Hard drive weirdness - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Kadath · 11-09-2004, 06:27 AM

So I've run into an odd situation with one of my HDs. It was my program drive, a Maxtor 80 gig, and Windows(2K) started to act very oddly, so I rebooted. On reboot I got an error stating I was missing the kernel file and I needed to reinstall it, but my bootable windows CD wasn't even able to write to the drive. Then the BIOS wouldn't see the drive anymore. I just got it back and am now seeing the drive in windows(by installing windows to another HD and booting to that one with the problem drive as a slave), but I can't copy files off of it; it says cannot read from the source file or disk. I really need some of the stuff on that drive for work; could anyone suggest something?

bendsley · 11-09-2004, 07:50 AM

It sounds like your filesystem is just hosed. If the BIOS is unable to see the drive, then the drive is going bad. Are you using SMART to report hdd errors? If the drive FS is bad, then there really won't be a lot of hope.

skaven · 11-09-2004, 08:50 AM

Yeah it sounds like your hard drive is toast. The filesystem is probably still intact, though. The only thing I can suggest is to take the dead hard drive to a friend's house and plug it into their computer. If your HDD controller caused the problem, then hooking your hard drive to a different motherboard might allow you to get your data off before the drive goes completely kaput.

Kadath · 11-09-2004, 08:59 AM

Well, I let win2k do a chkdsk on it and it went through and started to delete orphan file record segments and appears to have frozen. So I'm going to give it another go.

bendsley · 11-09-2004, 09:01 AM

Well, if he can see the drive with a new install then the drive might be functional (somewhat) but if he cannot pull stuff and what not off of it, then the FS is messed up somehow.

Of course the FS might be ok, and the hdd being bad is making the FS not work like it should. Either way, the drive is probably bad.

mikec · 11-09-2004, 09:32 AM

from what I'm reading, sounds like the drive is bad. intermittently working is part of a HD biting the dust.

depending on how valuable that data is to you, you have a couple of options:

the freezer trick....sometimes if you freeze a drive for an hour or so, the cold will shrink the platters and give you a small window of opportunity to copy the vital files.

data recovery...you can pay 700-1500 dollars to have a place that has a clean room get your data.

risk it....if you have the same HD, you could transplant the platters from one housing to another. of course one dust particle can cause head crash, so that's only if you're feeling lucky.

11-09-2004, 06:27 AM	#1 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	Hard drive weirdness So I've run into an odd situation with one of my HDs. It was my program drive, a Maxtor 80 gig, and Windows(2K) started to act very oddly, so I rebooted. On reboot I got an error stating I was missing the kernel file and I needed to reinstall it, but my bootable windows CD wasn't even able to write to the drive. Then the BIOS wouldn't see the drive anymore. I just got it back and am now seeing the drive in windows(by installing windows to another HD and booting to that one with the problem drive as a slave), but I can't copy files off of it; it says cannot read from the source file or disk. I really need some of the stuff on that drive for work; could anyone suggest something? __________________ it's quiet in here Last edited by Kadath; 11-09-2004 at 06:32 AM..

11-09-2004, 07:50 AM	#2 (permalink)
bendsley Professional Loafer Location: texas	It sounds like your filesystem is just hosed. If the BIOS is unable to see the drive, then the drive is going bad. Are you using SMART to report hdd errors? If the drive FS is bad, then there really won't be a lot of hope. __________________ "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."

11-09-2004, 08:59 AM	#4 (permalink)
Kadath Muffled Location: Camazotz	Well, I let win2k do a chkdsk on it and it went through and started to delete orphan file record segments and appears to have frozen. So I'm going to give it another go. __________________ it's quiet in here

11-09-2004, 09:01 AM	#5 (permalink)
bendsley Professional Loafer Location: texas	Well, if he can see the drive with a new install then the drive might be functional (somewhat) but if he cannot pull stuff and what not off of it, then the FS is messed up somehow. Of course the FS might be ok, and the hdd being bad is making the FS not work like it should. Either way, the drive is probably bad. __________________ "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."

11-09-2004, 09:32 AM	#6 (permalink)
mikec I flopped the nutz... Location: Stratford, CT	from what I'm reading, sounds like the drive is bad. intermittently working is part of a HD biting the dust. depending on how valuable that data is to you, you have a couple of options: the freezer trick....sometimes if you freeze a drive for an hour or so, the cold will shrink the platters and give you a small window of opportunity to copy the vital files. data recovery...you can pay 700-1500 dollars to have a place that has a clean room get your data. risk it....if you have the same HD, you could transplant the platters from one housing to another. of course one dust particle can cause head crash, so that's only if you're feeling lucky. __________________ Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see, and hear. Since the initial publication of the charted electromagnetic spectrum, humans have learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear is less than one millionth of reality

11-09-2004, 08:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
skaven Insane Location: Austin, TX	Yeah it sounds like your hard drive is toast. The filesystem is probably still intact, though. The only thing I can suggest is to take the dead hard drive to a friend's house and plug it into their computer. If your HDD controller caused the problem, then hooking your hard drive to a different motherboard might allow you to get your data off before the drive goes completely kaput.