Salvaging failing laptop HD contents w/o System Install CD

gpetty · 10-08-2008, 10:45 PM

About six months ago, I bought a reconditioned Dell Latitude D505 laptop, and it came with WinXP installed but no system installation CD, and no c:/I386 folder.

Lately, my internal HD has been acting flaky, and I've succeeded in copying all of the data files on it (both system and personal) to an external USB HD using xxClone. I also bought a replacement internal HD. Unfortunately, since the external USB drive isn't bootable, I can't figure out how I'm going to transfer everything from the old internal HD to the new one without buying a brand new copy of Windows XP to install on the latter.

Can anyone suggest a way around this problem?

**BCCOMP** · 10-08-2008, 11:32 PM

Have you tried contacting Dell for a replacement XP CD?
Did you make an exact copy (Clone) of your HD to the external HD?
If so you may be able to use this (just an example) to transfer your external HD files to your new HD and the install the new HD in your lappy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...%2FIDE+adapter

The ones listed at the beginning of the list.

You will need a working computer to do this.
Hope this helps.
Bill

TheShadowFl · 10-09-2008, 04:32 AM

For a technician with a properly outfitted repair shop, that's a piece of cake, but, for a computer user, sitting at home it's a bit more complicated.

First off you need a good cloning program like Norton's Ghost, or the cloning software from Maxtor or Seagate on a bootable CD.

Then you could do a "Disk to Image" of your old drive, storing the image file on an external USB drive.

Then remove the old drive and replace it with a new one.
Reboot the system with the Bootable CD, mentioned above, and do a restore of the backup "Disk Image" to the new drive. Job done.

As a working PC-tech, I do this stuff quite often. But I also have Ghost on a boot disk and an External USB hard drive that I can use in the process.

There are several other options available to me, but what I've outlined here is probably the simplest.

Good Luck,
The Shadow

10-08-2008, 10:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
gpetty Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 1 OS: WinXP	Salvaging failing laptop HD contents w/o System Install CD About six months ago, I bought a reconditioned Dell Latitude D505 laptop, and it came with WinXP installed but no system installation CD, and no c:/I386 folder. Lately, my internal HD has been acting flaky, and I've succeeded in copying all of the data files on it (both system and personal) to an external USB HD using xxClone. I also bought a replacement internal HD. Unfortunately, since the external USB drive isn't bootable, I can't figure out how I'm going to transfer everything from the old internal HD to the new one without buying a brand new copy of Windows XP to install on the latter. Can anyone suggest a way around this problem?

10-08-2008, 11:32 PM	#2 (permalink)
BCCOMP Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New York Posts: 5,788 OS: Win XP SP3 / Windows 7 Beta / Open Suse My System	Re: Salvaging failing laptop HD contents w/o System Install CD Have you tried contacting Dell for a replacement XP CD? Did you make an exact copy (Clone) of your HD to the external HD? If so you may be able to use this (just an example) to transfer your external HD files to your new HD and the install the new HD in your lappy. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...%2FIDE+adapter The ones listed at the beginning of the list. You will need a working computer to do this. Hope this helps. Bill __________________ PC Wizard \| Everest \| Power supply info \| Memtest86+ \| PC Running Slow Speedfan Last edited by BCCOMP; 10-08-2008 at 11:34 PM.

10-09-2008, 04:32 AM	#3 (permalink)
TheShadowFl Retired PC Builder Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Central Florida Posts: 289 OS: XP-SP3, Vista Ult. 64, Win-7/64	Re: Salvaging failing laptop HD contents w/o System Install CD For a technician with a properly outfitted repair shop, that's a piece of cake, but, for a computer user, sitting at home it's a bit more complicated. First off you need a good cloning program like Norton's Ghost, or the cloning software from Maxtor or Seagate on a bootable CD. Then you could do a "Disk to Image" of your old drive, storing the image file on an external USB drive. Then remove the old drive and replace it with a new one. Reboot the system with the Bootable CD, mentioned above, and do a restore of the backup "Disk Image" to the new drive. Job done. As a working PC-tech, I do this stuff quite often. But I also have Ghost on a boot disk and an External USB hard drive that I can use in the process. There are several other options available to me, but what I've outlined here is probably the simplest. Good Luck, The Shadow __________________ A person with experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument.