Is there anyway we can save my hard drive?

the_mp3_refuge · Post by **the_mp3_refuge** » Sat May 01, 2004 2:21 am

Well after some troubleshooting and a little luck I've discovered the root of my problems is the disk itself. So here's my question.

The disk has bad sectors(so far they are in the first 128 sectors of the disk, but probably are more)

Is there anyway we can save this disk? If so what programs do you recommend or should I just bite the bullet, and lose all my saved files, music, and games that weren't backed up because this was the back up drive?

Thanks,
Bob

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Sat May 01, 2004 3:26 am

Well does windows load? do u have a burner? whats going on!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sat May 01, 2004 6:50 am

To be honest....get a new drive, install a fresh OS, then slave the old drive and copy over whatever you can, and toss the failing drive.

But if you really want to hold on to the current drive, there is some software out there, Spinrite seems to be one of the older, and well liked programs.

http://grc.com/spinrite.htm

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat May 01, 2004 10:01 am

Personally when I have a drive giving me problems I never trust it again, never put important data on it again, but I do like to see what I can get away with.

In your case, I would backup everything I need off the drive, and then remove all partitions. Recreate a partition using the first gig of the drive (it has the bad sectors, so never use that partition) Make more partitions in the rest of the drive, and use them as you please, but not for important data unless you have it backed up.

I have found that sometimes reported bad sectors are not really bad, and after removing, and recreating partitions the troubles are gone. Still, I never trust it again with important data, just in case it fails.

the_mp3_refuge · Post by **the_mp3_refuge** » Sat May 01, 2004 11:33 am

Thanks for the suggestions guys I'll check out spinright 5 but I really don't have 90 bucks to go around.

I'm sorry I wasn't more specific. Windows does load, but it's on my primary 80GB disk, this 40GB one is my backup. The BIOS reads it's name and model number fine, and the screen that shows all your IRQ's before windows loads displays it properly too.

However windows can see the disk, but can't access it. A data recovery program I have now says it's only 20GB, and can't recover anything.

So sorry for misleading you if you thought infact it was readable but at this point it's not. Now with what I've said is there a possibilty we can recover the data before it gets into windows with like a boot disk or something, or is the drive FUBAR?

Thanks again,
Bob

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Sat May 01, 2004 12:30 pm

What filing system is the drive using?

Have you ever made a recovery disk from an anti virus app (for that drive)?
Norton's antivi recovery disk works great, hope you made one. It will repair the mbr, bootsector, FAT, and cmos if needed.

I am getting the impression that your master boot record is corrupt, or has been infected with a virus. If you have a recovery disk you may be able to repair it, and save all your data..

Easy Recovery Pro may be able to recover the data as is, but it isn't free.