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new load of a replacement hard drive

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7:46 pm
June 11, 2011

rsiefers57

michigan

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Confused I have a few questions. I have a hospital application that has 8 PC's networked together. they have only 1 internet connection via dial in modem. It has been in operations for 6 years and the system is used 24/7 for Sleep studies. The PC's are all Dell Optiplex GX270, my dilema is this has no server and 1 of the PC's had a fatal hard drive failure. I got the blue screen of death and it stated that the windows application would shut down. Upon attempting to restart the PC doesn't recognize the primary disk any longer (it is a Maxtor 80GB dirve). Everything I have tried has been unsuccessful. I even went so far as to install the hard drive into another working PC and get the same indication. Fortunately the patient records had been backed up prior to the crash, so no data loss. but the operating system is locked inside. I personnally have never reloaded a hard disk fro scratch, and am a little nervous about this. I have all the original software fromDell and the manufacturers specific software, but my question is this:

Do I need to have a startup disk made from another PC on this network to get the Dell operating system in place?

Is it possible to make a slave of the "new" disk into a working PC and "clone" the files? I am thinking this might be the proper way to go, but am looking for input!

I can then change the specifics necessary for the dick to be recognized and a different PC address after the cloning, or am I thinking wrong? Any input would be greatly appreciated, as every day this PC is down the hospital is losing money-and I am the repair tech!

bob siefers

9:26 am
June 12, 2011

warrantyvoider

Detroit

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Since it sounds like you made backups of all your important data, you can start by patting yourself on the back :) Too many people live to regret skipping this important step.

It sounds like you have a new hard drive and all the necessary software discs (windows XP disc, copies of all the necessary software, etc.). Good.

First, I'd be hesitant to 'clone' the contents of the bad drive onto a new drive. Even if you got lucky enough to actually do it, you'd still be in a bad place since the old drive either has a corrupt system file or it's physically damaged. In either case, I doubt you'd end up with a bootable drive when you were done.

I had another thought: Since this sounds like a corporate installation, it might be worth your while to plunk down 80 bucks on a program called "Spinrite". This thing is AWESOME. In a nutshell, it takes non-bootable drives and "magically" makes them bootable. I don't generally recommend it for home use, since it costs more than a new 2TB hard drive, but in your case, it might be worth it.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

Barring that, a clean install on a new drive should pose no problem. Pop the new drive into the dell, pop the WinXP disc into the CD drive, and you're off. Once windows is installed, re-install whatever applications you need, restore your data from those backups you have, and you're golden.

Good luck.

Warrantyvoider 27" Core i7 iMac

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