Computer Issues

AC2OY · Jul 22, 2015

Might as well give it a shot here. I have a newer Dell computer,a few months back I had a hard drive error. I had this person come over and he claims in order to get it to reboot he needed to put a additional hard drive in. He has a older 80 gig hard drive he installs and reinstalls in Windows 7. All is fine or is it? I now have major problems on start up its very slow. I also realized that I only have 17 gigs left on this "C" drive and like 902 gigs of free space on my PC's original terabyte drive. My question is did this guy screw me up putting in this older hard drive in my PC to run my operating system or is this a seperate issue. Only thing I have really done since then is download some amateur radio logging software. Any help would be appreciated thank you.

KB0VWG · Jul 22, 2015

Well you don't need another hard drive just for your computer to boot up, It would have done fine with the one you already had. Did he try to install the operating system in the Terabyte drive???
I know you have to change a setting in the bios for windows 7 software to install in a larger hard drive.

I was in the same spot you were a while back while working on my pc, and found what setting to change and then everything installed just fine.
kb0vwg
wqoi992

CapStar362 · Jul 22, 2015

what was the original HDD error? just failing to boot windows?

if you can still see the original drive, sounds like a simple Windows Repair with a CD/DVD would have fixed it.

Win 7 will install to a TB drive with ease.

you are thinking of Secure-UEFI to Legacy BIOS presumably and has nothing to do with drive size. that's a security feature for Win 8 and Server versions.

AC2OY · Jul 23, 2015

I first called Dell,they couldn't get it past a black screen. So he just put the older smaller drive in and got it to boot. Why he whiped my computer clean,I have no idea. I'm thinking the older,slower drive is conflicting or just slowing me down. I'm not really sure what to do but I'm not letting this guy touch my computer again.

KB0VWG · Jul 23, 2015

Try This

AC2OY said:
I first called Dell,they couldn't get it past a black screen. So he just put the older smaller drive in and got it to boot. Why he whiped my computer clean,I have no idea. I'm thinking the older,slower drive is conflicting or just slowing me down. I'm not really sure what to do but I'm not letting this guy touch my computer again.

Then I tried the other method of changing the settings in BIOS from RAID to AHCI and IDE.
kb0vwg
wqoi992

corbintechboy · Jul 23, 2015

AC2OY said:
I first called Dell,they couldn't get it past a black screen. So he just put the older smaller drive in and got it to boot. Why he whiped my computer clean,I have no idea. I'm thinking the older,slower drive is conflicting or just slowing me down. I'm not really sure what to do but I'm not letting this guy touch my computer again.

It could be the older drive does not support the SATA speeds of your computer (Which I am sure is true).

If the Dell is newer and your drive is failing, they owe you a new drive. Did you get the extra warranty with on site repair? Even though I work on computers, I feel Dell has great home service and they back the hardware which means no out of pocket costs for me. Desktop not so much but laptop for sure.

K5MPH · Jul 23, 2015

That HDD is way to old and slow for windows 7 and the computer get yourself a new and faster HDD windows 7 will not jive with that old of an HDD.............

CapStar362 · Jul 23, 2015

changing the controller settings would stop a boot in a heart beat.

if it was on AHCI First, set it back. each mode requires its own driver for windows to even see the drive and access it properly, this driver is installed when windows is installed. AHCI is the best mode for SATA I, II and III drives.

RAID is a whole different ball game, and requires at least 2 drives.

IDE is a compatibility mode and is the slowest of the three.

There are ways to externally drop the driver into a windows install, but you need another computer to do it.

AC2OY · Jul 23, 2015

Wow thank you for all the responses!!! I understood what a few of you guy were saying about the hard drive the guy had in his kitchen drawer that he put in and put windows 7 on. I'm angry at myself for let time him do that. My origional drive isn't messed up. I have to find somebody to take out the older 80 gig and put everything back on the original one before it really crashes. Again thank EVERYBODY for the help!!!

CapStar362 · Jul 24, 2015

is the original Windows Install on the TB drive still there?

if it still there .... use a second computer and externally drop the AHCI driver into the system32/drivers folder. then take that windows install on the 80GB Drive, migrate it by moving it via cut and paste ( not copying and pasting ) to the TB drive as an entire Windows Folder. overwrite any data on the TB Drive from the more recent 80GB version of the windows install.

you will need to run the TB and 80GB Drives as extra drives and boot from the second computers original drive.

if no, then the original windows is gone. a re-install will be needed to re-install the AHCI Pairing. MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE THAT BACK!

AC2OY · Jul 26, 2015

CapStar362 said:
what was the original HDD error? just failing to boot windows?

if you can still see the original drive, sounds like a simple Windows Repair with a CD/DVD would have fixed it.

Win 7 will install to a TB drive with ease.

you are thinking of Secure-UEFI to Legacy BIOS presumably and has nothing to do with drive size. that's a security feature for Win 8 and Server versions.

Cap the error said something like windows recovered from a error blue screen .inc then it for n
More help go into window system 32/ dump xxxx. I'm wondering in this guy installed a bootleg version in when he got it to reboot. Tomorrow im having come over and hopefully straighten all this mess out.

CapStar362 · Jul 27, 2015

grab this program if you can still boot it.

Blue screen of death (STOP error) information in dump files.

Copy and paste the info you see in the crash section. ill tell you EXACTLY what caused it

AC2OY · Jul 29, 2015

Thank you Captain! I have my wife's friend who talked to Dell,the skinny of it is the other"person" deleted my Dell partition that had system restore in it as well. When he loaded his version in he felt the need to remove the partition because he thought there was crap there. So Dell now has to send me a disc to restore the partition to properly restore my original version of windows seven from 2013. They called up today with my wife took remote access to try and do it but realized the only way is to send a disc and walk her friend through. The good news is I didn't loose any data or programs. I learned a valuable lesson here. So when I get the disc I should be up and running then do a system restore for at least one point of reference if God forbid it ever crashes again! My dad was a Marine if you do ham radio one day we should have a Q but if not I want to thank you right here for your service and defending the greatest country in the world!!

AC2OY · Aug 2, 2015

Little update here and a question? If I'm hijacking my own thread I'm sorry. Dell sent me a Windows 7 disc that won't load. My friend successfully created a partition but the new Windows won't load. While on the phone with Dell,they decided to send us a refurbished hard drive with windows already loaded on it. But they want my original hard drive to be mailed back. I can boot the computer from the ratchet 75 gig drive. My question is if Dell sends the drive to THEIR tech and he comes to my house to do the install I want to be ready. Can I copy my C drive and all its contents to the original drive before they wipe me clean? My thinking is that they suspect the drive is defective even though three times the diagnostic says different. I backed up everything but I don't want to start from scratch with all my programs. Other thing is if I screwed up the backup to my external drive some stuff would be lost forever.

CapStar362 · Aug 3, 2015

you could "Clone" the partition or even the entire drive.

migrating applications is a PITA and time consuming. you need a way to move the apps and still be within the size of the Clone Target.

your best bet, is buy a external HDD with USB 2 or USB 3 and clone the partition from the drive about to be returned to the External. then send it back, now you have a full EXACT copy of the C: Drive sitting on your external drive to take the time to migrate the files back.

AC2OY · Aug 3, 2015

Wow that's a great idea I have a external drive! That's what I used to back up my entire computer. I didn't know you could copy your programs on to that as well I thought just files. My wife's friend tried to copy the drive but he thinks even though the big terabyte drive "T" might actually be intact corrupted because it wouldn't take the Windows disc they sent. That's why we think they actually decided to send me a refurbished drive with windows already installed on it.

AC2OY · Aug 3, 2015

Capt. I'm not sure how big the external is but I have copied ALL my data on the entire computer before. I just never tried to copy the program's folder or the entire drive for that matter. If I had to guess my entire computers contents 90 gigs because when I only had one drive,I had 902 gigs free space if I remember right.

corbintechboy · Aug 3, 2015

If your using windows 7, it has a very good backup solution built in.

If you can get it to boot just go to control panel and backup. I have used it many times and it works well. As a matter of fact, it is included with windows 10 and that is what I used to make a backup of my drive.

CapStar362 · Aug 4, 2015

i use Partition Wizard as it includes several other very handy tools.

corbintechboy · Aug 4, 2015

I always use Linux to prepare my drives and such. I don't really need the backup software to do anything but restore an image, Linux will always give me anything I may need.

Long route I know, but simple when I am more comfortable in Linux vs. Windows.

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