Main HDD In My Main DAW PC May Have Just Died.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Everyone,

Geez, I think the main HDD in my Main DAW PC may have just died on me and I may lost all the data on it, just before it happened, the internet browsers I was using suddenly stopped responding and the computer wouldn't respond, so to get it working again I was forced to do a manual hard reset, the computer rebooted and went through the process of doing a check disk, then it rebooted again and I heard a steady Click-Click-Click coming from inside the computer case, I took the side of the case off and tried to re-boot the computer, sure enough the clicking sound appeared to be coming from the computer's main system HDD, so, it looks like I've got some work ahead of me to get it back up and running again, I've got a spare 1.5 Terabyte HDD that I removed from an external HDD case that I can use, but I'll need to get any data off it first....wish me luck.


Because of that, I won't be able to do any more demo recordings till it's fixed....sorry about that guys.

[DrNomis_44]

Okay, so here's the plan I've formulated to get my main DAW PC up and running again (I'm using my laptop to get online):


1, Remove the 160Gb HDD in my Compaq PC.

2, Remove all the HDDs in my Main DAW PC.

3, Install the 160Gb Compaq PC HDD in the case of the Main DAW PC and use it as a temporary system drive.

4, Install the spare 1.5 Terabyte HDD in the Main DAW PC as a Slave Drive.

5, Remove the HDD from a spare 4 Terabyte External HDD case and use it as a second Slave Drive to rescue data off the 1.5 Terabyte HDD.

6, Install Windows 10 64 Bit on the 160 Gb HDD.

7, Then use the newly installed Windows 10 OS to transfer data from the 1.5 Terabyte HDD onto the 4 Terabyte HDD.

8, Once that's done do a reformat of the 1.5 Terabyte HDD and then use it as the new replacement system HDD of the Main DAW PC.

9, That should fix the Main DAW PC, and the 160 Gb HDD can be reformatted and used in the Compaq PC again.



It's a technique I learnt after having to fix my computers a few times, it does seem to work.


Note that I don't mind losing the data that's on the 160Gb HDD because there's really not that much on it that I want to keep anyway.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


Just about to put my plan into action, the HDD installation has been done, but my first priority is to make myself some decent coffee and drink lots of it cause I'm going to need it....lol.


Update 2:


Everything seems to be going to plan, I'm just in the process of installing Windows 10 on the 160 Gb HDD that was in the Compaq PC, hopefully this thread will be of some use to others who have to go through the process of fixing a computer that's suffered a system HDD fail.


Update 3:


Okay, I think I'm getting somewhere now, I had a lot of trouble getting the computer to boot up with the 160GB HDD, and the two extra HDDs installed in it, it turned out that the cause was a flaky USB mouse, would you believe, anyway, I've got it to the stage where I can rescue all the wanted data off the 1.5 Terabyte HDD and store them all on the 4 Terabyte HDD, so things are looking up already, just hope that a power outage doesn't occur right in the middle of all the data rescuing, otherwise it's goodbye data and goodbye two more HDDs, and then I'll have to buy a brand new HDD.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I finally got all the data on the 1.5 Terabyte HDD all rescued and backed up on the 4 Terabyte HDD, so now I can begin the next phase which is to do a complete clean install of Windows 10 on the 1.5 Terabyte HDD, feeling very pleased that I have been able to get this far and I feel confident that I will have my main DAW PC back up and running again by this afternoon.

[keloooe]

And that's why I've invested in a service called Carbonite to securely back up all of my data on my main machine offsite with an easy way to get it all back if I need to, everything is recovered by logging on to the application and hitting the recover button, I even went from clearing an entire drive and recovering it all (about 150gb worth of documents, photos, music, mixes and applications) without a problem!

Nice to know you have an action plan Nomis, hard drive fails suck!

[DrNomis_44]

And that's why I've invested in a service called Carbonite to securely back up all of my data on my main machine offsite with an easy way to get it all back if I need to, everything is recovered by logging on to the application and hitting the recover button, I even went from clearing an entire drive and recovering it all (about 150gb worth of documents, photos, music, mixes and applications) without a problem!

Nice to know you have an action plan Nomis, hard drive fails suck!

I totally agree with you mate, HDD fails are the pits, Microsoft offer something similar to Carbonite, called One Drive, when you upgrade from previous versions of Windows to Windows 10, only problem with that is they only give you about 8Gb of storage space to begin with and then they ask for more money for more storage space, to be honest, I don't use One Drive all that much cause it's a Cloud system, so if your internet goes down so does your data, but the whole idea behind it is cool, maybe I should sign myself up to Carbonite.



It looks like my plan has been a resounding success, my main DAW PC is back up and running again, I just need to wait till Windows has finished updating and then I can start working on getting all my DAW software re-installed, there's some other good news, I haven't lost any of the Audio Loops I've collected, since they were all on a separate HDD, there's a big folder with about 110 Gb worth of Audio Loops on it, pretty glad I didn't lose that.

[DrNomis_44]

So from all this, what we have learned is that in the event of an HDD failure, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of the world, to some extent you can recover some data, but what I try to do is adopt a philosophy that it's good to be prepared to lose some data in order to fix a computer that has suffered an HDD failure.

Most modern desktop PC motherboards will allow the connection of multiple HDDs to them, and I regard this as a very useful computer repair feature, so, if you've got a few spare HDDs, consider giving my technique a go, it does take some time but it definitely works, assuming that most, if not all, of the existing computer hardware you have is still good.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


My main DAW PC is now back up and running again, Windows 10 reports that it is activated, and Device Manager is reporting that everything is working properly.

So now I can begin the next phase which is to re-install all my DAW software and then it'll be good to go.

[DrNomis_44]

Look who decided to try and be my feline PC repair advisor while I was working on getting my main DAW PC fixed, looks like he's sleeping on the job....lol.

[Simon Barden]

Obviously it was all down to a problem with your mouse.