External HD and then Internal HD died!

ksh937

Junior Member
Jun 19, 2009
3
0
0
My issue is with two drives: My Maxtor One Touch II 300GB External Hard Drive and my Dell m1530 internal hard drive. My laptop runs Windows Vista and is 1 year old.

My Maxtor One Touch II 300GB External Hard Drive started acting up about a week ago. I was able to access some folders and files on the drive, but others gave me the following error message: ?Folder XYZ is inaccessible, incorrect function?.

Using a utility CD from Geek Squad (the Geek Squad MRI CD), I booted my computer directly from the CD. From there, I used the Geek Squad file browser program and was able to see most of my files on the Maxtor HD. After Googling a few websites, I thought my problem had to do with a corrupted partition on the external HD. Since the Geek Squad CD has Norton Partition Magic, I used it to repair the partition.

When I opened up Norton, it immediately found two bad sectors and asked me if I wanted to repair. I clicked yes, without thinking which hard drive it was referring to. It must?ve been referring to my laptop?s internal HD because after I ?fixed? the bad sectors, I tried to restart my laptop, but wasn?t able to load up my computer.

Now, when you turn on my laptop, you?ll see a page with the Dell Logo and a progress bar. The progress bar will load up and take you to the Windows Vista screen. The progress bar on the Windows Vista screen will freeze and you?ll see a Blue Screen. Then the computer restarts and gives the message ?Windows was not able to load? with 4 options: Start in Safe Mode, Start in Safe Mode with Networking, Use Last Known Good Configuration and Start Windows Normally. All 4 give the same exact result: You?re taken to the Windows Vista screen, it freezes and gives you a Blue Screen, and then it restarts and takes you back to the ?Windows was not able to load? screen with the previously mentioned 4 options.

When I use the file browser application on the Geek Squad CD (which is still in the laptop), I no longer see any files on my C: drive (my laptop?s internal hard drive).

Do you guys have any idea what happened to my drives and what I should do about it? I was considering taking it into Geek Squad, but I have heard they aren't that good and that I should consider a full-fledged recovery services company. Thoughts/experiences?

Thanks!
 

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
Maybe just one of them is bad. Often if one hard drive goes bad it can keep the other from working properly. Norton has been known to cause problems with hard drives. My Daughter swares that Norton killed her hard drive. If you have a good warranty Dell may be willing to replace a hard drive.

Sounds like just one of those Oopsa-Daisy moves. I have done something like this before. It did not turn out good. Might be better off starting fresh. Sure you did not have anything like File Safe or some files backed up somewhere?