Newbie questions on installing new hard drive

[walkeropus]

Hi - hope I am in the right place to ask a couple of questions about installing a new hard drive. My current system keeps giving me the blue screen if I let it run all night. Not sure what gremlins are operating at night but suspect I need to replace my hard drive.

I have lots of software on the hard drive that would be next to impossible to re-install. My questions are:

can I copy the soon to be old drive to the new drive and expect everything to run?
Should I do a new Windows install on the new drive, keep the second as a secondary and if so, will be able to run the programs from that drive without problem?
does it make sense to partition a newer larger drive and then I could run Vista on the new partition and still keep WinXP for my old programs that will not run on Vista

Lots of questions. Hope someone doesn't mind answering and guiding in this process!

Thanks

 

[Trevatwork]

1. can I copy the soon to be old drive to the new drive and expect everything to run?

Yes you can use software to copy your old drive to the new drive all programs will run as before norton ghost is good also maxblast for maxtor hardrive works to.

2. Should I do a new Windows install on the new drive, keep the second as a secondary and if so, will be able to run the programs from that drive without problem?

This will not work for keeping your programs without reinstalling them on the new windows drive. You would still have files but progs would need to be reinstalled.

3. does it make sense to partition a newer larger drive and then I could run Vista on the new partition and still keep WinXP for my old programs that will not run on Vista

That could work, you also might want to check out virtual pc from the microsoft site.


Hope this helps

Trevor

 

[wolluf]

One thing I'd note - in my experience, hard drives rarely cause blue screens. You can run the current drive manufacturer's diagnostic to check out the drive (usually available from their website - eg, powermax for maxtor). So, my advice would be to find the cause of the blue screens - otherwise you will probably still get them after transferring system (btw, the new drive manufacturer will almost certainly have a utility to clone old to new drive, so you don't need to buy one). Likely causes are other bad hardware (RAM is a favourite, but can be any), virus/spyware infection or bad driver.

Would agree with virtual PC suggestion (2007 version will run in vista) - you could load Vista in virtual machine until its settled down.

 

[walkeropus]

Wolluf - interesting point. Someone told me it was likely my hard drive so I just believed them. I recently added more RAM but was blue screening long before that. What is odd, is that the message indicates a different reason each time so hard drive sounded reasonable.

I will also look in the virtual machine. May be the thing I need to work with my old programs yets stay on top of things.

Thanks to both of you!

 

[stduc]

I had a machine that used to bluescreen occasionally overnight - always the same though - the dreaded IRQ less than or equal .... To cut a long story short it turned out to be a bad NIC.

You want to consider analysing your crash dumps.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx

It is probably worth your while to test your RAM using memtest86 -

http://www.memtest86.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I was single I looked for miss right. When I married her I discovered her first name was always.

 

[wahnula]

walkeropus,

As stduc said analyze your error messages. Write them down and post here or look them up here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/w2kmsgs/6077.asp

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

Windows memory diagnostic:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

hard drives rarely cause blue screens

I have noticed this as a rule, but have received a blue screen from a newly-added hard drive before. The key is in the STOP message(s). You are wise to forestall any changes/expenditures until the culprit is found.

One method is to strip down the PC to its basic core components, 1 stick RAM, HDD & monitor only, remove all add-in cards and peripherals, let it run all night and see if it recurs. Swap RAM sticks and re-test. What happens?

Tony

 

[walkeropus]

Thank you all who replied. I changed my screensaver and since having done that, no crashes. All I was running was windows 3D text, but it seems it MAY have been the cause. Thank you for saving me money and a headache.

 

[walkeropus]

I spoke too soon. Computer blue screened last night. I did take a pic if anyone is willing to take a look at the message. I will also try the suggestions listed.

Just when I thought I was out of the woods....

 

[stduc]

Time to do a little dump analysis see this FAQ for how to.

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=6451

[navy]When I married "Miss Right" I didn't realise her first name was 'always'. LOL[/navy]