F-this! Reformatting my HD in an hour or two and starting new. Advice?

[Ah Pook]

I can do just about any formatting/reformatting on my Macs. I use a local guy for all the PC stuff.

Good luck.

[zteknik]

Linux Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
I have this on my laptop without any issues

[brutal]

I'm with gman on this, that drive has been suspect from the beginning.

Make sure you have your data. Start gathering your "paid" program info. Most of those folks are going to have a record of your purchase based on your e-mail.

Get a new drive, install fresh.

Install the old drive in an external IDE/SATA to USB carrier or use an adapter. I've had good luck with the cheap bytecc stuff from Microcenter. They make one that will connect just about any drive. Not so much luck with cheap eSATA enclosures from there. If you can pull your old stuff great, if not and you have a backup somewhere, that's fine too.

[GilpinGuy]

A direct disk image probably isn't going to help you anyway since it would likely restore any software issues. Is this laptop old enough to need a new hard drive since you're starting over anyway? I'm just going off info in your post so maybe not.

It take one more pass to make sure you got all your data just in case. Go get your latest drivers for the laptop (network, wireless, touchpad, etc.) and keep those handy.

After you do a complete format and reinstall Windows and your drivers IMMEDIATLY start doing Windows Updates and don't stop until they're all done. Don't surf the web. Don't install anything else. This is the most time consuming part but they're there for a good reason. You may want to just install the basic programs and give it a couple days and recheck for bad hard drive sectors. That may be a sign of the drive going bad.

If you're comfortable with this suggestion I wouldn't put Norton back on. I replaced intrusive anti-virus programs by staying on top of my software updates and not doing anything remotely sketchy on the internet and it's worked great for 3 years if not more. Browsing with Chrome makes it even easier. My 2 cents.

Uh...I think that's the basics...

Thanks man.

I did actually think "Well, if I do an exact image of my had drive, wouldn't that just reload all of tha bad stuff too?" Then I read this and that that said you should do it, so I figured they knew what they were talking about. <sigh>

This laptop is about 2.5 years old. I'd rather not go the "just buy a $1500 Mac" route. I'm so tired of hearing that - I didn't and still don't have $1500 for a $500 computer. This one was $400 something and was kick ass until last month.

Idiot here: how do I get all of my drivers and keep them handy? I assume burn them to disk, but how does one go about getting all of them, and get them to said disk?

[GilpinGuy]

Replace the HDD before you start over and then have to replace the HDD.

You heard it from me in the last thread. You're wasting your time with that HDD.
http://www.ar-15.co/threads/86999-for-Computer-Guys

You're already 2 weeks in. What's your time and the frustration worth to you?

Man, I'm just trying save a few buck here. I figured a back-up drive would be a good investment anyway, so I dropped the $100. I "hoped" that I had some virus or software issue that would clear up after reformatting. Now that I have all my kids photos and shit backed up I'm ready to try whatever.

I can always post here on my phone or Kindle.

[cstone]

Linux Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
I have this on my laptop without any issues

You left out the best part...It is free!

1. Keep your data separate from your OS.
2. Image your disk with the OS and keep the image as a baseline copy. I just assume I will do a wipe and reload of the OS every year anyway if it is a MS box.
3. Backup your data on a regular schedule. If you backup daily, keep a weekly copy in a separate location. If you backup weekly, keep a monthly copy in a separate location.
4. If you have data you cannot afford to lose and it is not overly sensitive, use Google docs or DropBox.
5. If you can afford it and want to invest the time, a RAID based network storage device will allow you to keep your sensitive data in-house and available.

I used to use Norton Ghost many years ago, and it was a good imaging system. Acronis True Image is a good application and works much the same way Ghost did. Since I have several Linux boxes, and I am familiar with DD and some of the GUI frontends for DD, I choose to use those free tools rather than spend money on backup software.

I am almost independent of MS, however there are a few things at work that require me to keep a couple of MS boxes at home.

[GilpinGuy]

What error code is Windows backup giving you?

0x8007001

Over and over again....

[GilpinGuy]

Screw it. Here we go......

[blacklabel]

Good luck man!

[Fromk]

Idiot here: how do I get all of my drivers and keep them handy? I assume burn them to disk, but how does one go about getting all of them, and get them to said disk?

First we need to back up a step. Are you restoring from dedicated Windows disks or a backup from the manufacturer? If it's a manufacturer backup it should have the drivers you need.

If it's from a plain Windows disk you need to do things before you format. Go to your manufacturer's web site (Dell, HP, Acer?) and you'll follow some steps asking for your model and OS and you should be presented with a big list of stuff to download. Everyone's page is layed out differently so I can't be too specific but if you're lucky and they're good it should be easy to grab what you need. Be SURE to get motherboard, wireless, touchpad, and display drivers. Those tend to be the more crucial ones. Windows can get most of the other stuff running if you forget something specific. You can stick them on that external drive. Basic Windows will get your USB ports running.

It's really tough to hit everything over the internet but I hope this thread gets you off in the right direction. I saw a lot of helpful comments. The easiest way to get through this kind of thing is to find a friendly geek to help in person.