Hi Folks
Yesterday was a bad day at the office (understatement!)

This old Dell Optiplex 780 suddenly decided that it couldn't open a
LibreOffice file, and then the PC fell in a heap.

Wouldn't boot up into Win10, the built-in 'restore / repair' functions
didn't.

Booted into Linux from a usb stick, and copied my data across to a spare
hard-drive.

This morning (the copy took a while!), I downloaded a copy of EasyRE,
and booted from that. After a couple of tries, it repaired the disk to
the point that it now boots and runs Win10 again.
Really didn't want to to what MS wanted me to do and run a complete
reinstall of Win10 and all the programs.

So - two questions
1) Given the possibly flaky nature of this 1TB hard-drive - what would
you do next? My inclination is to buy another 1TB hard-drive and clone
this one to it (ASAP), then swap the drives over. Good plan?

2) As yesterday was a bit of a wake-up call - probably time to
re-evaluate my backup strategy..
My thought would be to do a disk image to a spare 1TB hard drive every
night (PC is on 24/7) - so, in the event of another catastrophe, it's
just a matter of swapping hard drives.
What do you think?

Don't want to get involved with clouds or NAS backups.

Many thanks
Adrian

On 2/27/2022 5:41 AM, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
> Hi Folks
> Yesterday was a bad day at the office (understatement!)
>
> This old Dell Optiplex 780 suddenly decided that it couldn't open a
> LibreOffice file, and then the PC fell in a heap.
>
> Wouldn't boot up into Win10, the built-in 'restore / repair' functions
> didn't.
>
> Booted into Linux from a usb stick, and copied my data across to a spare
> hard-drive.
>
> This morning (the copy took a while!), I downloaded a copy of EasyRE,
> and booted from that. After a couple of tries, it repaired the disk to
> the point that it now boots and runs Win10 again.
> Really didn't want to to what MS wanted me to do and run a complete
> reinstall of Win10 and all the programs.
>
>
> So - two questions
> 1) Given the possibly flaky nature of this 1TB hard-drive - what would
> you do next? My inclination is to buy another 1TB hard-drive and clone
> this one to it (ASAP), then swap the drives over. Good plan?
>
> 2) As yesterday was a bit of a wake-up call - probably time to
> re-evaluate my backup strategy..
> My thought would be to do a disk image to a spare 1TB hard drive every
> night (PC is on 24/7) - so, in the event of another catastrophe, it's
> just a matter of swapping hard drives.
> What do you think?
>
> Don't want to get involved with clouds or NAS backups.
>
> Many thanks
> Adrian

Open a "command prompt" window at the administrator level and try the
following. (Start menu, type "comm", do not left click on the "Command
Prompt", instead to a right click and choose "Run as administrator".)

"DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"

followed by "SFC /scannow"

With out the quote marks on the above two entries. Both are built in
utilities that come with Windows 10 and most older versions. Both
programs can take quite a while to run depending on how much, if any,
corruption they are trying to repair.

Watch was the log outputs are at the end of each to see if they found
anything to fix or was unable to fix something.

Normally I would suggest making a copy of the drive first but since you
just copied everything you wanted to keep I would just have at it.

Could your problems be caused by a dying drive, yes, but it could just
as easily be just a glitch brought on by a bad Microsoft update, power
glitch, or anything else that can inhabit Windows machine.

On 28/02/2022 01:02, GlowingBlueMist wrote:
> On 2/27/2022 5:41 AM, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>> Hi Folks
>> Yesterday was a bad day at the office (understatement!)
>>
>> This old Dell Optiplex 780 suddenly decided that it couldn't open a
>> LibreOffice file, and then the PC fell in a heap.
>>
>> Wouldn't boot up into Win10, the built-in 'restore / repair' functions
>> didn't.
>>
>> Booted into Linux from a usb stick, and copied my data across to a
>> spare hard-drive.
>>
>> This morning (the copy took a while!), I downloaded a copy of EasyRE,
>> and booted from that. After a couple of tries, it repaired the disk to
>> the point that it now boots and runs Win10 again.
>> Really didn't want to to what MS wanted me to do and run a complete
>> reinstall of Win10 and all the programs.
>>
>>
>> So - two questions
>> 1) Given the possibly flaky nature of this 1TB hard-drive - what would
>> you do next? My inclination is to buy another 1TB hard-drive and clone
>> this one to it (ASAP), then swap the drives over. Good plan?
>>
>> 2) As yesterday was a bit of a wake-up call - probably time to
>> re-evaluate my backup strategy..
>> My thought would be to do a disk image to a spare 1TB hard drive every
>> night (PC is on 24/7) - so, in the event of another catastrophe, it's
>> just a matter of swapping hard drives.
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Don't want to get involved with clouds or NAS backups.
>>
>> Many thanks
>> Adrian
>
> Open a "command prompt" window at the administrator level and try the
> following. (Start menu, type "comm", do not left click on the "Command
> Prompt", instead to a right click and choose "Run as administrator".)
>
> "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"
>
> followed by "SFC /scannow"
>
> With out the quote marks on the above two entries.  Both are built in
> utilities that come with Windows 10 and most older versions.  Both
> programs can take quite a while to run depending on how much, if any,
> corruption they are trying to repair.
>
> Watch was the log outputs are at the end of each to see if they found
> anything to fix or was unable to fix something.
>
> Normally I would suggest making a copy of the drive first but since you
> just copied everything you wanted to keep I would just have at it.
>
> Could your problems be caused by a dying drive, yes, but it could just
> as easily be just a glitch brought on by a bad Microsoft update, power
> glitch, or anything else that can inhabit Windows machine.

Thanks for that - may give that a try later on...

The EasyRE utility apparently did some "repairing" of the hard drive -
and everything seems to be working for the last 24 hours...

I've a replacement HDD on order - so plan to clone this drive to that
one when it arrives, and relegate the current one to a Linux machine in
the workshop, whose sole job is to provide background music!

OK on the many and varied possible causes of this problem...

Quite a scare, though.

On the plus side, I spent a happy couple of hours yesterday evening
cleaning out a lot of accumulated 'stuff' from the hard drive,which now
has a lot more space...

Thanks
Adrian

On 27 Feb 2022 at 11:41:37 GMT, "Adrian Brentnall"
<adrian@inspired-glass.com> wrote:

> 2) As yesterday was a bit of a wake-up call - probably time to
> re-evaluate my backup strategy..
> My thought would be to do a disk image to a spare 1TB hard drive every
> night (PC is on 24/7) - so, in the event of another catastrophe, it's
> just a matter of swapping hard drives.
> What do you think?

Any backup that requires you to do something won't get done.

Win10 comes with a builtin backup app that'll give you a "boot from
win10 USB installer and recover from the backup disk". Use that to do
your daily to a USB HDD. That gives you bare-metal recovery with zero
interaction.

> Don't want to get involved with clouds or NAS backups.

If you've got any data you actually want to keep, you need it to be in
at least three places, one of which is geographically separate from the
others - fire/theft reasons. I recommend backblaze for similarly
zero-effort backups.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
Sent from my VAX 11/780

On Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:19:54 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

<snip>
>
> The EasyRE utility apparently did some "repairing" of the hard drive -
> and everything seems to be working for the last 24 hours...
>
> I've a replacement HDD on order - so plan to clone this drive to that
> one when it arrives, and relegate the current one to a Linux machine in
> the workshop, whose sole job is to provide background music!
>
> OK on the many and varied possible causes of this problem...
>
> Quite a scare, though.
>
> On the plus side, I spent a happy couple of hours yesterday evening
> cleaning out a lot of accumulated 'stuff' from the hard drive,which now
> has a lot more space...
>
> Thanks Adrian

Have you had a look at the SMART data?

That is usually a good indication of the health of the hard drive.

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
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On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:

> On Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:19:54 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>
> <snip>
>>
>> The EasyRE utility apparently did some "repairing" of the hard drive -
>> and everything seems to be working for the last 24 hours...
>>
>> I've a replacement HDD on order - so plan to clone this drive to that
>> one when it arrives, and relegate the current one to a Linux machine in
>> the workshop, whose sole job is to provide background music!
>>
>> OK on the many and varied possible causes of this problem...
>>
>> Quite a scare, though.
>>
>> On the plus side, I spent a happy couple of hours yesterday evening
>> cleaning out a lot of accumulated 'stuff' from the hard drive,which now
>> has a lot more space...
>>
>> Thanks Adrian
>
> Have you had a look at the SMART data?
>
> That is usually a good indication of the health of the hard drive.
<snip>

You replied to my email address!

Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:

<http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>

and

<http://www.acronis.com/en-eu/personal/hard-drive-health/>

No guarantees, but they are free.

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
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My apologies, David

Thunderbird puts the 'reply' button where you'd (I would) expect the
'reply to newsgroup' button to be - my mistake

Thanks for your suggestions - will look at those programs

Thanks
Adrian

On 01/03/2022 17:12, David wrote:
> On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:19:54 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> The EasyRE utility apparently did some "repairing" of the hard drive -
>>> and everything seems to be working for the last 24 hours...
>>>
>>> I've a replacement HDD on order - so plan to clone this drive to that
>>> one when it arrives, and relegate the current one to a Linux machine in
>>> the workshop, whose sole job is to provide background music!
>>>
>>> OK on the many and varied possible causes of this problem...
>>>
>>> Quite a scare, though.
>>>
>>> On the plus side, I spent a happy couple of hours yesterday evening
>>> cleaning out a lot of accumulated 'stuff' from the hard drive,which now
>>> has a lot more space...
>>>
>>> Thanks Adrian
>>
>> Have you had a look at the SMART data?
>>
>> That is usually a good indication of the health of the hard drive.
> <snip>
>
> You replied to my email address!
>
> Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:
>
> <http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>
>
> and
>
>
> <http://www.acronis.com/en-eu/personal/hard-drive-health/>
>
> No guarantees, but they are free.
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Dave R
>
>
>
>

On 01/03/2022 17:12, David wrote:
> On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:19:54 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>>
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> The EasyRE utility apparently did some "repairing" of the hard drive -
>>> and everything seems to be working for the last 24 hours...
>>>
>>> I've a replacement HDD on order - so plan to clone this drive to that
>>> one when it arrives, and relegate the current one to a Linux machine in
>>> the workshop, whose sole job is to provide background music!
>>>
>>> OK on the many and varied possible causes of this problem...
>>>
>>> Quite a scare, though.
>>>
>>> On the plus side, I spent a happy couple of hours yesterday evening
>>> cleaning out a lot of accumulated 'stuff' from the hard drive,which now
>>> has a lot more space...
>>>
>>> Thanks Adrian
>>
>> Have you had a look at the SMART data?
>>
>> That is usually a good indication of the health of the hard drive.
> <snip>
>
> You replied to my email address!
>
> Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:
>
> <http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>

Not sure I know what I'm looking at with the results - but
CrystalDiskInfo reports
a health status of 'Good', though the disk temperature is showing as 54c.

The drive itself is a WL1000GSA6454G...

When I fit the new hard drive I'll take a look at cooling fans etc..

Thanks
Adrian

In article <j872fsF17t2U3@mid.individual.net>, wibble@btinternet.com says...
>
> On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:
>
....
>
> Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:
>
> <http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>
>
> and
>
>
> <http://www.acronis.com/en-eu/personal/hard-drive-health/>
>
> No guarantees, but they are free.
>

Disappointed to see that the Acronis tool above can't be found on their site,
and that True Image has morphed into a packaged subscription with all sorts of
baggage I wouldn't want. True Image used to be really good, but I really
dislike the subscription model for stuff I only use very occasionally. Is
Macrium generally felt to be the best alternative these days?

SMART monitors really do pay for themselves. I use HD Sentinel, which can come
in an inexpensive "family license" for 5 machines, and also a portable version,
which can be really useful. https://www.hdsentinel.com/store.php

Other SMART monitors include:
https://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup/ (free for personal use = FPU)
http://www.hdtune.com/download.html (one version FPU)
https://www.smartmontools.org/ (Free - I've not used this)
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ (donations invited)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzX8upOEppw&t=211s (short segment of a
broader video; covers Crystal Disk Info)

--

Phil, London

Talk about one step forward....

Nice new 1TB drive arrived today - so I plugged it into a spare external
USB drive case and fired up Macrium Free to clone the system disk.

Macrium wouldn't play - apparently some external drive adapters play
silly games with the sector size of the disks they house - which
prevents Macrium from doing a direct clone operation.

Undeterred, I go looking inside the Optiplex 780 (SFF) for spare SATA /
power connectors - only to find that there are none - and, even if there
were, there's no room to physically mount the darn drive!
(Yes - shoulda checked beforehand...)

Am I right in thinking that a "SATA power & data splitter cable" will at
least let me sort out the electrics - the mechanical side will probably
consist of sitting the new drive on a piece of corrugated cardboard for
the duration of the clone operation...

The other options was 'to try a different external drive housing' - but
I got the impression this was a 'repeat until you get lucky' type of
operation.

Thanks
Adrian

Adrian Brentnall <adrian@inspired-glass.com> wrote:
> Undeterred, I go looking inside the Optiplex 780 (SFF) for spare SATA /
> power connectors - only to find that there are none - and, even if there
> were, there's no room to physically mount the darn drive!
> (Yes - shoulda checked beforehand...)
>
> Am I right in thinking that a "SATA power & data splitter cable" will at
> least let me sort out the electrics - the mechanical side will probably
> consist of sitting the new drive on a piece of corrugated cardboard for
> the duration of the clone operation...

You can't split SATA[*] but your motherboard says it has 3 SATA data
connectors, so assuming you have one for the current HDD and one for a DVD,
there should be one spare. There is also an eSATA connector on the back,
which is a different connector from a regular SATA but should work the same
way. A power splitter cable should be fine.

> The other options was 'to try a different external drive housing' - but
> I got the impression this was a 'repeat until you get lucky' type of
> operation.

An eSATA enclosure should be less hit and miss than a USB one (which are
sometimes tetchy to boot on old machines) - eSATA is just like having an
internal drive. All you need is to find one that is the appropriate size
for the drive (2.5" or 3.5") - although they're possibly rarer than they
used to be.

Theo

[*] well you can, there are things called port replicators, but mostly used
for server purposes, but maybe your BIOS won't boot from them. Better not
to go there.

On 02/03/2022 22:22, Theo wrote:
> Adrian Brentnall <adrian@inspired-glass.com> wrote:
>> Undeterred, I go looking inside the Optiplex 780 (SFF) for spare SATA /
>> power connectors - only to find that there are none - and, even if there
>> were, there's no room to physically mount the darn drive!
>> (Yes - shoulda checked beforehand...)
>>
>> Am I right in thinking that a "SATA power & data splitter cable" will at
>> least let me sort out the electrics - the mechanical side will probably
>> consist of sitting the new drive on a piece of corrugated cardboard for
>> the duration of the clone operation...
>
> You can't split SATA[*] but your motherboard says it has 3 SATA data
> connectors, so assuming you have one for the current HDD and one for a DVD,
> there should be one spare. There is also an eSATA connector on the back,
> which is a different connector from a regular SATA but should work the same
> way. A power splitter cable should be fine.
>
>> The other options was 'to try a different external drive housing' - but
>> I got the impression this was a 'repeat until you get lucky' type of
>> operation.
>
> An eSATA enclosure should be less hit and miss than a USB one (which are
> sometimes tetchy to boot on old machines) - eSATA is just like having an
> internal drive. All you need is to find one that is the appropriate size
> for the drive (2.5" or 3.5") - although they're possibly rarer than they
> used to be.
>
> Theo
>
> [*] well you can, there are things called port replicators, but mostly used
> for server purposes, but maybe your BIOS won't boot from them. Better not
> to go there.

Hi Theo
Thanks for that - so I need a _power_ splitter and a straightforward
SATA cable - grand.. thanks...

Then play 'hunt the sata port' - I think I did see it while poking
around in there earlier..
And find a piece of cardboard....

I rarely use the DVD, but I expect that the DVD SATA cable won't work as
a temporary HDD SATA cable.....

This reminds me why I don't much about with PC's any more <grin>

Thanks for your help
Adrian

>
> You can't split SATA[*] but your motherboard says it has 3 SATA data
> connectors, so assuming you have one for the current HDD and one for a DVD,
> there should be one spare. There is also an eSATA connector on the back,
> which is a different connector from a regular SATA but should work the same
> way. A power splitter cable should be fine.
>

.... but read the motherboard spec carefully first !

I recently discovered that if I use the external eSATA connector on my
motherboard then 2 of the on board SATA connectors are disabled :-\

I am told that this arrangement is quite common

--
random signature text inserted here

On 2 Mar 2022 at 22:33:05 GMT, "Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@inspired-glass.com>
wrote:

>
>
> I rarely use the DVD, but I expect that the DVD SATA cable won't work as
> a temporary HDD SATA cable.....
>

I think it would - it's what I do when I need to temporarily lash an
additional HD to my PC.

> This reminds me why I don't much about with PC's any more <grin>
>
> Thanks for your help
> Adrian

--
Cheers, Rob

On 03/03/2022 09:12, RJH wrote:
> On 2 Mar 2022 at 22:33:05 GMT, "Adrian Brentnall" <adrian@inspired-glass.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> I rarely use the DVD, but I expect that the DVD SATA cable won't work as
>> a temporary HDD SATA cable.....
>>
>
> I think it would - it's what I do when I need to temporarily lash an
> additional HD to my PC.

Ah - interesting - I might have a try at that then....
Thanks
Adrian

In article <MPG.3c896b6eee1f72609899a5@news.eternal-september.org>,
Philip Herlihy wrote:
> True Image used to be really good, but I really dislike the
> subscription model for stuff I only use very occasionally. Is
> Macrium generally felt to be the best alternative these days?

The subscription model is generally pretty poor value for anything you
use less than daily (or at least a few times a week). It's becoming
popular among vendors because it enables them to ensure a fairly steady
revenue stream, check easily for a valid licence (online) every time
you use stuff, and ensure that you are constantly testing the latest
sanctioned version even though you'd rather wait until things are
stable.

<sigh>

That's the world we live in!

I used to quite like True Image, years ago. These days its easier and
simpler to boot a Linux distro from a USB stick (or CD, if you have a
*really* old PC) and run gparted and/or dd (and gzip).

boot-repair-disk is quite good, but I usually just run a Debian or
Ubuntu live stick as I tend to have those hanging around anyway.

https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

On Wed, 02 Mar 2022 22:33:05 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

> On 02/03/2022 22:22, Theo wrote:
>> Adrian Brentnall <adrian@inspired-glass.com> wrote:
>>> Undeterred, I go looking inside the Optiplex 780 (SFF) for spare SATA
>>> /
>>> power connectors - only to find that there are none - and, even if
>>> there were, there's no room to physically mount the darn drive!
>>> (Yes - shoulda checked beforehand...)
>>>
>>> Am I right in thinking that a "SATA power & data splitter cable" will
>>> at least let me sort out the electrics - the mechanical side will
>>> probably consist of sitting the new drive on a piece of corrugated
>>> cardboard for the duration of the clone operation...
>>
>> You can't split SATA[*] but your motherboard says it has 3 SATA data
>> connectors, so assuming you have one for the current HDD and one for a
>> DVD,
>> there should be one spare. There is also an eSATA connector on the
>> back, which is a different connector from a regular SATA but should
>> work the same way. A power splitter cable should be fine.
>>
>>> The other options was 'to try a different external drive housing' -
>>> but I got the impression this was a 'repeat until you get lucky' type
>>> of operation.
>>
>> An eSATA enclosure should be less hit and miss than a USB one (which
>> are sometimes tetchy to boot on old machines) - eSATA is just like
>> having an internal drive. All you need is to find one that is the
>> appropriate size for the drive (2.5" or 3.5") - although they're
>> possibly rarer than they used to be.
>>
>> Theo
>>
>> [*] well you can, there are things called port replicators, but mostly
>> used for server purposes, but maybe your BIOS won't boot from them.
>> Better not to go there.
>
> Hi Theo Thanks for that - so I need a _power_ splitter and a
> straightforward SATA cable - grand.. thanks...
>
> Then play 'hunt the sata port' - I think I did see it while poking
> around in there earlier..
> And find a piece of cardboard....
>
> I rarely use the DVD, but I expect that the DVD SATA cable won't work as
> a temporary HDD SATA cable.....
>
> This reminds me why I don't much about with PC's any more <grin>
>
> Thanks for your help Adrian

Confirming that a SATA cable is just a SATA cable.

It is a good idea to get a longer one to make it easy to reach an external
bare drive.
Also a power lead extension if you don't have any long power leads.

Last time I was messing around with HDD I just ran the PC with a panel off
and the new HDD perched on top.
I've also done this with two external drives where I need to work on
drives from another machine.

Hopefully all very low tech and simple.

I also agree that an eSATA usually steals at least one port from the MoBo
so may well not meet your needs in this case.

HTH

Dave R

--
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On Wed, 02 Mar 2022 11:54:59 +0000, Philip Herlihy wrote:

> In article <j872fsF17t2U3@mid.individual.net>, wibble@btinternet.com
> says...
>>
>> On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:
>>
> ...
>>
>> Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:
>>
>> <http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>
>>
>> and
>>
>>
>> <http://www.acronis.com/en-eu/personal/hard-drive-health/>
>>
>> No guarantees, but they are free.
>>
>>
> Disappointed to see that the Acronis tool above can't be found on their
> site, and that True Image has morphed into a packaged subscription with
> all sorts of baggage I wouldn't want. <snip>

I found it after a bit of poke and hope on the website.

I started by going to the UK region, and worked from there.

They don't make it easy.

<https://www.acronis.com/en-eu/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
index.html#screenshots>

No, I've no idea why #screenshots but that seems to be the way it works at
the moment.

Oh, and it doesn't seem to know much about SMART data for SSDs.

Cheers

Dave R

--
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In article <j8h6nfF17t2U6@mid.individual.net>, wibble@btinternet.com says...
>
> On Wed, 02 Mar 2022 11:54:59 +0000, Philip Herlihy wrote:
>
> > In article <j872fsF17t2U3@mid.individual.net>, wibble@btinternet.com
> > says...
> >>
> >> On Tue, 01 Mar 2022 13:45:03 +0000, David wrote:
> >>
> > ...
> >>
> >> Two SMART monitor tools which might help are:
> >>
> >> <http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html>
> >>
> >> and
> >>
> >>
> >> <http://www.acronis.com/en-eu/personal/hard-drive-health/>
> >>
> >> No guarantees, but they are free.
> >>
> >>
> > Disappointed to see that the Acronis tool above can't be found on their
> > site, and that True Image has morphed into a packaged subscription with
> > all sorts of baggage I wouldn't want. <snip>
>
> I found it after a bit of poke and hope on the website.
>
> I started by going to the UK region, and worked from there.
>
> They don't make it easy.
>
> <https://www.acronis.com/en-eu/homecomputing/products/drive-monitor/
> index.html#screenshots>
>
> No, I've no idea why #screenshots but that seems to be the way it works at
> the moment.
>
> Oh, and it doesn't seem to know much about SMART data for SSDs.
>
> Cheers
>
>
>
> Dave R
>
>
> --
> AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

Ah - that's the same "Acronis Drive Monitor" I used for years. It was very
good once, but it really is showing its age, and gives misleading information
about quite a few drives now.
Also available from MajorGeeks:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/acronis_drive_monitor.html

I realise I could have found it using this Google search:
hard-drive-health site:acronis.com
That "site:[domain]" term is massively useful at times!

--

Phil, London

Abandoned_Trolley <fred@fred-smith.co.uk> wrote:
> ... but read the motherboard spec carefully first !
>
> I recently discovered that if I use the external eSATA connector on my
> motherboard then 2 of the on board SATA connectors are disabled :-\
>
> I am told that this arrangement is quite common

That's possible, although the chipset usually has 4/6/8 SATA ports. This
mobo claims to have 3 internal and 1 external, which would make sense if
they're separately wired to a 4x chipset.

(also possible the mobo is laid out for 4x internal and 1x eSATA and it's a
manufacturing choice for either the eSATA or one of the internal ports are
installed at soldering time, since there are only 4 channels on the chipset)

Theo

On 05/03/2022 13:18, David wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Mar 2022 22:33:05 +0000, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
>
>> On 02/03/2022 22:22, Theo wrote:
>>> Adrian Brentnall <adrian@inspired-glass.com> wrote:
>>>> Undeterred, I go looking inside the Optiplex 780 (SFF) for spare SATA
>>>> /
>>>> power connectors - only to find that there are none - and, even if
>>>> there were, there's no room to physically mount the darn drive!
>>>> (Yes - shoulda checked beforehand...)
>>>>
>>>> Am I right in thinking that a "SATA power & data splitter cable" will
>>>> at least let me sort out the electrics - the mechanical side will
>>>> probably consist of sitting the new drive on a piece of corrugated
>>>> cardboard for the duration of the clone operation...
>>>
>>> You can't split SATA[*] but your motherboard says it has 3 SATA data
>>> connectors, so assuming you have one for the current HDD and one for a
>>> DVD,
>>> there should be one spare. There is also an eSATA connector on the
>>> back, which is a different connector from a regular SATA but should
>>> work the same way. A power splitter cable should be fine.
>>>
>>>> The other options was 'to try a different external drive housing' -
>>>> but I got the impression this was a 'repeat until you get lucky' type
>>>> of operation.
>>>
>>> An eSATA enclosure should be less hit and miss than a USB one (which
>>> are sometimes tetchy to boot on old machines) - eSATA is just like
>>> having an internal drive. All you need is to find one that is the
>>> appropriate size for the drive (2.5" or 3.5") - although they're
>>> possibly rarer than they used to be.
>>>
>>> Theo
>>>
>>> [*] well you can, there are things called port replicators, but mostly
>>> used for server purposes, but maybe your BIOS won't boot from them.
>>> Better not to go there.
>>
>> Hi Theo Thanks for that - so I need a _power_ splitter and a
>> straightforward SATA cable - grand.. thanks...
>>
>> Then play 'hunt the sata port' - I think I did see it while poking
>> around in there earlier..
>> And find a piece of cardboard....
>>
>> I rarely use the DVD, but I expect that the DVD SATA cable won't work as
>> a temporary HDD SATA cable.....
>>
>> This reminds me why I don't much about with PC's any more <grin>
>>
>> Thanks for your help Adrian
>
> Confirming that a SATA cable is just a SATA cable.
>
> It is a good idea to get a longer one to make it easy to reach an external
> bare drive.
> Also a power lead extension if you don't have any long power leads.
>
> Last time I was messing around with HDD I just ran the PC with a panel off
> and the new HDD perched on top.
> I've also done this with two external drives where I need to work on
> drives from another machine.
>
> Hopefully all very low tech and simple.
>
> I also agree that an eSATA usually steals at least one port from the MoBo
> so may well not meet your needs in this case.
>
> HTH
>
>
> Dave R
>
>
>
Thanks David

I've not revisited the 'adding a hard drive' task yet (too many other
things going on).

What may be interesting is that, while attempting to fit the new drive
in order to clone to it, I gave the inside of the PC case a good
dusting, and used a hoover to clean the various fans.

Prior to this, the PC was running quite hot, and things like playing
video content caused the fans to speed up.
Since then (and with the lid off the case) I've yet to see the fans
speed up above idle, and the HDD is reporting a tepid 41c, whereas it
was up around the 54c level before...

When I get a Round Tuit I may see if I can connect the new drive on a
temporary basis using the cables from the DVD drive....

Thanks
Adrian