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brad405red

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Everything posted by brad405red

  1. Thanks Derek, I'll do a proper burn with that program. I'm uncertain about this rewriteable DVD anyway and may find a non-rewriteable DVD just as an extra copy since it looks like the ISO may be scarce. One question, tho, I have made a copy of the ISO on my D drive, that questionable DVD, and on my Toshiba backup for safe keeping. I checked all of them and those copies all verified. But I made a copy of the same ISO file on a different USB stick, and it did not match when I tried to verify. Any ideas as to why this is so? The stick is NTFS too, so that isn't it....
  2. Hi Derek. Thanks for your continuing help. ISO filename is correct. I checked it with winmd5 and the MD5SUM matched. The program made no mention of SHA1 or CRC32. I've never burned to a DVD before but found a DVD-RAM 4.7 GB rewriteable cheap and bought it. I dragged the ISO onto it, not using a program to burn it. Is that okay? I verified the ISO with winmd5 program. One thing I don't understand about installing from a DVD ISO: Is the ISO all you need to install windows? I ask this because Plan B on the memory stick had a program, I think it was called Rufus, that worked with the ISO. I understand how to change boot order to a DVD, but does windows just start installing directly from the ISO and only the ISO or do I need another program like Rufus for a DVD ISO install? Thanks for looking for XP for me.
  3. #1 will do #2 One ASUS hard drive running win 7, two partitions, no "tools" option under right click. #4 done #5 I deleted backup files. no one mentioned they had any value in this situation. Want me to backup again? uncertain as to difference between the manual backup I did(and deleted) and factory recovery files? also ignorant of the difference between backup and recovery files.
  4. Derek, or anyone, know where to download a clean ISO of Windows XP? Specifically XP Pro 2002 Service Pack 3 32 bit. I have a valid key, just lost the CD. I have an older machine that has worse issues.
  5. Thanks, hazelnut. I think the win backup problem is solved. That sure is buggy and poorly designed MS software.
  6. Ok. Thanks. I tried this stick ISO install on the usb 2.0 toshiba. Windows setup replied that it could not install Windows 7 onto a USB device. There was an option to load a driver, but not even sure that was relevant to the USB issue. On another matter, on my bad hard drive, I setup a windows backup to backup automatically every week on my d: partition before I realized it was all one bad hard drive with 2 partitions. How do I stop this? I don't want windows to backup automatically, or even at all at this point. There seems to be no options or settings to stop this useless backup activity. Any ideas?
  7. Okay, Derek, I do have electric cutouts about once every few months or more during bad weather(like this winter.) My house is 75 years old and some of the wiring is that old. My triplex(electric line to the pole) is old and patched. I do have a UPS but that doesn't always keep it running. I've looked very closely and I am unable to determine my motherboard model # on the board or in BIOS. It may be? N13219 or D33005 but I don't know. My "American Megatrends" ASUS BIOS is out of date. I have version 0261 and there is a version 0407 out. I do not know how to update the BIOS and not certain I want to if there's a chance of me losing this computer doing it. All I have now is a bad hard drive and don't need anything else mucked up. I have an Essentio Series consumer desktop PC model CM5571 running Win 7 64 bit. Here is the link to the BIOS upgrades and utilities: http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=14&s=11&m=CM5571&os=&hashedid=6lfzXPQRwPjUYpUW I did not do a flash utility upgrade. I've heard bad stories over the years and am wary. Derek said in post #63: "I think as a test, he should disconnect the internal drive, connect the second Toshiba that he has been using for cloning, plug in the USB stick with the Windows ISO, boot it, and do an installation to the external drive." If you can flesh this out a bit more I am ready to do it as I have installed OS before but not from an ISO stick. But if you think I should safely upgrade my BIOS first, I am ready to do that too with help. p.s: I went to "American Megatrends" website and they had a motherboard identification utility but it doesn't run on 64-bit. Are there general utilities out there that can identify my motherboard? I tried several of these utilities, including an online utility at Intel.com, and they all identified the motherboard model # as CM5571. But I cannot find that model listed in ASUS' motherboard support.
  8. Hi all. I haven't given up yet. In an administrator command prompt, I ran "sfc /scannow Verification 100% complete. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. I also ran chkdsk on both the C: and D: drive labels(WIN7 & DATA.) The reults were lengthy, but this might be relevant: "0 KB in bad sectors" & "Windows has checked the file system and found no problems." on both partitions. The only thing I did not understand was: "WARNING! F parameter not specified. Running CHKDSK in read-only mode. And I do not know how to run CHKDSK for the Unallocated and the Recovery partitions. In Windows Disk Management program, all 3 partitions are showing a Status of Healthy(except for unallocated(no status.)) Recovery(no label) status Healthy(Primary Partition) 8GB. DATA(D:) status Healthy(Primary Partition) 550.90 GB. WIN7(C:) status Healthy(System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) 280 GB. The only odd thing I noticed that the RECOVERY partition did not indicate a "File System" status. The other 2 partitions reported as NTFS. I realize now my original post was misleading, confused and paranoid. But could it be possible that Ccleaner deleted or corrupted SMART detection somehow? If so, how did that start affecting my SMART BIOS boot error? If not, I will continue on the path to recovery in these posts. Does any of that make sense? p.s: My external Toshibas are USB 2.0 manufactured 1/2010. p.s.s: In Acronis Drive Monitor, under SMART parameters tab: Read Error Rate,58102680,113,6,OK Spin-Up Time,0,96,0,OK Start/Stop Count,164,100,20,OK Attribute Name, Raw Value, Value, Threshold, Status Reallocated Sectors Count,4158,1,36,Fail Seek Error Rate,99863916,79,30,OK Power-On Hours (POH),32545,63,0,OK Spin Retry Count,0,100,97,OK Power Cycle Count,165,100,20,OK SATA Downshift Error Count,0,100,0,OK End-to-End error,0,100,99,OK Reported Uncorrectable Errors,2,98,0,OK Command Timeout,2,100,0,OK High Fly Writes,1,99,0,OK Airflow Temperature,589299745,67,45,OK Temperature,77309411361,33,0,OK Hardware ECC Recovered,58102680,42,0,OK Current Pending Sector Count,0,100,0,OK Uncorrectable Sector Count,0,100,0,OK UltraDMA CRC Error Count,0,200,0,OK Head Flying Hours,125434519912628,100,0,OK Total LBAs Written,1843318067,100,0,OK Total LBAs Read,3723921684,100,0,OK On right click, there is an option to Ignore parameter or to Reset default settings.
  9. My boot with the bad hard drive has been consistent. At the beginning of the boot, the SMART detects the bad drive. I have to press the F1 button to continue. Windows always starts fine.
  10. The Recovery portion is there and appears as the same GB size. BIOS is fine. The Toshiba boots to the Microsoft "Starting Windows" screen with the animated logo but goes no further.(computer restarts before logo animation is fully finished) The Toshiba does this with the bad hard drive unplugged. So I would say the Toshiba is bootable. The Toshiba does this whether or not the Recovery partition was cloned along with C: partition. I'll try the Advanced Settings u mentioned.
  11. Hi Derek. I've tried every option in Macrium to no avail. I even tried a different freeware cloning program but it wasn't as good as Macrium. The only thing I haven't tried are the "Advanced Options" in Macrium. I don't understand those. Any ideas?
  12. Okay, I'm confused now. Do I do the Intelligent/verify that is the default or forensic? I understood everything else. I'm a little fatigued. I think you are saying do Intelligent/Verify.
  13. Plan A is not working out yet. I tried cloning the bad drive twice and both times it wouldn't boot past the windows startup screen. The computer just restarted before the full win logo shows and before I put in my password. Oddly, after cloning, the c: drive partition, the used part, is a slightly lesser size than what macrium reads: c: partition on bad drive 51.69 GB used space, clone drive reads 41.90 GB used space. I'm fairly certain I did everything according to the macrium instructions.
  14. Okay. Plan B is completed and tested. Thanks everyone. Plan A question: Do I need to shrink C partition to allow for the Recovery partition to fit on the external HD? MBR Disk 1 931.51 GB 1. RECOVERY (none) NTFS Primary 5.65 of 8.01 GB 2. Win7 (C:) NTFS Active 50.60 of 297 GB 3. Completely blank 75.61 GB (created when I shrank C:) 4. DATA (D:) NTFS Primary 252.83 of 550.90 GB
  15. Okay. Plan B is looking good. I dl the ISO file by using the new link and the firefox add-on. I used Rufus to install it on the stick. This is where I'm unclear on how to test it. Do you mean for me to reboot and test the iso stick that way? Or do you just mean for me to run the "Setup.exe" on the stick in windows? I did that and it seemed to work. Wanted me to run it and so I pressed the red X to stop it. Is that what u mean by testing it? Also, can I put other non-related files on this stick now or should I just get another stick for that?
  16. Also, if I run chkdsk is there any danger of my hard drive crashing and dying? I have cable internet, I'm just on a tight budget so I'm on the least expensive option. I really want to do Plan B. I haven't gotten up to speed on Macrium yet. The holidays are interfering.
  17. I understand how my boot priority works with this BIOS now. Green light. It's doable. But for the Plan B, I'm having problems downloading the ISO image. I've tried it twice in Firefox and each time the download has stalled(for an hour) at 3.0 GB of 3.01 GB downloaded. I tried dl on Chrome but it was exceedingly slow without giving much info on the dl. I also tried it on Explorer and it stalled at 97% of the download. My connection is only 1mbps, but firefox only got up to 635kb speed. Is there another secure download site/server where I can get the ISO image?
  18. Sorry for the delay. Macrium Reflect: MBR Disk 1 931.51 GB 1. RECOVERY (none) NTFS Primary 5.65 of 8.01 GB 2. Win7 (C:) NTFS Active 50.60 of 297 GB 3. Completely blank 75.61 GB (created when I shrank C:) 4. DATA (D:) NTFS Primary 252.83 of 550.90 GB I ran checkdisk at a command prompt in Windows and got this message: "Access denied as you do not have sufficient privileges. You have to invoke this utility running in elevated mode." I think this has something to do with Admin settings but don't know how to get around this. This is a home computer. I downloaded Rufus. I am dl the iso image but it's going to take about 6 hours. I don't fully understand how to do the fall back option yet so I may have a few questions when I get there. I've changed boot order before in BIOS, but not on this puter. I looked and didn't see the external drive as an option in one section, but saw it in another section. I'll get back to you with details on this when ISO finishes downloading. The external drive was plugged in when I looked at BIOS.
  19. Hi Derek. I appreciate you. I think I'm up to speed with your last post. Macrium is installed. I shrunk my C drive to 297GB because the Toshiba external actually reads on win that it has 297GB instead of the 320gb on it's case. I have the Win 7 key. It's on a sticker on my puter case. I have a Kingston 8GB usb stick that's never been used. The Toshiba external HD is not partitioned. I have what's called win7 "Home Premium" 64 bit. The only things I saw that are of concern to me were: On Macrium I have a "Recovery" partition that is 8.01 GB. I don't know what this is or if it needs to be cloned. If so, I might need to shrink C again to include the recovery partition for the clone? I wanted to make u aware of it. When I formatted my dad's external drive, it formatted with a default "Allocation Unit Size" of 4096 bytes. I don't know what that means or if it's important. There are options to change that. I just wanted to make u aware of it. Brad
  20. C: and D: drive are internal and partitioned from the manufacturer. I've been keeping my media files and archived setup programs on the D drive mistakenly thinking it was a seperate physical drive. But I also keep D drive files backed up on an external hard drive. I'm updating those backups on the external hard drive now. I have no worries of losing any important data except the Windows O/S itself(and keeping all the setting tweaks/installed programs would be nice.) So forget about D partition. I have that backed up and covered. I also know how to install a new hard drive and where to get one when it comes to that. C partition is 51GB used and 321GB free. I've never backed up windows before, I've always had to pay for another O/S CD. Doing that is what I mainly need help on. The disc images, backup, repair disc, restore options in Windows 7 confuse me. (I have a valid Win7 S/N key code for this system) I have borrowed my father's external hard drive, also a Toshiba 320GB capacity but it is already NTFS, so now I have 2. I can keep my media files backed up on one and backup Win O/S on my father's external drive (Windows wouldn't let me back up to a FAT32 external disk.) How much space does a windows backup take? Does it save all my settings and all the programs I've installed or just the basic O/S? On the edit note, Derek, I did do a backup on partition D once I got the prompting from Windows that I had a bad hard drive. At the time, I was thinking D was not a partition, but a different drive altogether. Thanks for your help.
  21. After all that, I apologize sincerely. I'm an idiot. I opened up the case and there's only one drive in there. And I guess it's going to die. Must have been a coincidence with ccleaner. I do not know. I've never had warning before on a bad hard drive. I don't know what to do, but I can't afford a new hard drive and Win 7 OS. I think it would take about 50 CD's to backup that way. I do have a Toshiba 320G external drive but it's FAT32 not NTFS as is my computer hard drive. Can I reformat an external hard drive to NTFS? How do backups work? Will I have to buy windows again? I don't have the CD as it didn't come with the computer.
  22. Thanks for your help. For some reason, drives C and D are reading as one drive: In the BIOS and in Acronis. I know they are 2 different physical drives. I know I never partitioned them. I am "fairly certain" my BIOS used to not read these 2 drives as one. My BIOS is not detecting 2 drives. The only "system" things I know of on drive D: is a few folders like "My Pictures" pointing to Drive D. And now, after this error, I have the Windows backup on Drive D. "My Computer" shows 2 drives and I ran Windows Error Check on both drives and no errors came back. This is an old computer, 2009, hasn't been shipped lately. No RAID. D: is not networked. Acronis is reporting: "Reallocated Sectors couunt SMART attribute reported bad block on the drive." Reallocated Sectors count: Raw Value 4158, Value 1, Threshold 36, Status Fail. Everything else is OK status. BIOS reports, on a regular boot not in BIOS setup, (I'll sum up but I have more details) Press F9 for System Recovery. Press Alt + F2 to execute ASUS EZ Flash 2. Auto-Detecting SATA 1...SATA Hard Disk. Auto-detecting SATA 2...Atapi CDROM. SATA 1 ST31000528A5 C44 Ultra DMA Mode 5 SMART capable and status BAD. SATA 2: ASUS DRW-24B1ST Ultra DMA Mode 5. SATA 1:SMART Status BAD, Backup and Replace. F1 to resume. I went to the BIOS setup and it's all set to auto detect for the drives. I don't understand why these drives are seen as one drive. And I don't understand the error.
  23. I think you may be correct Derek. There is a new graphic and bios screen on bootup, after the original Asus one I am used to. It's from "American Megatrends" aka ami.com. I've never noticed it before. They seem to be legit. It mentions SMART drives and "BAD." It also wants me to press a function key to flash update. I'm not very experienced in BIOS but I think you have given me some leads to work with Derek. I guess I should upgrade the flash, whatever that is. I guess it was an odd coincidence with Ccleaner. I didn't have any windows dialogs about upgrading bios. Or maybe ccleaner tripped a switch I was ignoring. In any case, maybe this is now the wrong forum for my problem. Thanks.
  24. I beg your pardon. I meant to write that I ran CCleaner on 12-14-2013. I went ahead and did backups today just to be safe. My drives are 2 different independent physical drives. I only use D drive for media files, not a system drive. I didn't enable Secure Deletion, or use Drive Wiper/Wipe Free Space. The only thing I have run within the time frame that is unknown to me is ccleaner. I'm not a surfer of the web. I do not go to web sites that are foreign to me. I got ccleaner from nonags.com a site I trust. And I am careful with email.
  25. Hi. I'm running Win 7. I ran ccleaner once, just the cleaner, not the registry option. Now win is telling me I have disk errors and need to backup because both my hard drives are going to fail. I ran the cleaners Saturday 12-14-2013(edited for accurate date) and got the messages today on Sunday. I'm a lil freaked out by this. Any suggestions? Please help and thanks in advance. Let me be less dramatic and more helpful. Sorry. MS Windows brings up a system window quite often now saying: "Windows detected a hard disk problem.... backup immediately." Options are to start backup, ask again later, don't ask again(not recommended) Under "Show Details" it says "Which disk is failing? The following hard disks are reporting failure: Disk Name ...ATA Device. Volume C:\;D:\" I have 2 hard drives and i think it's near impossible for them to both fail at once. What should I do?
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