Windows detected a hard disk problem

Many fixes to older operating system are mostly non-existent. Windows 7 is an excellent OS because it lacks the hang-ups that came with the flawed "Windows Registry" design. Running anti-virus and utility clean up programs serves to consume a lot of your time only to half diagnose your issues or not even fix them at all.

The sure way to get rid of mysterious issues is by formatting.

You can't have more than pictures, movies and music on your hard drive that you want to keep. If you have digital documents i.e. tax forms like myself and have not backed them up onto a CD then you should be doing that right now. As long as you want to browse the net with speed and efficiency, you can't have many programs that run in the background that you installed a while ago and never use.

Format your computer at least once a year. Always have your pictures backed up on Picasa or any one of the myriad picture storage websites, home movies on Youtube and music on CD. Install the programs that you use the most and leave it at that. You will be surprised how fast your computer runs when it comes without the bloatware that is sifting through registry keys and settings during start up.

 

The Hitachi drive that Micro Center talked me into buying was not compatible with my Dell. I returned it and bought a Seagate... a little more money, but it is recognized by the MB. There's a Seagate utility on my Hiren's disk with which I formatted and partitioned the drive. I restored my drive image and the bitch won't boot! The system reports that the Boot Manager is missing!

At this point, I'm glad I didn't format my old drive. I've used DriveImageXML with WinXP with nary a glitch. I'm wondering if it just doesn't like Win7 and there's a different utility I should be using.

 

The drivers for the bios and HDD are dated June of 2006, so in computer years, it's ancient. I didn't buy this laptop from Dell, so I don't believe I'd have a claim at any rate. If I'm going to keep this thing, I want more storage capacity. The present circumstances are merely serving to motivate me to finally upgrade. It's either that, or spend more money than I want to at this time for a new machine.
--- merged: May 14, 2012 at 7:22 PM ---
Crap. Just read the online support for DriveImage XML. The booting issue is a known glitch for Win7 and the only fix they list is running a start up repair from an installation disc. I'm sure I know someone who would loan me one.

 

I scored an installation disc and the repair went just as advertised. New HDD is installed and running. All of my programs and files are intact. Five times the storage, more than enough for a boring guy like me