Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler - Hard drive about to go

Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support | Hard drive about to go

DVA4263
Captain, B777-200

Joined on March 25 2007
50 State Club
Million Mile Club
Millennium Club
Everett 500 Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Globetrotter

"We Are The People"
Eastleigh, United Kingdom

1,228 legs, 4,657.6 hours
34 legs, 78.6 hours online
1,200 legs, 4,569.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 17:52 ET by Donald Paterson

Hi Guys. I think my primary hard drive on my PC is about to fail.. It has started to make some funny clicking noises and I have run some diagnostics and report shows a number of damaged sectors. The drive has my Win 10 OS and all my FSXSE folders on it so before it finally dies I’d appreciate advice on how I’m best to handle it. I have a 2nd HD that I could possibly format to free up space or was thinking of buying a new HD but no idea what to do next. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Donald

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

DVA388
Senior Captain, B747-400
OLP

Joined on December 14 2001
50 State Club
B757 100 Club
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Online Century Club
Stage 1 Jet Triple Century Club
Globetrotter
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary
Millennium Club
Million Mile Club

Midwestern United States

1,252 legs, 2,773.2 hours
153 legs, 178.1 hours online
1,172 legs, 2,643.0 hours ACARS
10 legs, 22.0 hours event
39 legs dispatched, 67.6 hours

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 18:52 ET by David Vega

If you can, suggest buying an SSD drive. I've always have luck with Samsung SSDs. I see newegg has a 1TB for $149 or a 500GB for $92. They come with software that can clone your current drive into your SSD.

DVA9352
Captain, B777-200

Joined on January 11 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Million Mile Club
Black Pearl Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Everett 500 Club
Nine Century Club

"GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!"
Taylor, AR

963 legs, 4,269.8 hours
4 legs, 9.0 hours online
963 legs, 4,269.8 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 19:02 ET by Michael Martin

Depending on how old your install of windows 10 is, it may be best to install the new hard drive (SSD would be best) with a fresh install of windows 10. Then after updates install your games and other applications you use.

Michael Martin

Captain, B777-200

DVA10641
Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200
OLP

Joined on March 29 2012
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Million Mile Club
US Mountaineer Club
US Coastal Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Flying Colonel
Online Fifteen Century
Everett 1500 Club
Events Quintuple Century Club

Rosemount, MN USA

1,987 legs, 4,456.2 hours
1,865 legs, 3,929.2 hours online
1,967 legs, 4,422.4 hours ACARS
638 legs, 1,290.5 hours event
18 legs dispatched, 157.2 hours

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 19:33 ET by Jason Boche

A fresh start as Michael has stated above is a good route to go if your current installation is:
1) old
2) bloated
3) contains bad DNA that leads to errors

However, a fresh start requires a time commitment to get not only all of your Windows programs reinstalled, but your flight simulator and all its add ons as well (for me this can take 1+ week). It's a calculated judgement call that you must make by weighing the options.

If your current installation is satisfactory and you're otherwise happy with it, then by all means don't waste your own time and I'd go with the new drive and cloning option mentioned by David.

Jas

Jason Boche

Assistant Chief Pilot, B757-200

DVA9545
Senior Captain, B777-200
OLP, 737-ATP

Joined on March 03 2011
50 State Club
Globetrotter
US Coastal Club
US Mountaineer Club
Million Mile Club
Events Double Century Club
DVA Ten-Year Anniversary
Toulouse 500 Club
Bi-Millennium Club
Online Twenty Century
DVA Fleet Master

"YUPIIIII"
Goiás Brazil

2,578 legs, 5,183.9 hours
2,405 legs, 4,903.2 hours online
2,570 legs, 5,154.3 hours ACARS
271 legs, 683.8 hours event

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 19:49 ET by Thiago Braga

Hey Donald;
Like David said, I would go for a SSD for your sim to load up faster. and for you to transfer everything over, I would also like to suggest this application. Worked great for me: https://www.minitool.com/download-center/
Hope that would respond to your question.
Or if you have a motherboard that supports M.2 SSD, that is a way to go for 1 TB for USD104.00:
https://slickdeals.net/f/14062097-1tb-wd-blue-3d-nand-m-2-sata-solid-state-drive-103-50-free-s-h?src=frontpage

Thiago Braga (DVA9545)

DVA5188
Assistant Chief Pilot, A350-900
E-MAIL

Joined on November 08 2007
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Everett 250 Club
Quad-Jet Quartermaster
White Knuckles Club
Million Mile Club
Pacific Rim Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Seven Century Club

Decatur, GA

726 legs, 2,872.6 hours
1 legs, 1.8 hours online
723 legs, 2,866.3 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on May 25 2020 21:19 ET by Paul Barnhill

I'll second Thiago's recommendation on that SSD. It's the one I put in my desktop build when I moved on from playing FS on the laptop. It's fantastic and installed very easily too.

Paul Barnhill

Assistant Chief Pilot, A350-900

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 03:25 ET by Donald Paterson

Thanks so much for the advice. My PC is over 8 years old and I know I’m going to have to buy a new rig to run FS2020 but the SSD at c$90 feels like a reasonable investment to tide me over until I have to buy a whole new PC. My question is will my current PC be able to take an SSD? I’ve looked up my specs and my motherboard is ASUS® P8P67 (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™. Is there a way to check what hard drives are compatible?

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 10:34 ET by Paul Barnhill

Donald; what I'm seeing for your motherboard is that it won't take that Western Digital since it's an M.2 drive. On my motherboard (ASUS Z370 Prime), there's a special slot where you open a heatsink and install the drive there right into the board (no cables to worry with). From my search, it doesn't look like there's an M.2 slot on your board.

But, you can connect a SDD via a SATA connection; just make sure that you have a spare SATA connection on your motherboard, a SATA data cable, and a power cable to connect to your supply. You also need to make sure you have an open drive bay of the right size (most SSDs use a 2.5" bay, which is smaller than older hard drive bays) or adapter brackets to fit the SSD into a bigger bay. Just mount the drive into your case, plug it in, and you should be good. (If you're more of a visual learner, there's plenty of videos on YouTube showing how). Samsung and Western Digital both make good drives; it looks like Best Buy has the 1TB SATA version of the SDD Thiago and I mentioned on sale for $109.99. Once you start a rebuild, I'd really look for an M.2 option (unless we've moved on to the next big thing). Very easy and a cleaner install since there's no extra cables and the drives are smaller.

Hope this works!

Paul Barnhill

Assistant Chief Pilot, A350-900

DVA1989
Senior Captain, MD-11
OLP

Joined on November 01 2004
50 State Club
Globetrotter
US Coastal Club
Everett 500 Club
Tin Dispatcher
Commuter Conquest
Millennium Club
US Mountaineer Club
Online Millennium Club
Two Million Mile Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

"What doesnt kill you only makes you stronger"
Spring Hill, FL

1,482 legs, 4,538.3 hours
1,074 legs, 3,017.3 hours online
1,431 legs, 4,356.3 hours ACARS
9 legs, 22.6 hours event
380 legs dispatched, 590.0 hours

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 12:08 ET by William Bradshaw

I got a 2TB hybrid SSD on amazon for 40 bucks. Granted it was made for a laptop but it does wonders on my PC. I got it supported and everything no issues

William Bradshaw

Senior Captain, MD-11

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 12:27 ET by Donald Paterson

Cheers Guys. Going to order the SSD tomorrow as looks like I have a spare SATA connection On my MB so should be good to go. I’ve had a look at the YouTube cloning videos and looks fairly straightforward even for a technophobe like me!

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

DVA2887
Senior Captain, A320
OLP, 737-ATP, VFRADV

Joined on January 30 2006
50 State Club
Globetrotter
Tri-Jet Triumph
US Coastal Club
Millennium Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
US Mountaineer Club
Toulouse 250 Club
Online Eight Century

Charlotte, NC

1,287 legs, 1,796.9 hours
841 legs, 1,048.5 hours online
1,269 legs, 1,774.9 hours ACARS
31 legs, 49.6 hours event
3 legs dispatched, 2.5 hours

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 15:12 ET by Andrew Vane

Back up your aircraft and settings. Sounds like a good time to do a fresh install on an SSD! Just duplicating what others have said but an SSD is like the magic pill that makes your PC boot up and run faster. I just upgraded to 480GB SSD and I feel like I have more than enough room for FS stuff.

Andrew Vane (DVA2887)

Posted onPost created on May 26 2020 19:16 ET by Thiago Braga

Paul Barnhill wrote:

Donald; what I'm seeing for your motherboard is that it won't take that Western Digital since it's an M.2 drive. On my motherboard (ASUS Z370 Prime), there's a special slot where you open a heatsink and install the drive there right into the board (no cables to worry with). From my search, it doesn't look like there's an M.2 slot on your board.

But, you can connect a SDD via a SATA connection; just make sure that you have a spare SATA connection on your motherboard, a SATA data cable, and a power cable to connect to your supply. You also need to make sure you have an open drive bay of the right size (most SSDs use a 2.5" bay, which is smaller than older hard drive bays) or adapter brackets to fit the SSD into a bigger bay. Just mount the drive into your case, plug it in, and you should be good. (If you're more of a visual learner, there's plenty of videos on YouTube showing how). Samsung and Western Digital both make good drives; it looks like Best Buy has the 1TB SATA version of the SDD Thiago and I mentioned on sale for $109.99. Once you start a rebuild, I'd really look for an M.2 option (unless we've moved on to the next big thing). Very easy and a cleaner install since there's no extra cables and the drives are smaller.

Hope this works!

Posted onPost created on May 30 2020 09:22 ET by Donald Paterson

Hi chaps. Good news and bad news. My mate had a brand new Seagate barracuda HDD that he didn’t need so thought I’d use that rather than investing in a new SSD at this stage.
Following your advice I downloaded cloning software and proceeded to clone my failing Primary drive to my new Seagate. Once this had completed I removed the old Primary drive and connected my new Seagate, along with my secondary drive and started up my Oc. That’s the good news!

The bad news On restarting i Immediately got an error message saying windows failed to start 0xc00000e. Pressing F8 as it advised did nothing. When I reconnected my old drive to another SATA port windows loads fine and I can see the new drive (F drive) with all of the cloned folders in it alongside the original (C drive). However if I attempt to remove the old drive and restart with only the new drive Only I get the same error message? Not sure where to go from here so any advice would be appreciated

Thanks
Donald

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on May 30 2020 10:28 ET by David Vega

Suspect the cloning software didn't do its job well. I would try it again with a different program. Here's a survey of cloning software, some free: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-disk-cloning-software#2-clonezilla

Posted onPost created on May 30 2020 11:06 ET by Donald Paterson

Cheers David. I used AOEMI Backupper so had a go with Macrium Refkect. It won’t clone the drive and when I look up the error message online it suggests there are too many damaged sectors on the original disk 🙁 I tried fixing them thru CHKDSK but still same message appears.

Guess I have no option but to start from scratch and do a fresh install of Windows and FSX SE on my new drive? To do this do I just create a bootable usb stick and then once Windows has loaded install on my new drive? Guess I also need to uninstall all of my FSXSE adding first?

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on May 31 2020 08:00 ET by Donald Paterson

Well thought I’d have one last go at the cloning route before giving up but this time selected “system clone” rather than “drive clone”. To my total surprise and absolute joy Windows now loads fine from my new drive and FSXSE is working perfectly with all addons intact 👍

Thanks again for all the advice. Now just need to put my pc back together!

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

Posted onPost created on May 31 2020 09:48 ET by David Vega

Glad you got it working Don. See you up in the air.

Posted onPost created on June 12 2020 11:18 ET by Donald Paterson

Quick question - I have now got my FSX SE running back to normal and have all my addons etc in place. Took about a weeks effort to uninstall and reinstall from scratch but its now done :-) Now that I am at this stage have you any recommendations re backing up my current system / setup in case I get another failure in future - really don't want to go through all the hassle again of reinstalling everything from scratch. Tbh I get confused re the different options to create either a system image, backuo files and folders or a full system backup.

Thanks for any advice
Donald

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

DVA6471
Captain, B717-200

Joined on October 02 2008
50 State Club
US Capital Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
Everett 250 Club
Quincentenary Club

Niles, MI

502 legs, 835.3 hours
499 legs, 829.7 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on June 21 2020 11:39 ET by Mike Brown

There are alot of Backup options using software and hardware. I definitely recommend using an External HDD for the backup, only attached to your system during the backup and stored in a safe place otherwise. External storage drives are not that expensive. 2 TB is around 65 bucks: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easystore-2tb-external-usb-3-0-portable-hard-drive-black/6406513.p?skuId=6406513 and 5TB are about 110 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-my-passport-5tb-external-usb-3-0-portable-hard-drive-with-hardware-encryption-latest-model-black/6380848.p?skuId=6380848

Since you are trying to get a Complete backup with all installed files and registry keys, you most likely will need a system image. Windows has something built in for this and here is a link on how to use. https://www.windowscentral.com/how-make-full-backup-windows-10

Mike Brown

Captain, B717-200

Posted onPost created on June 21 2020 15:09 ET by Donald Paterson

Thanks Mike - advice is much appreciated.

Donald Paterson

Captain, B777-200

DVA2134
Captain, CRJ-200

Joined on February 12 2005
Stage 1 Turboprop Century Club
Triple Century Club
DVA Twenty-Year Anniversary

Louisville, KY USA

321 legs, 503.1 hours
1 legs, 2.3 hours online
97 legs, 132.4 hours ACARS

Posted onPost created on June 25 2020 18:07 ET by Vince Benningfield

i use easeUS todo backup software and clone my drive about every two weeks, so far i have not had any problems. but if i do i can plug in the cloned drive and continue where i left off.
did happen once. so i changed the drives, did the anti-virus update and re cloned again. system back up and running, and no headaches to get system back up running and nothing lost.
I use 2 drives that are exactly the same size.

Vince Benningfield

Captain, CRJ-200

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