Hi. I decided to ccheck for dust bunnies in my Cyberpower pc and it had plenty of them! When I rebooted the pc I got this message: We strongly recommend that you backup your computer to avoid possible data loss and to print this information to help the hardware technical support person diagnose the hard disk with errors.
Disk Name: Hitachi HDS721010DLE630
Volume: C\
Apparently there is more than a coincidence that I got this message after I cleaned the pc. What could I have done, or was there a problem in the making and I just pushed it?
I wrote to Cyberpower and have not yet heard back from them. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Terri

It might be from electrostatic damage.
How did you clean the dust out?

Oops. I used the canned air but then I did use the vacuum at the bottom of the case. I knew better, can't believe I did that.

It might be a bit difficult to find this particular hard drive, several places say out of stock. Which HD could I use to replace it?

Have you shut down and rebooted?

I have and it looks great (I have gone into my mail) but then I get that messsge again and I'm told it's best not to reboot until it's fixed or replaced. So, I'm a bit afraid to try to use it. My granddaughter is going to be unhappy when she finds that she can't finish her ND game tonight.

Perhaps do a chkdsk and see if it finds anything. Just scroll down past the stuff until you get to Option one.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/6221-chkdsk-check-drive-errors-windows-8-a.html

It's possible one or more of the SMART counters have hit a threshold. The utility below will analyze the drives health for you, as well as report back the current counter values.

Crystal Disk Info

Try Drac's suggestion first, it can resolve a number of drive issues.

And of course, make sure your backup is up to date.

When I booted up I got the messagea again.
I did the chkdsk and so far no problem. I went ahead and ran the scan even though it said there was no problem. (Event ID 26226 None) Details: Windows has scanned the file systen and found no problems. No further action is required.
Now what? Should I run the utility that Inland has recommended?

Yes run the utility Inland recommended.
That should tell you if the drive is on the way out.
chkdsk doesn't check for remapped sectors or any of the things a modern drive does to extend its life.

Jenny100. Which edition should I run? Needless to say I have no idea what I'm doing.

I'd get the CrystalDiskInfo 6.5.2 "portable" version without the ads from here
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

Maybe Inland can give you more information on how to use it.
I'd just go by the "How to Use" instructions on the website
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/MainWindow.html

Look at the S.M.A.R.T. information.
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/manual-en/SmartInfo.html

Ok d/loaded it and so far I see that I have a caution on the HD because of temp. Caution 30 degrees Celcius/ Good 31 degrees Celcius. ID 05 Reallocated Sectors Count current, worst, threshold all 5's, Raw value 000000000756.
I have no idea waht this means other than the yellow caution temp. Oh, if I click on the yellow button there is more information there. Help Inland!

I'm leaving the house so going to shut it down for now. The reason I cleaned the darned thing is because I thought it was running entirely too hot, according to Wise Care it's now 90 degrees F.

90° F should not be too hot in a desktop computer. I'm working on a laptop right now that was having crash dumps and shutdowns where the HDD temp was running about 59°C! Now THAT'S too hot!. I openen up the back and blew out the fan and the temps are back down in the 30°C range which is OK for a laptop.

One thing to be sure of is that all your fans are operational. But definitely run that utility Inland pointed you to.

Just got back, booted-up and noticed that the mainboard is running 68 degrees and it was 136, that's the one that made me do the dusting. Right after I dusted it out the mainboard went down to 48 and I figured I really done number on the pc.
Drac, girl you of all people know I haven't a clue what to do. Did you see the caution notation above for the HD? Perhaps it too low!

That doesn't look good if it's the "worst" rating.
That may be what triggered the warning.

It had 5's for current, worst and threshold. I have no idea what any of this means.

The "Raw" value is specified in hex, 0x756 = 1,878 relocated sectors. It sounds like the drive has been having issues for some time.

I'd have it cloned and replaced as soon as possible.

Ha, ha! And I've told you, Terri, that compared to some of the people whose computers I work on, you're an IT genius!

That 30°C looks perfect to me. What software are you using to monitor the temps?

Inland, cloned? Which HD can I replace the Hitachi HDS721010DLE630 with? It seems these are out of stock with several vendors.

Drac, Wise Care 365. I've used another in the past, can't remember which one.

If you are to have the drive cloned and replaced, this is something to have a tech or computer shop do.

What! You're kidding right? Why can I not just replace the HD and transfer the information onto it. I have no idea what Cloned is but I'm thinking if this is expensive, I would just as soon purchase another PC. Putting 60 or 70 dollars into the cyberpower is one thing but not hundreds. This time however, I think I'm going back to HP.

When you purchase an OEM drive, they generally come with cloning software. If not, the drive manufacture has them available on their web site.

Cloning takes care of the copying of one drive to another, all files folders etc... Once the cloning process is complete you just destroy the old drive and plug in the new one. Make sure you tell it to make the new drive bootable.

Any 7200 RPM 3.5" 1TB drive (or larger) can be used to replace your drive.

Cloning a drive should not be expensive.
You are cloning the operating system and files -- not the hardware.

You can't just copy all files on a drive to a different drive with copy/paste and expect the 2nd drive to boot Windows and run properly. There are parts of Windows that are not accessible through copy/paste.

Here is one way to clone a drive using free Clonezilla software.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-use-clonezilla-to-clone-a-hard-drive/

I'd agree with Draclvr that it's probably something you should have someone do for you, though maybe not a tech shop if you have a friend or family member who can do it.

But if you understand the Clonezilla instructions, or can follow along, there's no reason why you couldn't clone the drive yourself. Just be sure to test it before destroying the old drive.

Getting rid of this PC would be sort of like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And suggesting you have someone do it for you is just going by your own assessment that you are not the most computer literate! It's not difficult to clone a new drive and then be sure it's bootable, but you really need to know what you're doing.

Simply copying the files to the new drive used to be something that you could do, but to copy files on a modern Windows machine will run into problems with permissions and the symbolic links. And if you are copying it from the PC that that you are replacing the drive you will encounter locked files that you cannot copy. If Windows sees the new drive and enters the mount point for it in the registry you can encounter boot problems. Also there may be a hidden recovery partition that you cannot copy if you cannot see it. Cloning the drive avoids all of these problems as it is simply copying bytes, not files. Another possibility is to image each partition of the drive you are replacing. These images can then be written to the new drive.

This might sound complicated, but with a little research it is not that hard. If you still don't feel up to it, take it in to someone to do it for you, but once you have done it yourself you will know you can do it again if the need arises.

Thanks Collector for the info and sure enough I have no idea what you said. I guess the first issue at hand is to order the new HD, so will do that and then go from there.
Thanks all you fellow Boomer's for your input I appreciate it, may not have a clue what you said but still appreciate it.

My Cyberpower PC has an Intel B75 chipset/motherboard. Exactly what is that and can I replace the HD with a WD 2TB hard drive or just go back with a 1TB ?

I can't find anything that says there are size limits for a hard drive, so I'm going to assume you can use a 2 GB drive on this motherboard. This is also a question you could ask the repair shop you've found.

Cool, thanks Drac. I had planned on purchasing rhe HD before I took it to the shop, is that not a good idea?
Also, what I was saying in one of the other post about getting rid of the PC was that I do not want to put a lot of money in the PC and if I had to I'd just as soon replace it. That computer was not very expensive.

No, that's a good idea.

I guess I'm never willing to give up on a computer without a fight - especially when the rest of the computer is working just fine. Worked on a 5 year-old laptop with Vista on it for a couple of days last weekend, but could only get it running well enough to get all the data off it. Made sure the hardware was OK with chkdsk, crystalmark and memtest86 and finally blew away the Vista installation and put Windows 8.1 on it. It runs like a finely tuned and oiled sewing machine now... and the fix only cost $90 for the OS and a bottle of wine for me! And the owners have gotten a reprieve from having to come up with the money for a new computer for a while at a time when they can least afford it.

I am a bit surprised. I got the offer to upgrade my Vista PC to Win 7 and by the time I decided I'd try it, it was too late.
I would think that the computer, laptop or desktop would need more than just the new OS installed. Apparently it had more going for it than mine.

Do you think it would be a problem to purchase the HD and take it to the shop? Would it be better to purchase one there? (probably more expensive though)

Drive size limitations have not been a problem for a while now, at least until recently. We have reached a limit with sizes over 2TB with the Windows file system, NTFS. There are relatively easy workarounds, but it should not be an issue if your drive is no larger than 2TB

Got in touch with the computer shop and was told they can't move the programs, only the data and that's $189.00 with me bringing in the HD. Does this sound about right? If they provide the new HD that's an additional $100.00.

$189 is a bargain from their end, not so much from yours.
Also it's obvious they're not making a drive image if they aren't keeping your programs.
They'd probably be giving you a fresh install of Windows and copying certain files over from the bad drive, which is something you can do yourself.

Did you tell them you would like to have the old drive cloned, NOT a new installation? Cloning or making a drive image copies programs, the OS etc. from one drive to the other.

Yup, all you need is your drive cloned. A good 2TB replacement drive can be had for less than 100 dollars these days.

And you also might consider calling around and asking other computer repair shops what they would charge to clone a drive for you.

I agree, tomorrow I will call other shops to check prices. I did tell the man on the phone I wanted to cloned, perhaps he didn't understand me but don't think I;m going to call him back.
I used to have the business card of a young man that worked at Office Depot that did computer work on the side. I need to find that card.

I would like to add my 2 cents. First,this is not a Cyberpower problem it is a Hitachi problem.Second, unless you have something very valuable on this computer why try to do all this cloning stuff and just do a new install on a new drive. You can copy all your documents,pictures,and favorites on a flash drive then do a new install.Since Cyberpower includes the windows disk,the drivers disk, and the video card disk,a new install is fairly easy although a bit time consuming.

Good point, Geo.

If you have nothing on the PC that requires re-activation, and there's no fear of exceeding the limit, you should be able to do that one. I've lost several games doing just that though, so make sure your games have plenty of re-activations.

Too funny, I had thought about that myself. (of course I don't know how to do that either) As to what I would lose I have no idea. I did find the Windows 8 disk from Cyberpower and two MS. Works 8 & money disks that I never opened. As for other disks I don't have them, but will keep looking.

Correct Geo, it's a Hitachi problem and it seems that I'm not the only one that has had problem with the HD, I just waited too long to notify them. I did take an extended warranty and actually that's through NewEgg. So, no worry, it will all come out in the wash!

Inland, would this one work?
WD Caviar Black high performance 3.5- Inch SATA hard drive combines 7200 RPM, 64 MB cache, and SATA 6 Gb/s interface for the ultimate in power computing.
High performance electronics architecture features dual processors and bigger, faster caches for maximum read and write speeds.
StableTrac The motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking, during read and write operations.

What's the exact model number for that drive?

WD 1002 FAEX or WD 1003 FZEX. These area actually the two I'm looking at. Both are 1TB. If you think you can find something better feel free to look.
(Sata 3 vs 6, what is the difference? I'm using Win 8.1)
If this doesn't make sense let me know.
Thanks!

Either would do fine, the performance difference between to two is so small I'd probably opt for which ever drive has the better price.

I'm not aware of an SATA revision 6, I believe you're referring to the transfer rate. SATA III has a transfer rate of 6 GBPS - maybe that's it?

I pretty much always use WD Caviar Black drives - stable, fast and they come with a great warranty.

Thanks everyone for your help, I really appreciate it. I miss using my computer so better get in gear and order the HD.
Inland, my daughter had me ask about the Sata 6 vs 3, I should have looked at it better before I posted.


Drac, I decided to stay away from the open box, since I wasn't sure exactly what condition the item was in.

If I remember correctly, when I purchased my WD Velociraptor 1 TB drive, it came with cloning software. I know I didn't buy any software when I moved my Windows 8.1 installation from a 500 GB drive to the Velociraptor.

Most retail drives include the software, a bare bones drive will not - not to worry though, you can download the software directly from WDC.

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software

Yup, that's what I used. Although it's been a couple of years, as I remember it was pretty easy and worked great.

Hi. Just saw this and sent it to my daughter. Not sure what she plans on doing with my PC/HD as of yet.
Thanks,

That should work.

One thing to keep in mind if you are going to do a new install is that many PCs of the last few years do not include an install disk, but instead have a restore partition. This is usually a hidden, inaccessible partition that contains all of the install files. It is activated by pressing a certain key (depending on the PC) on startup that will make the PC boot from the restore partition to start the installation. At the very least this partition will need to be imaged or cloned before you can do a new install.

Since this is a Cyberpower PC, Terri has found her Windows 8 CD. But, if she is able to clone it, there shouldn't be any need for it. Hopefully not, because that's a LOT of updates... just did one of those last weekend for someone.

Hopefully last question on this. I never heard back from Cyberpower about the additional disk for graphics card, etc, am I going to need them? If so, I'm in real trouble

No, you can probably download everything you will need. But again, if you clone the old drive, you won't need them anyway.

Ok, not sure when my daughter will be available to help me with the Cyberpower but have a question or two. Can you or Inland tell me which of the Acronis true image WD software I need to download? Also, that PC hasn't been booted up in many days so what are the chances that I could boot it up and download the software without a major problem of the HD croaking. I am not sure why I'm asking this because I realize you don't know the answer to that but guess I'm just tired of waiting and not being able to use my other PC.

I just looked back at the link and wonder if there is a way to do this other than manually. If I can do it automatically would that be easier? Now for the clincher question, I am to clone my old HD to disk, or will it be saved on the software and I then transfer it to the new HD?
Ok Boomers, do not roll thoses eyes, I can see you! Remember, I'm a novice!

The English one from the link Inland provided.


Chances are it won't croak immediately.
But you shouldn't put off replacing it.


It is automatic. You set it up, then leave it until it's finished.


In the simplest setup, the data goes directly from the old hard drive to the new one.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3682/~/how-to-manually-clone-a-disk-with-acronis-true-image-wd-edition-software

Thanks so much Jenny100. This is the link I was referring to. (meanwhile I'm going to boot up the Cyberpower) to see what this is going to entail.

And remember, you must first mount and connect the new drive in the PC.

Drac............HELP! I've copied and installed on old HD the Acronis software and now don't know what to do!

Oh gee, I clicked on the backup and recovery on the acronis software and it shows No backups found on your computer". Looks like I'm in deep trouble.
It's showing tools and utilities /and backup and recovery tabs.

There is nothing you can do until you mount and connect that new hard drive. Please follow the instructions I sent you. If you haven't RUN the backup, of course you won't have a backup. When you RUN it, you must specify an origin disk and a destination disk.

Drac. I'm a wreck, and I don't think I can do this. Are you saying I should not have run the software on the old drive?

I d/loaded (saved)and installed it on the old drive. Those instructions were Greek to me and I wasn't sure which to d/load. I am on the link that Inland sent on GB.

I only see one version to download at
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
and that seems to be version 16.

So you'd look at the instructions for version 16 at
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/deta...tware#acronis16

Of course you won't be able to do anything until you put the new hard drive in the computer and have it all connected up. Both hard drives must be in the computer in order to clone from one drive to the other one.

Thanks Jenny100. The link I looked at had version 14 and 16. I did not realize that they both had to be in the computer, I thought I just connected them with a USB. I shut the PC down, so looks like I'm done, at least for today.
When I was trying to do this before, I had such a problem with my ISP tech, couldn't get to the internet. That tech tried for at least an hour to fix it, so he messed up my other pc that I had been using. This has been going on for days. They swapped out my router and VOIP box and didn't set it up for my Cyberpower. I've been looking for another server but we are basically in limbo...............this just added to my stress.
Thank you!

There may be some systems that will clone correctly through USB, but since you want the new drive to be the new Windows drive, there's not really much adventage to trying to do it through USB. You're going to want the new drive inside the computer anyway.


If he really messed it up, does the computer have a restore point you could go back to? It sounds like they were blaming your computer when the problem was on their end.

As I keep saying, you must mount and connect the new drive - connecting with a USB will not work here. The instructions I sent you several days ago gave step-by-step instructions along with screenshots to show you how to proceed each step of the way.

What you purchased is a bare drive - you couldn't connect with a USB cable if you wanted to... it has to be mounted in the computer, connected to the motherboard and then connected to the power supply.

Thank you so much Drac. You did send a link as did Inland, but you know, some people are too darned stupid to understand what they've read. Thank you so much for the reminder!

I can be daunting if you've never done it, but it's a fairly simple process. Maybe a video would help a bit -

How to copy or clone your hard drive using acronis

Jenny100. Thank you for clarifying that I need to use version 16, you're the only person that gave me that heads-up. I appreciate it.

I don't think it's that kind of mess up. The other day they replaced the router and set it up for wireless and security. After that it got messed up because of the VOIP. I called on cell phone to get it fixed and they messed up both the pc and the phone, so then I had neither. Then it worked again, it's an on off situation for these people. Apparently the VOIP they offer is not reliable. Then today I booted up the Cyberpower and it wouldn't connect to the internet. Called and he had a real problem figuring out what was wrong, then he messed up the phone, and other pc. It's a long story and I was livid. Between Directv's mess up's and Consolidated Communication's, the stress is getting to be too much for me. I'm just about ready to move off the grid and have nothing to worry about electrical. LOL

Needless to say I know nothing about the pc except how to turn it off and on and piddle, that's what I do!

Inland, daunting is not the word! Thank you so much for the video, first example was pretty cut and dry. Now since dummy d/loaded from the original link you posted I am guessing I need to go back into my Cyberpower and uninstall that download, since it's useless on there, correct?
If you think of anything else you want to tell me please do so or any videos that you think might help please send. I am not going to tackle anything tonight, I've got a headache and teary eyes. Crazy me, I get that way when I realize I'm vacuous.
Thank you again, I truly appreciate you looking up that video and sending it to me.

Inland and Draclvr,

Does Terri824 need to create the Acronis Bootable Media in order to clone the hard drive?
Or does the current version of Acronis allow you to clone from the hard drive you're booted to?

From here (seems to be info for an older version)
https://kb.acronis.com/content/44741

Instructions are here
https://kb.acronis.com/content/48338

Creating the Acronis Bootable Media is something she could do now, even before putting the new hard drive in the computer. All she needs is the writable CD or DVD for the media.

When I used the WD Acronis software, I simply cloned from one drive to another. As the old drive had over 300 GB of data on it, it didn't make sense to try to do this using other media.

I assume the WD version of Acronis is different from the paid for version, but I don't know for sure. This is the link I sent to Terri and is has the same instructions on it as I used a couple of years ago.

Acronis True Image WD Edition

I also had no idea if she needed the 14 or the 16 version or what the difference was as they don't specify here.

I have to add that if all this is so much Greek to you, Terri, you really, really, really need to wait for someone to help you or take it in to a shop and just have them do it for you. Dealing with this stuff is nerve-wracking even if you pretty much know what you're doing!!

Did you boot from an Acronis CD to do the cloning?
Or were you able to clone while booted to the drive that was being cloned?
Or were you booted from Windows and running Acronis on a third drive, while the one being cloned and the one being cloned to were different drives?

The directions at http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3682/~/how-to-manually-clone-a-disk-with-acronis-true-image-wd-edition-software
don't mention that important point.
They start with you already booted to whatever drive you booted from.
The instructions actually show several hard discs in the sample computer, which is certainly not the case with Terri's computer.

The instructions also show very little difference between using version 14 and version 16 other than minor differences in appearance.

Keep in mind, you're asking me to remember something!

But, yes, I ran the WD Acronis True Image software from the old 500 GB HDD while booted into Windows 8. I had one other 500 GB HDD mounted in the case and the new 1 TB WD Velociraptor HDD. I chose the Velociraptor drive as my destination drive and ran the software. I then shut the computer down from the old WD drive, booted into my motherboard BIOS and changed the boot order to my new Velociraptor drive. I spent a couple of days using it to be sure everything was OK and then from the new drive, wiped the old drive and used it in a build I did for someone.

I think all of these companies assume some level of knowledge and do not explain things in the depth that they should. They should have someone who doesn't have a clue what they are doing sit there and ask questions like the ones you did. Then maybe the instructions would be completely clear. These for the WD Acronis True Image are better than most, but still infer a lot.

I'm trying to get the answer to this

Assuming she installed the WD software from
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119
and not something else, she does not need to uninstall anything. Correct?

I don't see any reason why she would need to uninstall anything as long as it was downloaded from that link.

I don't either.
What Terri needs to do now is install the new hard drive in the computer -- or have someone help her do it.

I see there are more posts, I'll have to go back and read them.
I was trying to do something for myself and wanted to learn how to do the cloning. I thought I could do the basics and my daughter could finish it up but apparently not. If you have any helpful information by all means please post them or email me.

Right now I'm a little more concerned with my husband. He has gone into Houston to evict a tenant that the courts already gave a 7 days notice to leave the premises and they've not done so. He is packing and these people are not very lawful (we've recently found out by a neighbor) the store down the street was robbed and the men have been seen at our rental property. We were also told that the day we went to court the law was at the house cursing at these people. I have no idea what is going on but it is very nerve wracking. No, he should not have gone, he should have gone back to the courthouse and gotten a writ of possession. So, enough said, I'm going to try to stay busy and not think about any of this.
Thank you all for your help.
Terri

Oh, Terry... you must be so worried. I'm glad he's packing, but who knows what can happen in circumstances like this.

To the best of my knowledge it can be done either way.

All is well. Husband home, renter suddenly forgot how to speak English, refuses to move because they have no place to go.
Hubby filed "writ of possession" and I hope they can remove the people very soon. What a mess.

Now to the problem of cloning. I have read the posts and honestly have to say I know basically no technical computer language, and my daughter will have to look at this. Hopefully she can do this tomorrow.
Thanks again,
Terri

PS. At this age I don't think I'm going to learn anything technical about the pc.

I am needing to know about the sata cables. It appears that the pc has another one in it (small narrow, power supply cable) Now, do I need to purchase a sata cable to hook to the motherboard? (sata, smaller)

SO glad to hear hubby is home safe and sound. Hope you don't run into what Sorta Blonde is dealing with in her neighborhood.

Terri, I am older than you and I learn new things every single time I work on a computer. Just had an issue crop up on a laptop I'd never seen before last week. My greatest wealth of knowledge has been Jenny and Inland right here. Since I can't remember anything, I have a LOT of bookmarks from them!

I assume you're talking about connecting your new hard drive to the motherboard. If it didn't come with any cables, then, yes, you will need a SATA cable to connect it to the motherboard This is also assuming your power supply has a spare SATA power connection available.

You have two things to connect - a SATA cable attached to the motherboard for "data" or to be able to see the new drive. Then you will also need a SATA "power" cable which should be attached to your power supply. So you will plug two cables in - one from an available SATA connection on the motherboard and one from an available SATA connection coming from the power supply.

Make any sense?

I'd be real surprised if you didn't have a power cable/connector available. On the outside chance you don't, the easiest fix is to use a Y-Splitter - you can safely connect 2 hard drives to 1 power cable.

They look like this - 4x SATA Power Splitter Adapter Cable

Look closely at the cable from your PSU, I'll bet it already has 2 connectors.

More likely she has power cables but no extra data cable -- at least no extra data cable inside the computer.
Here's a picture showing where they connect on the hard drive.
http://m.kitchentablecomputers.com/Images/components/sata_drive.gif

One would assume any decent power supply would have a spare SATA power connection.. I hope this one does.

I would hope so too - but, you never know these days.

The data cable is the one that connects to the motherboard, not the power supply.

Exactly - that's why I was hoping to make it clear there are two cables to connect - one for power from the power supply and one for data to the motherboard.

The data cable is the one she might have to buy.
They usually include a data cable with a purchased motherboard, but they don't ususally include extra data cables with a brand name computer or send them along with a hard drive.

Yes there is a spare power connection and we went to Best Buy for the Sata power connection. That is such a tight area where the cables go and it appears the Sata power connector is not quite pushed down enough. So, the computer did not find the 2nd HD so the Acronis software would not work. Does it matter which of the 4 power connectors is used?
Today we are going to open the pc up again and check that connection.

Drac, got ya on this one, I am older by perhaps 2 years, can't remember. (69 this month)
I do understand that you are still learning and that's great. I on the other hand have a short term memory problem that my doctor wants to ignore. I can look something up on one tab and by the time I get to the other tab to type the info, I've already forgotten the word or the spelling, it's most upsetting. As I've aged I have also gotten very unorganized and I too keep notes, emails and bookmarks but I play hell finding them.
Thanks Boomers!

No. The computer should automatically detect whichever one is connected.
Just keep track of which drive is the one you want to clone and which is the one being cloned to.

You talk about the SATA power connection, but you don't mention the SATA data cable... So, do you have two cables going from the new drive - one to an available power connection and one to an available SATA port on the motherboard?

Nope you've only got me by 1 year! I have the same problems you describe...

We do have both cables hooked up. One of the ends of the Sata data cable is angled, one is straight. I'm guessing the angled one goes on the motherboard.

Drac. I think one of the big differences between us is that I tend to take the road of least resistance and you don't!

The angled one usually goes on the drive, but I'm not sure if it matters.

Ok, my concern was the tighness/no space when both cables are in place and the fact that it doesn't look like the cable that goes to the motherboard is pushed completely down.
Also is there any need to go into the Bios? D. was reading something and it mentioned the Bios.

You "may" hear a snap when the SATA cable is securely connected to the motherboard.

No need for the BIOS at this time.

Hello. I want to let you know today my Cyberpower PC has a new Hard Drive! If it weren't for all the infomation that you all provided I would not have my PC up and running. After watching D. go through the steps to get it cloned, I realize that it is not a major deal, it actually looked quite easy. (of course you have to have the right information to accomplish it) Apparently I learn mostly by vision/hands on. So Boomers.............thank you so much for the tips, directions, the videos and diagrams and most of all for your patience. I know that was a long and arduous journey for you.
I truly appreciate your help!
Ok now........ GROUP HUG!

Yay! Double yay! Now, aren't you glad you didn't just get a new one!

I remember the cloning part itself was pretty easy. It was all the steps leading up to it that were a bit harrowing.

I'm glad to hear it's working now.
Be careful not to get it infected.

Absolutely glad you got it up and working

Thanks again Boomers......
Jenny I appreciate your vote of confidence. lol ( u know me well)
Drac. Yep, cost me $50.00 and 5 years off my life.
Inland Thanks for the thumbs-up.
When we bought the Sata cable the other day at Best Buy the Geeks said they would do it for $100.00 and again, that was for files, no programs. I wonder why they keep saying no programs? It's a retorical question, I think.

Maybe they'd never heard of cloning...