once you pull the adapter, it's just an ordinary laptop drive that will fit in an external enclosure.

-Rich
 
mantakos said:
Back in the olden days, when disks were much smaller in capacity , we used to do something called "deleting files". I believe that current filesystems still support this operation.

So this suggests the question "what's on your hard drive that you can get rid of"? Look for software packages you don't use any more, or old porn you don't _really_ need any more.

Getting rid of old stuff is by far the cheapest and lowest risk.
-harry
Click to expand...

I have been getting the low disk space message for a couple of months and I've cleaned about all I can clean. I think I might have deleted a file or two that I should not have because I'm having problems printing fron Outlook.

I stopped at home at lunch time and picked up the windows book that came with the computer. They have a utility called Settings Transfer Wizard that is supposed to make the CD for you. What kind of problems is that going to create?

Thanks again
 
The File and Settings Transfer Wizard is designed to import files and settings from an old Windows computer to a new one. That assumes the new computer has Windows installed.

If you replace the hard drive, it will have nothing installed. You will have to install Windows, then all of the device drivers, any service packs and updates, and then all of your software. That means finding the disks or the downloads, the license numbers, etc.

Believe me, assuming that the machine is running properly except for the low disk space, cloning the drive is A LOT easier. And Casper does it nicely. No need to compress and extract; it does it in one step, right from one drive to the other.

--Rich
 
Ken Ibold said:
Keep in mind the original poster has a Dell Inspiron, which is a LAPTOP, thereby rendering it impossible to install a second internal drive and also making most easily-available hard drives incompatible for an internal swap.
Click to expand...

You can remove the drive from the laptop and make it an external drive.
http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adapt.php

If you have another PC that you can get to the innards of you can put both drives in, but we won't go into that.
 
I used Casper and made a copy of the drive. When I start the computer I'm getting this message "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM".
How do I fix this?

Thanks
 
Paul Allen said:
I used Casper and made a copy of the drive. When I start the computer I'm getting this message "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\system32\config\SYSTEM".
How do I fix this?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I've never seen that happen during a Casper copy, but the error refers to the System hive of the registry being missing or corrupt. Most likely this occurred because of an error during the copying process. It also could have happened because of viruses or spyware, and/or because your virus scanner was running during the copy process.

Before you copied the drive, did you run a CHKDSK /f and a defrag on it as advised? Doing so significantly reduces the chances of copying errors. Also, after the copy completed, did the Casper log show any errors?

It's possible that all you have to do to make the copy bootable is to run CHKDSK /f on the copy. You can do this while running off the original drive by running the command

CHKDSK n: /f

replacing n: with the drive letter of the clone, and letting it finish (may take a few minutes). That may be all you have to do.

If that doesn't work, then I would run a full virus and spyware scan on the original drive, as well as a CHKDSK /f . Then restart the computer and try to repeat the copy with as your realtime virus and spyware protection turned off, and as few other processes running as possible.

In fact, you can even do this in Safe Mode if your USB ports work in Safe Mode, as is the case with most modern computers.

Casper should (hopefully) recognize that there is a difference between the registry hive on the source and copy disk, and use SmartClone to recopy it. This will speed up the process. But if not, then you may have to delete the partition from the destination (new) drive to force Casper to re-copy the entire partition.

I'm sorry you're having a problem with this. I've used Casper thousands of times and never had this particular error, although sometimes copy errors in general do occur. Most times, doing the above and repeating the copy fixes them.

-Rich
 
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Rich,

"Before you copied the drive, did you run a CHKDSK /f and a defrag on it as advised? Doing so significantly reduces the chances of copying errors. Also, after the copy completed, did the Casper log show any errors?"

I don't know what a CHKDSK /f is. The Casper log showed the same error. I had virus protection running.

Thanks again
Paul
 
Rich,

I turned the virus scan off and did another copy. This one only took 4 minutes. The first one took about 2.5 hrs. It seems to work OK now.

Thanks for all the help.
Paul
 
:)You're welcome. Sorry I wasn't available. The weather was too nice to be inside and on the ground this weekend.

Now I suggest you buy another drive, put it in the external enclosure, and continue to update the clone often. Then if the internal drive fails or Windows screws the pooch, you just swap the external into the laptop and boot up. That's the beauty of Casper: Almost no downtime if the drive fails. That and that it's put out by three very nice guys in Indiana.

Glad it worked out.

-Rich
 
Two more things: To speed up the copy speed, Casper omits certain files (pagefile.sys, etc.) that are re-created at boot time boot if they're missing, so the first boot off a cloned drive takes a minute or two longer. Also, when making a clone, it stashes files anywhere it can find space rather than worrying about fragmentation. This is also done to speed up the copy.

So after swapping a drive with a cloned drive, it's good to let it run through a complete startup, then run a defrag on the new drive first chance you get because it probably will be fragged.

But that's a small price to pay in return for getting up and running quickly. I use Casper in almost all of my small business accounts to minimize downtime on non-RAIDed workstations, and it's proven its value over and over again. It's a really fine piece of software that I don't at all mind plugging for free.

-Rich
 
RJM62 said:
... I use Casper in almost all of my small business accounts to minimize downtime on non-RAIDed workstations, and it's proven its value over and over again. It's a really fine piece of software that I don't at all mind plugging for free.

-Rich
Click to expand...

Rich,

My homebuilt Windows XP system is using NVidia SATA RAID, which requires a Windows driver to work. (I know, but hardware RAID controllers are obscenely expensive. I thought my motherboard had one but it's the hybrid deal.) I suspect that any disk imager *might* let me image each drive, but that's a scary thought. That I have to run Windows to make sense of the data is a scary thought, too.

I guess I'm going to have to use a Windows backup program like Retrospec or NovaBackup. I actually have a copy of NovaBackup that may be able to upgrade.

Any suggestions?
 
mikea said:
Rich,

My homebuilt Windows XP system is using NVidia SATA RAID, which requires a Windows driver to work. (I know, but hardware RAID controllers are obscenely expensive. I thought my motherboard had one but it's the hybrid deal.) I suspect that any disk imager *might* let me image each drive, but that's a scary thought. That I have to run Windows to make sense of the data is a scary thought, too.

I guess I'm going to have to use a Windows backup program like Retrospec or NovaBackup. I actually have a copy of NovaBackup that may be able to upgrade.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I suspect you are running RAID-1. If that's the case--I wouldn't worry too much. Just image one of the drives. In the event of a system failure, just image back to a hard drive and rebuild the array.

Software RAID actually isn't that bad (at least the linux implementation). I've used Linux software RAID on production servers many times in the past and it's never let me down.

If the drive imaging software is capable of seeing the drive..Go for it.

A lot of the imaging software out there, Like Acronis, can make a complete image of the system with Windows running. I'm not entirely sure how it works but based on my experience it does a pretty damn good job. So this is always an option as well.
 
Last edited:
mikea said:
Rich,

My homebuilt Windows XP system is using NVidia SATA RAID, which requires a Windows driver to work. (I know, but hardware RAID controllers are obscenely expensive. I thought my motherboard had one but it's the hybrid deal.) I suspect that any disk imager *might* let me image each drive, but that's a scary thought. That I have to run Windows to make sense of the data is a scary thought, too.

I guess I'm going to have to use a Windows backup program like Retrospec or NovaBackup. I actually have a copy of NovaBackup that may be able to upgrade.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Well, my Windows box runs XP on two IDE drives, and Vista on two SATA drives, with an nVidia controller on a Gigabyte mobo and an Athlon 64 chip. I use Casper to clone both systems. The two SATA drives are partitioned into the Vista system partition and a shared storage partition for both systems.

In each case, the system drive is cloned to the corresponding second drive using Casper 4.0, and Casper hasn't had any problems at all making the copies. Because it runs under Windows, it'll clone to any local drive that Windows recognizes, including IDE, SCSI, SATA, USB and Firewire drives.

You can even use an external drive, then boot to that drive (assuming the mobo supports it) and copy it back to the internal drive, if you want to do it that way.

The only thing to be careful about is mixed drive types, like I have. Casper will, if you tell it to do so, dutifully clone an IDE drive to a SATA drive (or vice-versa), which usually will result in an unusable clone. So you have to be careful to assign the correct drive to the correct clone the first time around. After that, you simply schedule it as a task or create a desktop shortcut, and it remembers the association.

I've used most of the common backup programs out there, and in terms of simple ease of use and speed of recovery, I've found Casper hard to beat for Win2K/XP/Vista machines. Why waste time creating and then having to extract an image while the client is looking at his watch and breathing down my neck? This is much easier.

-Rich

-EDIT: Sorry, I missed the fact that you were running RAID. The simple answer is yes, Casper will copy a RAIDed volume as long as the array and the backup drive are both recognized by Windows.
 
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jesse said:
I suspect you are running RAID-1. If that's the case--I wouldn't worry too much. Just image one of the drives. In the event of a system failure, just image back to a hard drive and rebuild the array.

Software RAID actually isn't that bad (at least the linux implementation). I've used Linux software RAID on production servers many times in the past and it's never let me down.

If the drive imaging software is capable of seeing the drive..Go for it.

A lot of the imaging software out there, Like Acronis, can make a complete image of the system with Windows running. I'm not entirely sure how it works but based on my experience it does a pretty damn good job. So this is always an option as well.
Click to expand...

Hey Jesse, you ever use Casper? I'd be interested in your opinion.

-Rich
 
RJM62 said:
Hey Jesse, you ever use Casper? I'd be interested in your opinion.

-Rich
Click to expand...

Nope. I've never even heard of it before this thread. Most of my imaging has been with either Ghost or Acronis for Windows based systems. I'll keep it in mind--Is there anything unique about it versus Acronis?
 
jesse said:
Nope. I've never even heard of it before this thread. Most of my imaging has been with either Ghost or Acronis for Windows based systems. I'll keep it in mind--Is there anything unique about it versus Acronis?
Click to expand...

The nice thing about Casper compared to Acronis (although I haven't used the latter in a while, so maybe it's changed) is that Casper can create incremental backups after the first copy. It uses something they call "Smart Clone" that only copies the data that changed since the last clone, so subsequent backups take only a few minutes.

It does frag the heck out of the clone drive over time, but a defrag after the swap cures that.

-Rich

EDIT: I don't use Ghost any more. I've grown to hate Symantec...
 
Last edited:
Rich,
How do I do a defrag? Is there a utility software I should be running?

Thanks
Paul
 
Paul Allen said:
Rich,
How do I do a defrag? Is there a utility software I should be running?

Thanks
Paul
Click to expand...

Click Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Disk Defragmenter

Highlight the system partition ( C: ) and click Defragment. It may take a while, so do it when you won't be using the computer for a while. If you have additional hard drive partitions, you can do those, as well; but they have to be done separately.

There also is an "Analyze" button you can click for Windows to tell you whether it thinks you need to defrag, but in my opinion it allows the drive to get too fragged before recommending defragmentation. Defragging once a month is usually sufficient and a good idea, regardless of what the Analyze button says.

Don't defrag a computer during an electrical storm or other time when power failures are likely unless the computer is on a battery backup or uninterruptable power supply. When defragging a laptop, do it while on AC power.

If you're maintaining a clone using Casper, I wouldn't bother defragging the clone until such time as it's pressed into service. If you need it some day, you can defrag it once you've swapped it into the computer.

What defragmentation does is puts fragmented files back together. In the course of working with files, they get fragmented. What this means in simple terms is that the clusters that comprise a file will no longer be contiguous, but rather will be scattered here and there on the hard drive. When the file is called, the hard drive has to pick up the pieces wherever they lie, and they are reassembled in memory. This reduces performance and increases hard drive wear.

Looking at it visually, if we have three contiguous files, A, B, and C, they might look like this on the hard drive:

AAAABBBBCCCCCCC
​

But after working with them for a while, they may look like this:

AACBBCCACCBCCBA

The Disk Defragmenter puts all the pieces of each file back together again, which decreases loading time, increases performance, and reduces drive wear.

Of course, the defrag process itself causes some drive wear, so you don't want to overdo it. Once a month or when the "Analyze" button results in a recommendation to defrag is usually sufficient.

-Rich

​

 
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Rich,
Thanks for all your help and the explanation. I'll do a defrag tonight when I'm done with the computer. I'm also going to pick up another drive and use Casper for back ups.

Paul
 
jesse said:
I suspect you are running RAID-1. If that's the case--I wouldn't worry too much. Just image one of the drives. In the event of a system failure, just image back to a hard drive and rebuild the array.

Software RAID actually isn't that bad (at least the linux implementation). I've used Linux software RAID on production servers many times in the past and it's never let me down.

If the drive imaging software is capable of seeing the drive..Go for it.

A lot of the imaging software out there, Like Acronis, can make a complete image of the system with Windows running. I'm not entirely sure how it works but based on my experience it does a pretty damn good job. So this is always an option as well.
Click to expand...

Nope. It's RAID 0. I have two more drives to make it RAID 0+1 if I ever get the round tuit. I plan to move the whole shebang to a new case to have room for all of the drives. I'm also nervous about adding the second pair to the existing array but it seems like the RAID utility can handle it without destroying my data. I WILL have backup before I mess with it.

Which leads to another aggravation: 3" Floppy disk drives are always broken. If I have to reinstall XP I have to load the RAID driver from a floppy. I went through three I had on hand before I got a drive that worked. We found that even on $4000 servers the floppy drive is good for about one use. I don't think they even come with a floppy drive now.

I guess I could burn the driver on a CD (on a MacBook Pro :rolleyes: )
 
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RJM62 said:
...

-EDIT: Sorry, I missed the fact that you were running RAID. The simple answer is yes, Casper will copy a RAIDed volume as long as the array and the backup drive are both recognized by Windows.
Click to expand...

OK. I'll have to give Casper a try. I was wondering if it had the boot CD mode where it runs its own (or no) OS. Unless that mode can load a Windows disk driver my RAID is going to be a mystery to it.

I could clone it with dd on a Linux boot CD but I've been burned with that and it's way too easy to screw up a command and have really bad things - like writing back to your source drive - happen.
 
mikea said:
OK. I'll have to give Casper a try. I was wondering if it had the boot CD mode where it runs its own (or no) OS. Unless that mode can load a Windows disk driver my RAID is going to be a mystery to it.
Click to expand...

No, there is no boot disk. Casper runs under Windows and recognizes whatever drives Windows recognizes. I've used Casper to back up mirrored volumes in case the RAID controller fries both drives simultaneously or both drives get simultaneously infected, but I don't recall ever having to actually restore from the clone.

You can read about Casper here, and send them emails with specific questions. These guys are pretty good about support, both pre- and post-sale.

Oh... and about the floppy drive, I feel your pain. I carry a USB floppy around for that reason, but it's hit-or-miss whether it's going to be recognized as such during setup.

-Rich
 
Paul Allen said:
Rich,
Thanks for all your help and the explanation. I'll do a defrag tonight when I'm done with the computer. I'm also going to pick up another drive and use Casper for back ups.

Paul
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

EDIT: What I usually do, unless the source drive is huge to begin with, is use a larger drive for the clone. Casper automatically allocates the extra space, so if the drive is pressed into service, you also get a size upgrade out of the deal. But if the source drive is sufficiently large to begin with, then an identical drive is fine as the clone.

-Rich
 
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RJM62 said:
No, there is no boot disk. Casper runs under Windows and recognizes whatever drives Windows recognizes. I've used Casper to back up mirrored volumes in case the RAID controller fries both drives simultaneously or both drives get simultaneously infected, but I don't recall ever having to actually restore from the clone.

You can read about Casper here, and send them emails with specific questions. These guys are pretty good about support, both pre- and post-sale.

Oh... and about the floppy drive, I feel your pain. I carry a USB floppy around for that reason, but it's hit-or-miss whether it's going to be recognized as such during setup.

-Rich
Click to expand...

Casper does have an option for a boot CD . I'd rather have a cloner that boots into the app and treats the disk sectors as data rather than depending on what Windows sees. After all, it's very likely that Windows is what's corrupt. I think Ghost uses Windows (98) runtime. Dunno what Acronis True Image runs.

As I said I can do a block layer copy of each disk with a Linux live CD but that's very demanding that you get syntax right and you can only get basic compression and none of those other friendly features like partition expansion, at least not in one step.
 
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