2nd Destructive Recovery coming / Help Please

Howdy ScubaBud! Scuba, I'm a total no nothing dope in these matters so kindly forgive my ignorance! Am I correct in even assuming that these grinding/grunting noises are from the hard drive? Can, say, a motherboard make grinding/grunting noise (my phychic but otherwise empty grey matter tells me your having a good chuckle here... lol!)

The existing hard drive has a division containing the original restoration stuff; I can create restoration discs from that (I think they call it "D Drive") or I can get a set from Hewlett Packard.

If I get a new hard drive, would you recommend contacting HP and getting an exact replacement for the one that's in there? Is there some company that makes really superior replacement ones compatible with my machine?

I once replaced a gateway hard drive but it was with a larger hard drive that would have come with the computer anyway. It was easy...disconnect this plastic connector thing, remove the hard drive, put in the new one, reconnect that plastic thing and then run the restoration disc. Are they all that easy or did I just luck out on that? Again, I'm a rank amateur. Thanks for the help! ... Gerry

 

i got your pm gerry, i see ddp has been helping you, as well as scubabud.. they are more advanced then me in this area.. he does it for a living..
but it looks like he has you covered..
may be time to upgrade anyway.. 3 year old puter and all..
sorry i could not be of much assistance..

 

Gerry

Noises from a PC can be from fans, either in your Power supply, over your CPU, sometimes on your Graphics card, or in your case as cooling fans. Other noises can be from a floppy drive when activated or from HDD's. When you mentioned

that to me is a HDD failing and since you are also having your recovery problems as well, I would guess the same.

If you are not familiar with replacing a HDD or don't want to purchase the software required to make it easy, such as Norton Ghost, plus a new HDD then I would also suggest a new PC. Spec out one from Dell's site, using both retail and business accounts to see what gives the best deal. If you have a business, you can order one for less sometimes, but not always, it just depends on their deals during the week. If you do decide to order one from the business side and you don't have a business, just PM me and I can help you there as well.

But if this was my machine, I would just purchase a new HDD, say a Maxtor 160gig with 16MB of cache and try that first. Like I mentioned before, you can always use the extra HDD for either an external backup with an external case or internal backup as an extra slave HDD.

 

@gear...I'm sure both ddp and ScubBud know their business; I know you dabble in this too so I was just fishing for opinions. I was a bit surprised with what you said about replacing the computer because its three years old though. When I bought this HP, I gave my sister my old gateway which I bought in 1997 and it's still going strong with never a problem (I bought a new one because I do some image editing and the gateway didn't have close to enough memory to power new software). Even here at work, we have two computer labs for public use and they sure do get used, 16 hours a day; we don't have a tech here so there isn't even prev maint on them...defrag etc. and they're probably filled with spyware ... those are eight year old IBMs and Dells and still going strong. Why would a 3 year old HP need replacing? Are they not making them as good as they used too? ... wouldn't surprise me, seems to be the case with everything which brings me back to....

@ScubaBud....is there a big risk that changing the hard drive won't do the trick or should I just buy a new machine? who makes the best in your opinion? THe HP Pavillion I have now was built to certain specifications because I was getting into graphics so a PhotoShop teacher in my apartment building put the specs together for me. The DVD player/writer has also been kind of finiky since I bought it ... writer in the HP is a Philips but I don't remember the model. I spent $1,500. on that CPU. If I get a new one, I'll just get a really good "off the rack" model which will cost me a lot less but I don't know who makes the best brand and model.

P.S. I know enough people to get the hard drive installed for me. I got a couple of techies their jobs with my company so they owe me.

 

@ gerry...

i only suggested a new one cuz you know how it goes, you buy one today, tomorrow its outdated.. plus, i dont know the exact specs of your , but newer one have faster processors, larger hard drives, more memory, compatability, options... the list goes on..
and if you do decide to keep your, what it may cost to fix/repair it may out weigh the cost of a new one anyway..
it was not a knock at you, you know me better then that, i am willing to help where i can...
i just dont wanna stick my foot in my mouth.. i'd much rather someone with more experience give you the advice them me..

when i upgraded my (bought my new one in 05) there was a world of difference... like night and day....

anyway, i'll stay in here, just to see, learn, and read !!


i hope this does not double post, i got an error when trying to send and it did not go through !!

if it does, i will edit it out

 

Hmmmm. Guess I've got some thinking to do. I'm thinking of two things though: I've got this wierd feeling that HP might make good printers but that their computers are crap. The one I have now is actually a replacement: I bought an HP and had to send it back to the shop five times then I raised so much stink that they sent me the current one as a replacement. I'm inclined to buy a new one come income tax time and then get the HP fixed just to have a spare. Who would make the best home PC though; gateway, dell, sony? Scubabud, you suggested looking at Dells; ddp, what do you think of them? Gear, what do you have?

 

matter of fact, i have an HP... i think its a a817n pavillion, 160 gig hdd, 1 gig ram, litey burner, flat panel 17".. i paid like 1000 bucks for it, has more crap too, but too lazy to type it all out..

i've had good luck with hp so far... its my 4th anyway..

 

Damn! Decisions Decisions Decisions! Time to hit the reviews I guess; I won't be able to get anything until income tax return time anyway even if I have to keep doing destructive recoveries...not much choice in the matter.

Yeah, I paid a fortune for my pavillion too. I had it in my head to become a real photoshop pro; I'm an artist as you know and wanted to use the wizardry of photoshop to create drafts which I would then paint or draw. I'm quite good with photographs but never got good enough to use it as intended though. Anyway, the HP specs were put together by a guy in my building who taught photoshop at a local art college here in Philly (actually, it's Moore College of Art which is one of the best in the country). I keep telling myself I'm going to become a real pro with it but I think I've learnt all that I can learn on my own; I'd have to take classes from here. Anyway, it cost a bundle. The burner is a philips but there are few formats it just won't play and it's really picky on what media it will burn...I won't even take a chance with stuff on sale anymore, I've thrown too much stuff away. I know what it likes and I stick with it. My monitor is just awesome!: I don't remember the model but it's a 21 in. Sony LCD analog/digital. It has a five year warranty with as little as one dead pixel. It has this neat feature where it boosts or reduces the monitor brightness depending on the roomlight where it's set up...sound silly but it really makes a huge difference. It really has got to be the best damned picture I've ever seen. I won't even tell you what I paid for it because you'll send for the guys with the butterfly nets! Anyway, as you can imagine, I was bulls**t when I kept having to return the first one to the shop over and over again but the replacement they put together has worked like a charm since this started happening. Anyway, I'll decide what to do by the time I get my tax return. You see, I use the IRS like one of those christmas club accounts; I have them take out fifty or sixty dollars extra per paycheck and come income tax return time, I get a nice five to six thousand dollar return which I spend entirely on myself with absolutely no sense of responsibility! It's my yearly gift to myself for being so totally cheap for the rest of the year. Anyway, I'll keep you posted. I hope you're all o.k.! Gerry

 

Well Gerry with that kind of cash, you can get a custome PC that will brush your teeth, dust your furniture, and walk the dog! <G>

 

hey gerry, check out tiger direct.com.. my dad just recently got a gateway from them, fully loaded for under 600 bucks.. shipping included..
has a 17" flat panel, 250 gig hd, burner and dvd rom, 1gig memory, and more, plus its WMC 2006.. not bad for the price, they have deals all the time..

 

This is too damn wierd. My computer needs an exorcist! I did a destructive recovery last night then went straight to bed. I got home from work today not looking forward to reinstalling everything ... all the programs I had uninstalled are back as expected but only half of the programs which should have been wiped out are gone. My printer and scanner software are gone but this document and photo management software is still there along with my X-Copy and a bunch of other stuff including my ISP software; I'm online now and this thing is flying! The grinding and groaning when booting up and shutting down has stopped (but for how long?). I've got to redownload my Norton though yet the software ddp had me download is all still there and functional. What the hell is going on with this thing? Damn this is strange! I'll let you know how I make out!

 

@ddp: Recovery is part of the hard drive but I can get recovery discs from HP. Something is wrong even with the recovery; all my programs should have been wiped out; about half were, others had some components removed but not others. I ran it again though and it did the trick so if it follows it's pattern, I should be o.k. for the next five or six weeks. I'm not going to bother to reinstall my software. That'll give me some time to figure out what I want to do. I'll price a new harddrive. BTW I don't know anyone who can build a computer for me. If I tried to build one we should film it and put it on the comedy channel.

@ScubaBud and Gear: I've got some decent cash coming back from my income tax but a good part of it is already spent on a vacation with some friends...in fact, that's why I started doing that, to pay for a decent vacation every year but in recent years, I've been using it to by new toys of one kind or another. Still, I'll have about 1,200 to spare and can buy a new and decent puter if I must...I just hate to if I don't have to. I think I'll price a new harddrive and depending on the price, I'll buy one and have it installed by one of the guys at the office. Worse that can happen is that it doesn't work and I wasted some money and have to buy a new computer. If the cost of a new hard drive isn't more than 150-200, I'll risk it and buy a new computer if it doesn't work. I am familiar with tiger direct; I've never bought anything big from them but they've got some great deals on blank media and all sorts of other things which I've bought. My puter should be o.k. until my income tax return although I may have to do the recovery one more time ... like I said, it usually lasts five or six weeks before it bites the dust. So I'll price a new hard drive and I'll start doing some research and reading reviews to see which of the major computer brand names makes the best product. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

Gerry there are lot's of ways to go for a good build. If you want the most bang for your buck and will be doing this soon, I would go AMD dual core. If you feel that you don't want to chance a build yourself just start a thread something like: $1200 to spend OTD for a new PC, what do you suggest. Let everyone put in their two cents and give advice and see what develops.

 

160 gig for 87 bucks (can) ?
wow, thats a bit steep. what brand is that ddp?
we got a western hd here @ best buy for like 30 bucks after rebate, same size.

 

@ScubaBud

Ah, now for a demonstration of ignorance LOL!! What does "$1200. to spend 'OTD' for a new PC..." mean?...specifically "OTD". Thanks!