For you personally, to the exact condition that your computer is in now (with a new Hard disk)
I personally have a week-old backup of my hard drive so I would only lose a week’s worth of information (much of that is saved online) and some of it could not be recovered (but is of low importance). Restoring my Hard Drive would take a couple of hours (including putting in a new drive) but those lost files would never be restored.
I have two hard drives in Raid 0. So i expect one day in the next few years they will somehow lose my data.
I keep an old hard drive from my last pc in my main one and use windows 7 to automatically back up to it.
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But its still got loads for old files on it as i wanted to keep all my old stuff. Its been full for ages so backups rarely ever happen. It contains a system image and alot of programs as backups so there shouldn’t be a huge disaster if i lose my main drives. But there will definitely be alot of stuff that never got backed up. That will take a while to fix. I couldnt really guess at how long as i have no idea what exactly is not backed up.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I have two hard drives in Raid 0. So i expect one day in the next few years they will somehow lose my data.
I keep an old hard drive from my last pc in my main one and use windows 7 to automatically back up to it.
But its still got loads for old files on it as i wanted to keep all my old stuff. Its been full for ages so backups rarely ever happen. It contains a system image and alot of programs as backups so there shouldn’t be a huge disaster if i lose my main drives. But there will definitely be alot of stuff that never got backed up. That will take a while to fix. I couldnt really guess at how long as i have no idea what exactly is not backed up.
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January 31st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
This answer would depend on what programs and files you have on your hard drive, any personal files not backed up will be unrecoverable…
1st… you would need to load WINDOWS onto the new drive…(during my experience this has taken 45 minutes to 4 hours)*
2nd…you need to check your device manager and update all working drivers and install all non registered drivers, via driver disc if possible or via internet search…
3rd…you need to load all necessary service packs from windows(assuming you have an internet connection)…
4th…install all preexisting programs that are not provided by Windows, via programs disc if possible or via internet search…
5th…install personal files(assuming you back these up onto a cd, dvd or a removable drive)…THE END
I have personally done this process in the past and it took me 8 – 12 hours to restore to my current state… my personal files and half of my programs were backed up using a portable drive…
good luck and hope this never happens, it can be a real long headache…….
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