Once you've reloaded Windows, connect the failed drive in place of your CD/DVD drive. Then see what you can read - if the drive isn't too far gone, you may be able to recover some or all of your data.
If you can't read the drive at all, you'll then have to weigh the cost of data recovery.
I would strongly suggest buying an external hard drive and a copy of Acronis True Image for making backups in the future. The cost is low (as little as $100), far lower than data recovery (which can easily run $2,500+).
First, you replace the failed hard drive, with the new drive, reload windows, install all the updates, etc, and after the system is working to your satisfaction, install the failed drive as the secondary and see if you can transfer the files to the new C:/ drive.
Bev.
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I'm confused, do I connect the new hard drive and reload windows, or do that with the failed drive (I don't think I can do that since I can't get past the blue error screen)
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But it's not big enough to fit disks... Will I have to use the old hard drive for reading disks or can I use an external drive I recently got for burning, etc.
Alright, I've re-installed windows and the new hard drive, and I inserted the old one into the open bay. I connected it with the grey connector.
The computer recognizes it as disk drive "E", when I go to click on it, it asks if I want to format it. When I press OK, it goes on to a window that gives me several options, after pressing ok, it asks if it is sure I want to delete all files/data on the disk.
You do NOT want to format the second E:/ hard drive, formatting will erase all the data, including My Documents.
Go to My Computer, right click the E:/ drive, click Open and select Documents and Settings and you should find My Documents files and folders. Open it and right click the file or folder and drag it to the new hard drive's My Documents.
You can only transfer files, all programs and applications must be reinstalled from their disks or from the publisher's website.
Bev.
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ejn63
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Posted June 16th, 2007 17:00