[ale] OT: Migrating off dying HDD

[John Mills]

ALErs -

I have a problem repairing a friend's MsWin Dell 'Inspiron 2600' notebook.

The old HDD will only run a few minutes before it ceases to respond,
probably due to internal overheating. I get the same results when the HDD
is extended externally on a 'Simple Drive' PCMCIA adapter, so I really
think it's the HDD that is causing the problem, not general internal
overheating of the laptop.

No problem installing a new drive (now done, in fact), but I foresee a
long and painful migration of user data, even after a clean &8-) MsWin
reinstallation from CD.

The drive's current, usable half-life is far too little to transfer any 
great fraction of [say] the user's documents, etc. I get perhaps 300 MBy, 
then it clams up. Turn off, cool down, try again, and repeat ...

Questions:

 1. What directories should I copy first to migrate e-mail and web links
of importance?

 2. It would sure be nice to migrate the whole installation if 
I can find a suitable MS tool. Any recommendations?

 3. Other than a fan, any clever ideas to keep this #$%&!! working long
enough to dump a good fraction of its data? (I plan setting it on a
cold-block and see if that helps.)

I have MsWin and Linux both available as hosts, FWIW. I also have an
adapter to connect the 2.5" notebook HDD to a standard PC-format IDE
controller.

Thanks for any guidance.

 - John Mills
   john.m.mills at alum.mit.edu