Sorry about this but it appears your last post was accidentally deleted. I received a copy of your post in a notification email so I'll paste that here and then reply:

My Gateway computer HX2000 is a little over 10 years old. I know - a dinosaur - LOL

I could actually have someone put in a new Hard Drive loaded with WIN10? However, I am not sure at this time whether it would be better to fix the PC or to bite the bullet and get a brand new Desktop PC being they are really not that expensive.

After having someone put in a new hard drive it would probably cost me a few bucks that would be better off put towards a new PC.

Your thoughts and if I need a new Desktop and ideas on which one to purchase? I am not a power user and need a minimal PC used for Internet, Word and Excel etc...

Thanks for saving me a boatload of time trying to resolve this issue.

Have a good day and be safe!

Not quite a dinosaur but you've certainly had a good run out of it. It may not be necessary to replace the operating system with a new Windows 10. Provided the existing OS is healthy and malware free you could simply clone it over to a new hard drive or create a system image and then restore that image to a new hard drive. It would be imperative to first make sure the existing OS is 100% though.

You can buy a new 240GB SSD for under $50 so it would not be expensive to fix the old machine and you may get a few more years out of it: https://www.newegg.com/sandisk-ssd-plus-240gb/p/N82E16820173151

That said; only you can really judge if you'd be better off spending the money on the old machine or putting it toward a new one. Provided the old machine is okay in every other respect, I think it's probably worth fixing for that sort of money.

If you decide to go the new machine route, let me know and I can then make some recommendations.

Again, sincere apologies for the stuff up.

Cheers... Jim

First off, I'm a little confused because a search for 'Gateway HX2000' brings up results for a monitor not a type of computer.

It is not at all difficult to restore a previously created image to a new hard drive and then replace the old hard drive with the new one. Suggest you read through this article: https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-clone-to-new-ssd/

Please let me know the total amount of used space currently on the existing hard drive.

Cheers... Jim

All good. I just wanted to make sure the PC supports SATA, and it does.

If you cannot tell me the amount of used space, please let me know the size of the image you created using Aomei Backupper which is, I assume, saved on an external USB hard drive. It will be in a compressed format but I can work out the actual size from the size of the image.

What I am concerned about here is that the amount of space on the new SSD can easily accommodate all the data from the old drive, preferably with a fair amount of free space left over.

What error? Do you mean that, because of the 100% disk usage, it is nearly impossible to open anything or do anything, or is there another different error?

No worries. Wow, that is a very large image, I'm assuming it must include all your your personal data- pictures, documents, music, videos, etc. At Aomei Backupper's default compression that would equate to around 250-260GB of disk space when restored. Which means you would need to buy a 500GB SSD.

"An unexpected I/O error" is generally associated with the hard drive.

I realize it's difficult with the way the machine is at the moment but the numbers you are providing are not quite adding up. In an earlier post you guessed that the used space on the old drive was under 200GB, maybe around 175GB That does not equate to a 180GB image. If Aomei Bakupper's compression was set to default (which it is out of the box), and the used space was (say) 180GB, the resulting image should only be around 80GB.

Sorry, my bad. I misunderstood.

I already linked to a full guide on how to migrate to SDD: https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-clone-to-new-ssd/

The problem you have though is that the HDD is failing and will likely include bad sectors that are unrecoverable. If you clone or create an image under these circumstances, the clone and/or image would replicate the issues caused by those bad sectors.

As a preference, you'd be much better off installing the new drive and then performing a clean Windows 10 install. The existing license key will be accepted and the OS automatically activated because you are not making any major hardware changes, merely replacing the hard drive. You would lose all your installed programs of course, which is a bit of a pain, but starting off with nice clean new OS also has its benefits.

Only you can really decide if that machine is worth spending the money on or you'd be better off buying a new machine. If it were me though, I'd certainly give a new SSD a go. Even if it turns out that that you end up scrapping the machine anyway, you'll still have a nice new SSD.

So, there is no way I could install the SSD and then use my Eternal Drive info from Aomei Backupper to load the new SSD?

Yes, you can use that Aomei Backupper image to restore to a new SSD. Whether or not the restored operating system will be 100% error free is pure guesswork. It depends on when you created the image and how bad the failing drive was at that time. If, at the time when you created the image, everything was working properly, chances are it will be okay. You could always try it and if things aren't 100% then do a clean install.

If I could get back to the Aomei Backupper software I could do a Restore to the new SSD. Yes?

Yes, that's correct (see above). Did you create the Aomei Backupper bootable media?

Is the anyway I could do something in SafeMode?

You could try booting into Safe Mode but if the hard drive is failing it probably won't make any difference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Also, where would I get the WIN10 OS to install these days. Does that come at a cost?

You will need to download an ISO file to install Windows 10: https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php?lang=en-US

You must download the ISO for the same edition as is already installed - either Home or Pro - and the same architecture - either 64-bit or 32-bit. Most machines would be 64-bit.

You will then need to either burn that ISO file to DVD or create a bootable USB flash drive. You will need a working computer to do all that. The ISO file is free and, because you've had Windows 10 installed on that machine previously, it will automatically activate for free.

I was in the process of doing that when I had issues with the AOMEI software. Long story short - No. Will that be an issue?

Not necessarily an issue, more of an inconvenience.

I just found a CD WIN10 ISO file from 2016 taken from the current dead Desktop. Could I use that and if so is this what the process would look like?

I would not use that old ISO, far too old and you will spend hours, perhaps days, updating Windows 10 through the later versions. In fact, that ISO is so old, the Windows 10 version it contains may no longer be supported at all. Downloading a fresh ISO of the latest Windows 10 version would be a MUCH better option. Here is a portable software where you can download the latest ISOs - you will need access to a working machine: https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

1) Install the new 500GB SSD drive
2) Reboot the computer with the ISO CD in the drive where WIN10 would pick it up and install WIN10
3) At that point I could install the AOMEI Backupper software and do a restore using my External drive.

Yes, yes, and yes. All correct. You will need to do the restore using Aomei Backupper's bootable media. You cannot restore an image from within Windows to the same hard drive on which Windows is running.