Question about new SATA drive

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Personally, I'd go about it a bit differently if I had to replace the drive. It's nice that there are options.

- Attach new drive to PC using a SATA to USB adapter.
- Boot on bootable LINUX CD
- Format new drive
- Copy the entire existing drive to the new drive using dd command.

 

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Systems near the wall seem to accumulate more dust. My later Dell is on the floor but in the middle of room. That location also lends itself to more frequent cleaning, by simply opening the case and blowing out. I do this with hose of vacuum nearby. Keep a distance to minimize possibility of static.

Every couple of years I take my desktop machines (which sit on the floor) outside, take the cover off, and hit it with the leaf blower. Looks brand-new again!

Been running smoothly for a couple of days. Amazing that reseating a couple of memory cards could make such a difference - or an equally amazing coincidence that the PC just happened to start working again at that particular time. Does anybody recommend using something like wd40 to get a good connection on the cards?

Radio Shack (remember them), used to sell something called "TV Tuner Cleaner" (now called "control contact cleaner"), that I used for this kind of thing. I wouldn't use WD40...too thick. This other stuff seems to just evaporate (mostly).https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1490/5112/products/06400148_00_2048x2048_crop_center.progressive.jpg

Try spinrite (by GRC) to rescue failing HDD. Works like a champ on dead and near-dead drives.

I'll second the motion on this suggestion if it was the drive after all. You can use it as preventive maintenance too, since it reads every byte on the drive, the SMART system on the drive, sensing weak sectors, will move your data into other places and mark the weak sectors as not to be used. Outwardly "nothing happened", but it increases reliability.