backup program

[advan]

Currently downloading. How do I use it? just keep it in the drive upon power on?

[SpywareDr]

Step 1) Download the "ubcd50b12.iso" file.

Step 2) Burn the "ubcd50b12.iso" file you just downloaded to a CD using "ISO Recorder".

Step 3) Boot your computer from your new "UBCD50b12" CD.

[advan]

Is it really this way? I burned the ubcd50b12.iso using the ISO recorder (right click copy image to cd). It finishes without a problem, but in the two times I did it, the content doesn't reflect on the cd-- no files/folders can be seen, used space vs free space is zero. Are the files in hidden mode or something, or I'm not recording right?

[Midknyte]

Did you try booting from the disc or not? UBCD runs on linux, so you might not see files in Windows.

If that still doesn't work, you can try one of the other methods on the UBCD FAQ

[advan]

done. HDDs are good. With 2 disc copies of the diags, learned something new there... don't always believe what Windows says, hehe. Thanks a lot, MidKnyte!!

[advan]

Btw, Midknyte, since I'm asking about HDD health-- it's happened to me thrice this year that upon bootup, it can't find the drives, stopping at "Detecting drives...something".. but after 2 or 3 ctrl-alt-dels, it would bootup fine. Since after the diags that says my drives are ok, am I right to conclude it must be a software problem that's screwing up that a re-format will fix? Thanks again.

[jdc2000]

If the BIOS is not recognizing the drives, it is likely a hardware problem. It could be the controller on the motherboard. Check the motherboard for bad capacitors. It could also be that the drives are taking longer than usual to spin up, but test OK once they do.

[Train]

It could also be that the drives are taking longer than usual to spin up, but test OK once they do.

Power supply to small/ going bad possibly.

[Midknyte]

jdc2000 and Train are on the right track. It's either the motherboard controller or the power to the drives that could be flaky. It might be a weak CMOS battery. You should also check if there are any bios updates relating to the HD controller.

[advan]

Thanks for the help.

Okay, with 3 possibilities, I'll do the CMOS battery first being the easiest. I read up that to check/replace the battery, I've to save or write down CMOS info as the moment I remove it, it'll be erased.

I went to the BIOS part before boot up. There were several categories in the Main Menu (Standard CMOS, Advanced BIOS Features, Adv. Chipset Features, etc). I assume I'll concern myself with the first, Standard CMOS. Which data should I be writing down? When I clicked on Standard CMOS, it was mostly info on the hard drives-- is that it? the HDD labels, i should be noting that?

There was another article that said if some pc's have the capacity to monitor the CMOS battery, which shouldn't be below 2.5V. I don't know if mine can, but under PC Health Status from the Main Menu, there was a listing of temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. Concerning voltages, it listed CPU Vcore (with voltages details) and Battery Voltage = 3.36V. Is Battery voltage referring to the CMOS battery?

[Midknyte]

Check the motherboard for bad capacitors..

Checking for bad capacitors is the easiest.
http://www.badcaps.net/

Looks like the battery voltage is ok.

You don't need to record the HD labels, but you should remember which drive is set to master/slave etc.

[Train]

Not really.

Change out the cmos battery and make sure the contacts are clean.

[advan]

Midknyte, you say the capacitors are the easiest to check. Using the website you referred.. granted their testing tips page is down, am I missing something? The pages were about kits and how to repair. It seems diagnosing if it's the capacitor is vague being a case of "most likely" based on the system and physical signs he listed. So if replacing the battery doesn't work, it's the power, and if that still doesn't work, it the capacitor, right?

Train, how high should the voltage be to consider the battery good?

[Train]

3.0V DC
Had 2.8 not work.

Look at the ones on the right, they are click able.
http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5

[advan]

Sorry for the long gap in reply. Life emergencies got in the way.

Going back to the PC-- I reformatted it and re-installed everything to fix the very slow boot up time, so now things are pretty clean. Midknyte, I've a concern though. Trend micro detected trojans in the system folder, which puzzled me since everything's newly installed, including Paragon. And when I scanned the back up data (made via paragon) in the portable drive, it also had the same trojans infecting different .exe files in the restore folder. Trojan is: Worm_small.hyn. Is that something I have to be concerned of and delete? Thanks!