New
#11
see comments in bold
-First off... how do I post a screenshot without having to use some photo hosting program? When I hit the image icon, it asks me for a URL ... I just want to upload it to the post directly.
Don't use a URL. Upload into the post.
I use "prtscrn" key near backspace key. That takes a shot of what's currently on screen and puts it in RAM. Then open your favorite photo editor. I use Photoshop, but any will do. Paste that stuff from RAM into a new file. Resize, crop, and save as jpg to your hard drive. To get it into this thread, start a reply and look for "go advanced" at the bottom of the screen. Then look for "manage attachments". You'll see an area on the left where you can browse to locate that jpg, then click upload to put it into the post.
-Luckily I do have a full backup of my system from about 2 weeks ago. ( I don't do incrementals) Not screwing anything up that will prevent Acronis recovery from recognizing my computer properly being able to restore that drive is the number 1 priority.
"backup of my system". Meaning what partitions? C partition only? I assume F is not backed up?
So bottom line it is critical if I have to replace this HD when I replace it... windows has to be able to name this the f:drive
You can assign any letter you want other than A, B, and C to any partition other than the one containing Windows. So this shouldn't be a problem. Just manually assign F to it through Windows Disk Management.
-My motherboard has like 6 Sata ports... but I don't know if you can just mix and match them. Can you plug any drive into any sata port? Just trying to rule out a bad port. But again, I don't want to do anything that will prevent Acronis from being able to recover my data from the backup.
You've got me confused: I did not think you had F backed up. Did you deliberately include the F partition when you last made an image with Acronis?
If you made an image file, on what drive did you store it? C? F? other?
I would not assume Acronis will work properly even if you did include F.
Those 6 ports probably equate to "Disk 0" through "Disk 5" when viewed in Windows Disk Management. Most likely, your current primary hard drive with the C partition is connected to a port that causes it to be shown as Disk 0. Take a look. It might be shown as Disk 1. Generally, yes, you can mix and match ASSUMING you have a SATA drive and a SATA cable, but it's preferable to keep the C drive as Disk 0. BUT BUT ports can fail. So, I'd temporarily connect the F drive to some other port on your motherboard as a test to see if maybe the currently used port has gone bad. If F is still not recognized, then test another port, then another.
Not all ports will operate at the same speed, but that's the least of your problems now. You need to confirm if ANY of your ports on your motherboard can see that F drive.
I don't do any port-swapping, so there is some chance you might have to change a BIOS setting to get some ports to work or work properly.
I'd certainly buy another SATA cable for $5 or less to rule out the 1 in 500 chance that you have a bad cable.
Last resort: go to your friend's PC.