Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

[Boomyal]

Something has gone wrong with my IE. I was getting tons of lockups when I surfed. It would require me to CTL/ALT/Delete numerous times to get out of the stalled page. Once it finally did, it would close everything I had open, as well.

Thinking there might be a problem with IE7, I downloaded IE8. Now I get continual 'IE has encountered a Problem and must shut down" messages and of course everything locks up and I lose any other windows I had open.

****did I say I do not want to bother with FIREFOX****

This computer had belonged to my dear departed FIL and he was a bit of a button pusher. I am sure that things have gotten a bit messed up over time. At best this thing has gotten real slow at loading/opening pages whereas Mrs B's laptop loads the same one on the same cable connection, lickety split.

It is time to reload the Operating System and start with a fresh download of IE8. This old Inspiron came with a 40 gb HD. I have a brand new 80 gb Maxtor HD so I will install it and slave the original HD with all the data on it. I try to keep this surfing machine fairly lean so I do not have a lot of programs to reload.

Here are my questions:

Assuming that I can hook both drives to the same cable, which connector do I use for the Primary HD; the first position or the middle connector?

Do I select Primary and Slave with the little shunt or do I use the CS position for either of them?

How do I extract my Outlook Express address file off the old drive and load it on to the new one?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

A couple of things to consider before you install a new hard drive . . .

you could do what is known as a "Repair Installation of the Windows O/S" This will get things back to a normal baseline and then you can add service packs, etc as needed. The PC is probably full of viruses and other nasty stuff.

If you install the new HDD, then the primary drive connector is usually at the end of the IDE cable (Ribbon cable). Check your system to verify. The new HDD will go where the old HDD is currently. The old HDD will go in the next available connector.

Make sure that both of your HDD's are set to "cable select" on the jumpers. Alternatively, you could make the new HDD "master" and the old HDD "Slave"

I assume that you have a copy of the Windows installation CD and the appropriate license code, etc.?

You can move the Outlook express file from the old drive to the new one once you are all said and done.

 

[Bustedknuckle84]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

I have been pc work locally for years,
1) My best guess is repair the os like above mentioned.
2) Try to do a restore to a point before the problem
3) google malware removal programs. sysclean is a good one. malbytes malware is also good.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

I've run SuperAntispyware and Malwarebytes and they both come up clean except for a few cookies. Even before I downloaded IE8, my big blue E was missing to be able to get to my home page so I have had to use a backdoor route to get on the internet.

IE8 gave me a new E in the quicklaunch bar but it did not work. I cannot pinpoint a time that I began to have this lockup, slow loading and IE error problems so it is just best that I start with a clean slate.

This all makes me wonder if I could un-install IE and start with a fresh re-install?

 

[cribber]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

What operating system is running on your PC? Some of the later versions of IE don't support older operating systems. You should go to Dell and download the restore disk if you don't have the original and get it all back to factory. Do all of the updates and take it from there.

 

[lexer440]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Mostly problems of this nature are due to user accounts.

Create a new temporary user account and reboot and log in with it, transfer everything you want to keep and then delete the old account. reboot again and then recreate the account you originally had, put all yourt stuff back in it, reboot and log in with the recreated account, delete the temporary one.

If possible put the second drive on its own cable, the reason I say this is functional. If you want to transfer between them it will be faster because the data can flow from one drive to the other. If the drives are on same cable it will slow them dramatically because you cannot send data UP the cable at same time as data is being sent DOWN the cable, the data would have to be spooled to a file first by the system and then sent to its destination when the cable is free.

 

[tswiczko]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Two words "Google Chrome"

I had trouble with IE7 and IE8 when trying to download some tiger files raster files for gis. It would lose information or just wouldn't download the file. I switched to Chrome and have only opened IE by mistake since then.

What operating system are you running?

P.S. You can get a TB for about $125

 

[lexer440]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Address book, settings and files etc from OE can all be exported from the menu bar in OE and saved into your my documents, copied across and then imported again if you wish. Or, you can email them to yourself and collect them later when your done.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

What operating system is running on your PC? Some of the later versions of IE don't support older operating systems. You should go to Dell and download the restore disk if you don't have the original and get it all back to factory. Do all of the updates and take it from there.

Cribber, the OS is XP and I have the Dell Reinstallation CD along with the Driver CD.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Mostly problems of this nature are due to user accounts.

Create a new temporary user account and reboot and log in with it, transfer everything you want to keep and then delete the old account. reboot again and then recreate the account you originally had, put all yourt stuff back in it, reboot and log in with the recreated account, delete the temporary one.

If possible put the second drive on its own cable, the reason I say this is functional. If you want to transfer between them it will be faster because the data can flow from one drive to the other. If the drives are on same cable it will slow them dramatically because you cannot send data UP the cable at same time as data is being sent DOWN the cable, the data would have to be spooled to a file first by the system and then sent to its destination when the cable is free.

Good advice about a seperate cable for the slave drive. I guess there is a primary and secondary IDE connection on the motherboard?

Would I still declare them primary and slave?

 

[lexer440]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Yes they still need to be master and slave, I prefer to use the drives jumpers on rear of drive.

Most boards have provision for two drives, newer boards less so. Also if unsure, on an IDE drive socket pin one is always closest to the power socket. The boards socket will have pin one marked, (you may need a magnifying glass). The red stripe on the cable always goes to pin one.

 

[The_Kid]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Have you tried resetting IE back to its default settings to remove add ins? Tools, Internet Options, Advanced tab, then Reset button. Most IE lockups are do to add ins, or the temporary internet files. temp files can usually be deleted on the General tab of Internet Options under browsing history.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Personally, I would just reload the OS and then make sure you use some imaging software once you get everything installed, to get an image to make it easier the next time you do it.

If the FIL was a button pusher, then who knows what kind of trojans key loggers could have gotten on there over time. I wouldn't trust the computer to do any personal financial on any bank sites until I reloaded the OS.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Personally, I would just reload the OS and then make sure you use some imaging software once you get everything installed, to get an image to make it easier the next time you do it.

If the FIL was a button pusher, then who knows what kind of trojans key loggers could have gotten on there over time. I wouldn't trust the computer to do any personal financial on any bank sites until I reloaded the OS.

Well bruce, I do not think he spent much time out on the net to get into trouble. He would just go in to places he shouldn't and push buttons that he had no clue what he was doing.

I am inclined to go ahead with the reload of the OS on the new HD. Slaving the current drive would make it a lot eaiser to save any data which is not more than OE addy's, a few pictures and my list of favorites.

Something has plainly happened to IE that even overwriting it with a new version would not cure. Not to mention the fact that I lost the IE desktop Icon and cannot get it back.

Can you tell me a little more about imaging? I am vaguely aware of it but do not know how it is supposed to work in the event of a future issue. What would you do? Take the image after adding drivers, updating XP and downloading IE8 but before you add any other programs and re-adding any of your data?

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

I would buy a copy of Ghost or Acronis True Image to do your imaging. I would do it after you have everything loaded including the OS, drivers and your programs. I might think about doing a second image after adding your personal stuff but keep both images. After you have run for awhile and you are sure that none of your personal stuff has caused issues, that could be you new "golden" image. Of course you could still create images every few months but keep your golden image as your true clean copy. Keep your images on a seperate hard drive.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

bruce, do you prefer one imaging brand over another; ie, Ghost vs Acronis?

This computer is ripe for an OS reinstall. I just tried to open ebay and it repeatedly went to a 'cannot open' message. I went to my other computer, which has gotten slow, and ebay opened right up. I've had this happen on other links as well. Sometimes they may eventually open but will hang for a prolonged period of time. Almost as if the website were extremely busy and unable to handle the load. But alas, this is seldom the issue. The other nite I tried to open a Youtube link from my favorites. It never would open.

Other issues are not only the 'IE has encountered a problem' message but new websites may not open from one existing one while if I switch to another, the new one might open from it. Also, sometimes when you click on a new link, it just closes every browser that is open, including the one you are try to open the link from.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Out of curiosity, how does it work with another browser?

I have been using Acronis but turn off the periodic images.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

If by 'browser' you mean the page you start from, homepage or otherwise, the issues that I mentioned don't matter. I could be on iboats and type in a new addy to go to and it will just keep returning to the iboats page. If I go from iboats to say, MustangSteve's website and type in the same addy, it will likely go there. If I had several pages open and try to open ebay from any off them. It didn't work.

It seems like you can get a current version of Norton Ghost for quite a bit cheaper than the Acronis True Image. Any reason you can think of to not go with the Norton? I can get v15.0 for 17.99 shipped.

 

[scipper77]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

Personally, I would just reload the OS and then make sure you use some imaging software once you get everything installed, to get an image to make it easier the next time you do it.

If the FIL was a button pusher, then who knows what kind of trojans key loggers could have gotten on there over time. I wouldn't trust the computer to do any personal financial on any bank sites until I reloaded the OS.

Bruce and I are always in firm agreement here. If you don't know what is wrong with the PC by the time you run every diagnostic, registry cleaner, spyware/malware remover, virus scan, etc... you could have formatted and done a fresh install. Nothing is as good as a fresh install.

I personally would set up the old drive as a slave (on the same IDE cable) and install the os on the new drive. You will still have all of the old data because the data will be untouched on the old hard drive. It just wont be configured as the bootable device. You can transfer the data at your leisure, or just access it from the other hard drive.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Installing a new Harddrive on a Dell Inspiron PC

If by 'browser' you mean the page you start from, homepage or otherwise, the issues that I mentioned don't matter.

I mean like Firefox. I am just curious if its not something else on your computer that is causing a problem like a virus. If its a virus, I might be hesitant to hook this drive up to your computer after you install a new drive and new OS.

Read the reviews on Amazon about Ghost V15.0 before you buy it. An older version of ghost might be just as good for what you want to do. An older version of Acronis would also work fine.