My data files are on a second drive in the case which is newer and in good health. The C:drive only has the OS and programs, although the contents of Outlook will be on C: I guess I should back those up so I don't lose Address Book and Organiser contents.
I'll leave things running for now (it gets quiet when it's just idling) and get some cloning software and a new drive tomorrow. Thank you to the responders who've given me some hope. Regards, Anthony Farr > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of > Mark Roberts > Sent: Monday, 21 July 2008 4:56 AM > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: Re: OT - Computer advice wanted. > > Mat Maessen wrote: > > On 7/20/08, Anthony Farr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> My hard drive has the death clicks. Previously I had a couple of noisy > >> (clattery) startups but it has run quietly so I've just left it on full > > ... > >> Should I leave it on despite the clicks? I worry that if I shut down it > >> won't reboot. It's Win XP Home. > > > > Definitely get the external drive and start backing it up now. > > > > If you do need to shut it down, you may be able to recover the files > > off of the drive by putting the drive into an external enclosure, and > > putting the enclosure in the freezer. A USB cable will route out > > through the freezer's door seal quite nicely. :-) > > > > I'm not sure what cloning software exists for XP, though I bet someone > > else on the list does. > > Norton Ghost http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost > Acronis True Image http://www.acronis.com/ > > There are probably others. > > But, like Bill said, start copying your data files to another drive now. > Re-installing the O.S. and your apps after a drive failure is a pain in > the butt, but losing your data files really sucks. > > I have two hard drives on my computer and one holds the O.S. *only*. And > I back it up with Norton Ghost once a week. > > I keep my data mirrored on an external drive. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
