Hi all,

Well it looks as though my trusty Maxtor C: drive is getting close to shuffling off to that great PC in the sky (It's about 7 years old i think!!!). A couple of days ago the whole system started running very very slowly. I'd just installed a webcam so uninstalled it (took nearly an hour to uninstall the cam and remove the software the PC had gotten so slow!!!) rebooted but i still have a very slow sysytem. It takes approx 5 minutes for the PC to boot to the XP log-in page then another 5 mins or so to load everything up into windows..... Used to take about 3 mins for the lot.

I've carried out a system virus check with nothing found and checked the defrag info on the drive which also comes back ok..... That took 20-odd minutes just to check the drive!!!

I've tried running some diagnostic software but the tests on the C: drive take so long they just abort or come back as failed compared to my other drives that all pass in a minute or so.

So..... On to my question..... Before it dies completely i'm wanting to make a ghost of the C: drive to put onto my other IDE hard drive which currently contains my MP3 collection..... I'm gonna move the mp3's onto my SATA drive and use what is now my second IDE drive as the new C: drive.

What ghosting software do people recommend??? The only one i can think of is Norton Ghost but i've never been a fan of Norton so wondered if there were any other good ghosting apps out there??? If Norton is the best then i'll go for that though. It will simply be a case of ghosting between the two IDE drives with no need for Sata or USB2.0 drive support (I have 2xIDE drives, 1 SATA drive & 1 USB 2.0 external drive)

Cheers

Dave.

Used to use Ghost - then found my version (Ghost 2003) didn't support SATA drives so I tried out Acronis TrueImage Home v11xxx (had tried previous versions a long time ago but the bootup CDs etc were slightly buggy).

TrueImage hits the spot and is far less bloated than the new Ghost versions (quite a few, too, so it can get confusing).

Complete hard disk drive copy, cloning and image backup software: computer files and disk copying

Pointed another Brisky member to this and he reckons it's the best thing since sliced bread - which it is

I'll give it a whirl...... Am i gonna have to sit and babysit it or is it pretty user friendly etc??? First time i've ever had to ghost a drive in a situation like this..... As i said before the drive is at least 7 years old :eek::eek::eek:

I'm looking into upgrading the PC next year so just ghosting over to my other IDE drive after shifting the stuff off that onto one of the other two drives should keep me going without having to fit another HD into this system. Although this system is now 4 years old and still going..... Just shows how slightly future proof i made it:D:D:D Although it's gaming days are pretty much on the back burner since i got the xbox 360.

Cheers

Dave.

I'll give it a whirl...... Am i gonna have to sit and babysit it or is it pretty user friendly etc???

I'd say pretty user-friendly, once you've set all the options up, compression, password etc.

My C drive is around 3GB occupied. With 3.2GHz DuoCore it takes only a few minutes to create a backup with high compression (which it does whilst you're still in Windows BTW, of around 1.3GB) and verify the backup. Acronis will create bootable media for you to - around 50MB on a CD.

To restore to my C partition Acronis has to reboot and do the restore in it's own version of DOS (with mouse usable etc) - basically you tell it to restore and then a few minutes later Windows boots up into your restored backup.

I'd say pretty user-friendly, once you've set all the options up, compression, password etc.

My C drive is around 3GB occupied. With 3.2GHz DuoCore it takes only a few minutes to create a backup with high compression (which it does whilst you're still in Windows BTW, of around 1.3GB) and verify the backup. Acronis will create bootable media for you to - around 50MB on a CD.

To restore to my C partition Acronis has to reboot and do the restore in it's own version of DOS (with mouse usable etc) - basically you tell it to restore and then a few minutes later Windows boots up into your restored backup.

I'm not wanting it to perfoem back-ups as such just to make a complete ghost of one drive onto another.....

Sooooooo Will it perform a ghost of my current 40gig C: (approx 32gig used) onto my second IDE drive (80gig drive) so i can then power down remove the 40 gig drive and switch the 80 gig slave to a master to become the new C: power up and away???

Might just be me being thick at this time of night.....

Cheers

Dave.

Sooooooo Will it perform a ghost of my current 40gig C: (approx 32gig used) onto my second IDE drive (80gig drive) so i can then power down remove the 40 gig drive and switch the 80 gig slave to a master to become the new C: power up and away???

Might just be me being thick at this time of night.....

Cheers

Dave.

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from their site. Just checked my version and under Drive Tools - yes you can do the above operations (just never had to so haven't used this option)

from their site. Just checked my version and under Drive Tools - yes you can do the above operations (just never had to so haven't used this option)

Cheers fella :thumbup:

Dave.

Might be worth downloading Maxtor's Powermax software just to check the drive out, sometimes it can correct the problem. Either way should tell you if your drive is knackered or not.

Might be worth downloading Maxtor's Powermax software just to check the drive out, sometimes it can correct the problem. Either way should tell you if your drive is knackered or not.

I've tried that..... You can no longer get Powermax as Maxtor have been bought by Seagate so you now use the the Seagate SeaTools software. When using this software with the drive it just sits there for about 5 mins then says it fails the test..... The other IDE drive passes in a minute or so and is twice the size.

Cheers

Dave.

I'm not wanting it to perfoem back-ups as such just to make a complete ghost of one drive onto another.....

Sooooooo Will it perform a ghost of my current 40gig C: (approx 32gig used) onto my second IDE drive (80gig drive) so i can then power down remove the 40 gig drive and switch the 80 gig slave to a master to become the new C: power up and away???

Providing you can image the data off to the 80Gig drive then yes that shouldn't be a problem. The imaging software should resize the partition to make full use of the bigger drive as well.

I've tried that..... You can no longer get Powermax as Maxtor have been bought by Seagate so you now use the the Seagate SeaTools software. When using this software with the drive it just sits there for about 5 mins then says it fails the test..... The other IDE drive passes in a minute or so and is twice the size.

Bummer that does sound knackered. :(

What about getting a large HD and re-installing windows on that then moving al your documents, settings, mp3s etc onto the bigger drive

I done that with mine. I now have my main 500GB and a 200GB to back up my documents, photos and music

OK you'll have to re-install your programs

But this is a thread from another forum I post on that may prove useful

Clicky

What about getting a large HD and re-installing windows on that then moving al your documents, settings, mp3s etc onto the bigger drive

I done that with mine. I now have my main 500GB and a 200GB to back up my documents, photos and music

OK you'll have to re-install your programs

But this is a thread from another forum I post on that may prove useful

Clicky

There is that option but i'm planning on keeping this PC going till next year so i'll have the hassle of re-installing everything then.

As it stands at the minute i have 4 hard drives on the PC.....

C: - 40 gig IDE drive which looks to be on it's last legs.

F: - 80 gig IDE drive which only has 30-odd gig of mp3's on it.

J: - 250 gig SATA drive which has games & downloads on it.

M: - 300 gig USB2.0 Seagate FreeAgent external drive which has back-ups of all my important stuff / mp3's on it.

There's also the X: which is just a 32gig FAT32 partition of the FreeAgent drive that is used for XBOX360 purposes.

As i built this PC back in November 2003 i was thinking of upgrading it next year anyway. To be honest it may last a little longer as i don't use it for new games etc..... as i got an XBOX360 last christmas so the PC is only used for older games and mainly Internet use. The easiest / cheapest option is for me to move the mp3's off the F: drive to the J: drive ghost the C: on to the F: and remove the old C:. I may then create a 40gig partition on the NEW C: drive and label it F: and move the mp3's back onto that so the XBOX360 & laptop still see an F: with mp3's on it over the wireless LAN in the house. The other option is to look out for a good price on say a 80-160gig IDE drive and install that at some point as a new F: etc....

Cheers

Dave.

You don't need to re-install windows etc on a new disk (unless of course your current install is broken) simply image your boot drive onto a newer bigger drive then boot from that instead, it's a much quicker and easier way of doing things.

All sorted....... I used Acronis True Image to ghost the old C: drive to the F: drive then removed the old Maxtor drive and i'm now running off the Seagate 80gig drive. I know the main drop in performance only occured a few days ago but the old drive had obviously been slowly getting worse before that.... Programs are starting up a lot faster than they were off the old drive. The Seagate drive is no spring chicken either as it's around 4 years old itself. But it'll do till i get hold of a new IDE drive in the next few months.

As you can see from the piccy the Maxtor drive had a good old innings and lasted slightly past it's design life by a year or two. :thumbup::thumbup:

RIP Little ol' Maxxy.... :)

Cheers

Dave.