Hard drive corrupted? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Mr. Sparkle · 11-04-2004, 09:27 AM

running win 98 2ed and have 3 harddrives (internal).

C: where windows runs
E: a 60G music drive called music
D: an added drive when the 60 wasn't enough.

Windows runs fine but when I open explorer, e: has had it's name changed to Bt and most of the files inside have had their names changed. Music is now Mvbic and inside those files the files have changed their names to illegible symbols.

Oh, also Windows is saying there are 55G of free space on my e: drive.

Am I farked?

R_R_R · 11-04-2004, 11:21 AM

Does the music still play? If it does, I recomend backing it up asap. Hard drives can be pretty finicky, and if its not broke yet, it probably soon will be. There's nothing worse than having to re-get 60G of music.

Mr. Sparkle · 11-04-2004, 12:56 PM

no, the music does not play. I think it may be all gone.

What's the best way to start again?

bendsley · 11-04-2004, 01:35 PM

The filesystem on the drive sounds like it's hosed. The harddrive itself may possibly be fine, but not the FS. You might try just formatting the drive and starting over with it. If it continues to act up, then yeah, the drive would be bad.

Do you have S.M.A.R.T. enabled in your BIOS to check hdd failures and do hdd reporting?

JustDisGuy · 11-04-2004, 04:11 PM

You might be able to recover your File Allocation Table (FAT) using a downloadable utility. There's often a second (good) copy of the FAT on the drive in case the first copy gets hosed, assuming that's what has actually happened.

Coppertop · 11-04-2004, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bendsley

The filesystem on the drive sounds like it's hosed. The harddrive itself may possibly be fine, but not the FS. You might try just formatting the drive and starting over with it. If it continues to act up, then yeah, the drive would be bad.

This happened to a Maxtor I have. It was purely MP3s and the files all became corrupted exactly as the first poster indicated. I formatted it and am currently using it with no troubles. Other than losing all of my music, of course.

Silverbrain · 11-04-2004, 11:40 PM

Check your hard drive out online..

http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html

click english on the bottom left and run some tests to see if its worth messing with or just replacing. Sounds like the data has gone corrupt on ya, sorry to hear.

KrazyKracka · 11-05-2004, 01:08 AM

That sucks sorry to hear. If the HD is spinning and you have access to it, I would say that the data just became corrupted as mentioned above. Try reformatting it and see what happens. If it becomes a habitual issue, your drive may be fragged.

Stan · 11-05-2004, 06:36 AM

Check for a virus, some virii slowly changes your filenames until it corrupts your whole hard drive. Some programs for data recovery are: FinalData.Enterprise, GetDataBack, Runtimes.Diskexplorer, SpinRite. It does sound like something hosed your filesystem. A program I use to check SMART status, as well as voltages and fan speeds is Speedfan (www.almico.com/speedfan.php). If your SMART status is OK, then your hard drive is physically OK, so a reformat would fix everything (besides you losing all your data).

I recommend using NTFS, it is newer, has more security features, does not get fragmented as easily as FAT32, and it's apparently more stable.

11-04-2004, 09:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
Mr. Sparkle Upright	Hard drive corrupted? running win 98 2ed and have 3 harddrives (internal). C: where windows runs E: a 60G music drive called music D: an added drive when the 60 wasn't enough. Windows runs fine but when I open explorer, e: has had it's name changed to Bt and most of the files inside have had their names changed. Music is now Mvbic and inside those files the files have changed their names to illegible symbols. Oh, also Windows is saying there are 55G of free space on my e: drive. Am I farked?

11-04-2004, 11:21 AM	#2 (permalink)
R_R_R Upright Location: Calgary	Does the music still play? If it does, I recomend backing it up asap. Hard drives can be pretty finicky, and if its not broke yet, it probably soon will be. There's nothing worse than having to re-get 60G of music. __________________ What am i doing on this planet?

11-04-2004, 01:35 PM	#4 (permalink)
bendsley Professional Loafer Location: texas	The filesystem on the drive sounds like it's hosed. The harddrive itself may possibly be fine, but not the FS. You might try just formatting the drive and starting over with it. If it continues to act up, then yeah, the drive would be bad. Do you have S.M.A.R.T. enabled in your BIOS to check hdd failures and do hdd reporting? __________________ "You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

11-04-2004, 04:11 PM	#5 (permalink)
JustDisGuy Insane Location: Saskatchewan	You might be able to recover your File Allocation Table (FAT) using a downloadable utility. There's often a second (good) copy of the FAT on the drive in case the first copy gets hosed, assuming that's what has actually happened. __________________ "Act as if the future of the universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference."

11-04-2004, 11:40 PM	#7 (permalink)
Silverbrain Addict Location: Nor Cal	Check your hard drive out online.. http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/index.html click english on the bottom left and run some tests to see if its worth messing with or just replacing. Sounds like the data has gone corrupt on ya, sorry to hear. __________________ Over Thinking, Over Analyzing Seperates the Body from the Mind - MJK

11-04-2004, 12:56 PM	#3 (permalink)
Mr. Sparkle Upright	no, the music does not play. I think it may be all gone. What's the best way to start again?

11-05-2004, 01:08 AM	#8 (permalink)
KrazyKracka Crazy Location: PA	That sucks sorry to hear. If the HD is spinning and you have access to it, I would say that the data just became corrupted as mentioned above. Try reformatting it and see what happens. If it becomes a habitual issue, your drive may be fragged.

11-05-2004, 06:36 AM	#9 (permalink)
Stan Upright Location: Canada	Check for a virus, some virii slowly changes your filenames until it corrupts your whole hard drive. Some programs for data recovery are: FinalData.Enterprise, GetDataBack, Runtimes.Diskexplorer, SpinRite. It does sound like something hosed your filesystem. A program I use to check SMART status, as well as voltages and fan speeds is Speedfan (www.almico.com/speedfan.php). If your SMART status is OK, then your hard drive is physically OK, so a reformat would fix everything (besides you losing all your data). I recommend using NTFS, it is newer, has more security features, does not get fragmented as easily as FAT32, and it's apparently more stable.