[PLUG-TALK] Hard Disk S.M.A.R.T. error message in BIOS

[Richard C. Steffens]

On 01/03/2011 08:34 AM, Larry Brigman wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 7:58 AM, Richard C. Steffens<rsteff at comcast.net>  wrote:
>> My wife's machine paused while booting and displayed, among the normal
>> things, the following message:
>> <...>
>>      Pri Master Hard Disk:     S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace
> Yes, S.M.A.R.T. is a predictive failure method that is employed on
> disk drives.  If it's status is bad then
> it is time to replace the drive.  The status normally gives you enough
> time to have a back up in place
> before it finally fully fails.

Thanks. That's what I thought it would mean. Glad to have the confirmation.

>> She runs XP on her machine. Is it conceivable that I could copy her
>> drive with dd, will I need to install her new drive, load XP, and then
>> copy the contents of her various directories?
> Clonezilla will work just fine.  Gparted will allow you to resize if
> you move to a larger drive.
>

Very nice. I knew about Norton Ghost, and even had a copy about ten 
years ago. I haven't had a reason to keep up to date on it. Glad to know 
about Clonezilla.


-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens