Most logical thing to do after secondary drive failure?

Dhansak · 05 Jan 2015

Hi All

My situation is that my secondary WD drive has failed after 2 years and 1 month (yes the warranty was for 2 years - how does hardware know that lol!).

I have my primary boot/system drive (SSD) intact - just has Windows etc on it (Win 7 Ult x64) . All other programs were installed on my now defunct D: drive. I have just received a new drive ready to replace the faulty one and would like your opinion on the best way forward please.

My current windows install has registry entries for installed apps that now no longer exist. Can I "uninstall" them successfully or will Win 7 just dislike the fact that the drive is no longer there? If this works I can just reinstall my programs.

Or - do nothing except just reinstall my progs? - would this even work as they are already seen as "installed"

Or - do I have just have to do a fresh install of the OS and start from scratch - hoping not!

Thanks in advance for your help and input

jumanji · 05 Jan 2015

1. You can't uninstall the programs since the uninstaller resides on the now defunct drive.

2. Reinstalling the programs might work and new registry entries will be written, but

3. A clean install ab-initio will be the best option since there will be no possibility whatsoever of left-over registry entries ( as may happen in 2.above) and it will be a clean slate with just a little extra-effort you put in a clean install but the price is worth paying.

When I started off my adventures with the computer, I used to put the programs on a separate partition thinking that it will make restoring only the OS partition easy and quick but in due course I found that it is more of a pain than a convenience. Backup programs too evolved pretty smart that would not make much difference. So I later changed over to installing the programs in the OS partition itself. In my opinion it is more of a pain than a convenience to install the programs on a separate partition/drive. You have already experienced it. :)

Layback Bear · 05 Jan 2015

I do agree.

The only thing I would add to that is any program that has a activation code; I would wright that code down and store it in a safe place. That way you can always install the program again and activate it.

I found that it is more of a pain than a convenience. Backup programs too evolved pretty smart that would not make much difference. So I later changed over to installing the programs in the OS partition itself. In my opinion it is more of a pain than a convenience to install the programs on a separate partition/drive. You have already experienced it.

Berton · 05 Jan 2015

[QUOTEBackup programs too evolved pretty smart that would not make much difference. So I later changed over to installing the programs in the OS partition itself. In my opinion it is more of a pain than a convenience to install the programs on a separate partition/drive. You have already experienced it][/QUO*E]

I have to be real careful when pasting data into a Quote that I get it between the ] and [ brackets. There is one site that when clicking the Quote icon places the cursor in the right place. [Had to 'break' the quote to get it to show properly.]

Layback Bear · 05 Jan 2015

Fixed.

ThrashZone · 05 Jan 2015

Berton said:

[QUOTEBackup programs too evolved pretty smart that would not make much difference. So I later changed over to installing the programs in the OS partition itself. In my opinion it is more of a pain than a convenience to install the programs on a separate partition/drive. You have already experienced it][/QUO*E]

I have to be real careful when pasting data into a Quote that I get it between the ] and [ brackets. There is one site that when clicking the Quote icon places the cursor in the right place. [Had to 'break' the quote to get it to show properly.]

Welcome to a Microsoft Mouse and Mouse and Keyboard center crapware

Throw it away and buy another non-Microsoft one

Dhansak · 05 Jan 2015

Thank you all for the help and info - reinstall the OS it is!

By the way jumanji - may I ask which backup solutions you use?

I have been using, Acronis, Paragon and Macrium reflect to back up the ssd for the past couple of years. I had never had an SSD before - always used Acronis before that but heard it wasn't good on solid state so have played with the other software. Have never had to try a restore till now. Will be interesting :) (I know - you don't really have a backup till you know you can restore it lol) Though in this case I have to find the very first image before I installed "extra" stuff otherwise I'm no further forward.

I've never backed up my secondary drive before - I am a gamer so loads of room gets taken up - too much to cram onto my poor ssd! I have an old 1TB usb drive I think I can clear down - will use that for future D drive backups. Lesson learnt - guess I've been lucky to have avoided secondary failure for so long!

damien76 · 05 Jan 2015

Wow what an experience you had. I am glad you sorted it out. I too use WD drives. One desktop I have has WD drives that are way above the warranty period of 3 years and still are chugging perfectly. My experience with Seagate is different though..Anyway, all my programs are also in the OS partition I back it up using ATI Home 2012. All data and files are in a separate drive (I back it up also via ATI). Backups go to an internal WD drive 1TB and an external drive 1TB. :)

jumanji · 06 Jan 2015

Dhansak said:

........By the way jumanji - may I ask which backup solutions you use?

....Have never had to try a restore till now. Will be interesting :) (I know - you don't really have a backup till you know you can restore it lol) Though in this case I have to find the very first image before I installed "extra" stuff otherwise I'm no further forward......

I would recommend the easy to use AOMEI Backupper. Free Download AOMEI Backupper Standard: Windows Backup & Cloning Software ( I have been using Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite which I had purchased long back)

Once you reinstall Windows, do not update, do not activate. Do not install any programs except the backupper.

Copy a few files and folders to the system drive and take a backup. Then restore. Check that the backup works. In short do a trial and make sure you can backup right and restore works. ( I had always done it during the initial install)

Then do your updates and install the programs.When you have groomed your system right, then activate. ( You have 30 days to activate)

Always check image integrity after a backup.

Create a WinPE bootable media. ( I always prefer to do a backup and restore with the bootable media.)

Most logical thing to do after secondary drive failure?-06-01-2015-14-03-28.jpg

If you are not happy with AOMEI Backupper, you can go for Macrium Reflect, which is most recommended here but I know nothing of it. :)

EDIT: OK, I forgot to mention: For data backup, I use 2BrightSparks SyncBackFree, 2BrightSparks | SyncBackFree, SyncBackSE, and SyncBackPro ( There may be other good programs but I belong to the "Old School"

)

Dhansak · 06 Jan 2015

Thanks damien76 - my version of ATI is so old I can't even remember when I bought it lol; it was to replace Ghost so it has been awhile!

jumanji - thanks for that info - that sw (image or the data backup) wasn't even on my radar! - much appreciated :)

I will be going for the boot from dvd/usb to create image backups - I am old school too and can't quite trust anything that creates an image of a drive whilst the os is running from it ... that's just my irrationality I know :) Will have to run through the imaging software and see what suits; also will check the syncbackfree as well as freefilesync mentioned elsewhere on this forum.

Thanks again all :)