Computer help - non-music/recording problem!

mjbphotos

mjbphotos

Moderator
I know there are some folks here considerably more ept (as opposed to me be inept) about computers. All signs are that my HD (1Tb, currently about 620Gb filled) is failing - browsers (any of them) lock up with no warning, usually all I can do is a cold reboot to fix things. Ran checkdisk a couple of times, it found a couple of bad indexes the first time. Running Win 7.

So, before I lose everything ... will back up the few new photo folders and recording folders I haven't backed up recently.
I have 3 USB drives including a powered LaCie with backup software.
How do I (exact step-by-step) do an 'image file' of my hard drive (onto a USB drive, obviously) and then copy it to a new hard drive? Could I use an external SS drive for this, so I wouldn't have to pull the old hard drive, or is that not an option? If there is a website that gives step-by-step on this, please point me to it. Everything I search out when looking to debug the problems seems to be aimed at IT pros. I'd like to be able to just swap hard drives and continue my usual work, rather than have to start again and download software, drivers etc.
 
It's best to clone a drive when it isn't the running system drive so really you'd want to have three drives.

Old system, destination for new system, and a spare drive to be system while you're carrying out the work.

I'd pull old+new, then install windows and some clone software on the spare drive.
Do your cloning, then do the switcheroo.


Alternatively, you could just pull the old+new drives and slave them to another computer, if you have one available.
 
Steenamaroo said:
It's best to clone a drive when it isn't the running system drive so really you'd want to have three drives.

Old system, destination for new system, and a spare drive to be system while you're carrying out the work.

I'd pull old+new, then install windows and some clone software on the spare drive.
Do your cloning, then do the switcheroo.


Alternatively, you could just pull the old+new drives and slave them to another computer, if you have one available.
Click to expand...


I tried a google translation on your reply, but it didn't work.

BTW, the lock ups only happen with browsers - if I just boot computer and use other software (Reaper, photo stuff, etc), there's no problems.
 
Hmmm. If you have to google that, don't clone anything. ;)
In simpler terms, you don't generally clone an operating system which is running.
It's better to pull your hard drive and clone it to a new drive under some different operating system - i.e. on someone else's computer.

That said, from your description it's probably something fixable.
Since it's all browsers the issue is coming from something common to them, but since it's only happening with browsers we can rule out hardware problems, right?
Is it network related? Does anyone else in the house or place of business have connectivity or lock up problems?

Are there any particular sites which freeze up? Anything that would give us a clue?
If the above are no good I'd start by removing anything that's common to all browsers.
Any plug ins or add ons...Ad-Blocker, any extensions or anything like that.

Are there any foreign or unexpected toolbars or search engines forcing themselves upon you? Have a look at add/remove programs and see if there's anything like that you can pull.

A few ideas. Let me know if they're any use and good luck!
 
I'd personally just back up everything important, reformat the hard drive and do a clean install of everything.
I don't think cloning is appropriate unless you know the exact cause of the issue. For example, you might clone the current OS and a virus is the problem. Then your new hard drive will have the virus when you load the cloned copy...not good.

If you do a clean install and the problem persists, then you know it's almost surely the hard drive, and at that point you can consider a clone.

Do you do routine maintenance on the hard drive? Like defrag, disc cleanup, run ccleaner, etc? Have you checked for malware (malwarebytes/superantispyware). You can always try that first, too. Browsers locking up isn't really a sign of failing hard drive sounds more like malware.
 
Not understanding the complications of cloning/imaging the existing drive?

I have recently done this twice on two W7 machines prior to installing (then reverting to 7!) Win 10 in order to grab it whilst it was free.
I fitted a new drive (but you can use an old one) inside the PC then used "Macrium" free cloning software. The software makes it pretty obvious how to proceed (and if "I" can do it! Di-Da!) But! You will be prompted to make a Rescue disc...Do dat.

You COULD clone to a disc in a caddy but USB 2.0 will take forever!

But, I agree that the HDD is unlikely to be the problem. Usually they start to make noises when they are poorly. About 2 years ago I convinced myself that a system drive was on its way out and swapped it. The old drive is STILL doing sterling service as a data backup! I also agree that you could be copying the corrupt data but you need to backup the drive anyway before you start any serious remedial measures.

Just on the Browser issue? Run Ccleaner to remove temporary files but make sure you have a note of any and all user names and passwords. Malwarebytes is another good tool. Also check out Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once for other utilities, dead safe download site.

Dave.
 
If you want to check if the hard drive is reporting errors, I use this utility a lot:

HDDScan ? free HDD test utility with USB flash and RAID support [scroll down their homepage for instructions on viewing the SMART report, post a screen shot of the results back here if you don't get all green results]

I've successfully cloned an active Windows drive to a USB connected drive, but as others have said it's best to use a utility with its own boot disc. I've had good success over the years with Acronis True Home, and the full version comes with a bootable CD. It's also usually cheap on sale or eBay. For a Windows 7 PC you could use Acronis version 2013 or even older, so maybe even a cheaper find somewhere. There's plenty of instructions on how to use it found online.

As also suggested, you might want to run Malwarebytes to see if there's something installed crashing your browsers.

Also worth running this (sfc /scannow):

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929833
 
I'll try CCleaner later - its not happening just in the browsers any more, but when other things are running. I was backing up my latest files earlier, and it went from 1 hour to 1 day (as nothing was happening at the time), then back to 4 hours and seemed stuck. I cold-rebooted, selected the files that had not yet backed up and it took 1 minute to finish. Since that reboot, not freezing up at all.
Ran Malwarebytes earlier, found nothing. I reset Winsock and stack defaults. Turned off all network media sharing, selected 'high performance' (it had been 'balanced') - all things I read in various google searches about similar problems (although most were from when Win7 was new). Hardly have any browser add-ons/plug-ins activated. As you can read, the problem of locking up is not consistent. Would that indicate corrupt files?

I'll try those checks from Pinky.
 
mjbphotos said:
I'll try CCleaner later - its not happening just in the browsers any more, but when other things are running. I was backing up my latest files earlier, and it went from 1 hour to 1 day (as nothing was happening at the time), then back to 4 hours and seemed stuck. I cold-rebooted, selected the files that had not yet backed up and it took 1 minute to finish. Since that reboot, not freezing up at all.
Ran Malwarebytes earlier, found nothing. I reset Winsock and stack defaults. Turned off all network media sharing, selected 'high performance' (it had been 'balanced') - all things I read in various google searches about similar problems (although most were from when Win7 was new). Hardly have any browser add-ons/plug-ins activated. As you can read, the problem of locking up is not consistent. Would that indicate corrupt files?

I'll try those checks from Pinky.
Click to expand...

Try superantispyware. I find it's better for browser junk than malwarebytes.

How much RAM does this computer have?

Click control+alt+delete then "start task manager" and look at what is using all those resources when it bogs down. It'll be under the "processes"/memory tab.
 
It might be worth checking out the HDD properly then if it's erratic but do everything else that's suggested too.
At this stage, it could be so many things. :(

Any of you windows guys know of HDD check software that isn't just the basics?

I found one app on mac (driveDX) that tells me shitloads of stuff. It shows about 20 health bars out of 100% and gives very specific info about drive life, wear, trouble areas etc.
No other app that I tried gave anywhere near that level of detail.

Nola's on to something too....Keeping an eye on resource use is a great idea, especially if you can have it on screen while the computer is stalling.
With any luck you'll see something specific maxing out some resource.
 
When it locks up, task manager won't even start. When I've been able to get it open, CPU usage is 5-10% - but the little 'in use' light on the front of the box is on steady. 6G RAM. If you look up this behavior with a google search, you will see it was not unusual for Win 7 a long time ago.

CCLeaner found a bunch of registry missing DLL files and fixed them (?) This morning, it still locked up at one point, and I cold rebooted and its been fine since.

I run Superantispyware regularly too. This is not new behavior for the computer, just started getting worse and worse a few days ago. Last week I did the Win update which was supposed to be a bunch of security patches and nothing would work after ot (no browsers would even load), so system restored it to get rid of those updates and thats when it really started getting bad. After a couple of the cold reboots Checkdisc came up and I ran it and the first time it found a couple of index issues.
 
mjbphotos said:
When it locks up, task manager won't even start. When I've been able to get it open, CPU usage is 5-10% - but the little 'in use' light on the front of the box is on steady. 6G RAM. If you look up this behavior with a google search, you will see it was not unusual for Win 7 a long time ago.

CCLeaner found a bunch of registry missing DLL files and fixed them (?) This morning, it still locked up at one point, and I cold rebooted and its been fine since.

I run Superantispyware regularly too. This is not new behavior for the computer, just started getting worse and worse a few days ago. Last week I did the Win update which was supposed to be a bunch of security patches and nothing would work after ot (no browsers would even load), so system restored it to get rid of those updates and thats when it really started getting bad. After a couple of the cold reboots Checkdisc came up and I ran it and the first time it found a couple of index issues.
Click to expand...

Mike, I too have found Task Manager a bit of a chocolate teapot. Just when you NEED it, it does not show!

Would be a lot of work but maybe time for a complete format and re install of W7? At least you would have a pristine registry and all the updates in a line like ducks (eventooooly!)

Even more outlandish. Did you grab a free copy of W10? Might be worth a do, peeps say it is a very good audio platform.

Dave.
 
mjbphotos said:
When it locks up, task manager won't even start. When I've been able to get it open, CPU usage is 5-10% - but the little 'in use' light on the front of the box is on steady. 6G RAM. If you look up this behavior with a google search, you will see it was not unusual for Win 7 a long time ago.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's kinda predictable.
Really you'd have to have it (or some other monitor) on screen in advance.
Bit annoying but resize whatever you're doing and keep task manager visible off to one side.

If you suspect HDD issues, let the hdd tab show. If that yields nothing when you next lock up, let it show CPU next time.

It doesn't always tell you something, but it might just hand you the answer.

The 'in use' light on the front of the box is HDD activity, right?


I suppose bets are off with failing HDDs but I've generally found them to be more consistently troublesome.
Like, the machine is always slow or big file transfers regularly fail.
 
It sounds like the windows update messed something up. You can uninstall those updates in the "programs" tab under control panel. Just go to "view installed updates" and remove whatever it installed on there.

Also go through your programs and remove ones you don't use. They can have drivers that conflict and cause problems and also run services that you don't need and hog resources.
 
Update - ran checkdisc again, deleted a few non-used programs (nothing installed recently), let CCleaner do its thing.
Yesterday afternoon, turned computer on, kicked up Word. Bogged down right away, ended up cold rebooting 3 times before it stopped freezing up, then it was fine after. This morning and this afternoon, one cold reboot needed, then no issues since.
 
My experience has been, if you run check disk and it fines errors often, the HD is going bad. After you run it and repairs and this happens several times, I go ahead and replace the HD.

Acronis has a really nice program for $29. Usually it creates a boot disk (USB stick) and you put in the new drive with the old drive, select source (old drive), then target (new drive). It does its thing, once competed, remove old drive and use the same connections from the old drive on the new drive, boot up and maybe if you have any issues, run a chkdsk one more time to fix any corrupted files from the old drive. That usually does it for me.

The cloning software is just one I have used and I know it works. There are others but I have not used them therefore couldn't say how good they are. I would think all most all of them are capable of doing this. Clonezilla is freeware, I tried it with mixed results. Definitely not something I would not recommend for the non computer geek.
 
What did HDD Scan tell you? What are the SMART results? This should be done NOW/First, if the drive is failing nothing you're doing will help and actually all these reboots is likely just shortening the time you'll have to get data off it before it just plain stops working (at all).
 
Pinky said:
What did HDD Scan tell you? What are the SMART results? This should be done NOW/First, if the drive is failing nothing you're doing will help and actually all these reboots is likely just shortening the time you'll have to get data off it before it just plain stops working (at all).
Click to expand...

Big +1 to that.
 
Scannow fixed a bunch of stuff, but also found a bunch of files it couldn't fix (and the solution seems to be to find the good files on another WIn 7 computer, move them over, replace them one by one - I don't even see the full paths in teh report, let alone have another Win 7 computer handy!

I d/-ed the SMART thing, but it doesn't run. There's no exe file, just the application file, and nothing happens when I right click on it (or right click 'run as administrator).

Since rebooting after the Scannow run, haven't had any lockups.
 
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