Help With Dead HD

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:14 pm

My girlfriend's comuter crashed the other day. While Windows was running it gave a blue screen error (she didnt know the message) and the computer restarted. Now it stops during boot and gives a disk read error message. I connected her HD to my computer via USB and cannot get my computer to recognize it. It says "new device found" but will not give it a drive letter. While it is connected, my computer runs extremely slow for what it is worth.

At this point, I am most interested in recovering a few of her files. Is there any way to do this?

Sorry I dont have more info to give at this time, but from what little I have said, does the drive sound completely dead or did something just become corrupted and a format might fix it?

Thanks

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Sun May 23, 2004 4:55 pm

Here's a few more details:

The exact error message was "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"
The computer is a Sony Vaio Laptop 900mhz running XP pro
I recently installed an IBM Travelstar 4200rpm drive to replace the 10gb drive it came with. The travelstar was in my computer for about 1 year with no problems. It had been working fine in her computer for 2 months before this crash.

Is it possible that somehow this is the result of power problems? Perhaps her computer's board was not designed to handle this drive?

Also, she had been having problems with the gaboot virus. I thought I had it removed, though it came back 3 separate times over the last month.

A_old · Post by **A_old** » Mon May 24, 2004 10:45 am

doubtful. it probably just died. you should scan the drive surface and buy a new one if defective. i'm pretty sure it is.

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:02 pm

if i cannot get my computer to recognize the presence of the drive, how do i go about scanning it?

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:33 pm

put drive in freezer for a half hour, quickly hook up to another machine, if it sees it get you files off quick

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:38 pm

One option is to use this laptop IDE drive adapter to connect the as a slave in a desktop PC. If the bios detects it you may be able to salvage something. If it doesn't show up in BIOS I would say it's now a paper weight.

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:40 pm

are you serious about that freezer thing?

how is connecting it as a second IDE drive different than what I have connecting it as an eternal USB?

Chris · Post by **Chris** » Mon May 24, 2004 12:47 pm

hjm357 wrote:are you serious about that freezer thing?

how is connecting it as a second IDE drive different than what I have connecting it as an eternal USB?

Freezer = yup
secondary IDE = hardware vs USB = Software
Hardware solution is always better then a software solution

mccoffee · Post by **mccoffee** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:17 pm

another trick is when the computer starts up tap the drive with a hammer and see if startups or end of stapler

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Mon May 24, 2004 1:39 pm

hjm357 wrote:are you serious about that freezer thing?
?

Yes...except leave it in the freezer for at least several hours. If it's a failure that's related to bearings...freezing them can sometimes shrink them enough to unfreeze them, and allow you to quickly snag data from it before it heats up and locks again. I've had it work for me several times. Yes when you remove it from the freezer and slave it to another computer....it'll start building up condensation and getting wet...but so what...it's a goner anyways, you only need it to work for a few minutes to browse it and snag that data you need.

But leave it in the freezer for at least several hours...you need that cold to get into the center of the drive.

While we're on the subject of kitchen appliances and computer hardware, how many have heard of putting "dead" floppy drives through your dishwasher...then in the oven on warm for an hour or two? I've read there's a high success rate in getting them to work fine again.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Mon May 24, 2004 2:45 pm

I could be wrong but aren't you supposed to put the drive in a ziplock bag before putting it in the freezer?

YeOldeStonecat, yes I have also heard about the floppy in the dishwasher, never tried it though.I read somewhere where a computer shop filled there dishwasher old drives and then gave them away for free after. I would think it would be hard to know how many did or didn't work. Who's going to complain about a free floppy disk not working.

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:46 am

I have the HD in a desktop, and can get the computer to recognize that the drive is connected (it reconizes it in device manager) but cannot get it to assign it a drive letter or have it reconized in "disk management" under administrative tools.

Are there any steps I can take now short of the freezing it? I'd like to try this last, since I assume it will destroy the drive whether it works or not.

I was also able to use the system recovery console off the WinXP setup disk. It fixed the boot sectors and master boot records, although there were errors and this has had no effect on the ability of the disk to boot.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:35 am

It sounds like the disk is damaged if it still has errors after trying to repair it.
After you have recovered what you can I would try doing a low level format on the drive. If you get bad sectors then you know for sure the drive is damaged. If it formates OK then it's possible it was only corrupted data.

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:13 am

if i do a format, what are the chances of recovering some of my data? what is a good program to do something like that?

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:13 am

Saw this today in a PCStats news letter. Diagnosing bad hard drives

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:16 am

hjm357 wrote:if i do a format, what are the chances of recovering some of my data? what is a good program to do something like that?

WOW, if you format you will loos all your data.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:24 am

I am not really up to speed on data recovery software. There are lots of programs, and as far as I know non of them are free. I have getdataback, runtime software and easy recovery pro, Ontrack. So far I have never had to use them so I don't know how good or bad they are. There should be lots of people in the know here at Speedguide that can tell you what works and what doesn't. You could even try doing a site search for datarecovery.

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:17 am

I've used GetDataBack a couple of times and it recovered everything. Your mileage my vary, though.

hjm357 · Post by **hjm357** » Tue May 25, 2004 12:20 pm

would that work since in this case? every data recovery program i have found thus far only works if the hard disk is assigned a drive letter.

The Dude · Post by **The Dude** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:20 pm

If you can't assign it a drive letter then I think you are sol. I would try one more time and make sure you do the correct steps in the correct order. Now I'm not saying you don't know how to do it, I'm just suggesting you make sure disk management can't recognize it before you toss the drive. Sometimes windows can be a real pain if you don't do things in a specific way.