Torrejon

Hello,
I've not built any computers for about three years so I'm a bit rusty. I returned from vacation to find the HD in my HP Pavillion m8100n failed on boot up. Ran thru dr.dos and got error HD535-6. All sector blocks failed. Anyway the machine is out of warranty but I'd like to replace the drive and possibly recover some data. Situation is this....I do not have a hard copy of the operating system itself (Vista HP) only the recovery disc set. The drive that failed is a WD 5000AAKS. I can pick up a new drive but have never used a recovery disc set before as I've always built my own machines and just did a format/OS install after a failure.

I really like this machine but wonder if the recovery set will really put me back to "as new"? My free time is rather limited by working 12-14 hour days. I can buy an OS if need be but I'd hate to spend days hunting down drivers and software to get the functionality back on this machine. How would you guys proceed? Should I stick with a WD drive? Will I need to tweak the BIOS or anything to get the new HD recognised? I could even take the thing to Best Buy or someplace similar to be repaired but the last time I did that (13yrs ago) the experience caused me to learn to build my own machines!

Any and all responses will be appreciated.
Bill

makinu1der2

Hello,

Once you replace the drive the recovery disc set will be sufficient. After the reinstalling

the system you should have the basic Drivers but you will need to reinstall all the

updates and programs that you have installed.

You can try and slave the old drive to the system in order to recover the data from

the failed drive. As far as recommended drives you can stay with the WD.

Torrejon

Thanks for the response. I created and verified the recovery discs the day I got the machine so I hope they are useable. Can I assume that I can boot and format the new drive from the recovery set?

Are the WD Caviar series drives pretty reliable? It was a Caviar drive that failed but WD drives have always been pretty reliable for me.
Thanks,
Bill

grimx133

The recovery should put it back to factory condition.

WD makes decent drives, the 640GB Caviar Black is probably the best for size/price/performance right now. On month end sale at newegg right now, at least it still shows it. May end in a couple hours when it's june on the west coast.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136319

Torrejon

Thanks for the reply and the tip. I think I'll order that drive from Newegg. Can you also suggest a reliable external backup drive atleast 500GB? I have an old 100GB drive for pictures & files but recently ripped my 400+ CD collection to a 500GB internal drive that needs backup. I'd prefer something powered by the USB bus.
Thanks,
Bill

grimx133

Externals are ok, but shouldn't be run as a replacement for an internal. They are great for backup, but should be unplugged when not being used for that purpose. Very high failure rate for drives which are left always connected, but it's usually in the cases usb interface. As you probably know, an external hard drive is an internal drive in a hard drive enclosure. They tend to get hot sealed up in there.
I have a LaCie 1TB and an Iomega 500GB, both seem to work, but I rarely connect them. Then again, I have 5 internal hdd's and one dvd burner on my motherboards 6 sata ports.
Any of the brands would be fine, but I would get one that's made by a hard drive manufacturer, were I ever to get another, unlikely as that is.
You are much better off putting in another internal, unless you really need the portability to move data between platforms.

Torrejon

I appreciate all the responses. Two new 640GB drives are on the way! Now I just hope the darn back up disk set is good!

What sort of software do people use for automatic backups? For my text and picture files I just manually back them up to small drive as needed but for my music I'd rather automate that process as I'm usually in a hurry when ripping CD's.
Thanks,
Bill