Help needed with setting up a new HDD

[ioan]

Hi everyone,

Lately I got lot of noises coming from my laptops HDD and it also got slower. So I decided that before it goes wheels up I'll change it.
I've still got 10 months Dell warranty (with next day on site intervention) but I'm not in France for another 3 weeks or so and I have no idea if having it serviced in Austria will work or not without lots of headaches.

So I bought myself a new and better one, connected it to the PC through an external USB docking station and made a "copy" of it using Norton Ghost.
Restarted the Laptop and chose to boot from USB device, well it didn't work.

I mention that the HDD isn't the same make or size with the previous one, but given that I didn't install it yet in the HDD bay but used it from a connected USB station I don't understand why it didn't worked.

I might wait till I get back to France and call Dell to service it there, but if it fails during this period I would like to be bale to continue working on the same config from my new HDD.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

PS: My PC is a Dell Inspiron 640M, old HDD is a 120 Gb Samsung (5400rpm) new one is a 250 Seagate Mometus (7200 rpm).

[Daniel]

Hi everyone,

Lately I got lot of noises coming from my laptops HDD and it also got slower. So I decided that before it goes wheels up I'll change it.
I've still got 10 months Dell warranty (with next day on site intervention) but I'm not in France for another 3 weeks or so and I have no idea if having it serviced in Austria will work or not without lots of headaches.

So I bought myself a new and better one, connected it to the PC through an external USB docking station and made a "copy" of it using Norton Ghost.
Restarted the Laptop and chose to boot from USB device, well it didn't work.

I mention that the HDD isn't the same make or size with the previous one, but given that I didn't install it yet in the HDD bay but used it from a connected USB station I don't understand why it didn't worked.

I might wait till I get back to France and call Dell to service it there, but if it fails during this period I would like to be bale to continue working on the same config from my new HDD.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

PS: My PC is a Dell Inspiron 640M, old HDD is a 120 Gb Samsung (5400rpm) new one is a 250 Seagate Mometus (7200 rpm).
Could you not just ghost the 120gb partition over to the 250 gb drive and just work like that as a temporary solution till you get back home?

The other thing I'd try would be to physically swap the drives over. Sometimes laptops can be picky about what they boot up on. It could be something as simple as your laptop doesn't like the chipset on the USB interface in the enclosure. The ghosting may have been successful and the drive may work just fine in the laptop.

[ioan]

Hi Daniel, thanks for your reply! :)


Could you not just ghost the 120gb partition over to the 250 gb drive and just work like that as a temporary solution till you get back home?

Might be, what I did was to ask Norton Ghost to make an exact copy of one hard on the other, with the same number of partition and all the data on them.
This way I didn't have to make the partitions myself and than ghost every one of them separately.



The other thing I'd try would be to physically swap the drives over. Sometimes laptops can be picky about what they boot up on. It could be something as simple as your laptop doesn't like the chipset on the USB interface in the enclosure. The ghosting may have been successful and the drive may work just fine in the laptop.

I might do that to, but I was curious and I hit F2 t the start-up and Dell states that I can't change the HDD properties, so I might have problem when swapping the physical disks.

Anyway I'll give it a go, if it doesn't work I'll try my hand with Acronis. The only problem is that I'm losing lots of time fiddling around.

[Daniel]

Hi Daniel, thanks for your reply! :)



Might be, what I did was to ask Norton Ghost to make an exact copy of one hard on the other, with the same number of partition and all the data on them.
This way I didn't have to make the partitions myself and than ghost every one of them separately.



I might do that to, but I was curious and I hit F2 t the start-up and Dell states that I can't change the HDD properties, so I might have problem when swapping the physical disks.

Anyway I'll give it a go, if it doesn't work I'll try my hand with Acronis. The only problem is that I'm losing lots of time fiddling around.
It's right about now you're probably thinking "I should have bought one of those Macs that's machined out of a solid bit of aluminium so that if this happened I would have to take it to an Apple shop and send it off for repair rather than just (hopefully) being able to swap the hard drives out and get going that way"

Best of luck anyway :)

[ioan]

It's right about now you're probably thinking "I should have bought one of those Macs that's machined out of a solid bit of aluminium so that if this happened I would have to take it to an Apple shop and send it off for repair rather than just (hopefully) being able to swap the hard drives out and get going that way"

Best of luck anyway :)

I don't think I'll ever buy a Mac computer, not if I want to work with it, maybe for having a fancy piece for exposing it beside my aquarium! ;)

[ioan]

Installed the new hard drive in the laptop and it runs like if it was the original, it starts up fine, windows starts like always, but it's still slow and is noisier than the Samsung (never stops making small noises even when idle) but at least it isn't like if it's being scratched with a nail.

Do you have any idea if I can change it's setup somewhere or using some kind of controller?!

[Daniel]

Installed the new hard drive in the laptop and it runs like if it was the original, it starts up fine, windows starts like always, but it's still slow and is noisier than the Samsung (never stops making small noises even when idle) but at least it isn't like if it's being scratched with a nail.

Do you have any idea if I can change it's setup somewhere or using some kind of controller?!
Strange..... hard drive could be DOA? See Dell site for any BIOS updates and see BIOS for any control over hard drive :)

[ioan]

Strange..... hard drive could be DOA? See Dell site for any BIOS updates and see BIOS for any control over hard drive :)

Don't know, it ticks every 2 seconds, it's not very strong but still very annoying, when one tries to work.

Took a look on the web and even found another person who posted a you tube video with the exact same HDD doing the very same noise. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mxEfzB36EU

Seagate says it's because it's a faulty drive, but people who got a new in exchange report the same problem.

Talk about having a nightmare because of a simple HDD change.

[markabilly]

Seagate???
That may explain it, because until several years a go, a geek friend tells that seagate was the very best on the market (in his opinion) for non-laptop and external HD.

Because of photos and videos, I have purchased and continually used some 8 external HD from seagate ranging from 120 gb to 500 gb of a larger older configuration that the current "free-agent" version. These were in a container or case than was thicker than the free agent and had air vents (instead of a solid black case with the pretty yellow light). Not one problem despite several times, some getting dropped and such. Neat thing was to diasey chain using one firewire connection. Incredible speed for up to 1,5t total.

Then bought three of the new external "free-agents" of 750 gb each as a replacement. They were even faster and quicker access than the HD in any of my three comps, including the latest and greatest HP. Incredible.

Then two of them freeagents started making those same noises described here after about six months of use or less, many photos started becoming corrupted (sometimes half the photo would disappear or just would not open) and finally one died...almsot exactly one year after purchase (Thanksgiving-Christmas last year). and I think the other is also headed for the grave yard. The other was a back up that had limited use.

Friend tells me that the new "free agents", use HD technology from their laptop HDs models, run much hotter (they do) and have a history of breaking down mechanically due to the size of components and heat- he thinks---. They are also hard to turn off with the switch in the base.

Also says the new HD models on both external and laptops, make the noise almost from the beginning, but it is hard to hear (he is right about that) and it is only when the noise volume goes up, and the noises become rougher that you need to worry....

Meanwhile the older models just keep running fine, no corrupted files, no noises, no nothing.

I love the concept of external HDs, and the newer seagates are an absolute monster, running fast, a great thing, until they start making these noises and corrupting files.....

I would buy a different maker now---except that none offer the firewire daisey chain or e-sata connections (both of which are much faster then USB)....meanwhile back to using those old models without a bit of problems...

[Daniel]

I would buy a different maker now---except that none offer the firewire daisey chain or e-sata connections (both of which are much faster then USB)....meanwhile back to using those old models without a bit of problems...

You can buy extrenal HDD cases and just choose your drive to go in :) I had a bit of chance with my last HDD and went for a Samsung and it seems to be decent enough apart from the "whoooooop" noise when it spins up. Even my 10k Raptor sounds quieter when spinning up. My next drive will be a SSD, so no more spinning bit to deal with though I will continue to use conventional drives as storage.