Need help, computer predicting drive failure.

[timdog4life]

ok I need some help.
When I start the computer up it gives this warning.

"SMART failure predicted on Primary Master
Immediately back up your data and replace Hard Drive
Failure may be imminent

Press f2 to continue, press f1 to enter setup."

When I enter setup im given a list of settings for the hardware but nothing i saw that would allow for a backup. And when I hit f2 to continue I get a black screen .....is my drive already toast?

If not where can I go/ what can I do to do a backup so I dont lose everything?

 

[Kage]

You could try disabling Smart in bios to stop this warning to see if you can get to windows safely (press del when you start computer up), and find somethnig about the smart feature, disable it, and then go to save and exit.

If you can't get to windows still, try going to safe mode by pressing f8 at startup, and choose safemode from the list.

Have you got a cd/dvd copier you could drag files to? and just burn a disc to save important files?
have you got a seperate hard drive you could connect in Slave, and drag files to this to save them?
Have you by any chance got a mp3 hard disc drive you could copy data to? There must be something you can back data up with... nero for example has a few if you have it with a cd/dvd burner.
Norton Ghost is another if you have the norton system works on your computer, but again needs something to write the data to...

Once your up in windows, I'm sure you'll think of something. How big a hard drive have you got to back up? How many files are irriplacable?

After you are safe by backing up important files, we can then think of a way of maybe fixing the drive, but the most important thing is backup at the moment!

Hope we can help

 

[timdog4life]

thanks for your quick response.

Its only a 40gb drive and nothing on there is irreplacable, but theres a large collection of mp3s I'd rather not have to download again, plus a lot of my little brothers artwork, so it wouldnt be devistating if I cant get them back but I'd realy like to save them if I can.

I have another drive I can slave in as well as a cd burner drive. Right now my problem is just getting the computer to get to windows because it keeps hanging at the warning screen.

Im going to go try your suggestions and let you know how it turns out. Thanks.

 

[Kage]

That'd count as irreplaceble data i'd think to me.

Okay, I hope those work.

In that case, connecting another drive to slave would be the easiest option and could be done fastest if it were at the brink of going.
After you have done that, you could then backup the files to cd from the slave drive as a precaution just incase this goes (remember to never trust hard drives as a means of long term storage), and you should then be set.

MP3's could be easily copied, as for the artwork, and so can't be hard to split to maybe 5-10 discs if need be

 

[timdog4life]

i got the computer to boot into safe mode and Im just saving everything to cd via the burner. Thanks for your help I appreciate it.

 

[Kage]

No probs and thats the safest option
How many discs will you need approx? *imagines a shed full hehe*, no you shouldn't need that much...
Did you need to disable SMART to get into safe mode?

Good luck