might be a weird question, but I want to be able to copy all files i've made after (or older ones that i've save since) a particular date
I got a new big hard disc in january last year, did a straight copy of my old hard disc and put it on the new one. something happened to the new one
in about april last year, which now the computer keeps crashing, saying its out of memory when i've only got 3 internets open, sound keeps going
off til i restart, and it keeps going slow. the disc itself is completely fine, but theres something on this computer thats crippling it.
i know the old disc has a good copy of windows and all the programs installed i could put back on this hard disc, but I don't want to lose any of
the files i've created or modified in the past year.
is there an easy way? perhaps to list all the files on the computer in date order?
I just used windows explorer and did a search with a date modified specified or date created then copied the lot to where you need them
Cheers
David
bollox... turns out i formatted the old disc... i also need ot get all the applications across too... but not whatever screwed the pc up last year.
there was some sort of virus i think. cheers Davie any more ideas?
[Edited on 22/3/12 by blakep82]
If you have formatted the drive the info can still be recovered depending on what type of format you applied. If you want to recover the info
don't write anything on the formatted drive until you have spoken to experts.
If you originally cloned the drive onto the new one then you should be able to do drive swap and have it boot normally - but if you just copied the
files across then you are out of luck and will have to go through a much more arduous process to get it all working again.
In my experience, copying program's a gross like this doesn't really work, and compounds the problem. How do you know the problem
isn't in the windows registry? You're better off making a list of programs, copying across saves data and starting again with a cleansed
hard drive.
The issue you have sounds as though it's a RAM memory problem, not a hard drive one, but I'm no IT expert as such.
Forgot to say - to copy newer file only use a freeware program like TeraCopy which gives you the option of only copying newer files than the ones
already on the disc you are copying to.
http://teracopy.en.softonic.com/
To clone drives I use Easeus partition manager which is also freeware - I have been using it for 2 years now and find it very stable but slow - a full
2 TB drive takes about 8 hours to clone using ESATA connections.
http://www.partition-tool.com/download.htm
The process I use is to clone my active drives onto a "backup" drive once every 6 months and to thereafter copy active directories onto that
backup disc once every week using Teracopy's skip older files function and using a portable drive I backup my current project directories and
Outlook directory daily with TeraCopy's skip older files function.
The portable drive (1 TB 2.5" ) goes everywhere with me so is never in vicinity of my computer when I'm not.
In case of fire or burglary the cloned backup drive lives in the garage which is separate to the house in case of fire or burglary.
[Edited on 22/3/12 by Ivan]
A very common cause of this type of problem is keeping to many files in a single directory, I had a client who had several thousand jpegs in a
single directory (strangely not porn) boy it cause problems.
If this isn't the case and the disk tests ok sounds like you need to do a fresh install from a Windows DVD you need to use a back up
program such as Cobian Backup to pull your files on and external or network hard disk or DVD
Cobian Back Up is 100% free GPL software http://www.cobiansoft.com/
If your are running Firefox and/or Thunderbird or any other netscape type browser you can save bookmarks, emails, paswords with Mozbackup
--- however the versions of Firefox and Thunderbird must be the same before and after the re-install.
In addition there is another Firefox & Thunderbird add-on called password exporter which is a lot less picky about export/import between
program versions.
I actually cloned the original disc, using (i think, can't remember correctly) Acronis true imagine WD edition, as the new disc in a WD one.
think the old one was seagate?
its got the windows recovery hidden partition on it, so would have to use that if i need a fresh install of windows.
I THINK all the files i want to keep are all in the My Documants folder, there's nothing much in there, no mp3s, and not huge amounts of images,
well, perhaps there is, but only say 2 or 3gbs
thats easily copied
the real concern i've got is all the applications i've got, don't know where half of the CDs are for them. i'm sure i've got
them all, i just don't know where.
I'll need to go through and write everything down so i can get them all on I guess. quite annoying really, my computers from the past 10 years
have never needed a reinstall of windows, and always ran really well. til now. never had to do it, not really sure how difficult it could end up
being!
is there any of the programs suggested that might be able to export all the programs to a external hard disc, then replace them all correctly into the
new install of windows?
also, come to think of it, whenever i've had to restart the computer, it always says acronis true imagine isn't responding... it also shows
in the device manager, not sure if its an important component of the hard disc, or just a program thats installed, but perhaps its that causing the
issue? i tried disabling it in the device manager last night, and then the computer wouldn't start up...
the virus it got last year was the one where all the icons disappear and it says something about hard disc failure, but the hard disc capacity
doesn't change, and if it failed then it wouldn't start windows. managed to sort it, everything back, avast didn't stop the virus which
is annoying, but can't detect anything now, so i'm sure its safe, but theres still something slowing it down and using all the RAM.
was fine on RAM before, running sketchup, about 20 internet tabs, microsoft word, and sound forge, but now, it struggles just being switched on
[Edited on 22/3/12 by blakep82]
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
A very common cause of this type of problem is keeping to many files in a single directory, I had a client who had several thousand jpegs in a single directory (strangely not porn) boy it cause problems.