Emergency help needed with HD replacement..

I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one partition.
The drive is going bad. I need to get that info moved to a different
drive but with Windows 98SE still functional. I can't go back and
do the upgrades anymore. Can I do it all at once? Do I have to partition
the new drive and do each partition seperately? What program can I use
to move everything and keep the programs functioning. It is also a dual
boot system with Windows XP on a different drive.

The drive tests good with any test I run on it but the computer locks up
with the drive running light on. The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Any help greatly appreciated...

"Dennis" wrote in message
...
I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one partition.
The drive is going bad. I need to get that info moved to a different
drive but with Windows 98SE still functional. I can't go back and
do the upgrades anymore. Can I do it all at once? Do I have to partition
the new drive and do each partition seperately? What program can I use
to move everything and keep the programs functioning. It is also a dual
boot system with Windows XP on a different drive.

The drive tests good with any test I run on it but the computer locks up
with the drive running light on. The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Any help greatly appreciated...


If the drive is still funtional...
you can use a utility such as Acronis to clone the entire drive to a new
one...
but I'd backup all your data ASAP!


http://www.acronis.com

However...if worst comes to worst,
and you did ever have to reinstall Win98,
the updates are still available.
It's simply a case of no new updates are being supplied.

Use disk imaging software (like Acronis).

If at least one of your harddrives is a Seagate/Maxtor drive, they
have made available "MaxBlast" which is a limited version of the
Acronis software. It allows whole disk imaging - it is limited in the
higher granularity functions.

If it is not one of those, contact the manufacturer of the one that
you *do* have - maybe they have a similar offering.

"Dennis" wrote in message
...
I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one partition.
The drive is going bad. I need to get that info moved to a different
drive but with Windows 98SE still functional. I can't go back and
do the upgrades anymore. Can I do it all at once? Do I have to partition
the new drive and do each partition seperately? What program can I use
to move everything and keep the programs functioning. It is also a dual
boot system with Windows XP on a different drive.

The drive tests good with any test I run on it but the computer locks up
with the drive running light on. The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Any help greatly appreciated...

Dennis wrote:

I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one
partition. The drive is going bad. I need to get that info
moved to a different drive but with Windows 98SE still functional.

No, you don't need win-98 to be functional. Most likely it soon won't
be.

You need to go out and obtain a new hard drive (80 gb is your best shot)
and connect it in place of your CD-rom drive.

Then go out and get norton ghost 2003 (bootable floppy version).

Then clone your current drive to the new drive. If you're lucky, you
won't get any unrecoverable read errors and the cloned drive will boot
and run win-98 as good (or as bad) as your current drive.

I can't go back and do the upgrades anymore.

Not sure I understand what you mean by that. There haven't been any new
updates or patches for win-98 since July 2006.

Can I do it all at once?

Do what all at once?

To hell with the updating right now. The chances of your drive failing
completely go up with every minute you keep it turned on and spinning.
You need to clone it before it kaks.

What program can I use to move everything and keep the programs
functioning.

Norton Ghost 2003:

http://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3416361

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/341...61.TPB.torrent

It is also a dual boot system with Windows XP on a
different drive.

That doesn't matter, as long as by "different drive" you mean different
physical drive.

The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Not good.

I once had to copy files from a failing drive that was clicking. I had
to hold the drive in my hand and hold it at different angles to get the
data to read properly.

As I said, the longer you have that drive powered up and spinning, the
less time you have until it fails completely. Use every minute that
it's up and running wisely.

philo wrote:
"Dennis" wrote in message
...
I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one partition.
The drive is going bad. I need to get that info moved to a different
drive but with Windows 98SE still functional. I can't go back and
do the upgrades anymore. Can I do it all at once? Do I have to partition
the new drive and do each partition seperately? What program can I use
to move everything and keep the programs functioning. It is also a dual
boot system with Windows XP on a different drive.

The drive tests good with any test I run on it but the computer locks up
with the drive running light on. The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Any help greatly appreciated...


If the drive is still funtional...
you can use a utility such as Acronis to clone the entire drive to a new
one...
but I'd backup all your data ASAP!


http://www.acronis.com

And make sure the version (of any such programs) you get is still compatible
with Win98SE, of course.

And another backup program is Boot It NG at www.terabyteunlimited.com, but
it's not as user friendly as Acronis True Image.

In message , 98 Guy writes
Dennis wrote:

I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one
partition. The drive is going bad. I need to get that info
moved to a different drive but with Windows 98SE still functional.

No, you don't need win-98 to be functional. Most likely it soon won't
be.

You need to go out and obtain a new hard drive (80 gb is your best shot)
and connect it in place of your CD-rom drive.

Then go out and get norton ghost 2003 (bootable floppy version).

Then clone your current drive to the new drive. If you're lucky, you
[]
It is also a dual boot system with Windows XP on a
different drive.

That doesn't matter, as long as by "different drive" you mean different
physical drive.
[]
If he can dual-boot and has XP on a different physical drive, can't he
just boot into XP, and then use XP to copy or move (my preference move)
the '98 drive's contents to the new one - rather than having to get
another piece of software? The only problem I can see there is if the
dual-booting itself is based on the failing drive, but I _think_ that
should still copy over too.

(And yes, it would be wise to put at least as many partitions on the new
drive as are on the failing drive and move the data partition by
partition, in case any of the software expects things to be on certain
partitions. Note that the "drive" letters seen by XP for the various
partitions won't of course be the same as W98 booting from the failing
drive sees.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL(+++)IS-P--Ch+(p)Ar+T[?]H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

I hope you dream a pig.

"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote in message
...
In message , 98 Guy writes
Dennis wrote:

I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one
partition. The drive is going bad. I need to get that info
moved to a different drive but with Windows 98SE still functional.

No, you don't need win-98 to be functional. Most likely it soon won't
be.

You need to go out and obtain a new hard drive (80 gb is your best shot)
and connect it in place of your CD-rom drive.

Then go out and get norton ghost 2003 (bootable floppy version).

Then clone your current drive to the new drive. If you're lucky, you
[]
It is also a dual boot system with Windows XP on a
different drive.

That doesn't matter, as long as by "different drive" you mean different
physical drive.
[]
If he can dual-boot and has XP on a different physical drive, can't he
just boot into XP, and then use XP to copy or move (my preference move)
the '98 drive's contents to the new one - rather than having to get
another piece of software? The only problem I can see there is if the
dual-booting itself is based on the failing drive, but I _think_ that
should still copy over too.

(And yes, it would be wise to put at least as many partitions on the new
drive as are on the failing drive and move the data partition by
partition, in case any of the software expects things to be on certain
partitions. Note that the "drive" letters seen by XP for the various
partitions won't of course be the same as W98 booting from the failing
drive sees.)


That's a possibility!

The OP could create a folder on his XP drive
and xcopy /s/h/r/e/k the entire win98 installation to it.

Then reverse the procedure when the win98 drive is replaced
and formatted fat32

The mbr would first have to be re-written for the win98 drive

booting from a win98 floppy a sys C: would do it


then, booting up with the XP cd and from the repair console

issuing the command fixboot and possibly fixmbr

Thanks for the replies. I have Acronis True Image ver. 8.0 (build 826)
I hope that will do it...

Dennis wrote:
I have a partitioned C:\ drive with Windows 98SE on one partition.
The drive is going bad. I need to get that info moved to a different
drive but with Windows 98SE still functional. I can't go back and
do the upgrades anymore. Can I do it all at once? Do I have to partition
the new drive and do each partition seperately? What program can I use
to move everything and keep the programs functioning. It is also a dual
boot system with Windows XP on a different drive.

The drive tests good with any test I run on it but the computer locks up
with the drive running light on. The hard drive makes a clicking noise.

Any help greatly appreciated...

And make sure the version (of any such programs) you get is still
compatible
with Win98SE, of course.

I assumed it would be running from the XP environment since
the W98 disk is the sick one. The XP environment should be
able to recognize *both* disks and support both filesystems
as well. I would make the boot cd from XP also - since it is
the healthy one.

Well it didn't work. Acronis says it does it in four steps with the
last being the MBR written to the drive. After step three it said it
was done. I switched drives and CMOS said there was no Primary
Hard Drive and the second hard drive's name was scrambled letters
numbers and brackets. But, it showed both CD drives correctly.
When I tried to boot it up it said something about a slave disk
failure and said press F3 to continue. It then just stopped doing
anything. I switched the hard drive back and it booted right up.
I haven't tried booting to XP yet but Windows 98SE works. The hard
drive seems to be clicking more now.
I guess I'll have to import my mail info and start using XP all
the time.

FromTheRafters wrote:
And make sure the version (of any such programs) you get is still
compatible
with Win98SE, of course.

I assumed it would be running from the XP environment since
the W98 disk is the sick one. The XP environment should be
able to recognize *both* disks and support both filesystems
as well. I would make the boot cd from XP also - since it is
the healthy one.