Hard drive questions and BSOD

[Dark Star Balla]

I have a failing hard drive in my dell Dim 4400 I just bought a ext drive and want to completely move "everything" over to it and just operate from it. Until/if I decide to get another internal drive. First I need to know if this is possible? 2ndly I have move all my audio/video/image & text files but can't figure out how to move all operational/program files over so my pc is just functioning of off this Goflex drive.

 

[EXCellR8]

There's a few things you're missing here in order to have the computer run completely off of the external HDD. While it is possible to do (boot from USB device etc..) simply copying all of the contents to the drive will not accomplish what you are looking to do. In order for the drive to be bootable, it needs a working MBR (master boot record) cloned from the original/internal drive and the easiest way to do that is with imaging software. This specialized type of software clones drive structures so they can be applied to other drives and/or partitions.

Using the image software like True Image is very easy and is by far the most effective way of cloning disks quickly and efficiently. Once the external drive, which is actually the same exact thing as an internal drive (it's just in it's own housing), has been written with the partition data and MBR from the original drive, you should be able to boot from it easily. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is and can be done in a matter of a few hours depending on the size of the data partition and how fast the hardware is.

 

[Dark Star Balla]

The dreaded blue screen!!

I have a strong suspicion this is a hard drive error but my pc just went thru a shut down and the error I recieved was *** Stop: (0x0000008E, C0XC0000005, 0XBF953E10, 0XBA4D3C00, 0X00000000) AND...
Win32K.SYS - Address BF953E10 base at BF800000.dATEsTAMP 4cc6d6a2

Can anyone tell me what this means and how/if I can repair it?
BTW... I'm using win xp on a dell dim 4400

Thanks in advance.

 

[Route44]

What is the make of your harddrive?

How to find and post your Minidump Files:

My Computer > C Drive > Windows Folder > Minidump Folder > Minidump Files.

It is these files that we need (not the folder). Attach to your next post the five most recent dumps. Notice the Manage Attachments button at the bottom when you go to post the next time. You can Zip up to five files per Zip; if you only have one or two you don’t need to zip them, just attach as is. Please do us a favor and don’t Zip each one individually.

 

[Dark Star Balla]

Hi thanks for replying, My internal drive is a seagate barracuda 160gb my ext is a go flex 2tb. attached are my mini dump files

 

[Route44]

Nothing definitive was cited, however both errors are 0x8E and these are almost always caused by hardware. They can especially be strong indicators of corrupted memory.

But do a harddrive diagnostic first. Go to Seagate's website and search for their free harddrive diagnostic utility called Seatools.

1. Download to your desktop and burn to a CD.

2. Place CD in your DVD drive and reboot (you may hae to place yopur DVD drive as First Botable in your BIOS).

3. Almost immediately after reboot the utility will take over. Do the following tests in this order: SMART, Short DST, and especially the Long DST.

* Get back to us with the results.

 

[Dark Star Balla]

Thanks, I did the seatools tests about a week ago (from my desktop tho, not from a cd). I failed the smart & passed the short & long. But I will do again. I also tested the RAM and it tested fine. I had a prob with the RAM 6 months ago so I replaced it. BTW.... I recently replaced the CMOS Battery. I had to load the default BIOS if that matters. Is there a software I can use to test my mother board & processor?

 

[Route44]

My main concern here is that it failed the SMART test.

 

[Dark Star Balla]

I need a good freeware that'll let me easily take an image copy of my drive if I can get it booted back up. It finally died lastnight and now seems I can't get it to boot up but I'm sure I can boot from the windows cd?

 

[Dark Star Balla]

This is so freaking weird & annoying!!!!!! I failed smart test, so I did the seatools for dos and passed the short & long test!?!?!?!?! I don't get it!! Anything?? Anyone??

 

[Route44]

Any of those tests that fail is indicating a failing harddrive. You could try to boot from a CD or slave that drive to another system and attempt to access via that system.

I have used the following product with success to clone harddrives and I know those that use it even to access crashed drives (but I've never done that before): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1002&cm_re=apricorn_ez-_-12-161-002-_-Product

If you decide to give it a try make sure yopu get it with the latest released software. As the feedback indicates it is either a great product or it won't work for you.

 

[Dark Star Balla]

Thanks Route. I can access the drive. I'm on it now but it locks my system up after a while and I have to do a reboot. I'm trying to figure out if I can back up my programs to the point where I can just restore them to a new drive once I get one. I have an ext drive but was told I could not use it as my main drive with windows XP. So I will have to research how to swap out a HDD.Just want to avoid losing all my programs & settings. I've backed up my prog folder but not sure if that's all I need to do.