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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
    Posts
    1

    Hard drive help, various machines

    Hello,
    We have a new maintenance guy. In the previous few years, we've had to replace one hard drive. In the last few months, six.
    I'm not there watching. I am guessing he is shutting the machine off by a switch and thus the PC part is not correctly shutting down. I talked to him, all set moving forward.

    However now I have six hard drives that won't work but yet each did the day before they were pulled.
    How do you suggest I proceed?
    Most machines are windows 2000 based.
    I wish I could "hot swap" like in a Windows 7 or 10 PC but....
    I'm struggling to find IDE drives (ebay gets me junk) and old iso files and old disk mounting programs etc.

    Suppose I install windows 2000 on an IDE drive. Then what? I have to need drivers and a machine specific program. Where do I get those without paying an arm and a leg?

    Thank you for your help

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Posts
    1566

    Re: Hard drive help, various machines

    whats your zip code?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Posts
    5717

    Re: Hard drive help, various machines

    Even if the boot sector is hosed, many times you can still get the data off of the drive. If that's not possible and the drive is really dead dead, and you don't have backup copies of the needed files and drivers, then I would say that the machines are boat anchors without upgrading. But it might be possible to get original machine operating files from the manufacturer.

    Also if the software will run on Win2000, it will probably run on XP also.

    Just a side note, I have a backup clone HD just sitting in each one of my machines, and also another one stored off-site.
    Jim Dawson
    Sandy, Oregon, USA

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