Dead desktop - best way to recover

[Steve Moddelmog]

My desktop computer appeared to be headed toward death - second disk in 2-disk RAID configuration reported that it had 30 days of life left.  So I bought a laptop to replace the computer and am near the end of the slow setup process. I was hoping the old desktop would keep running so that I would be able to get anything off it that I forgot to copy, and also to look at projects what weren't loading right on the new laptop and see what plugins and presets I was using.  I booted the desktop two days ago in search of just that kind of information and it hung at the Windows 10 startup screen (for hours).  I rebooted and it came up in repair mode.  I tried the option to repair startup and it found errors (probably during CHKDSK) that it attempted to repair.  It indicated that repairs had been made.  I rebooted and got the same Windows 10 startup screen hang.  So back to repair mode - I booted to a CMD prompt to see what the drives looked like.  To my surprise, the c drive showed only the system recovery partition, what had been on the main c Windows 10 partition was now on E:, and what had been on secondary drive designated J: was now E:.  Is this to be expected?  Just a function of not booting fully into Windows?  Or does it suggest that something important got scrambled?  I have an Acronis backup which I could restore, but is that my best recovery option?  I think the Acronis backup is just of the main Windows 10 partition, not the entire  c drive. Thanks for any advice. 

Edited March 26, 2022 by Steve Moddelmog

[Jeremy Oakes]

I always Clone my HDD’s once every 3 weeks so that if one fails i can just insert its clone into my system. Other people  will certainly clone more often. I don’t have to go through re-installation etc.

Try a recovery software (Google, there are freebies out there).

you have Acronis - did you make a start up disk from which you can boot then restore ? If not, you’re knackered.

Jerry

PS : use punctuation/paras in your posts, its easier to read ! (No offence).

[Steve Moddelmog]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

I always Clone my HDD’s once every 3 weeks so that if one fails i can just insert its clone into my system. Other people  will certainly clone more often. I don’t have to go through re-installation etc.

Try a recovery software (Google, there are freebies out there).

you have Acronis - did you make a start up disk from which you can boot then restore ? If not, you’re knackered.

Jerry

PS : use punctuation/paras in your posts, its easier to read ! (No offence).

Well, I did a restore form Acronis.  It took 7 hours to run, said it was successful at the end, but when I tried to reboot, it just hung at the Windows 10 startup logo again.

[Jack Stoner]

When I backup my PC I do a full disc image, all partitions not just the "C" (system) partition.  

I used to use Acronis True Image but it failed me twice trying to restore.  I abandoned it for Macrium Reflect that after 8 years has never failed me.

I also discontinued use of RAID since I do at least weekly, if not more often, disc image backups.  My Cakewalk projects are on a separate disc drive, not on the System drive and are backed up after any changes/additions.   

 

 

[Steve Moddelmog]

On 3/27/2022 at 6:13 AM, Jack Stoner said:

When I backup my PC I do a full disc image, all partitions not just the "C" (system) partition.  

I used to use Acronis True Image but it failed me twice trying to restore.  I abandoned it for Macrium Reflect that after 8 years has never failed me.

I also discontinued use of RAID since I do at least weekly, if not more often, disc image backups.  My Cakewalk projects are on a separate disc drive, not on the System drive and are backed up after any changes/additions.   

 

 

The RAID configuration was to double the drive size, not to backup.  Not what I would have done, but that's how it came out of the box.

I did manage to restore a March 9 Acronis image which initially didn't help, but when I then selected the repair option of uninstalling last quality update (having little expectation that it would fix the problem), I was able to load Windows 10.  Since March 8 was a patch Tuesday, I guess there was something in the update that caused my problem, the problem would have existed in the March 9 Acronis image, but the repair to remove the update did the trick.  I was able to get information about a few projects, but then I noticed that my wifi adapter wasn't working, and when I tried to fix that and did a re-boot, I hung at the Windows 10 logo again.  I guess I will do another restore to see if I can keep it running long enough to get some more of the file and information I wanted.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Steve Moddelmog

[Doug Steinschneider]

I avoid RAID 0 (sometimes referred to as disk striping). It's more difficult to recover if there's a problem (as OP is experiencing) . Surprised a system would be setup that way as the default configuration.

[Steve Moddelmog]

1 minute ago, Doug Steinschneider said:

I avoid RAID 0 (sometimes referred to as disk striping). It's more difficult to recover if there's a problem (as OP is experiencing) . Surprised a system would be setup that way as the default configuration.

It was a refurbished machine I bought on Amazon. I'll never do that again.

[Doug Steinschneider]

+1 on Macrium Reflect. I've been doing a lot of swap ins of SSD drives. I used to use whatever the manufacturer provided for cloning software but after constantly running into glitches (Samsung Data Migration) (WD version of Acronis) I settled on always using Macrium Reflect. 

 

[Doug Steinschneider]

Definitely go to SSD for storage but do full ongoing back ups - when those fail it's not like the spinners. 

[Steve Moddelmog]

30 minutes ago, Doug Steinschneider said:

+1 on Macrium Reflect. I've been doing a lot of swap ins of SSD drives. I used to use whatever the manufacturer provided for cloning software but after constantly running into glitches (Samsung Data Migration) (WD version of Acronis) I settled on always using Macrium Reflect. 

 

I think I mentioned somewhere earlier that I was able to boot into Win 10 once after doing an Acronis restore AND then rolling back (in recovery) the Win 10 update that happened the day before the Acronis backup was made. Then it crashed again and that sequence didn't work a second time. I'm not sure whether Acronis is to blame for that or the drive(s) were just too screwed up.

[Tim Smith]

Sometimes it's better all around to simply start over with a fresh OS load. There are great deals on Windows Pro or if your computer came with an OS disk maybe use it if funds are low. I have paid under 30.00 for new OS. I evaluate who I bought all my software and plug ins from and start out fresh so you can use all of that again. I suspect if the computer was bought used online, there could be suspect things on the drive. I'm not sure I would trust it. It doesn't seem you have had the computer for very long so maybe starting fresh is the answer. Going with a pro version of Windows has advantages over using a home version.

I was a fan of Acronis for a long time although I never had to use them thankfully. When they went to a more subscription cloud based approach I started looking elsewhere. I might be looking at  Macrium as a replacement since it gets such good reviews here.

I see nothing wrong with an inexpensive platter drive as a backup drive. The way I figure it, if you unplug it in between backups it isn't running so it isn't wearing. For anyone who is concerned, at sale prices buy two and have backups on both of them. If one fails you have the other. One unplugged should be fine for a very long time unless it was a dud to start with. The C drive is the drive that has the most frequent changes on it for me. This means the other drives on my computer that contain mostly sound libraries don't need to be backed up as often unless you just bought a new library.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Tim Smith