GX280, repair or replace HDD?

XP is well past end of life end of support.

Reinstall is not going to be supported. Recommended upgrade Path would be Optiplex GX620 Mini Tower.

The reason is that you can update a GX620 tower to 7 or 8 or 10 if you have at least a Pentium D 915 processor.

This system is about the same cost as windows alone.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6AB2CR9010

https://www.walmart.com/ip/REFURBISHED-Optiplex-GX620-Tower-80GB-HDD-4GB-Ram-DVD-Rom-Windows-XP-Professional/504289159

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@chuckcobra wrote:

Recently had the Blue Screen Of Death occur on a GX280 running Windows XP-Pro service pack 3. (We need to run XP because of several legacy programs.)

Several years ago we upgraded the original GX280's HD to a new Seagate 500TB  SATA drive for more storage. We have routinely backed up the contents of the new Seagate drive just in case.

When the BSOD recently occurred, we tried to use the original Dell re-installation CD to do a repair (rather than a complete clean install). The repair install was very slow (over 2 hours) and did not work. On the reboot the BSOD appeared again.

As an initial diagnosis, we temporarily reinstalled the original original GX280 HD and everything worked perfectly. Therefore, I am assuming the problem is with the Seagate drive or its installed operating system.

I can also boot to the Seagate drive in Safe mode.

Any suggestions on a method of diagnosis or how to repair / reinstall the operating system on the Seagate drive?

If a new drive is the best / easiest solution, what would be the easiest method to copy the data from the Seagate drive to the new drive? 

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If you insist on continuing to use XP:

1. Create an image of the original hard drive to an external USB hard drive using something like Macrium Reflect Free, Acronis True Image, etc.

2. Remove the original hard drive.

3. Buy a brand new hard drive, and install it into your PC.

4. Image the new hard drive with the image file from the external USB hard drive.

5. Attach the Seagate hard drive using a SATA-to-USB adapter. Copy files to the new hard drive.

If you want to do a clean installation of XP, you should be able to find Dell Windows XP SP3 CDs being sold on eBay. 

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