crashed hard disk

[wwhong]

Hi all,

my hard disk just crashed before i realized it 2 days ago and i m just wondering is there anyone knows how to recover the data or save the hard disk? appreciate your help .

[royston]

wwhong, may I know what type of file system you are using? Is it FAT32 or NTFS (or even FAT16) ??

~ roy ~

did you do any partitioning? coz if you did, then some can be saved. 8O

[luke]

how bad is the situation? do you hear weird metalscratching sound or is it just that you can't access the files on your hdd like "disk not formatted" error? if it's not a physical fault then there are chances your data could be saved ... else you'll have to accept the fact that the God love your hdd and lifted it to the heaven ...

[littlebigone]

What makes you think that your HD has crashed? If it;s noise and stuff then good luck :(
But if it;s coz you can't access files, then I think first thing I would do is check the cables. Next I would test the disk on someone elses computer.

Then I;m not too sure. I think we need more feedback to know exactly what's going on

[wwhong]

Thanks for the reply guys.

royston,

I am using NTFS.

no i din do any partitioning. when i on the com, it just said 'operating system not found" i actually ran a drive fitness test and my hard disk is not detected at all. only my dvd rom is detected. and yes, there's tickling sound when i start the com. all these lead me to think that my hard disk has gone. i haven't test it on other's com yet but i think will be the same thing (i will try it later anyway, who knows there might be something wrong with other parts). actually, my hard disk is 2+ year old and i thought i should be able to use it for a while more before backing up my data but this happened b4 i can do anything and this proves how important to back up your data frequently. i strongly suggest you guys to back up your data or else the same thing might happen to u one day (take this seriously)

now i m just hoping to get back some data from it. any of u guys happen to come through this before and know any way to save it? i heard from my friend here that putting it inside the freezer for 20 minutes and take it out to plug it in with the new hard disk will have 20% chance of recovering back some data. it sounds weird to me but i m not a computer/electrical engineer or computer geek so i dun really know how true it is. i know many of u guys here are electrical/computer engineer, so maybe i can get some feedback on this?

talking about hard disk, which hard disk do you guys think is good and reliable based on your own experience? i m thinking of buying a hard disk now but dunno which one to choose from between seagate and western digital. any suggestion?i think seagate and western digital are better than others but as always, there're things that I don't know and i really appreciate if u could tell me if there's any better one.
and anyone happen to know any nice website to buy other than newegg and ebay?

sorry for the bunch of questions but i just dun want this shit to happen on me again.

[royston]

hey wwhong...

send my condolence to your computer... hahahha !!! :lol:

regarding the freezer trick... hah!! i don't even know that. But if you are using NTFS, it is totally different with FAT32, even if you put a system disk (FAT16) into the drive A and try to boot it up, you may only see an image file.

first of all, you may try to access your BIOS, try to use the feature to detect your HDD, I am sure that the HDD in Primary Master is not there. So you have to use the HDD Detect to find it out. IF your BIOS can find it, thank god, try to boot up again and see if it able to boot up. ELSE, you got to buy a new hard disk and redo every single thing such as format, install and so and so...

If your BIOS able to find the HDD and you are still not able to boot your computer up, try to get a system disk (NTFS) to boot. Only NTFS system disk able to see the hard disk, sort-of like decode the image file. This is part of the marvelous job in terms of security by Microsoft.

And for Hard disk, my personal experience, DON'T BUY MAXTOR... it SUCKS !!!! I used Maxtor and it crashed (unrecoverable) when I half way rush up my report!!! Meanwhile, my father's computer having the same problem, crashed... also MAXTOR and his friend also a victim of MAXTOR.

The best is WD (Western Digital), the price is about RM10-15 difference from MAXTOR. As I know, Seagate and Quantum has been joint venture with MAXTOR and who knows the sucking technology from MAXTOR has been infected to both of those brands...

~ roy ~

[littlebigone]

so wwhong, what happened? did you get it fixed? I am really interested to know what happened.

[wwhong]

i haven't done anything to it yet as i m quite busy this week. as of now, i think the sole problem is just the hard disk. i thought maybe my com was infected by some kind of virus but never heard of any virus that did this. if u happened to heard about virus that do this, let me know then. i think i m gonna send it to my school computer service and see if they can help recover my data. i heard to do this is kinda expensive. does anyone know how much does this cost?

littlebigone, thanks for concerning. will let u guys know when i get it fixed.

[masterof_none]

wwhong, I've got a friend who has the same problem like you.
he asked me to fix it, well, I learn it from Bachok, since I know very little about PC. (I use the 'other' platform )

Anyway, what's your OS?... Windows XP or ME or 98?

First, to recover data, you need a boot up disk.
If you use ME, you can boot your OS and run some command from there.

Last time, this guy that we helped has master and slave drive.
what we did were we transfer all his data from command line.

you can use command sth like this :
(assume your master that's corrupted is C and slave is D)

copy C:\Folder\stuff.txt D:

and it would copy from C to D.

to copy entire thing, use wildcard:

copy C:\Folder\* D:

you may want to consult DOS manual for this.
(my syntax might be wrong though..but I hope you got the idea).

But if u use XP, Bachok knows better.(he's currently having workload)
But I'm sure he can help u (c'mon Bachok! )

I suspect u've got the virus. Have u updated the patches frequently ?
If not, I suspect it was a virus.





8) 8)

[royston]

Well Syam, it might/might-not be a virus.

I came across an experience. My dad installed an application which will allow chinese charater processing called Chinese Star. That time he had little knowledge about computer. So when he wanted to uninstall it, he simply deleted away the application folder. That has caused his computer totally unable to boot up. Everything has to re-install again... :cry: And who did that job? Me... of course... haha!

I am not saying that wwhong used this software but a certain software will install some ciritcal values in our registry... which will cause fail-to-boot symptom if we simply delete it without proper uninstall.

If kena virus, I guess wwhong will know it better as there may be some minor symptoms... I guess...

Anyway, we still do not know what type of OS he is using...

wwhong, please let us know in detail, you might not need to do it right now, but at least we will have some discussion and you may keep the info/step-by-step on how to do it... :)

~ roy ~

[littlebigone]

I;m thinking that if it;s a software problem, all you may need to do is fixmbr.

[wwhong]

thank you so much guys. really apprecate your help.

well, i m using windows xp. before the crash happened, i installed a new video card and a new sound card to it. after that, there's some shut down happened automatically . it's like it just shut down itself while i m using the com. but it's working again after a short while and so i just thought maybe because of the new hardware installed, the driver screwed up somehow. i was thinking of installing the driver again and check if i forgot to install any of the old driver but never got to do so. maybe it's the warning from the hard disk that it's about to crash but i just didn't take it seriously. before the crash, i left the computer hibernate with excel and msn messenger running.

regret to say that i haven't been updating my patch recently.

[royston]

Installing new hardware will potentially caused the computer not able to boot up, this is normal. You may try to unplug both video and sound card, put back the original one and boot up again.

I have tried to install new RAM when I started to learn up computer troubleshooting skills. Sometimes the bad contact will cause the computer gone hey wire. Try to make sure that the contact is firm and tight when you install new hardware.

Meanwhile, are you sure that the driver is XP version? I believe nothing wrong with your hard disk, just reinstall both software and hardware will do, I mean... properly installed.

~ roy ~

[wwhong]

hey guys, it's been a long time.

ok, i already bought my hard disk and install it inside my pc but not yet install the operating system yet cos i dun have the disc with me now. anyway, about the freezer trick i told u guys last time, if u r interested go to the link below.

http://lstech.org/resource_lib/hardware/desktops/200waysfixHD.html

now the problem is, i dunno how long should i put it inside the freezer. some said 1 hour, some said 20 minutes, some said overnite. but from what i read, i will only have ONE chance to do that. so just wondering what do u guys think about this, i really have no idea how long i should put in. appreciate if you can ask your frens who have experience in doing this and then please kindly let me know. or based on your technical knowledge (ee, ce or watever), how long do u recommend?

please help, i appreciate that. thanks first.

[littlebigone]

i think the freezer trick only works with drives that are not spinning. Are you sure that's the case with yours?

And also, I've been reading taht you could actually do it a couple of times (maybe up to 6, but this is definitely not a full time solution) . I think the idea is that the cool temperature shrinks the metal parts enough that it allows the drive to spin for awhile till it heats up again.

I would try 2 hours. Remember to put it in an air tight zip lock bag. I think this is to keep out the condensation though it doesn't the whole thing doesn't make much sense anyway. :) Oh, and start by transfering hte most important data.

Er...what else...pray as you wait your two hours!!!

:)

Good luck

[royston]

wwhong, give up the freezer thingy... Read this link:

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

try to make an NTFS boot disk, put in your "old" hard disk as primary master, then change your BIOS in order to boot from floppy (by default the sequence is Floppy - HDD), this is to enable your computer to look for boot loader from floppy FIRST before come to your hard disk.

Make sure your NTFS boot disk is already inside the drive, then reboot your computer. Let the NTFS boot disk brings you in. After completed boot up, try to access C drive by typing ( c: ) ENTER. Now you will be able to see your data.

Hope this help.

~ roy ~

[wwhong]

just out of curiosity and i hope u guys dun find it troublesome. wondering why littlebigone will recommend 2 hours and why royston think this won't work.

I only said try it if you think it's a hardware problem, specifically if the disk is not spinning. That's the only reason taht they recommend doing the freezer trick.

I think royston and thirdshifter are recommending solutions if you've messed up your disk logically somehow. At least I think it is, as I don't see how using software can solve a hardware problem.

I remember you posting taht your disk makes a funny clicking noise when it runs. So that's y I suspect it's a hardware problem. :)

Anyway, we really can't help you that much as you have to diagnose the problem and apply the correct solution.

Good Luck

[Thirdshifter]

If your HD is plugged in, and can boot up to window but your missing one harddrive. Try this.

On the desktop, righ click my computers and select Manage (wait a few seconds and it will pop-up).

Go under Storage>Disk Management. Window would try to find all drives.

Sometimes Window would hide (put it in shades) drives that have problems.

You could easily right click that letter and Mark as Active.

[royston]

wow ... cool 3rd, i don't even know this shit!! Thanks for your extra knowlege =)

But I believe wwhong's computer has only 1 hard disk, which is the boot up HDD as well. Since he can't boot it up, how can he access to the Disk Management? I doubt it...

Anyway, do you think my previous suggestion workable?

~ roy ~

[screw3d]

Check out this (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=1001551&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=arc) link for more information on the freezer trick (if you still need it).

When you are done with the drive, just RMA the drive to Maxtor.. they are good with their RMA policies. Just make sure that you package the drive properly.

I don't agree that all Maxtor drives are crap though. Every manufacturer has its fair share of lemons and Maxtor seem to have more simply because they are selling so many drives.

If there is a drive manufacturer that can be considered crappy, it's IBM with their line of "Deathstar" drives. I think IBM's HD division has been bought over/acquired by Hitachi.

Oh I'm using a Western Digital BTW :P

[wwhong]

i just tried the freezer trick and it didn't work :x

i think my hard disk had completely gone since what i heard was just some metal scrapping sound and it can't be detected also after i plug it in.

actually, i put my pc near the heater and beside my sub-woofer. so most likely the heat and vibration spoiled it. now i put my pc on my table though.

oh yeah my hard drive was a maxtor as well.

thanks for your help anyway, appreciate that.

[screw3d]

i just tried the freezer trick and it didn't work :x

i think my hard disk had completely gone since what i heard was just some metal scrapping sound and it can't be detected also after i plug it in.

actually, i put my pc near the heater and beside my sub-woofer. so most likely the heat and vibration spoiled it. now i put my pc on my table though.

oh yeah my hard drive was a maxtor as well.

thanks for your help anyway, appreciate that.
Sounds like your drive is totally gone.. although heat can damage drives, I don't think this is the case since you mentioned scraping sounds which indicate mechanical failure - something that Maxtor should take care for you since its a defect (if your drive is still under warranty).

But vibration from a subwoofer.. naahhh.. I don't think this is likely at all. But if you put your PC next to a heater, you might encounter more problems later than just HDD failure.. put it as far away as possible from any heat source!

[royston]

i just tried the freezer trick and it didn't work :x

i think my hard disk had completely gone since what i heard was just some metal scrapping sound and it can't be detected also after i plug it in.

actually, i put my pc near the heater and beside my sub-woofer. so most likely the heat and vibration spoiled it. now i put my pc on my table though.

oh yeah my hard drive was a maxtor as well.

thanks for your help anyway, appreciate that.

Putting your computer near to heater/sub-woofer... I believe sub-woofer may potentially cause problems to your computer, not only your hard disk, due to minor EMF. For heater, in fact if you ON your computer for more than 2-3 days, your computer will be heated up as well, it has ventilation but inside still hot. Further more you are putting it near to your heater only, the metal case of your computer will help to release the heat.

For Maxtor, I do not know their technology but I strongly believe it must be good, else it will not exist in the market. My experiences told me, same case like you wwhong. Anyhow, technology and reliability are two different things. :roll:

~ roy ~

[luke]

royston is right in the EMF thingy ... hard disk is perhaps the most sensitive device in a PC so some disturbance might cause it to fail ... raizz my roommate used to have his laptop crashing all the time but then he realized that the cause of the crashes is because he always put his handphone on his external hard drive ... removing the handphone resolved the problem, the hard disk stopped crashing ... luckily no data is lost ... :)

[royston]

No doubt hard disk the one of the most sensitive parts in a computer but don't forget that components like bus controller, microP, RAM, BIOS and etc will be affected by EMF too. Considered if you are lucky, your hard disk sacrificed, else, you will have to change a new computer if any components damaged by strong EMF.

Try to stick back to this topic, if you know that a lot of important infomation stored in your hard disk, try to purchase a CD writter. Basically you just need to spend few minutes (or 1 hour) to backup your data into CD. Nowadays, blank CDRs are quite cheap. In Penang, I can get it as low as RM0.65 each but sold in 100 pcs per pack. So it is about RM65 only. Such a low price to protect your data, I guess it is worthwhile.

~ roy ~