HD failure

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

My system froze. I was surfing, had a flurry of browser windows open nothing exciting. E-bay, The Creek, and another social networking site.

The mouse wasn't working, CTL ALT DEL wouldn't get me the Task Manager. The box was locked.

I walked away for a spell and when I returned it was still all locked up
So I shut it down the ugly way by killing the power.

On reboot it all seemed OK till I went looking for my data drive. I have a two HD system where I keep all my OS and programs on one disk and all my data etc on a second. The second my D drive is recognized by the windows file manager (explorer) but when I try to access it I get an error that says it's not formatted and would I like to format it.

So I loaded knoppix and tried that way. I figured if I got some ugly super sleuthy spike that Norton and PC doctor didn't catch that maybe Knoppix will be able to let me look at the drive. Knoppix recognized that a drive was there but, returned the error that it couldn't mount the drive.

I'm wondering if just maybe (on the far off chance) it is not the NSA the CIA the KGB and the Illumminatti all ganging up on me with the Space Aliens and spiking my D drive. Maybe the thing really died all of its own. There is a remote possibility.

I may take it out and pop it in the freezer for a few hours to give it one last try.

So here's is my thing.
That's where ALL my data is.
Would something like Tiramisue access the drive when nothing else can?
What to do?
80 Gigs. I don't run a spooling loup tape back up.

[Lee Schierer]

I have no idea of the cost or where to tell you to look, but there are places that can disassemble your drive and put the disks in a working mechanism and recover the data.

[Jim O'Dell]

When LOML business computer's HD died a year or so ago, I looked in to that. There are lots of companies, but none of them cheap! I got a new drive and popped in, then got a USB enclosure for the old drive. Only the "C" drive was none readable for some reason. I was able to down load most of her saved information from "D" (programs) and "E" (information). She did get a guy out that got everything back up and running. 50 or 60 an hour, and he was here for 2 1/2 or 3 hours. LOML said it was the best money she'd spent and would do it again. He was able to get things done in that time that would have taken me weeks to do.
I now use her old drive to back up mine once a month, and it seems after formatting it, that all of it works. Maybe she got a virus that created the problem, don't know. Sounds more likely given that it seems to work now.
And I bet the new DVD RW drive isn't backing up her info either.:eek: :D One day she's going to be crying again. Jim.

[Don Abele]

Cliff, freezing really is a last ditch, single try solution. It's supposed to contract stuck bearings one last time for a final read. Generally I've used that last try to do a data recovery. I've used many programs but one that I really like is DDRescue (http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html). If all else fails and you have to have the data, find a recovery company. They will disassemble your drive and remove the platters then reinstall them into an identical drive for recovery. If you have a drive with only a single platter this is fairly easy, but with multiple platters, you have to keep them aligned correctly and the tool to do that is several hundred dollars.

Also, it's a little odd that your computer OS locked for an error on a secondary data drive. I've heard of it happening, just not very often and not the way you described.

Please let us know how it turns out.

Be well,

Doc

[Andy Bardowell]

Could also be the HD controller on the system board, before you do anything drastic I'd install it in another computer to see if you can see the data. If a second computer can't see it then then try the crazy stuff.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

DDRescue (http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/ddrescue.html).

If DOS, XP, and Knoppix all can't access the data this might?

As an aside the BIOS can't see the drive at all.


multiple platters, you have to keep them aligned correctly and the tool to do that is several hundred dollars.

The single best argument for backing up.



Also, it's a little odd that your computer OS locked for an error on a secondary data drive. I've heard of it happening, just not very often and not the way you described.

It reminded me of a defective cable bringing power to then stopping it and then starting it again. Just not so much as if the disk was unplugged. Just enough to lock the box.

[Curt Harms]

Put the drive jumpered as a slave (assuming it has jumpers) with a different cables. A friend had a problem like yours, the problem turned out to be an intermittent data cable. She could restore an image of the drive and it would work fine, sure acted like a software problem but nope.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Curt said:

Put the drive jumpered as a slave (assuming it has jumpers) with a different cables.

I tried a new ribbon cable this morning no diff.




Could also be the HD controller on the system board, before you do anything drastic I'd install it in another computer to see if you can see the data. If a second computer can't see it then then try the crazy stuff.

I think I'll try hooking it to a the other ribbon plug and boot from a Dos boot disk or knoppix and see if the thing reads the disk. If that happens I have a bad controlled on the Main Board. A much cheaper fix than paying nearly a grand to have the disk imaged.

[Cary Falk]

This is just an off the wall thought, but if you are running XP did you try a system restore? Maybe you got a virus that caused a glitch in the system. It would be a quick check.

[Chuck Wintle]

Is the drive totally dead in the sense the disk no longer spins up? If the disk is still spinning you could try buying another drive that is identical and swap the electronics into the dead drive and see if that works.

[Don Abele]

Cliff, got your e-mail.

The site to download it from is here (http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ddrescue/) - you want the first file. Yes, this is a linux based program so you have to have some knowledge (but you said you ran Koppix, so I think you do) in running them.

The syntax for running the program is here (http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Ddrescue).

However, I missed the part about it not mounting in Koppix and now the comment about the BIOS not recognizing it. Sounds like a dead disk.

As was just asked - is the drive spinning up at all?

Also - I would absolutely recommend you trying this drive in another system. I've never heard of a bad drive frying a system, so no worries there. However, I would remove all other drives to prevent any damage to them if this turns out to be a virus.

Be well,

Doc