Need hard drive backup and windows reboot advice after crash

[DDustin]

Well yesterday when I got up nice an early to start my finals, I opened my computer to see this message-- "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media". I managed to get it started up in safe mode so I could back up my school and media files onto an external hard drive. After that the tech support for my warranty told me to go ahead and try to restart it to see if it would boot up. It did so then I scanned both hard drives which took around 7 hours. I also bought a 500gb WD internal HDD and an external case for it so I can finally back everything up. I also downloaded the Acronis cloning software from WD's site.

Bear with me I'm just learning most of this stuff as I go so my questions might be stupid or obvious. I have 2 drives, the primary is my 256GB SSD that holds my OS and essential programs; The second drive is a 750GB HDD that's split into 2 partitions; 498GB for my media, documents and programs and 199GB for backing up the SSD which is empty.

Now here's where I'm confused. When cloning my drives onto the external do I partition the external to match the computers drives and clone each drive into its own partition? Or can I only clone one drive or do I clone all the drives and partitions and the program mirrors it on its own? Anthything else I should know before starting this?

Also some other basic questions I have... How do I go about updating the external back up? Should I/ can I also clone the OS on the SSD onto the 199gb partition as an additional back up? Also how does rebooting windows and removing all the bloatware factor in to all of this? I've been told that my original problem is likely the OS not the drives, plus I've been needing to do it to resolve other issues as well. How do I actually remove the bloatware?

Another error I get every time I boot up recently also is this...



Do these have anything to do with my issues?

Thanks for your patience with all my questions.

Dustin

[Muratus]

I'm really not a fan of cloning a Windows partition. I'd much rather take the oppertunity to do a clean install of Windows. I don't even use the factory recovery on the HD. There is so much crap/bloat ware it's terrible.

I'd say back up all your data, browser bookmarks/favorates, game progresses, etc. Download a "Master" Windows 7 Home Premium ISO

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=984ed3ed6aa9a69986f88d56d10e7616&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww...

That ISO will accept any manufactoriers COA key code from the bottom of your laptop. Some times you have to call in for the activation. What I have found is if you just click next with out entering the Key durning installation, you can activate online after Windows is installed. It will ask for your COA Key then activate.

You'll also need to get or use your Asus driver disk. Just installed drivers, avoid all that bloat ware on there. Once everything is all done and installed, copy your data back in to it.

I know it sounds like allot but it's actually easier then screwing around with cloning disks/partitions. Plus you know you are at square one, and all your past Windows sins have been washed away. lol

[DDustin]

Muratus wrote:
I'm really not a fan of cloning a Windows partition. I'd much rather take the oppertunity to do a clean install of Windows. I don't even use the factory recovery on the HD. There is so much crap/bloat ware it's terrible.

I'd say back up all your data, browser bookmarks/favorates, game progresses, etc. Download a "Master" Windows 7 Home Premium ISO

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?format=go&key=984ed3ed6aa9a69986f88d56d10e7616&loc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww...

That ISO will accept any manufactoriers COA key code from the bottom of your laptop. Some times you have to call in for the activation. What I have found is if you just click next with out entering the Key durning installation, you can activate online after Windows is installed. It will ask for your COA Key then activate.

You'll also need to get or use your Asus driver disk. Just installed drivers, avoid all that bloat ware on there. Once everything is all done and installed, copy your data back in to it.

I know it sounds like allot but it's actually easier then screwing around with cloning disks/partitions. Plus you know you are at square one, and all your past Windows sins have been washed away. lol

I'm a little lost about some of this lol.

1st, either way I have to back it up so I'm still wondering should I partition the external for the 2 separate hard drives? And are you saying I shouldn't clone anything? How do I back it all up without cloning it? The only other thing I know of is to drag and drop which it doesn't give me an option to do with the internal drive installed into the external case. It actually only shows up with the cloning software not in My Computer. and should I clone the HDD that contains all the media, documents and programs and then ignore the SSD with the OS on it?

How do I keep the programs, settings, bookmarks, favorites and game stuff on the SSD that I do want and clean out the OS and bloat ware that I don't?

And same questions with the drivers disk; How do I download what I want and not the extra crap?

So if I just install the windows boot disk I'll still get all the bloat ware? The link you gave me just starts trying to download; what is it exactly and what do I do with it? Should I save it to the system or onto an external drive?

Oh and does anyone know what those errors are I posted about?

ETA- Now that I think about it, I'm assuming the reason I can't see the drive is because its technically an internal drive and I haven't formatted and partitioned it. So scratch that question.

[Myk_SilentShado]

Hold everything!!! you do not have to back anything up and start again, your problem is really easily fixed. Reboot your system, go into BIOS and look for your Boot Tab, down the list look for Hard Drive BBS Properties, click it and force select your SSD as your Priority drive....for some reason or another, it seems every now and again, boot order goes haywire.

[DDustin]

Myk SilentShadow wrote:
Hold everything!!! you do not have to back anything up and start again, your problem is really easily fixed. Reboot your system, go into BIOS and look for your Boot Tab, down the list look for Hard Drive BBS Properties, click it and force select your SSD as your Priority drive....for some reason or another, it seems every now and again, boot order goes haywire.

Well that's not my only problem, I'm having others so I do want to redo windows and get rid of all the bloatware

[DDustin]

Bump.


Are there any tutorials on how to reinstall windows without the bloatware? And are there any tutorials on exactly how to clone or back-up my computer?

[billyray520]

DDustin wrote:
Bump.


Are there any tutorials on how to reinstall windows without the bloatware? And are there any tutorials on exactly how to clone or back-up my computer?

Here's a link to a similar request: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?31874-Very-confused-with-imaging-ONLY-primary-partition-on-...

You can have the best of Both Worlds, your backup idea and Muratus' fresh installation of Windows.

1. Re-install Windows and all of the necessary drivers and updates.
2. Then do a backup. Since you are using a secondary drive partition for your backup location, create a disk or partition image to that location. (Cloning the drive is only good where you want to exactly duplicate one drive to another drive.) But by creating a partition image (or disk image) you may save a lot of space with compression, and because only the data itself is backed up, not all of the empty space.
3. Save this initial system image as it is a clean state image. Actually, I would keep it on an external hdd not internal. But subsequent images, I would put on the internal hdd.

Then whenever you want to return your system to a clean fresh install state, you can just restore that first image.

As a matter of policy, I always create an initial state image which I save on an external hdd.

More fun and games with images:

I have an Acer (oops!) netbook which came with Windows 7 starter edition. 😛 I backed up that image (after doing all updates and installing whatever I normally use software-wise.) Then I installed Ubuntu 12.04 which is what I actually use, because it runs way better than Windows on a netbook. BUT, whenever I want I can re-convert the netbook to a Windows netbook simply by restoring the image. No need to re-install Windows, or authenticate, or activate blah blah blah. So I can easily alternate the netbook between Windows or Linux, depending on my mood! :cool:

[DDustin]

I still haven't had a chance to do the clean install since I've been really busy and everything seemed to be working fine. But today I got this message. Does it definitely mean my hard drive is bad and I should send it back? Anything I can do?



I just started summer classes, if I have to send it to the manufacturer I'll likely fail and lose my student aid for good. So I need to avoid that.

Please help me out asap.

[billyray520]

So I am assuming you haven't done anything so far other than backup some important files to your external hdd, right?

I am also assuming your Windows message is about your 750 GB hdd, not your C: System drive SSD, right?

You also have said you have a 500 GB external hdd, as well as a copy of Acronis, right?

How much data space is used on the SSD? Fill in the blank: __________ of 256 GB is used
How much data space is used on the hdd? Fill in the blank: __________ of 750 GB is used

Now you need to understand these terms:

Clone a drive means to make an exact duplicate of it. That means all of your data, free space, partitions etc are copied exactly. That means a clone of a 256 GB drive will use 256 GB of space.

Image a drive (or partition) is different. That is a file or files that software creates (like Acronis) that copies all of the data on the drive, including the partition tables, boot sectors etc. The file is OFTEN compressed to save even more space.

Example: C: drive of 256 GB has 76 GB of space in use, and has two partitions, along with the boot sector. An Image file(s) will record all of this info so it can be replicated on another drive or even a larger drive (sometimes a smaller drive too.) The benefit of the Image is that your 76 GB of data will be compressed to say 60 GB file(s) which will store easily on your external hdd. When you go to restore the image it will RECREATE everything exactly as you had it, like a snapshot.

does that help?

Your error messages might not be fatal YET. I would try to image the drive to your external hdd, then put a new blank hdd in the laptop and restore the image. See if that works ok then. Follow the Acronis instructions. Try to run the backup image under cool conditions in case excessive heat is causing the hdd failure.

[Zygomorphic]

If you can fit all your data on it, try removing the 750 GB drive and putting the new 500 GB drive in its place. If this solves the problem, you can hold off on sending your laptop in until a better time. This thread will provide proof of the date of issue, and your notes about schoolwork can provide reason for ASUS to service your notebook even if it were to go out of warranty. If replacing the HDD is the only issue, then you might be able to talk them into trying to hurry your notebook through the service process, since you need it for school.