Help with 2 hard drive questions

[Cataephract]

Ok, I run WinXP, and I've been getting Event 9 and 51 disk errors when I check my event viewer log, and though I've run chkdsk /f /r several times, I still consistently lose 12KB a day in bad sectors. Is this indicative of anything besides basic hardware failure, and does it have a solution? How long will my drive likely last? If the drive fails, I'm going to get a new drive and install Win98, but I've never done that before, and I was wondering if I could get some tips. I know it is connected through IDE, and that it would need to be FAT32, but what else should I know? Will the BIOS recognize the drive, will Win98 have trouble detecting any hardware, etc. Please, any help would be appreciated, I could use any tips, since this isn't my forte.

[Granamere]

If I were you i would get a hard drive before this one fails. Then you can hook both of them up and copy any important files over before the drive fails.

Will the BIOS recognize the drive

It depends on how old your bios is. If you drive is bigger than 10 gig you should be safe up to 80 gig. Do you know if you are ATA 33,66,100 or 133? Also most bios can be flash updated so if your motherboard maker has a new bios you can go as big as you want.

Win98 have trouble detecting any hardware

If you can list what hardware you have I might beable to tell you. Without that knowledge I would just be guessing. If all your hardware is older than 98 (AKA you bought your computer in 96) you should be fine. With a list I could tell you better.

Make sure either you 98 disk boots off of you cd rom or you have a 98 boot disk.

Granamere

[Cataephract]

I was just wondering if it would easily recognize my cd-rw drive. This actually actually failed after just a year and three months, just past the warranty I've already got everything backed up that I want to, it's now just a matter of waiting for the inevitable. Also, I have the Win98 cd, and a boot disk I made from my dad's win98 machine, is there anything else I need to install a OS on a new drive? Thanks for your patience.

[Bungleau]

I would definitely get going on a hard disk now, and I probably wouldn't downgrade to W98. I'd probably install the new hard drive as a slave, install windows on it (XP), and then switch the old drive to be the slave and the new drive to be the master.

If you're losing sectors regularly, it's only a matter of time before you lose a sector you care about

If you've never installed a hard drive before, find a geek friend to help. It's not that difficult, but there are a few basic rules that need to be followed.

[Granamere]

You should be pretty good. Make sure you have what you need to install everything you need to get online.

If high speed Internet the your network card driver for 98 either from the cd that came with it or download it while you can and burn it to a cd. Also whatever your Internet provider gave you to get online. If PPOE then the CD from them, etc.

If dial up the cd your provider gave you, cd that cam with modem, etc.

You get the idea. You might also want to make sure you have your current video drivers. I hate the defualt 640 X 480 and 16 colors that the new cards go to in 98 without the drivers. As long as you can get online though you can redownload the drivers. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Granamere

[Harkoliar]

hey if your going to get a new hard drive.. get seagate.. its very userfriendly and easy to install.. just my 2c

[Cataephract]

Actually, it was a seagate that failed so quickly, so I'm sort of pissed at them.

[Granamere]

For what it is worth.

You said it failed quickly. It is probably still under warranty. I hate all hard drive warranty. You have to send it back to them then sometime in the future a box will show up at your door with a new drive in it. Still for the price of shipping you get a new drive. Some Seagate drives have a 5 year warranty on them. I know from first hand experience.

If you are getting a new drive get one with 8 Megs of cache. It does make a huge difference!

I never have had any luck at all with Maxtor. A friend of mine who is also in the tech industry buys nothing but because he never had one fail. The longer I am in this field the more I think it is luck of the draw.

Granamere

[ratchild]

Hehehe... Same here Granamere, my brother actually worked for Maxtor tech support and he swears by them, but i've had about 4 go bad on me, and a couple of WD drives go down too. I've never had a problem with my 60 gig IBM drive... Also, as for installing windows within a running windows installation, that can cause issues for both installations. If you do decide to go back to '98, one way to save time is to copy the cd onto the new hard drive. This will speed up the install time, and any time windows asks for its' cd, it's already there!

[Animal]

WD is the only way to go for HD's. I've owned 3 Maxtor's, all of which failed within a year of purchase (or RMA.) I finally got tired and didn't bother sending the last one back. Not once have a ever had a problem with Western Digital. Great drives.

Now, why on earth would you want to install Win 98? I'm assuming since you have XP already installed, you have the hardware to run it. Why not just make a clone of your existing drive to your new one?