Backing it all up

The external HD certainly sounds like it's on its way out. Can you still
access it and copy files off? For a replacement, I recommend a USB2 device
(most are) and if you don't have native USB2 on your system, get a USB2 card
(if you have a PCI slot available.)

As for the other drive... You can't get into it to save your data? Have you
run floppy-based diagnostics on it?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
My thanks to all for sharing ideas and experience, and especially to Gary
for the update CDs that made reinstalling Me SO much easier--I even have a
sane version of IE 6 going now :-)))) In truth, PhotoImpact is my very
worst reinstallation nightmare now because I vigorously customize its
toolbars and palettes and have been unable to root out the record it keeps
of my alterations/preferences in order to back them up.

I've downloaded both cloning programs suggested and will do the deed as
soon
as I get a replacement for my failed drive which is only a year and half
old. I have an 80 GB external USB drive that I used to make backups of
backups but it was very slow--"was" meaning that the last time I attempted
to use it it suddenly started making clicking noises (past its
warranty--no
RMA remedy for that).

Haven't I read here somewhere that putting a failed HD on ice might enable
salvaging some of its contents? I had a gut feeling to run SmartSync Pro
the night before the disk wouldn't boot (and I got the failure
notice)--but
I was too tired to honor it (if only if only!) I actually lost a mere 14
days worth of mail/info/artwork--but some of it I'd really like to have.

carol


"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Having three C drive failures in just two and a half years requiring me
to
reinstall and re-set up every program I use (which I'm doing now) makes
me
wonder if it's possible to copy/backup my entire new C drive to a
comparable slave for switching out when this new primary master also goes
belly-up down the road.

I've replaced enough internal hard drives now to know how to switch them
and
their jumper pins so the mechanics aren't a problem. But will this
duplicating idea work to give me a fresh bootable functioning Windows et
al
with a minimum of trouble?

My thanks in advance for your experience and insight.

calamity carol

Ah.. well, then that's great cuz' I was beginning to feel like a betrayer
or something. I haven't given up entirely on my ME system. It's just that I
haven't used it as much lately since I got my new (used) laptop - albiet
already pre-installed with XP - and I really need to do a proper full backup
of the aged WinMe desktop box before I replace some parts on it. Then the
plan is to implement Ubuntu on the old WinMe box. Interestingly, I don't
seem to be missing much on my ME pc. I don't really need the loads of old
email. I do however, miss my usual web design program and assocated
collection of files and widgets. Unfortunately, Me just hasn't been able to
cooperate with a couple of upgrades I put into the box recently.


Joan Archer wrote:
|| I see Heirloom has given you the answer Ogg, I think you'll find the
|| majority of the regulars in here run XP it's just that this is home
|| to so many of us that as well as helping out the people who still
|| run WinME, which my daughter does and it's part of my network, it's
|| a meeting place where we can still bounce ideas of each other
|| without getting flamed for going OT g

The only advice I can give on the laptops is to shop around and get the
features and equipment that you want. I ended up ordering a Dell Inspiron
1721, AMD Turion 64 x 2 TL-56 (1.8GHz/1MB)......it is the one my wife wanted
and I specified the hardware based on her intended use. It has a 17"
screen......considerably larger than my first desktop.
Heirloom, old and estimated ship
date of Aug 25th, now. We shall see.

"Eric" wrote in message
...
Any advice on the laptops?
I think it will be a while yet before I have money to spare for a new
machine, but I'm thinking of getting a laptop.

The big reason to get a desktop used to be upgradeability, but now that
you practically have to get a whole new machine to upgrade one part anyhow
with all of the changing technology (faster CPU or RAM or even HD may
require new MB...), that doesn't seem as much a factor.

The next reason to get a desktop was that it's cheaper for equivalent
processing power, but since everything is so fast now that the slowest new
laptop should have plenty of power for what I'd likely do with it, that's
not as much a factor.

The last (in no particular order) reason for wanting a desktop would be
the larger viewable area. Can I plug a new big flat panel monitor into
any new laptop? If so, the only remaining question would be if it's worth
(a little?) extra price to get the portability (an even cooler feature if
I can get fast enough secure enough internet for it through a wireless
router).

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Heirloom wrote:
|| You are correct, Ogg.......Joanie has XP.

Ah... ok, so I am not the only ex-ME lurker here. Well.. I still have
my ME machine in use, but I don't use it as much as I do my recently
acquired used Thinkpad (arrived with XPp). I just love the portability
of the darn thing. But I digress. Speaking of backups and cloning - for
ME then - what do the majority of folks here recommend that might still
be available/compatible for ME? I'm still debating on
TeraByteunlimited's ImageForDOS/Windows, or the free xxcopy.

Eric wrote:
|| Any advice on the laptops?
|| I think it will be a while yet before I have money to spare for a new
|| machine, but I'm thinking of getting a laptop.

Your "reasons.. comparisons" are quite valid. I juggled much of the same
things in my mind when I settled for the brand and model that I currently
have: Thinkpad T40p. My primary requirement was thinness and weight. I
didn't want anything heavier than 5 lbs. The TP is only 1" thick when
closed. A wider/larger screen would have been nice (it's only 14.1"), but
I've quite aclimated to it, no problem. A couple of fine selling points
that my laptop featured: an extended 9-cell battery (runs for 6 hours), and
the seller included the full Office 2007 suite. The seller had also
upgraded the unit with a much larger drive than the original (from 40gig,
5400rpm to 60gig 7200rpm), a total of 768meg ram up from 512meg. CDRW/DVD,
Intel Pentium M, integrated wireless. No dead pixels. 4 years old. Was
hard to ignore at $550.

|| The last (in no particular order) reason for wanting a desktop would
|| be the larger viewable area. Can I plug a new big flat panel
|| monitor into any new laptop? If so, the only remaining question
|| would be if it's worth (a little?) extra price to get the
|| portability (an even cooler feature if I can get fast enough secure
|| enough internet for it through a wireless router).

Most laptops allow adding external monitors and keyboards. I really like
the feel of the TP keyboard; I'm not moved to consider an external keyboard
at all Definitely consider "integrated wireless"; that way you don't have
to cope with an awkward PCMCIA card sticking out the side of your computer.

Wow.. this is w-a-y offtopic. I hope the ng police will forgive me.

Hi Gary

It's been a few months since the USB drive started complaining--and I
haven't had courage to plug it in since. I'm in the same kettle with the
recently failed C drive but will definitely attempt to give it a spin this
week: I need to talk with Samsung before its three years are up and I'm a
right terrible procrastinator :-b

Is there anything I need to do to it besides setting the jumpers for slavery
then plugging it in as D or E (have plugs for a secondary slave)? I haven't
run any diagnostics--boot screen told me it was a failure and the BIOS
couldn't detect it. Replacing it with a new drive has fixed me up,
hopefully for at least another year and a half ;-)

carol


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
The external HD certainly sounds like it's on its way out. Can you still
access it and copy files off? For a replacement, I recommend a USB2 device
(most are) and if you don't have native USB2 on your system, get a USB2
card
(if you have a PCI slot available.)

As for the other drive... You can't get into it to save your data? Have
you
run floppy-based diagnostics on it?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
My thanks to all for sharing ideas and experience, and especially to
Gary
for the update CDs that made reinstalling Me SO much easier--I even have
a
sane version of IE 6 going now :-)))) In truth, PhotoImpact is my very
worst reinstallation nightmare now because I vigorously customize its
toolbars and palettes and have been unable to root out the record it
keeps
of my alterations/preferences in order to back them up.

I've downloaded both cloning programs suggested and will do the deed as
soon
as I get a replacement for my failed drive which is only a year and half
old. I have an 80 GB external USB drive that I used to make backups of
backups but it was very slow--"was" meaning that the last time I
attempted
to use it it suddenly started making clicking noises (past its
warranty--no
RMA remedy for that).

Haven't I read here somewhere that putting a failed HD on ice might
enable
salvaging some of its contents? I had a gut feeling to run SmartSync
Pro
the night before the disk wouldn't boot (and I got the failure
notice)--but
I was too tired to honor it (if only if only!) I actually lost a mere
14
days worth of mail/info/artwork--but some of it I'd really like to have.

carol


"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Having three C drive failures in just two and a half years requiring me
to
reinstall and re-set up every program I use (which I'm doing now) makes
me
wonder if it's possible to copy/backup my entire new C drive to a
comparable slave for switching out when this new primary master also
goes
belly-up down the road.

I've replaced enough internal hard drives now to know how to switch
them
and
their jumper pins so the mechanics aren't a problem. But will this
duplicating idea work to give me a fresh bootable functioning Windows
et
al
with a minimum of trouble?

My thanks in advance for your experience and insight.

calamity carol

Not 100% sure, but I think that if BIOS can't see it, then neither will
diagnostics. If it isn't due to loose cabling, etc., then I'll bet that
drive is good and gone. Would take LOT of money to retrieve data. Now quit
procrastinating (says the king of procrastinators.)

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Hi Gary

It's been a few months since the USB drive started complaining--and I
haven't had courage to plug it in since. I'm in the same kettle with the
recently failed C drive but will definitely attempt to give it a spin this
week: I need to talk with Samsung before its three years are up and I'm a
right terrible procrastinator :-b

Is there anything I need to do to it besides setting the jumpers for
slavery
then plugging it in as D or E (have plugs for a secondary slave)? I
haven't
run any diagnostics--boot screen told me it was a failure and the BIOS
couldn't detect it. Replacing it with a new drive has fixed me up,
hopefully for at least another year and a half ;-)

carol


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
The external HD certainly sounds like it's on its way out. Can you still
access it and copy files off? For a replacement, I recommend a USB2
device
(most are) and if you don't have native USB2 on your system, get a USB2
card
(if you have a PCI slot available.)

As for the other drive... You can't get into it to save your data? Have
you
run floppy-based diagnostics on it?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
My thanks to all for sharing ideas and experience, and especially to
Gary
for the update CDs that made reinstalling Me SO much easier--I even
have
a
sane version of IE 6 going now :-)))) In truth, PhotoImpact is my very
worst reinstallation nightmare now because I vigorously customize its
toolbars and palettes and have been unable to root out the record it
keeps
of my alterations/preferences in order to back them up.

I've downloaded both cloning programs suggested and will do the deed as
soon
as I get a replacement for my failed drive which is only a year and
half
old. I have an 80 GB external USB drive that I used to make backups of
backups but it was very slow--"was" meaning that the last time I
attempted
to use it it suddenly started making clicking noises (past its
warranty--no
RMA remedy for that).

Haven't I read here somewhere that putting a failed HD on ice might
enable
salvaging some of its contents? I had a gut feeling to run SmartSync
Pro
the night before the disk wouldn't boot (and I got the failure
notice)--but
I was too tired to honor it (if only if only!) I actually lost a mere
14
days worth of mail/info/artwork--but some of it I'd really like to
have.

carol


"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Having three C drive failures in just two and a half years requiring
me
to
reinstall and re-set up every program I use (which I'm doing now)
makes
me
wonder if it's possible to copy/backup my entire new C drive to a
comparable slave for switching out when this new primary master also
goes
belly-up down the road.

I've replaced enough internal hard drives now to know how to switch
them
and
their jumper pins so the mechanics aren't a problem. But will this
duplicating idea work to give me a fresh bootable functioning Windows
et
al
with a minimum of trouble?

My thanks in advance for your experience and insight.

calamity carol

Not 100% sure, but I think that if BIOS can't see it, then neither will
diagnostics. If it isn't due to loose cabling, etc., then I'll bet that
drive is good and gone. Would take LOT of money to retrieve data. Now quit
procrastinating (says the king of procrastinators.)

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Hi Gary

It's been a few months since the USB drive started complaining--and I
haven't had courage to plug it in since. I'm in the same kettle with the
recently failed C drive but will definitely attempt to give it a spin this
week: I need to talk with Samsung before its three years are up and I'm a
right terrible procrastinator :-b

Is there anything I need to do to it besides setting the jumpers for
slavery
then plugging it in as D or E (have plugs for a secondary slave)? I
haven't
run any diagnostics--boot screen told me it was a failure and the BIOS
couldn't detect it. Replacing it with a new drive has fixed me up,
hopefully for at least another year and a half ;-)

carol


"Gary S. Terhune" none wrote in message
...
The external HD certainly sounds like it's on its way out. Can you still
access it and copy files off? For a replacement, I recommend a USB2
device
(most are) and if you don't have native USB2 on your system, get a USB2
card
(if you have a PCI slot available.)

As for the other drive... You can't get into it to save your data? Have
you
run floppy-based diagnostics on it?

--
Gary S. Terhune
MS-MVP Shell/User
www.grystmill.com

"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
My thanks to all for sharing ideas and experience, and especially to
Gary
for the update CDs that made reinstalling Me SO much easier--I even
have
a
sane version of IE 6 going now :-)))) In truth, PhotoImpact is my very
worst reinstallation nightmare now because I vigorously customize its
toolbars and palettes and have been unable to root out the record it
keeps
of my alterations/preferences in order to back them up.

I've downloaded both cloning programs suggested and will do the deed as
soon
as I get a replacement for my failed drive which is only a year and
half
old. I have an 80 GB external USB drive that I used to make backups of
backups but it was very slow--"was" meaning that the last time I
attempted
to use it it suddenly started making clicking noises (past its
warranty--no
RMA remedy for that).

Haven't I read here somewhere that putting a failed HD on ice might
enable
salvaging some of its contents? I had a gut feeling to run SmartSync
Pro
the night before the disk wouldn't boot (and I got the failure
notice)--but
I was too tired to honor it (if only if only!) I actually lost a mere
14
days worth of mail/info/artwork--but some of it I'd really like to
have.

carol


"caroloyl" wrote in message
...
Having three C drive failures in just two and a half years requiring
me
to
reinstall and re-set up every program I use (which I'm doing now)
makes
me
wonder if it's possible to copy/backup my entire new C drive to a
comparable slave for switching out when this new primary master also
goes
belly-up down the road.

I've replaced enough internal hard drives now to know how to switch
them
and
their jumper pins so the mechanics aren't a problem. But will this
duplicating idea work to give me a fresh bootable functioning Windows
et
al
with a minimum of trouble?

My thanks in advance for your experience and insight.

calamity carol

Hey Ogg,
Sounds like we went through the same steps. I, too, went with the 9
cell battery for extended runtime. This one had a free (yeah, right)
upgrade to 2G Ram and 160G HD, built-in wireless N, multi-card reader,
CD-DVD +-RW. However, the most important of all is that the case is RED!
(this was not one of MY requirements). I am real anxious to see how the
wife fares with the Vista. She thinks it's going to be a 'piece of
cake'......we shall see.
Heirloom, old and stickin' with the XP
for now

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Your "reasons.. comparisons" are quite valid. I juggled much of the same
things in my mind when I settled for the brand and model that I currently
have: Thinkpad T40p. My primary requirement was thinness and weight. I
didn't want anything heavier than 5 lbs. The TP is only 1" thick when
closed. A wider/larger screen would have been nice (it's only 14.1"),
but I've quite aclimated to it, no problem. A couple of fine selling
points that my laptop featured: an extended 9-cell battery (runs for 6
hours), and the seller included the full Office 2007 suite. The seller
had also upgraded the unit with a much larger drive than the original
(from 40gig, 5400rpm to 60gig 7200rpm), a total of 768meg ram up from
512meg. CDRW/DVD, Intel Pentium M, integrated wireless. No dead pixels.
4 years old. Was hard to ignore at $550.

Heirloom wrote:
|| multi-card reader, CD-DVD +-RW. However, the most important of all
|| is that the case is RED! (this was not one of MY requirements). I
|| am real anxious to see how the wife fares with the Vista. She
|| thinks it's going to be a 'piece of cake'......we shall see.

Anxious to hear how this is going!

I cancelled the Dell order and bought her an HP with the same features
except this one only has 1G Ram, but, it has a case, a lap stand/cushion,
web cam, external Bose speakers (really sound good!) and a wireless optical
mouse. She made it as far as, "How do I put the battery in?"
Heirloom, old and Lord help me

"Ogg" wrote in message
...
Heirloom wrote:
|| multi-card reader, CD-DVD +-RW. However, the most important of all
|| is that the case is RED! (this was not one of MY requirements). I
|| am real anxious to see how the wife fares with the Vista. She
|| thinks it's going to be a 'piece of cake'......we shall see.

Anxious to hear how this is going!