Primary drive malfunction

[Diablo]

As most of you know, I run a 1TB (samsung spinpoint) drive as my primary disk (i.e. the one with virtually everything on it). Unfortunately after a mere 5 months of use (at sub 30C temperatures) it has started to give SMART monitoring warnings, and loose contact with the computer at times resulting in freezes and needing to do a hard reset.

I've ordered a brand new one (and next day delivery which cost a pretty penny) because RMAing will take too long and I can't run without it.

My question is, is there any decent way of making a clone of the disk without paying for some ghosting software?

 

[nepas]

try acronis,they do a free version of true image,which works great for me

 

[Diablo]

Cheers, thanks for you help, that looks like what I need!

 

[Bungral]

Acronis rocks tbh... I use it and it's much better than bloody ghost.

 

[Freak]

ghost=norton=ermmm.....poo

+1 for acronis

 

[Diablo]

Ebuyer have just cancelled my order...nice of them, so now its off to yoyotech...in person

 

[Diablo]

New order is being dispatched...woot. just a thought, but could I set up a RAID 1 array using the primary drive in its installed windows state, then tell it to rebuild the array onto the new drive?

 

[moogle]

Reccommend Acronis as well. You can get it free here. Be quick though they run these offers every so often and I just remembered seeing it on another forum

Also if you want to RMA your drive to Rexo (UK) they do fast RMA's (Samsungs only). I've had my RMA'ed drive back in 3 days and I've read of others who've had the same experience. If you're going to go through the retailer then thats also a good option but it's good to remember the link so you can use it after your 12 month retailer warranty is gone.

 

[Diablo]

Thanks for the help, but both of those links are broken . I've downloaded acronis (free) so now just gotta wait for the new disk to come (on sat). Also, my drive is OEM (no fancy box, just the drive) so Rexo can't help. But rep for that, really happy with the help provided

 

[moogle]

Thanks for the help, but both of those links are broken . I've downloaded acronis (free) so now just gotta wait for the new disk to come (on sat). Also, my drive is OEM (no fancy box, just the drive) so Rexo can't help. But rep for that, really happy with the help provided

Whaaat

Both links are still working for me :crazy:

Hmm my drives are OEM too I'll put my serial numbers in and see if anything amazing pops up.

 

[moogle]

Okay I put in my OEM drives serial numbers and guess what

Warranteeeeeeeeedddd till April 2011, and if I remember right I had an argument with Scan about them in March 08 (when I bought them) so that makes it 3 years warranty!

So have faith in your oem drive.

My drives are in the pic below and are sitting on the plastic containers they came in, so no fancy stuff either and I have a feeling yours might be the same (in warranty)

 

[Diablo]

Yup working now for me...double thanks! Even better, looks like the warrantees are valid...don't have the box, so I'll look out some antistatic wrapping and a cardboard box