Uhoh... Harddisk died and I've lost all my files.

Post by **glossy** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:16 am

Basically, yesterday afternoon my computer froze while loading a big website so after it not resolving itself (and CTRL+ALT+DEL not even having a response) I hard rebooted and got a wierd error... unfortunately I was late for something so I turned it off and worried about it thismorning.

This morning, I realise my HDD is crashed. It won't load ("INVALID SYSTEM BOOT SECTOR/DISK" or similar), I can't access it through Winternals ERD Commander 2005, and it simply doesn't look like it can be seen. I have another very old 10GB harddisk in that computer that i seldom use as extra file space, and nothing really changes whether this is connected or not, and it doesn't have any OSes on it.

Basically, I'm just wondering if there's any way for me to be able to get my data (including schoolwork, emails, etc.) off my old harddrive and restore it to my 10GB, or ways to fix anything?

Thanks Q3W.

Post by **zolborg** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:21 am

Try hooking it up to another computer as a slave and see if you can access your files that way. Should be able to.

Post by **Scourge** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:41 am

Dont have time to go into details right now, but try repairing the boot sector.

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:33 pm

scourge34 wrote:Dont have time to go into details right now, but try repairing the boot sector.

:icon14:

Here's how:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2111p196id112479.htm

Post by **Scourge** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:41 pm

Tormentius wrote:
scourge34 wrote:Dont have time to go into details right now, but try repairing the boot sector.
:icon14:

Here's how:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2111p196id112479.htm

Thanks, I was a little short on time this morning.

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:49 pm

scourge34 wrote: Thanks, I was a little short on time this morning.

You're welcome.

Post by **glossy** » Tue May 09, 2006 8:19 am

I've mounted the drive as a slave into both the spare computer i'm using now and the original computer. In this spare computer all it does is make wierd noises and hang the computer for ~30 seconds occasionally, and i haven't heard any wierd noises while it's slaved in the original computer but i'm just installing XP SP2 on the spare 10GB drive on that now.

The bad news, though, is that it doesn't look like either BIOS is recognising it. There's no mention of the drive during POST output, and it doesn't show up in either XP or ERD Commander.

I'll read up on those links, Torm. Thanks to the three of you for your help so far

Post by **glossy** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:02 am

Looks like my drive (IBM Deskstar DTLA-307045) is prone to general reliability problems, and specifically a weakness to a certain chip on the drive burning out and needing to be replaced. there was even a class action lawsuit about it.

Unfortunately the lawsuit's only in the US, I don't have my receipt anymore and it'll cost me quite a bit to get my ~30GB of data retrieved from the drive so... I guess it's not really worth it.

Thanks for your help guys, even though it was eventually to no avail

Post by **CheapAlert** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:18 am

thats what you get for stealing my work owned

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:06 pm

CheapAlert wrote:thats what you get for stealing my work owned

Post by **Tormentius** » Tue May 09, 2006 8:10 pm

Ouch. Yeah the IBM Deathstars were notoriously unreliable. Don't suppose you had backups eh?