Crashed, then recovered

[ww2u]

Hi all,

It finally happened, after 3 years of running like a top my rig crashed. To make a long story short, my hard drive lost some sectors that had some important files there, but thanks to friend at work we got it back up and going now.

My plan is to buy another SATA harddrive, pull the original, load the OS (MS XP Home) on the new harddrive, get it up and going, then put the original back in as a second drive. After I get what data I want, I will format the original harddrive and use it for whatever.

My question is...

Is it really important to follow a start from scratch load? Do I load the OS, get all the updates for it, then load video driver, then wireless network driver, the wireless keyboard/mouse? And if it is important, what would be your suggestion?

 

[Seekermeister]

Do you have software available to clone the new harddrive? That would be alot faster and easier. Another thought occurred to me, if your motherboard has raid 1 capability, set both drives in the array and let it rebuild the second drive from the first. If you don't want to use the raid afterward, just disable the raid and remove the old drive after the rebuild is finished.

 

[ww2u]

Thing is, I really want to "clean up" the registry. I have added and removed programs and done some other funky stuff, so I want to start with a clean slate.

Really, just wondering if it would make a difference how I load the new harddrive.

Thanks for the reply.

ww

 

[Boyo]

Format the new harddrive and then load your OS. Then get it up to date with the security updates, etc. before you start moving files.