[ltp] Hard drive going bad ...?

[Matt Graham]

On Tuesday 05 September 2006 14:41, after a long battle with technology, 
njcross@sbcglobal.net wrote:
> I'm using an old T23 with Mandriva LE 2005. Everything was OK until
> my computer started to intermittently  "tick". When that happens the
> computer tends to freeze and on boot it usually can't find Grub [...]
> My hard disk is dying, isn't it? *sob*  Is there a way I can replace
> the hard disk and and have Mandriva, and Winblows 2000 pro,
> transferred so that I can keep going without re-installing and
> setting up again?

Buy another 2.5" IDE disk, preferably one of higher capacity.  Install 
it in the 2.5" slot in your T23.  Generally, swapping out a disk on a 
Thinkpad is a 2-5 minute operation that only requires a screwdriver.

You may wish to get a 2.5"->3.5" adapter so you can mount the dead disk 
in a desktop machine (for better cooling, which can help dying disks.)  
Use partimage (or something) to get the 'Doze partition backed up, *if 
you can*.  This may not be possible depending on how screwed-up the 
disk is.  Or just restore from your backups (you *do* have backups, 
right?  If not, *WHY NOT*?) onto the new disk you installed.

> Who would you suggest I take my computer to, if I wasn't going to do
> the replacement myself?

See first paragraph.  There's no point in paying some monkey $TOO_MUCH 
to do a 2-5 minute replacement.  HTH,

-- 
   If you go hit yourself with a plank, it would make a freely available
   Unix-like operating system to everyone.
   --MegaHAL, trained on RMS and the BOFH
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see