Restoring old computer

User discussion forum for items related to technology in general.
Post Reply
GordonM
Posts: 35
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 2:40 pm

Restoring old computer

Post by GordonM »

A friend of mine has been having a lot of problems with their computer and I have been trying to fix it for them. The usual malware/virus checks have been made, though the machine won't seem to run any of the boot-time virus checkers from a CD. Like these for the most thorough checks, but can't use them.

I have run CrystalDiskInfo and it shows "Caution" for the single hard-drive. This drive is now 6 years old, so it's not surprising that it is starting to fail. SEAtools for DOS, Seagate's HD testing tool, won't run properly on this machine, as neither mouse nor keyboard work with it (this is apparently a known problem with some motherboards/chip-sets).

There are various optinons including buying a new machine, though replacement of the hard-drive is a considerably less expensive solution. This is a Hewlett-Packard machine and the hard-disk has the usual two partitions, one related to restoring the system. There are also two restore CDs that the user made as part of the initial set-up process.

What I want to know is, if a new HD is purchased and the restore CDs are used, can I expect them to create the two partitions again, as on the original HD, or do I need to do anything to save/image the current restore partition? I suspect the partitions will be created, but I am not sure.

Thank you
Gordon
mjnelson99
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:24 am

Re: Restoring old computer

Post by mjnelson99 »

You may be able to pick up a used computer on Craig's List
for less than the cost of a new computer. It might be worth
doing that. You may also get some programs on that computer
that is not on the old one.
Mary


On 5/24/2012 1:13 PM, GordonM wrote:
> A friend of mine has been having a lot of problems with their computer and I have been trying to fix it for them. The usual malware/virus checks have been made, though the machine won't seem to run any of the boot-time virus checkers from a CD. Like these for the most thorough checks, but can't use them.
>
> I have run CrystalDiskInfo and it shows "Caution" for the single hard-drive. This drive is now 6 years old, so it's not surprising that it is starting to fail. SEAtools for DOS, Seagate's HD testing tool, won't run properly on this machine, as neither mouse nor keyboard work with it (this is apparently a known problem with some motherboards/chip-sets).
>
> There are various optinons including buying a new machine, though replacement of the hard-drive is a considerably less expensive solution. This is a Hewlett-Packard machine and the hard-disk has the usual two partitions, one related to restoring the system. There are also two restore CDs that the user made as part of the initial set-up process.
>
> What I want to know is, if a new HD is purchased and the restore CDs are used, can I expect them to create the two partitions again, as on the original HD, or do I need to do anything to save/image the current restore partition? I suspect the partitions will be created, but I am not sure.
>
> Thank you
> Gordon
>
>
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Restoring old computer

Post by TeraByte Support »

Depends, most will restore to empty drives, and others want the partition
structure in place (formatted or not) and then will restore. The easiest
way to tell is to install the new drive (remove the original) and try it.
Also run memtest86 from memtest.org to ensure memory good as that will cause
a lot of problems.

"GordonM" wrote in message news:2389@public.tech.misc...



What I want to know is, if a new HD is purchased and the restore CDs are
used, can I expect them to create the two partitions again, as on the
original HD, or do I need to do anything to save/image the current restore
partition? I suspect the partitions will be created, but I am not sure.

Thank you
Gordon

Post Reply