Cyprus-Forum.com

[Nick T]

Hard Drive Crash

Need help from any of you IT techies out there.
I suspect that I have a mechanical problem with my hard drive.
On boot up the screen gets as far as searching for IDE drive......
In the meantime there is a light 'scraping' noise audible and no further action, just the above narrative and the noise which has appeared simultaneously.

My main concern is losing info on the hard drive especially family photos. I have already kicked myself all around the house, but this hasn't resolved the problem nor salved my conscience!!!

I would like to know if I can at least recover the important stuff, photos etc... Then I don't mind ditching the hard drive if it is beyond redemption & replace it with a new one.

Any useful info/tips would be gratefully appreciated.

Regards

[Get Real!]

Hard Drive Crash

When a HDD has difficulty getting recognized by the system AND a scrapping noise is audible then chances are that your HDD is on its way out. Notice that I haven’t said “dead” yet because I’m assuming that the problem began today and sometimes disks that behave this way MAY fire up in the morning when cold yet fail when hot, etc.

That’s why it’s very important to REMOVE YOUR DATA if and when it next fires up because it may be the last.

The noise comes from the heads’ arm trying to go over the platters to read them but for some reason such as motor failure or friction it can’t do it and just keeps trying thus generating the sound.

There is a chance that the PC case was moved/shaken to the point where the power and/or data connector has gotten loose or not making any contact so that’s something you can easily check first.

If it’s not a loose connection and you’re in a hurry to diagnose then pull out the HDD and put it in a USB caddy, if you have one, to see if the data is accessible via this method.

Alternatively you can pull out the HDD and connect it as a secondary on a different PC that may have a better tolerance level motherboard. When setup as secondary the HDD will not need to boot a system so that gives it a better chance to offer you its data.

Good luck with everything.

[Nick T]

Thanks Get Real!.

I made the same assumption re: the read/write head. However, this didn't happen today but approx. 1 week ago. I have attempted boot up from cold on several occasions, including once tonight. The same thing happens every time without any change in pattern or deviation from the routine message, as previously described.

I'll try the power and/or data connector cable first as suggested, however I don't have a USB caddy, so I may be able to try the HDD in another PC, hopefully!

Once again many thanks.

[raymanuva]

Wrap it in the towel and put it in the freezer for a night... beware that after you take it out and plug it in, u may have a 30 minutes life left for your HDD... but this will give you a chance to recover some data...

The worst HDDs on the market are:

MAXTOR, WESTERN DIGITAL

[Get Real!]

Wrap it in the towel and put it in the freezer for a night... beware that after you take it out and plug it in, u may have a 30 minutes life left for your HDD... but this will give you a chance to recover some data...

If it works for wine why not with a HDD?

The worst HDDs on the market are:

MAXTOR, WESTERN DIGITAL

In my experience the ones that fail the most are Seagate.

[raymanuva]

Seagate, totally opposite... don't recall any drive failing on me.. and i have set up a lot of systems.. mostly for servers etc.

[Crivens]

You always hear different things about different drives. Personally the only drive that ever completely gave up the ghost on me was a Maxtor. On the other hand I have a portable Maxtor and it's worked fine for years.

Interestingly most people I know never really have hard drive problems. On the other hand we all work as programmers and tend to upgrade our hardware pretty often. I've only got 6 PC's left at home now after putting a few down with a sledgehammer when I left the UK And at work in the UK even though we have something like 300 programmers working in one place (all black Dells) they pretty much replace them all every couple of years. Apparently it is cheaper for them than actually employing someone to fix any problems. Think they give the old ones to charity.

Plus even if we have problems we tend to backup fanatically. Once burned and all that. Think I currently have about 8 flash based backup devices I regularly use (not inc. DVD writers etc). Can't be too careful. And use the card in your mobile if you have sensitive data and definitely don't want to lose it. Or get a seriously small drive (SD card efforts will do. I have a microSD somewhere, and it's bloody tiny!) to keep in your wallet.

Saying all that though, I totally love my WD Raptors. Twin 10kRPM drives in a RAID 0 array. Runs like the clappers. Wasn't bothered about protecting the data as I don't have anything important on that PC, but gotta love that speed. Only 150gb though which is the only downer.

Cheers

[Get Real!]

Seagate, totally opposite... don't recall any drive failing on me.. and i have set up a lot of systems.. mostly for servers etc.

I've lost count how many irreparable HDDs I've tossed in the bin since 1988, let alone all other faults!

[greek.god]

Putting the hard drive in the freezer does work. You may only have 1 or 2 chances to boot up and save data so hurry. BTW you should always back up your data...just in case. I learned the hard way.