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[ThingsGottaChange]

This message was self-deleted by its author (ThingsGottaChange) on Sat Nov 17, 2018, 09:32 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[AndJusticeForSome]

1. I can help

Is the new drive an internal drive?

ETA: ask questions if you don't understand anything I will write. No question is too dumb. I've done this many times.

An internal drive is the kind you put inside the computer. It looks *naked*. External drives have a hard case around them and sit on the desk, connected by a cable (like USB or FireWire)

[ThingsGottaChange]

3. New drive is internal n/t

[AndJusticeForSome]

6. Ok good. Now, have you ever ventured into the guts

of a computer?

One pro-tip: a camera, phone or otherwise, is indispensable in the learning process! Take pics of everything, before and after.

I will do this stepwise with you, so will only ask one or few questions per post. I am around all day, but periodically away from phone so replies may be delayed.

So 1st Q: what kind of connection is on both the HDD and motherboard? SATA?

Are you able to post pics here easily?

ETA: looked at Newegg link, the connection is SATA. Did the HDD come with a short little cable?

[ThingsGottaChange]

12. I have ventured into the bowels of the beasts

No cable, of course. Don't know if that is extra hdd slot on top of the one installed? The reason for all this is I believe, and have been told, the HDD is gonna crap out soon. I can't do complete tests on it. Bad sectors? Don't want to wait til it's too late.

Here's a few pics of innards.
https://imgur.com/a/c0JQfGR

As for your post #10, we'll have to get to that tomorrow, time permitting. Aside from reading any replies, brain is done for the evening...

Thanks so much for ELI5!

[AndJusticeForSome]

13. Oh, those pics are very useful

I'll get back to this a bit later.

If the HDD didn't come with an SATA cable, you can use the existing one and hook up the 2nd (old failing) drive later when you get an extra SATA cable

[ThingsGottaChange]

19. Is this what I need

to transfer from flash drive to new HDD?

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84

If I hurry, I can get it by Sat.

[AndJusticeForSome]

20. Is your flash drive a USB stick? n/t

[ThingsGottaChange]

21. This is what I have

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TKFCYP0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[AndJusticeForSome]

22. Yes, that's a USB stick, or thumb drive

Can you see if that drive will boot your computer? If so, no cable needed at the moment.

However, you should get an SATA cable because you'll need one later anyway. Just SATA on both ends, to connect a drive to MB.

To see if the stick will boot your computer, reboot your system with the flash drive already connected. If your computer has typical config, it will boot from USB, *if* you made the stick bootable. That's usually an option when you are cloning a drive. So watch the screen as it's booting and let us know what happens.

[ThingsGottaChange]

23. Silly question time

If I were to get the cloned data on to the new HDD, why can't I just take out the old and replace it with the new? Btw, the OS is on the 'stick'. I do not have an Win 7 disc. Computer place in town I talked to want a minimum of $200 to "look" at computer and see what all needs to be done. No can do.

So wouldn't a HDD with the exact same data on it be the same as the old one? Why is everything so difficult?

[AndJusticeForSome]

25. It's complicated why it's complicated

Suffice to say, it's not you.

When you say the OS is on the stick, do you mean in the form of the cloned copy? Or, when you were cloning, do you recall it asking if you wanted to make the stick bootable, or a boot device?

Here is a technical explanation, and you'll have to stop me from going into these details if you don't really care about it. I like to understand, so figure others may also. Usually they don't though, lol.

The old HDD has an OS that is configured for that specific drive. It was customized during installation of Windows. If you were to just make an identical copy of every file using regular file copying onto a new hard drive, when you tried to boot from that new drive, your computer would go: "Hey, that's not the HDD I remember! Go find your Win installation disks and install Win on *this* device" Clearly, it's to prevent easy pirating of Windows.

So, there's a generic form of bootup instructions that you can put on any HDD or USB stick or any medium (CD, DVD, etc) that makes that device "bootable", meaning it will boot your computer, making device access possible.

Once your computer is booted, you can use programs like what you used to clone, to restore the clone onto the new drive. When the program does that, it tailors the clone to your new device specs.

[ThingsGottaChange]

27. My personal memory is shot

I don't remember if it asked about being bootable. I also like to know why and how things do what they do. Or at least used to. I did have a stroke this spring, so bear with me. I used easeUS to clone my entire C drive. So it should be an exact replica of what is on the current HDD. Right?

Went to check in easeUS to see if there was any saved info but, it wouldn't open. Have to reinstall? I am using an older version of Firefox. Like 54 or something. Do not ever want to update to that gawd awful, butt ugly new version.

[ThingsGottaChange]

24. Qs

Reboot with flash drive already connected. All I can do with it is plug it in to a usb port. Is that what you meant? I did that and it rebooted as usual. But, it would do that cuz the original HDD is in there anyway, correct? No, I have no idea what I'm talking about! Isn't this fun???

[AndJusticeForSome]

26. Oh good

Easiest way, since case is open, pull the power cable "PB" off the back of your internal HDD.

If the stick still boots it up, it's the stick.

[ThingsGottaChange]

29. Easy, he says

Pulled PB, rebooted with stick in usp (does it matter which one?) and got: Select proper boot device OR insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key. Need to do another clone, making sure it's bootable? Got someone coming to help with stuff in a bit. Will be away for an hour or so. Feel free to post any further instructions!

[AndJusticeForSome]

30. I've been away too, will get back to this later ..

[ThingsGottaChange]

31. No problem

I'm done for today.

Thanks

[Locrian]

2. is the acer a laptop or desktop?

[ThingsGottaChange]

4. Desktop n/t

[ThingsGottaChange]

5. Here's specs if you need them

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103413&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Desktop+PC-_-Acer+America-_-83103413

Haven't changed any hdwe. Could use a better graphics card but, that's a whole other problem for me

THANKS!

[billh58]

7. General information

You will need to open your computer's case and remove the 1TB drive, and replace it with the 500GB drive. You can look for the Acer maintenance manual for your model which should have illustrations on how to remove/replace the HDD.

After you have replaced the HDD, you will need to use a boot disk (you can make one before you remove your HDD) to run your computer, and then you can then install and use easeUS to restore the cloned image from the flash drive to your new HDD.

[AndJusticeForSome]

8. Personally, I would leave the old drive inside as a 2ndary

Plus, you always know where it is (and can serve as a backup of all your data for now)

ETA: although, specs don't indicate the number of SATA connections on motherboard, but I'd be surprised if there weren't at least two.

[billh58]

9. True, but

then there is no need to copy the cloned image to the new drive, and you end up with an extra 500GB of storage which could be used for back up. If she's only using 70GB it doesn't sound like she needs the extra storage, but who knows...?

[AndJusticeForSome]

10. Well,

A good reason to copy clone to new HDD is that, being newer, should be more stable (although these days, could be reverse...) thus less likely to crash.

As for keeping the clone itself on a 2nd drive: I'd keep it til I knew everything transferred correctly etc. Then, I would use the 2nd drive as a backup. But that's me, I tend to err on the side of caution.

ETA: hold on, just realized the clone is on a "flash" drive, so presumably a USB stick? If so, leave the old HDD as is, except I guess move it to other SATA slot. Then all old data is already "backed up" but not as an image (that needs software to read/restore) but just as it is now, except the drive will be renamed from "C:" Easy access to data (but not programs).

[billh58]

11. Good plan n/t

[ThingsGottaChange]

14. Why........

can't it be as simple as changing a light bulb??? Switch out hard drives and off ya go....Oh, that's right. Because it's me trying to do it. nevermind

[AndJusticeForSome]

16. OMG it is totally not you!

You should be confused and seeking help, otherwise you may wait another year to install it!

No, it *is* or rather, *can be* really complicated. Anyone who says differently was lucky that all their settings were already configured properly.

[ThingsGottaChange]

18. LOL

Was being my usual negative self

[AndJusticeForSome]

15. Ok, it looks like there is an unused SATA port

Just FYI, those cables with the red/yellow/black wires (the one called "PB" on current HDD) are all power cables.

The adjacent cable with the blue wire is your SATA cable. It cuts off in the pics, but follow to where it is plugged into motherboard (MB). Looks like there is an empty plug right next to it. Also, it's too blurry to read, but somewhere in that vacinity on the MB there will be tiny writing like "SATA 1" and "SATA 2".

Also, have you ever dealt with the "jumpers" on a HDD? That is to the right of the SATA port on HDD, the 4x2 or 5x2 pin arrangement thingy. I can't tell if two of the pins are covered with a tiny black piece of plastic or not. Anyway, you may or may not need to bother with it.

(The jumpers tell your computer whether to treat a HDD as a "master" or "slave". Usually they will be set in an "auto" configuration which let's your software decide. Just not always.)

[ThingsGottaChange]

17. Used to build circuit boards

I know what a jumper wire is. But, we're talking about my only source of, well, anything. So, no. Haven't dealt with jumpers on a HDD. Will get in there again tomorrow. See what's what. Try to get some better pics, too. And clean the filthy fans while I'm at it!

Thanks! You have explained things quite nicely!

[AndJusticeForSome]

28. Moving convo down here

Just do as in post 26, don't worry about the clone restore yet

[AndJusticeForSome]

32. So that message means one of two things:

1) the USB drive is not bootable, or
2) your BIOS is configured so that it doesn't check for a USB boot

Most likely 1)

The BIOS is a very tiny program that sits on the hardware of your motherboard and tells your computer what to do when you turn the computer on.

You could access it if you really want to get wonky... but that's up to you. For example, the BIOS is where you can tell your computer how to boot up; whether to check for a floppy bootdisk or a CD/DVD bootdisk before going on to boot from the usual C: drive.

Well get back to it tomorrow...

[ThingsGottaChange]

34. Big Thanks to All

Special thanks to AndJusticeForSome. I'm just not up to this. What ever happens will happen. Will delete this over-long post shortly....

DU people are the best!