HOW DO I RUN THIS?  THANK YOU, Dpaul

Dear Dpaul,

I can give you directions for running scandisk, but before I do, I want to warn you. On an older computer (or any computer for that matter) that is prompting you to run a disk scan, it is an indication that there are problems with your hard drive.

Since the hard drive is where all your information (documents, pictures, music, etc…) is stored, you need to make sure you have your information backed up! Even before you scan your hard drive, you should back up. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing all information on the drive.

Now, for directions on running the scan in Windows XP:

1. Double click on “My Computer” on the desktop.

2. Right click on your hard drive icon in the “My Computer” window.

3. Click “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. Click on “Tools”.

5. Under “Error Checking” click “Check Now” then click “Start”.

Your computer will probably need to restart and run the check before it goes back into windows. It will prompt you for this with a small dialog box. Just click “Yes” and then restart your computer.

I hope the scan finds and is able to fix any problems you are having with your disk.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Thank you as always for the help, Phil in Boston

Dear Phil,

It is possible to install a new, larger hard drive in your computer, and create a mirror image of the old drive on the new one, then run the computer from the new, imaged drive.

I have done this before, and it has worked well, however, I have a couple of concerns about your computer. First is the fact that your old computer has completely filled a 2TB hard drive. That is a lot of space and unless you are storing tens of thousands of photos, or hours and hours of video, I would suspect that some kind of problem is causing your drive to fill up. There are viruses that create tons of junk files that fill up a hard drive, or perhaps the drive is old and developing bad sectors and the remaining good sectors are running out of free space.

Next is the fact that your computer is 5 years old. The average computer gets replaced every 5 years, so in computer years, yours is nearing the end of its life. If you install a new, larger hard drive, you still have 5 year old hardware in the rest of the computer, and while it could run for another 5 years, any one of those 5 year old parts could go in the coming weeks or months.

In addition to purchasing a new hard drive, you would also have to either purchase drive imaging software, or hire a computer shop to transfer your files from the old drive to the new one. Since you want to be able to boot the computer from this new, larger drive, you need to do more than just copy the files, you need to make and image. Both Nero and Roxio have programs that will help you with this

Nero:

Roxio:

No matter what you decide to do, it is wise to backup your files. You never know when a computer hard drive will crash, and when it does, your files that you can’t afford to lose will be gone. You might be able to get them back with a data recovery service, but that will cost you thousands of dollars. Be sure to back up your files now, before disaster strikes!

My ideal solution for your situation would be to purchase a larger hard drive, install Windows XP on it (a clean install, not a copy of windows on your old drive) and then copy your files over to the new drive. This will speed up your computer, and correct any problems caused by software rot. This will give you the longest possible life for your older computer.

Elizabeth

Please and thank you Heather

Dear Heather,

Rescuing files like pictures from hard drives is something that I do on a regular basis here in my computer shop. Even though I do it all the time, it is not always easy, and it requires some computer expertise and equipment that most users don’t have.

I use the following tools for this.

1. A linux boot CD that allows me to boot the computer and view the files on the hard drive. It does not look like Windows, you won’t be able to see your desktop or run your programs, but you can view and copy files. I use Puppy Linux from: http://puppylinux.org which is free to download. You do need to know how to create the bootable CD from an .iso file.

2. An external hard drive. You need a place to put your files when you are taking them off the hard drive. I find that an external hard drive with a USB interface is perfect for this. I usually burn the files onto DVDs later, but for just getting the files off, this is the perfect tool. The hard drive that I currently use is an Iomega drive similar to this one:

3. The last tool that I use is a USB to SATA or IDE adapter. This is only used if the computer will no longer boot, even from a CD. In that case, I need to take the hard drive out of the computer and use this adapter to attach it to a working computer. My favorite adapter is this one from StarTech:

Since you say that the computer is asking you to insert a disk when you turn it on, there is a good chance that you can just boot the computer using a Linux disk and use that operating system to copy your files to an external hard drive.

If this task is more than you want to take on, find a local comptuer shop like mine, and ask them to do it for you.

Elizabeth

Smilingly, Christine

Dear Christine,

Unless you are transferring files from a Mac to PC or the other way around, I don’t think it has anything to do with how the drive is formatted.

I can really only think of a couple of possible reasons you can’t read some of the files correctly.

First is that you don’t have the same program on the new computer that you used to create the files on your old computer. For example, if you used Word Perfect to create documents on the old computer, and now have Microsoft Word on the new computer.

The other possibility is that some of the files on the external hard drive have become corrupted. An external hard drive is a magnetic media and over time can become corrupted. It could also have been moved while it was writing files, been dropped, or exposed to a strong magnetic force.

If you are storing files for long term storage, an optical media (like DVD disks) will last longer.

It sounds like your files are still safely on the first computer, so I would hook your external drive up to the new computer and format it there. Then hook it up to the first computer and copy your files again. As long as you have the right programs installed, this should fix your problem.

Elizabeth.

Mary Jane

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Dear Mary Jane,

If your local computer repair shop was not able to get your files off your hard drive, I doubt that I would be able to retrieve your data.

Once your hard drive has died (and they all do eventually) your only real hope of getting your documents off the drive is to send it in to a company that specializes in data recovery. One company that I am familiar with is Ontrack Data Recovery. Their website is: www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery You can start out by calling Ontrack’s support line at 800-872-2599 and tell them what has happened with your drive. They will advise you on what to do next, and how much it will cost. You should expect to spend hundreds of dollars.

From now on, make sure you have your important files backed up. If, like me, you are not good at remembering to back up your files on a regular basis, get one of the online backup services like Carbonite or Mozy and let their software do the work for you. I currently use Carbonite to back up the files on my server, and Mozy to back up the files on my desktop.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Elaine

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Dear Elaine,

The best way to make sure your information is no longer on the hard drive, is to run a file eraser program, that not only erases individual files, but also everything on the entire hard drive.

My favorite tool is Darik’s Boot And Nuke at http://www.dban.org

There are a few cautions that you need to heed before you use this program though.

First, you need to have a bit of technical knowledge in order to use the program. You need to download the iso file (which is a CD image file) and burn it to a CD.

Second, you need to boot the computer in question from the CD and run it from there. The Dban CD will erase the entire contents of the hard drive on the computer that you run it on. There will be NOTHING left on the drive. No Windows XP and no recovery partition. The people you donate it to will need to know how to install Windows, or use the recovery disk that came with the computer.

Third, once you have created this CD, remember that it is dangerous. All you have to do is boot to the CD and it will be ready to erase all the files on your hard drive. Use it very carefully!

Lastly, if you want your files securely erased, but don’t feel like taking on the task yourself, bring it to your local computer professional, and have them do it for you. This is a service that I offer to my customers.

Elizabeth

Very truly yours, Tillie

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Dear Tillie,

In both Vista and Windows 7, the tool that used to be called Scan Disk is now called “Error Checking”.

You can access error checking for a drive the following way.

1. Click on “Start” then click on “Computer”.

2. In the Computer window, right click on the drive you want to scan, and click “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

3. In the Drive Properties dialog box, click on the “Tools” tab at the top.

4. The first tool that you can run, is “Error Checking” click the button to get started.

Elizabeth

Any help is appreciated, Thanks Donna

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Dear Donna,

When backing up information on your computer so that you can transfer it to another computer, or onto the same computer after Windows has been re-installed, you are able to backup documents, photos, videos, songs and things like that, but not the actual programs like Microsoft Office and your CD burner program. When you are transferring to a new computer, or re-installing on a new computer, you would just install the programs from the original disks that you used to install them in the first place.

Your question is about a slightly different situation. You want to prepare for a hard drive replacement on your computer. This is a wise thing to do, since all hard drives will fail eventually, it is just a matter of when.

Since you want to be able to restore all your programs, and the updates that you have installed for these programs, I would suggest that you get set up with a good disk image program, and either create DVDs with them, or an even better solution would be to save the image on an external hard drive that is at least as big as the hard drive on your computer.

I looked around, and Acronis True Image Home 2011 is a nice program that will create an image for you. It is not terribly expensive, but has features that will allow you to make DVD images of your hard drive. It will also create backups to an external hard drive while you work, and keep the backups updated.

Norton Ghost will also create an image on DVDs, but costs $20 more and has fewer features than Acronis.

Elizabeth

Robert

Dear Robert,

Many people have a folder full of itunes on their computer, and are looking for an easy way to transfer the songs to a new computer.

I am not really a user of itunes yet (I will probably become a user of iTunes when I save up enough money for an iPad) but I do have a lot of experience backing up the iTunes music folder for my customers.

Since you stated that you have an external hard drive, you are already on your way to backing up your music.

The first thing you want to do is locate your iTunes music folder on your computer. There are a couple of locations to check. First is the “My Music” folder under your identity. Let me give you and example…

If you log into your computer under the user name, Robert, you would navigate to that user folder.

1. Click on “Start” and then click on “My Computer” (or just “Computer” if you are using Vista)

2. Double click on either the “Users” folder in Vista, or the “Documents And Settings” folder in XP.

3. Double click on the, “Robert” folder, or whatever your user name is. It could be anything from, “Default User”, Dell Customer, to a nickname that you specified when you first set the computer up.

If you don’t know what your user name is, you can just check the contents of each user folder listed.

4. Once in your user folder, double click on the “Music” or “My Music” folder, and look for a folder named, “iTunes”. Don’t worry if the iTunes folder is not in the first place you look, it can be in one of several locations.

5. If you don’t find the iTunes folder in your user folder, check the “My Music” folder in the other identities, and in the “All Users” or “Public” folder. I often find the iTunes folder in the “Public Music” or “All Users Music” folders.

6. Once you have located the, “iTunes” folder, keep the window open, and move it to one side of your screen.

7. Now, open a window for your external hard drive. Make sure the drive is connected to your computer, and turned on, then click on “Start” and “My Computer”.

8. In the “My Computer” window, double click on the external hard drive icon to open it.

9. Move the external hard drive window to the opposite side of the screen so that you can drag the iTunes folder from one window to the other. This will create a copy on your external hard drive.

10. Once you have a copy of the iTunes folder on your external hard drive, you can use the same dragging technique to copy it to your new computer.

Elizabeth

Sharon

Dear Sharon,

There are a couple of things you can try, but first, you really should make sure you have any files that are important to you safely backed up onto either CDs, DVDs, or an external flash drive or hard drive.

Once you are confident that your data is safe, you can get started trying to free up some space on your computer.

Since you have told me that you have already tried the disk clean up utility on your computer, I am going to skip that step for now.

The first step along the way, is to go to the Control Panel, click on “Add or Remove Programs” and look through the list of programs that are installed on your computer. There are probably a few programs listed that you have not used in years, and you can free up a little bit of space by removing those programs. Depending on the type of program you remove, you might free up a little bit of space, or a lot of space.

Next, take a look at some of the files that you backed up. If you have so many photos on your computer that they filled one or more DVDs, consider just keeping them on the disks and not on your hard drive. This will mean that you will have to load the DVD on your computer to view the photos, but it can free up large amounts of space on your computer.

The same is true if you have a lot of music files, video files, and even documents on your computer. As long as you have backup copies on disk (I would probably make two copies on disks, one to use on a regular basis, and another for a backup that doesn’t get used as often) You can remove those files that you don’t use very often from your hard drive and just access them from the DVD when needed.

Once you have freed up some space on your computer, you should try running the disk cleanup again. Make sure you empty the recycle bin, and you will also be able to run your defrag utility.

Occasionally, all these steps will make no difference at all on the amount of used space on your hard drive. In cases like this, your best option, is to make sure your files are all backed up, and then run the system recovery disks that came with your computer. This will erase your hard drive, and install Windows XP again. This is something that I do for my customers quite often, and it gives them a few more years of use of their computer.

Elizabeth