cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Any body have any good software to check if your Drive is taking a crap....I think mine is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Heres a decent one for general things. http://majorgeeks.com/HD_Tune_d4130.html If you know the specs of the original drive then you can compare the reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Heres whats happening, i have two WD 320G HDDs. One is a boot drive and the other is a data drive. I also have another WD 500G Hdd that is also for data. All drives are SATA. When my 500G is plugged in, XP will not boot, it goes through BIOS then it hangs on start up after that. It will not even go to Windows, it just blinks a little white dot. I tried trying to boot from a install XP CD and it goes through loading everything and the when it states starting windows i get a Blue screen. At the bare minimum, I need to recovery the data some how.....Help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Does the 500GB drive power up or even spin? Found this interesting tid bit on the net. Don't open the hard drive up. Just hold the case of it and twist your wrist real quick. Other than power supply problems, stiction (static friction) is the usual cause of a hard drive's failure to spin. The drive heads become stuck to the platter and the motor can't overcome the sticking force. To fix this problem, the platters must be rotated with enough force to free the heads. Twisting the drive violently in the same horizonal plane as the heads will usually free them. The inertia of the heavy platters tends to keep them from moving while the heads are moved around them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 OK i will try this and more info though.. It does spin and it feels like ...if you hold it loosely in your hand it seems to turn or twist ever so slightly. you cant see it but only fell it. Maybe when the motor actually starts or stops spinning Thanks Edit tried this in another PC and same thing happens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 I have'nt played around much with Sata drives, but you could read up on 'hot swap' for the hard drive. I know my kids Vista box has the 'safe to remove hardware' icon on the task bar. So the theory is to boot the system and then plug in the problem hard drive....But An issue if the drive does not power up and spin though... And then hope Windows recognizes it and you don't have any data loss from hot swapping the data/power cables. Lots of Information on Google. Maybe leave the power cable on the drive and then plug the SATA cable in after boot? You'd have to Google for that, to be sure drive won't go crazy without the SATA cable on. There is also this, to run a bootable CD that uses Linux to fix stuff without booting in to windows. Be very careful with it, as you can cause damage if done improperly. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=85811&package_id=88964 It is a 235MB ISO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Thanks for all the help... Call WD and i am going to RMA it but still the DATA I have tried the hotswapping thing and it will not do it on this drive Thanks again still going to try some other things still. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Ok the CD that Zal gave me booted but now i um ... have no idea what to do with it... Never mind i did it going and still the HDD is not present in Linux too. Damn. 500 Gigs Gone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Ok the CD that Zal gave me booted but now i um ... have no idea what to do with it... Never mind i did it going and still the HDD is not present in Linux too. Damn. 500 Gigs Gone Any Western Digital warranty left on it? Seagate with their faulty firmware on some drives was helping to get back the customers data, via a data recovery program for certain serial numbers. Since the drives ended up bricking themselves after a few months. Luckily I never got any of those bad ones around that time, since I bought 4 of them of various sizes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 18, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Yes warranty left till 2011 but they didn't say anything about data recovery.... Just to check the prices out the Geek Squad want 59 to look at it and 259 starting price wow.... Edit i was able to get that linux cd going and used the GUI and nothing seen both other drives but not this one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 18, 2009 CID Share Posted May 18, 2009 Interesting article. But doing this will void your warranty and it depends on how easy it is to find another 'exact' drive for real cheap to try this alternate method out. http://ezinearticles.com/?One-Method-of-Data-Recovery-from-a-Dead-Hard-Drive&id=84559 Luckily for us the drive won't spin up at all. I say luckily because the usual problem is that the circuit board on the bottom of the drive went bad. That doesn't mean that something else isn't the problem, but replacing the circuit board is the simplest thing to try. The first thing needed is another hard drive. That may sound easy but it isn't. You need an identical hard drive, and by identical I mean the same model number, part number, firmware, everything. Some more articles. http://www.google.com/webhp#hl=en&q=hard+drive+change+circuit+board&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=hard+drive+change+circuit+board&fp=Li-R6mbKWrc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 But my drive still spins and i can feel the heads move .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 I don't mean to bud in, and I might not fully understand the situation, but from what I gather, the HDD spins, but you find nothing on the disk, but that could mean that the directory fubared, sometimes, you can clone the drive, "acronis" and from the new drive, use fixmbr, and it has been known to reset the file structure to readable. But like I said, I might not have fully read the thread enough o know if this is even the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 I don't mean to bud in, and I might not fully understand the situation, but from what I gather, the HDD spins, but you find nothing on the disk, but that could mean that the directory fubared, sometimes, you can clone the drive, "acronis" and from the new drive, use fixmbr, and it has been known to reset the file structure to readable. But like I said, I might not have fully read the thread enough o know if this is even the problem. But would a lost directory cause the machine to not boot, when the drive is connected? Since you can plug a new non-formatted drive in to a system and not cause a boot failure. I'm not sure if he means "it spins when in the system during the boot failure" and not "just spins while being rotated lightly in a hand". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 But would a lost directory cause the machine to not boot, when the drive is connected? As far as I know yes, because from the way I understand it, the master Boot record flashed on the drive itself, so if it points to a specific sector on the HDD that isn't there, then the process stops right there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalternate Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 As far as I know yes, because from the way I understand it, the master Boot record flashed on the drive itself, so if it points to a specific sector on the HDD that isn't there, then the process stops right there. But his is a third data drive and not the master drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 I would place the drive in an external usb/ firewire whatever, enclosure, and see if you can access anything that way. If it spins, the data can be retrieved in one way or another. Unless it's totally corrupted, and or it's suffered G forces over whatever it says it can take, and the platter's been scratched by the pickups( or whatever there called ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 Correct I have one WD 320G HDD that has my OS. I have a second WD 320G HDD that is just used for space. I have a third WD 500G HDD also used for space. Now when the 500G HDD is plugged in the SATA cable, the machine freezes during start up. I get a blinking white box or cursor in theupper left hand corner.If left to set long enough it will say something like no MBR or boot partion or something. The BIOS settings are correct for the way i need to boot. The only way i have been able to boot the machine is with the disc Zal linked. And when it does it does not even appear in there too. I have tried cable plugs everything that i can think of. Even with windows XP Install CD in it freezes at the very end everytime. Now when i say it spins, I can physically feel the rotational force the platters creat in the drive and it seems i can hear the heads moving back and forth. I even feel when it stops spinning. BIOS doesn't see it. Dont know what to do now.., Have an RMA but will try ANYTHING to get the data or at least what is on there to start to replace ... And Mud this is NOT the Machine dual booting OS X, that's the wife's box. Tried hot swapping in another Shuttle box and it will not show up there, but if i do the same with another working seagate, it appears like it should Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 Correct I have one WD 320G HDD that has my OS. I have a second WD 320G HDD that is just used for space. I have a third WD 500G HDD also used for space. Now when the 500G HDD is plugged in the SATA cable, the machine freezes during start up. I get a blinking white box or cursor in theupper left hand corner.If left to set long enough it will say something like no MBR or boot partion or something. The BIOS settings are correct for the way i need to boot. The only way i have been able to boot the machine is with the disc Zal linked. And when it does it does not even appear in there too. I have tried cable plugs everything that i can think of. Even with windows XP Install CD in it freezes at the very end everytime. Now when i say it spins, I can physically feel the rotational force the platters creat in the drive and it seems i can hear the heads moving back and forth. I even feel when it stops spinning. BIOS doesn't see it. Dont know what to do now.., Have an RMA but will try ANYTHING to get the data or at least what is on there to start to replace ... And Mud this is NOT the Machine dual booting OS X, that's the wife's box. I would download Acronis and clone the drive , I did this once not too long ago, and it worked. I understand the drive is just full of data you need , but it's worth the try, I think you will be able to clone the drive, then fix the MBR, and collect your data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 What do i clone if i cant see the drive in windows Dont know what to tell Acronis to clone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 What do i clone if i cant see the drive in windows Dont know what to tell Acronis to clone I can't remember how I did it, the drive wouldn't boot, but I had a new drive in an external enclosure, and acronis cloned the non bootable drive to the new drive. Man, wasn't that long ago either, guess hittin 40 things start to fall out, can't remember everything. Did you get the trial ? Maybe just read it , and see what it says, and I'll try to remember, this bites Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 Dont say that i just turned 30, I'm coming round the corner.. Any way i know what port the drive is plugged into so maybe i can just put to the drive and see and yes i have Acronis drive suite 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudmanc4 Posted May 19, 2009 CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 Dont say that i just turned 30, I'm coming round the corner.. Any way i know what port the drive is plugged into so maybe i can just put to the drive and see and yes i have Acronis drive suite 10 I thought all night about how I did it, and it's just not comming to me. If you've looked over the way acronis works, did you read wether or not it will mount on a cd, or does it run ( when in close drive mode, ) within an OS to do this. Anything like this would help me remember how. I know it took a while, and I remember seeing the progress on the screen,......you know what , I remember now, your not gonna like it, I was able to fix the MBR on the puked out drive, mount the OS, install acronis, then clone the drive to an external source. Try this, put the bad drive in, only that drive connected, now Im nt sure how you had the drive set up, ( is there an OS installed on it ) or was it simply formatted NTFS and used as straight data storage. Because there wont be a boot record if you did it this way. You should still be able to retrieve the data unless it's just fried. Man, I know that if you were able to connect the drive to a mac, that you could look around in there better then in a windows environment Finder is an amazing thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 Nope no OS on it, just formatted NTFS Will mess around with Acronis still though ... I'll let you know Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cordell383 Posted May 19, 2009 Author CID Share Posted May 19, 2009 I've tried even possible thing i can think of. Run every possible thing in Acronis and made a bootable cd from them and tried every thing in that too. Hate to say it but unless anyone else has any thing i might have to give up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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