Some questions

[maeflye]

I'm new here, and know some of computer but not much. We replaced our cd rom with a cd rw but that is a far as we have gone other than a friend who helped us put in more ram.
We have had problems with this computer since we bought it. It is an HP and all they ever did was give me a run around until the warrenty ran out.
Anyway our hard drive has a bunch of bad clusters and everyone is saying I have to replace it. And we were going to until someone told me that a bunch of hard drives from Western Digital were recalled and I should check what mine is. Well I wasn't that lucky mine is a quantum fireball which I went to their website. But I guess they are covered by Maxtor now.
They have software you can download to check it out and fix it, if it is fixable. Instructions say to backup any and all critical data. What exactly are they meaning? I mean I have saved a lot of things either on cd or diskette before. What about my OS? It is on my recovery disk from HP and all the other programs.
Has anyone here used this or anything like this? Maxtor.com and you might be able to find what I am talking about by checking the knowledge based area and quantum or something.

I would appreciate any help I can get.

Smiles:smilewink
maeflye

[DreamCaster]

Greetings maeflye and welcome
Your OS and original applications that came with your system should be on that recovery disk. If you've added anything extra you may want to check and make sure you've got the install disks before you attempt this. You also may want to back up your favorites, mail, contacts, etc...
What OS are you running here?

Drop into the chat room and say hello sometime

~Peace
DC

[maeflye]

Went through and did the test and such with the Powermax from Maxtor. My hard-drive failed all the tests but still went through and did the low-level format thing and then used my HP recovery disk and computer is working. But I have a feeling it isn't fixed. Everything seems fine right now. But it always did after a reformat and recovery, it is always fine(for awhile). Now I have been do ing Windows Updates and such but everytime I get IE6 I end up with page faults and such when I come to certain sites like this one. So I uninstalled it twice now because I just can't seem to get it to work right. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Smiles
Donna

[berks]

you could always install a new hard drive they are really easy to do. When you buy a new one they give you step by step instructions as to how to do it. I have done this twice already. You can copy everything from your old drive to your new one pretty easily. Let us know what you decide.

you could also try some of the programs listed here they will give you all the info about your computer.

here

[LPDad]

maefly, Welcome..

I had similar experiences with my wife's Compaq (P-II 350).
I added more memory (now 385 RAM), and added a 30 mb harddrive (currently it is using a seagate barracuda--formerly it went through 3 maxtors).

The absolutely best thing I did was Dump the stock harddrive, and the compaq restore disc and start from scratch--I installed Windows XP and have not had any problems since (well it has been amost 16 months)

(of course I had to have my own programs, because after you upgrade to xp the recovery disk will not load the pre-configured programs-- but with a little digging you can find all the programs you want/need at highly discounted prices)

[Cirga]

Berks hit on a very good point. It is great to add a second hard drive to your PC. I actually have two hard drives.. and pratically the same programs on each one of them.

My first hard drive has two partitions.. one is 2 GB whcih I use "just" for my Operating System files. Then the rest of that hard drive is for my program files and games. Then I periodically copy my entire hard drive (the larger partition that is) to my second hard drive as a backup.

I just recently did a format and reinstall.. took me 45 minutes to completely wipe out windows.. reinstall it and get everythign back just the way I had it before.. and now wnidows runs great.

Just thought I would mention it

[maeflye]

Okay, let me get this straight.

Should I replace the hard drive or just add a new one??

I have a Mid-tower, will it fit?

Do they have step-by-step directions to add hard drive?

Will I need to change anything else in there?

Well I guess I will let it go at these questions for now, I am sure I can come up with more. :smilewink

Smiles
Donna