Hangups and Boot Problems

[No_Skillz]

Flash drive as in USB flash drive?  I have a 128mb...

Also, if I get to plug in the HD tomorrow, what am I supposed to be looking for?  Just seeing if I can access?

And I can't find the pins to make it a slave.  Argh. 

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

And I can't find the pins to make it a slave.

Have Faith. 

Flash drive as in USB flash drive?  I have a 128mb...

Argh, you need at least a 256. 

[No_Skillz]

Well, looks like that's out.  If I can't find the pins I'll just head up to Best Buy near here.  They have a service dept. that should have that.

Btw, nice Halo comics.  Made me  when I was 

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Lol. Nice OLD Halo Comics. I've got about a dozen waiting to be updated....

[No_Skillz]

I have my HD hooked up to a friend's computer as we speak.  All of my files are there (thank god  ).  I am currently making copies of my important stuff, but I would still like to salvage this HD if possible since I have alot of useful installed programs on it.  Is there anything I can do?

My tech friend suggested:
chkdsk /r
fixboot
fixmbr - up to me, might erase everything

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I think you would want to try Chkdsk /f.
Not sure about Fixboot. I found this though:
http://www.computerhope.com/fixboot.htm

However, I think a reinstall of Windows may be in order.

[No_Skillz]

I came home from my friend's house and plugged in my HD.  It started without a problem.

  / /

What can I do in case this is just a fluke?  I'll be leaving this thing on for a while until I'm sure I'll be able to restart it without any issues.

[Broni]

Run HD diagnostic: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

[No_Skillz]

I have downloaded and run Seatools (Seagate HD) for windows.

SMART scan failed.
Short Drive Scan Passed

Currently doing a Long Drive Scan, however I will be leaving in about 10 hours for a weeklong vacation.  I'm not sure if it will be done by then so I figured I'd post up what result's I've gotten. (Taking a really long time... about 2 hours and only 20% complete)

What do these scans tell me?
What do I do after this scan?
Do I still need to do a chkdsk /f or /r?

Sorry for the slew of questions, trying to learn as I go.

[Broni]

SMART scan failed.

It means, that your hard drive is on its last legs, and it may fail at any time.

Do I still need to do a chkdsk /f or /r?

No. Manufacturer diagnostic program is more reliable.
This would explain all your problems.
You're do for new hard drive.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Thanks for having my back 

All the moving you were doing with the hard drive could have pushed something in place but, I would have to agree with Broni.
A bigger and better hard drive is in order.

[No_Skillz]

Are there any brands/companies that you guys would suggest?  I've had this Seagate for only about 1.5 years, can't believe it's going bad already.  I had a HD fail on a laptop once, and that was after ~4 years, always on, with a defrag running nightly for about 2 of those years.  I'm looking for at least 500g.

Is there any way to transfer the data from this HD onto a new HD so everything is exactly the same?

[No_Skillz]

Don't mean to bump, but I'm about to order a HD.  Any suggestions?

[Broni]

It's little bit of a luck, too.
Seagate is well know brand, but unfortunately, 250GB HD died on me, being 6 weeks old.
Western Digital? Samsung?

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

I have a Hitachi. I think they go up to 500GB but I'm not sure.