I'm a total novice at fixing computers but my PC has died. It wouldn't boot up properly and there was all sorts of beeping and whirring from the ?hard drive.
I took it to a local PC repair shop who agreed that the hard drive needed replaced. All my data is on a separate external hard drive so was happy for them to do this.
Having agreed to a new hard drive and having fitted it they wanted to charge me a further £65 to restore my system. I thought this sounded ridiculous and am now going have a go myself. Any advice welcome though as this is unchartered territory.
Thanks in anticipation,
Belle
New hard drive help
I am not brilliant with computers, but have you got the restore software/disks that came with the PC, or ones you burnt yourself?
I would have thought that this would work?
Somebody will be along soon with better info.
HT
I would have thought that this would work?
Somebody will be along soon with better info.
HT
HT
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Restore your system or re-install the Operating System?
The former will involve reading as much data as they can off the old drive and copying it to the new one - not easy if the drive is screwed and may well involve specialist software.
The latter depends on what the machine came with - most retail PCs come with a restore disk which installs all the software that was bundled with the PC and is easy - some come with full Windows install disks and this is a long and tedious process if you don't know what you are doing. I prefer the full disks as it gives me control over the setup, but you probably won't care about this.
If you just do an OS install, then you will have to reinstall all you applications and things like My Documents and email and things will have disappeared, so you will only get back what you have on your external drive.
Cheers R.
The former will involve reading as much data as they can off the old drive and copying it to the new one - not easy if the drive is screwed and may well involve specialist software.
The latter depends on what the machine came with - most retail PCs come with a restore disk which installs all the software that was bundled with the PC and is easy - some come with full Windows install disks and this is a long and tedious process if you don't know what you are doing. I prefer the full disks as it gives me control over the setup, but you probably won't care about this.
If you just do an OS install, then you will have to reinstall all you applications and things like My Documents and email and things will have disappeared, so you will only get back what you have on your external drive.
Cheers R.
Arctic Silver '99 Z3 1.9 & Black '59 Frogeye 1275cc
Thanks HT and Robert T
I've got the disks and will be trying that. Just worried that's it's going to be more complex as the guys at the shop said it would be "impossible" for me to do myself. I'm not used to finding things impossible so don't want to have to go back to them tomorrow
Belle
I've got the disks and will be trying that. Just worried that's it's going to be more complex as the guys at the shop said it would be "impossible" for me to do myself. I'm not used to finding things impossible so don't want to have to go back to them tomorrow
Belle
Last edited by Belle on Wed 12 Jan, 2011 18:56, edited 1 time in total.
As long as you have all your discs it's very easy to do. It can be a pain but only because it takes time to install everything back, and you always forget the one really useful thing that you downloaded from the web and haven't used for a while
Make sure you have any passwords to hand for things like email accounts if you use an email program like Outlook rather than hotmail, or gmail.
Apart from that just be paitient and do one thing at a time.
Good luck, let us know how you get on.
Make sure you have any passwords to hand for things like email accounts if you use an email program like Outlook rather than hotmail, or gmail.
Apart from that just be paitient and do one thing at a time.
Good luck, let us know how you get on.
If you want to upgrade to the latest os then this is the best time to do it. If not then the best way would be to use the os disc as the new hard drive may not be formatted for your back up discs. I think this might be the case with them saying you would not be able to do it, which is b----cks.
bill
bill
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Thanks Dave L2 and billz
I've got all the CDs and the 10 digit no. but think it's going to be an evening of trial and error.
Will post what I've been trying in case anyone can help...
When switched comp on got the error message "NTDLR is missing" which apparently means the computer is trying to boot from an unbootable source. This happened whether the master CD was inserted or not.
I went into the BIOS and changed the 1st boot device to CDROM and the master CD started.
When I tried to initiate a system restore I get the error message "Error 5. Glue part error" Glue!!!!! in my computer lol
....I really don't want to go back tomorrow with my £65
I've got all the CDs and the 10 digit no. but think it's going to be an evening of trial and error.
Will post what I've been trying in case anyone can help...
When switched comp on got the error message "NTDLR is missing" which apparently means the computer is trying to boot from an unbootable source. This happened whether the master CD was inserted or not.
I went into the BIOS and changed the 1st boot device to CDROM and the master CD started.
When I tried to initiate a system restore I get the error message "Error 5. Glue part error" Glue!!!!! in my computer lol
....I really don't want to go back tomorrow with my £65
What i would do is see if it boots with the os cd ie: windows xp,vista,7 etc.
If it wont boot and start going through the installation with the original disc it came with then you will probable have to repartition the hard drive.
bill
If it wont boot and start going through the installation with the original disc it came with then you will probable have to repartition the hard drive.
bill
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Z4 3.0si Ruby Black with Champagne Leather and Piano Black Dash
Z3 3.0 Sports Sold
Z4 3.0si Ruby Black with Champagne Leather and Piano Black Dash
I assume you have a Packard Bell?Belle wrote:Thanks Dave L2 and billz
I've got all the CDs and the 10 digit no. but think it's going to be an evening of trial and error.
Will post what I've been trying in case anyone can help...
When switched comp on got the error message "NTDLR is missing" which apparently means the computer is trying to boot from an unbootable source. This happened whether the master CD was inserted or not.
I went into the BIOS and changed the 1st boot device to CDROM and the master CD started.
When I tried to initiate a system restore I get the error message "Error 5. Glue part error" Glue!!!!! in my computer lol
....I really don't want to go back tomorrow with my £65
It has to do with the contents and arrangement of the Master CDs and the fact that they need a Win98 boot floppy and a HDD Formatted and Partitioned in a certain way.
Search google for "Error 5 Glue Part Error" and there are several step-by-step guides to help you out.
Looks like you could be having lots of fun getting this one fixed