Dying HDD, can't clone, can't rescue - ideas?
Posted: November 14th, 2018, 10:59 am
Spoiler: I am about to replace this two year old PC - No, don't try to change my mind, I've already ordered the replacement. There's only so much computer aggro a simple non-techie man can take. But I'd be interested to hear of any suggestions as to how I might be able to rescue the machine at a later date, when I'm not quite so busy!
A couple of weeks ago I reported on 100% disk usage from my two year old Acer PC, accompanied by warnings that my disk was in trouble. And on super-slow performance and long time-lags between hitting a key and anything happening. With the enormous support of fellow Fools on this forum, I managed to get it CHKDSKing, something it really didn't seem to want to do at first.
However, despite repeated CHKDSK/f/r operations, it's still displaying 100% disk usage, and it won't make rescue discs or clone with Macrium Reflect. (I've got a lovely new HDD and a caddy ready to receive the clone, but the main data partition consistently fails to clone with an Error Code 7. Ditto with rescue disks onto USB, which all fail for no stated reason during the data-gathering process.)
I am also getting warnings that say “Failed to initialize Microsoft.net Framework 4 or higher”, and no amount of CHKDSKing or anything else seems to make a difference.
Sooooo……
I am a simple man, with no techie qualities whatsoever. Whatever it is that's gone wrong with my Windoze - and it sounds serious! - I am happy enough to accept that I might to better to dump my hard disk and start over with a new paid-for copy of Windows 10. All my data's backed up, so I'd have little to lose. But how do I do that?
From what I've gathered it isn't as simple as buying a copy of Windoze and bunging it in, because each copy of Win 10 is registered against the computer hardware (or something like that). Would I be able, for example, to borrow a working rescue disk from another computer and then use that to bootstrap a new HDD, and then get the proper version of Windows using my current licence code?
All this is for the future, though. Right now, I have work to do and I can't afford to wait, hence the new machine which arrives tomorrow. Wish me better luck this time.
A couple of weeks ago I reported on 100% disk usage from my two year old Acer PC, accompanied by warnings that my disk was in trouble. And on super-slow performance and long time-lags between hitting a key and anything happening. With the enormous support of fellow Fools on this forum, I managed to get it CHKDSKing, something it really didn't seem to want to do at first.
However, despite repeated CHKDSK/f/r operations, it's still displaying 100% disk usage, and it won't make rescue discs or clone with Macrium Reflect. (I've got a lovely new HDD and a caddy ready to receive the clone, but the main data partition consistently fails to clone with an Error Code 7. Ditto with rescue disks onto USB, which all fail for no stated reason during the data-gathering process.)
I am also getting warnings that say “Failed to initialize Microsoft.net Framework 4 or higher”, and no amount of CHKDSKing or anything else seems to make a difference.
Sooooo……
I am a simple man, with no techie qualities whatsoever. Whatever it is that's gone wrong with my Windoze - and it sounds serious! - I am happy enough to accept that I might to better to dump my hard disk and start over with a new paid-for copy of Windows 10. All my data's backed up, so I'd have little to lose. But how do I do that?
From what I've gathered it isn't as simple as buying a copy of Windoze and bunging it in, because each copy of Win 10 is registered against the computer hardware (or something like that). Would I be able, for example, to borrow a working rescue disk from another computer and then use that to bootstrap a new HDD, and then get the proper version of Windows using my current licence code?
All this is for the future, though. Right now, I have work to do and I can't afford to wait, hence the new machine which arrives tomorrow. Wish me better luck this time.