Re: Disk imminent failure handling

As David mentioned, use Ghost or some other app to clone the drive or,
failing that, use decent backup software to avoid a re-install.  Cheap
source for legal software:
http://www.buycheapsoftware.com/symantec_products~subcategory~61.asp You
can buy OEM software and they'll include qualifying hardware.


If you do go down the re-install route, start with W2K Service Pack 4 as
the first update (available at
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4/sp4Eng.m
spx ).  Since it's cumulative, it'll cover a fair number of the early
updates in one shot.  After SP4, I'd say do your apps and drivers for
peripherals and then go back to Windows/Microsoft Update.  Reason being
is if an app adds another component like a different DirectX version,
you'll get all of the updates in fewer passes.  Ditto for driver updates
that MS supplies.

Also, after each Update cycle finishes (download - install - reboot), do
another.  Repeat until no more fixes are available.  Some fixes are
fixes for other (broken) fixes so they won't show up until the broken
fix is installed. 


Ultimately, you don't want to be running off of failing hardware.  It
could go at any time.  Take the inconvenience to replace it now;
otherwise it'll fail when you need the machine.

Also, unless you really need it I'd skip the partitioning design.  One
160GB partition is just fine.

Finally, if you're not using NTFS, consider moving to it.  It's a bit
more resilient and secure.  Here's how:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/convertfa
t.mspx

John A. Jones, CISSP
Americas Information Security Officer
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc.
V: +1-630-455-2787 F: +1-312-601-1782
john.jones@xxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 9:36 PM
To: pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [PCTECH] Disk imminent failure handling

I've got a PC that reports a "S.M.A.R.T. Bad, backup and replace" 
message at boot-up time. I know that this is a result of predictive
failure analysis and that I need to get the existing drive out of there
and put another in its place, but I'm not sure of exactly how it ought
to be done.

The drive is a Hitachi 160GB Serial ATA and I have a replacement. 
That drive is in fact currently physically installed as SATA2, but I'm
not yet willing to power the PC back up to install the drive logically.
That's because I don't really know what the steps should be anyway.

The original drive was partitioned off as 20GB, 30GB and 70GB partitions
giving three logical drives. All three partitions have been (apparently)
successfully backed up into files in my AS/400's IFS. The PC runs a
fully patched Win2K.

It's possible that the PC will boot and run off of the 'bad' drive for
another few months, or it might fail as soon as I start it back up
again. Once the three backups completed, I wasn't quite so nervous. I
_really_ don't want to run through the whole Win2K install and all of
the downloads/patches, but I suppose it could be done.

Does anybody have any experience to pass on?

Thanks for any advice on procedures.

Tom Liotta
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