hard disk dead?..

[MKJ]

scared?.. very

last night my computer decided to reboot (after an update, prolly) and stranded at the login screen. it was very slow - took about 1.5 minutes to show the password prompt after clicking on my icon - and it took ages to login. longer than my patience would allow so i thought i'd just hit the reset button.
now i get BSOD about 5 secs after the WinXP loading screen.. it doesnt even get to the logon anymore.

using the WinXP CD w/ recovery console, i tried to run a chkdsk on the HDD. it instantly tells me there was an "unrecoverable error". can't dir it either.
i tried connecting a 2nd HDD with a WinXP install, but that BSODs even earlier.. however this is a very old 20GB drive which has been laying in a shelf for about 3 years, so that might just be dead.
also tried replacing the sata cable.. no dice

trying to do a install over the current XP is no option, it tells me the drive has one partition of 160gb, filled up 100%, so it wants to format.

time to buy a new hdd and forget about this one (and everything on it ) ?

its a 160gb SATA maxtor hdd, running on XP SP2. not sure about the mobo as im at work.. an asus which supports an intel 3ghz HT and pci-e 16

[^misantropia^]

Download a Ubuntu or Knoppix live CD/DVD and see if you can access (and hopefully repair) it with that.

[Captain]

Aye, your only hope is to attempt a recovery of the data.

Other than that, Maxtor

[AmIdYfReAk]

MAxtor's have been the only Harddrives that have Survived for a longer perioud of time on my mediacenter... its gone through 4 WD's, 3 Seagates, and its running two Maxtor's for a little over two years, powered 24/7.

though, i do run WD's in all of the other computers with no issues, its just the mediacenter that eats them. :/

[+JuggerNaut+]

Download a Ubuntu or Knoppix live CD/DVD and see if you can access (and hopefully repair) it with that.

[+JuggerNaut+]

also, http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

[MKJ]

ended up getting a new drive and a celan windows install. tried to hook up the dead drive, windows recohnizes it but crashes when it tries to access.

might give that spinrite a spin (yuk).. see if i can recover some stuff thats on there. luckily theres nothing reaaalllyy important on it so yea

[MKJ]

fucking hell, spinrite is the bomb.
totally restored the disk. tip of the century!!

[+JuggerNaut+]

i know.

[MKJ]

well, almost.
cant access my old docs and settings folder, gives an instant "access denied" error. properties says its 0 bytes, too.

still, the drive works which is a lot more than i hoped for \o/

[+JuggerNaut+]

the premise behind spinrite is to get an otherwise seemingly inop drive to work again, so at least it got that far.

how long did you have to run it?

[MKJ]

indeed. i dont have to resort my music catalogue, was able to copy it off the old drive. apart from what was on my desktop, theres not a whole lot on there that couldnt do with a reinstall anyways

about 11.5 hrs. it started saying it would need 6 hrs so i let it running overnight, but this morning it still had about 3 hours to go after an already 9 hours.

[+JuggerNaut+]

yeah, historically that's fairly typical with spinrite. cool, glad it worked for you.

[Plan B]

BA isn't looking all that happy...
Well, poopoo on you, my friend

[AmIdYfReAk]

try to take control of those folders that are saying access denied, And 0 bytes..

if you can brute force control/ ownership of it in your current windows install, you'll be able to access the files and etc within it.

its just that you're on a new install, thats all.

try it out, Google if you dont know how.

[^misantropia^]

It might be XP being anal about ownership / permissions. Knoppix (any Linux distro actually) simply ignores such things, so that might be what you are looking for. There is a workaround for XP but I forgot how it works.

[MKJ]

fixT. you guys are the fucking Men.

figured it was quite the coincidence if exactly that folder would be busted.

recovered some psds i thought i lost. ownage in a can

[+JuggerNaut+]

so did you knoppix it or pwn the permissions manually?

[MKJ]

forced control

[+JuggerNaut+]

rawr!