topic Re: My hard drive has died :( in PCs & Accessories

My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:16:27 GMT

Just wanted to tell you all how sad I am. My desktop started booting up really slowly about a week ago and now it won¿t boot off the hard disc at all. The windows event log indicated that I was getting I/O errors and timeouts. Before you ask, no I haven¿t got a backup! I've swapped it over for an old hard drive with Win98 on it, to prove I could boot off that, therefore I assume it must be the hard drive and not the controller. I¿m hoping I can get a new hard drive and restore my basic system on to that, and hopefully be able to access my original hard drive as a slave and be able to salvage something from it !

Wish me luck

Re: My hard drive has died :(

TygerTyger — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 19:02:08 GMT

Good luck Faith. Just a heads up, if you send the hard drive to Sony to get it replaced they DON'T allow you to have the old one back so you can have a crack at getting your data back. What they do instead (kindly my ass) is offer to recover your data for you, for a mere £200 - £2000. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction having assumed I would be able to try getting my data back, obviously since they won't let me and I can't afford to have them do it for me I didn't. So uh, whatever you want to try make sure you've done it all if you have to send it off if you are under warranty.

I guess it could be the OEM's policy not Sony's, but I was seriously, seriously annoyed. Phew.

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:01:46 GMT

Thanks for that hun, good advice but don¿t worry as:

1)It¿s not a Sony = slapped wrist
2)I never ever have warranty = slapped wrist
3)I would never send my hard drive ANYWARE because god knows what they would find on it ¿ I surprise myself sometimes = slapped wrist
4)I don¿t trust anyone ¿ I either fix it myself or destroy it in the process = slapped wrist

Re: My hard drive has died :(

chris_lewis — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:44:05 GMT

Hiya, Sorry to hear of your HD's demise.

I would be fooked if mine went down, had it happen to me before so I do keep a BU of the main profiles and seriously important stuff.

Hopefully you will be able to salvage some of your data.. naughty bits and all!!!!

I just don't know where all the rude comes from sometimes either!

As for a new HD, Seagate ones are supposed to be good, I think thats whats in my Vaio,

And why is it all ex Comet staff never buy warranties I wonder!! lol

Hope you get it sorted out

Chris

pps, breaking computer stuff can be a very satisfiying & rewarding experience, the bigger the hammer the bigger the reward.

But do have a go at salvaging it first.
C

Re: My hard drive has died :(

kee-lo_ — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:53:29 GMT

I'm sure you could probably get quite a bit off it when you put it as a slave.

I wish I had access to that police CD, apparently they have tools to recover data from bad disks.

There's also a utility called bad copy pro, which can apparently recover from corrupt data.

Re: My hard drive has died :(

robpaxton — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:05:21 GMT

3)I would never send my hard drive ANYWARE because god knows what they would find on it ¿ I surprise myself sometimes = slapped wrist 
4)I don¿t trust anyone ¿ I either fix it myself or destroy it in the process = slapped wrist

Send it to me my dear, I'll save your data for you and you know you can trust me
:smileythinking: :smileytalk_to_the_hand: :smileyliar:

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:26:02 GMT

Chris, it is a Seagate that has f*cked up, I¿m looking to get a Western Digital with an 8mb cache.

Never bother with warranty 'cos these days most things last at least a couple of years then after that, may as well buy new and get the latest technology
I¿ve still got a dodgy laptop that is awaiting my hammer

I wish I had access to that police CD, apparently they have tools to recover data from bad disks.

Kee-Lo, Norton disk doctor was a good utility a few years ago, and disk editor was good at hacking things too

Send it to me my dear, I'll save your data for you and you know you can trust me
                   :smileythinking: :smileytalk_to_the_hand: :smileyliar:

Ahhhhhhhhhhh thanks hun, as thoughtful as ever I'll send it to you if I get no joy - I'm sure you would have plenty though

Re: My hard drive has died :(

chris_lewis — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:32:46 GMT

Ahh :smileyd_oh: :smileyd_oh: :smileyd_oh: :smileyd_oh:

Sorry...

C

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:39:17 GMT

Don't be sorry Chris, be happy :smileygrin:

Re: My hard drive has died :(

chris_lewis — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 21:43:39 GMT

Thanks,:smileyhappy:

I just know what a pain it is....

C

x

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:29:29 GMT

Ok, quick update, I¿ve installed XP onto my spare drive and booted from that, I have setup the problem drive as a slave, when I boot the machine it insists on running a CHKDSK on the problem drive. Step 1 (verifying files) completes ok, Step 2 (verifying indexes) completes ok, but it seems to get stuck on step 3 (verifying security descriptors). So I might need help now ! Does it make a difference if the problem drive had been running XP Home with Service Pack 2 applied, but the drive I have just booted off is running XP Professional with no Service Packs applied ?, just clutching at straws ! Whatdya reckon guys ¿ I¿m getting worried now

EDIT: Oooh, it¿s just put out a message saying ¿repairing unreadable security descriptors¿ but oh sh*t, it now says ¿STOP: c000021a unknown hard error ????????

Re: My hard drive has died :(

TygerTyger — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 11:38:38 GMT

Sounds like a little white flag is starting to be waved....

You might want to try this program. There's much better if you are prepared to shell out, but for free it's really very good.

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 11:53:09 GMT

Is it that obvious TT

Thanks for the link, I gave up on it last night and put it all back together, I'll have another crack at it later, I have more patients in the evenings after a few beers

Re: My hard drive has died :(

TygerTyger — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 12:05:07 GMT

You have a few beers before doing your midwife job? Bloody hell I bet you don't tell the patients that lol.

"Wassat? Other end you say? Right right, I'm with you love, good idea. Ok face down please darlin'. Hm? Oh yeah course, THAT's the bit I should be workin' on, face up then. Aw look at you, all neat down there, aren't you tidy. Hey can I get a drink here?"

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 12:50:28 GMT

hahaha, you cheeky bugger but you're not wrong, it's a bonus if it's "all neat and tidy"

Re: My hard drive has died :(

TygerTyger — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 12:52:42 GMT

it's a bonus if it's "all neat and tidy"

You're not wrong either

Re: My hard drive has died :(

kee-lo_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:32:50 GMT

Wondering if you should install Linux and use something to copy it without it asking too many questions, but if it's NTFS then TT's program should be able to help.

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 18:33:14 GMT

Ok, I've had a beer and I'm ready to start on my "patient"

Yes it is NTFS, so I'll download that and give it a try - thanks

Re: My hard drive has died :(

kee-lo_ — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 19:19:46 GMT

Good luck!

Re: My hard drive has died :(

faithx — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 20:03:48 GMT

Bad news I downloaded it, ran it, and it¿s come up with ¿Access Violations¿, did a scan for logical drives, got an ¿invalid divide by zero¿ error, for the logical drives it did find, when I do a preview on them, the file names are complete tosh ¿ oh well