Presario Hard Drive Failing

Hi!
I need help with a bad hard drive. I have a Compaq Presario that I bought in
1999 (2000??) whose hard drive is failing. It is a model 161494-002.

A few months ago I got a message (that pops up when ever I boot) that the
hard disk detects drive failure is imminent. I just kept hitting F1 and
going on. But starting 3 days ago it began to lock up on line and I could
not run the disk defrag program that I normally do - Fix It Utilities 4.0.
So I have been trying to run "C:\WINDOWS\Scandskw.exe" but it keeps getting
restarted - I thought it would not run in safe mode, but I will try that
next.

My understanding is that the Compaq Quick restore CDs do not reformat the
drive - or would that do any good anyway?? I don't think I have a drive bay
open, as I added a Zip Drive when I first got the machine. I guess I can
take that out and put a new hard drive in, make that the system drive, then
move my data to the new one - but how do I do all of that?? Where can I find
out how to replace the hard drive?

Any advice or pointers would be very welcome.

Thanks!

Steve

What model of Presario. You gave a part number. Was that of the PC or the
hard drive?
FYI, the QuickRestore CDs wipe the drive and install the original software
image on the drive.
HH

"Steve" wrote in message
. ..
Hi!
I need help with a bad hard drive. I have a Compaq Presario that I bought
in
1999 (2000??) whose hard drive is failing. It is a model 161494-002.

A few months ago I got a message (that pops up when ever I boot) that the
hard disk detects drive failure is imminent. I just kept hitting F1 and
going on. But starting 3 days ago it began to lock up on line and I could
not run the disk defrag program that I normally do - Fix It Utilities 4.0.
So I have been trying to run "C:\WINDOWS\Scandskw.exe" but it keeps
getting
restarted - I thought it would not run in safe mode, but I will try that
next.

My understanding is that the Compaq Quick restore CDs do not reformat the
drive - or would that do any good anyway?? I don't think I have a drive
bay
open, as I added a Zip Drive when I first got the machine. I guess I can
take that out and put a new hard drive in, make that the system drive,
then
move my data to the new one - but how do I do all of that?? Where can I
find
out how to replace the hard drive?

Any advice or pointers would be very welcome.

Thanks!

Steve

"Steve" wrote in
:

My understanding is that the Compaq Quick restore CDs do not reformat the
drive - or would that do any good anyway??

Reformatting will not save a failing drive. Get any data that you value off
that drive pronto.

If all else fails, you might want to check out TechNation. As I recall
they used to have a down loadable FAQ on "200 Ways To Revive A Hard Drive".
These were all meant as one shot save your data to another drive and let the
old one rest in peace solutions. Used a couple of them and save a lot of
potentially lost data. If your plan to use any of them, have the new drive
Fdisk, Formatted and ready to go before you start to revive the drive. Some
may let you use the original drive a couple of times, but others are one
shot at best, it depends on the severity of the original drives problems.

Best of luck,

KC


"donutbandit" wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote in
:

My understanding is that the Compaq Quick restore CDs do not reformat
the
drive - or would that do any good anyway??

Reformatting will not save a failing drive. Get any data that you value
off
that drive pronto.