near disaster

Baz · Jul 16, 2010, 18:58:14

wednesday night happily surfing away had noticed some strange 'click click click' noise from the computer.half hour later it rebooted itself.....but wouldnt re start

got the screen with the message that it didnt shut down properly choose a way to start etc...couldnt use arrow keys to change as I have wireless keyboard so had to let it countdown or ENTER for the normal windows star.
well it wouldnt start,lots of tries but nothing.dug out a wired keyboard to try the safe mode option but still nothing.left it that night until after work next day but still couldnt get it into safe mode,started to worry now.....ages since last back up

,what to do.

took out the HD and put it in my sons system with his HD still in,he has laptop now so this is just standing,and fired it up.Did notice a slack connection on the HD connector may have been the clicking noise,dont know,so used the next one in line;windows started and saw the new drive and straight away went into disc check mode and ran it,fixed some faults and got it going

did the virus/malware/spyware checks while still in his set up and nothing found,put it back in my tower yesterday and booted up.it worked

relief all round.it took a long time to start first time though with just a white bar along bottom of screen,lots of disc activity them windows ran.did virus checks again with my software and still found nothing.

just keeping an eye on it now,still slow in booting,mouse movement seems erratic but not too bad.nothing lost that I can see.

so,im now looking for the tutorial on here some where for Acronis and I AM going to do it.

any advice for future welcome.

Glenn · Jul 16, 2010, 19:04:07

Back up your data while the drive is working, HDU's clicking is not a good sign.

Simon · Jul 16, 2010, 21:36:52

Was it these you're looking for, Baz?

http://www.idnetters.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=7729.0

Baz · Jul 16, 2010, 21:38:34

that looks like the one I remember thanks Simon

Baz · Jul 17, 2010, 18:04:12

is it possible to install Acronis on an external drive then use it from that drive to image different laptops or does it need to be installed on the same system that you are backing up.

Steve · Jul 17, 2010, 18:08:18

I think it has to be installed on every machine you wish to image

DorsetBoy · Jul 17, 2010, 18:13:43

If you have a wireless keyboard/mouse you should alter your BIOS settings to allow them to operate during boot up.

MisterW · Jul 17, 2010, 19:31:15

Quoteis it possible to install Acronis on an external drive then use it from that drive to image different laptops or does it need to be installed on the same system that you are backing up.

Have a look at Clonezilla. You can put the Live bootable version on either a CD or a USB stick ( or even a boot USB drive ).

Niall · Jul 17, 2010, 19:41:10

The clicking a hard drive makes is often called the click of death, for obvious reasons. Every time I've had that, the drive has died within a very short period. That being said, my mums PC did it too, 7 years ago and it's still running fine

Den · Jul 17, 2010, 20:58:52

Under the circumstances I would do a back up just in case and consider changing the hard drive anyway.