New
#1
HD likely dying, need to backup OS
Hello,
About 8 months ago my husband purchased a Dell Inspiron laptop running Win 7.
A few days ago, the hard drive started...well, not exactly grinding, but making a sound like a noisy fan - but the sound is coming from where the HD is located. It makes the sound intermittently.
We're probably just going to replace the HD rather than send it away, even though it should still be under warranty. However, we neglected to backup the system when the computer was new, so we have no OS backup.
How can we back up the OS while the hard drive is still working, so we can install it on the new HD when it arrives?
And a secondary question is: should he want to upgrade the hard drive, how do we know what's compatible? The installed HD is a WD6400BPVT.