Hard Drive Crashed?

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RezMN

Member
Jun 17, 2004
192
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I been having this veryyyy frustrating problem. My computer does not recognize my OS on my hard drive when booting. I can't get a startup disk to work either... it just freezes. It seems like my hard drive just won't work, and I can't sacrifice formatting it and losing very important stuff... if formatting will even work.

Is it possible to purchase an external enclosure for my SATA drive, hook it up via USB to my laptop, and transfer files off? What enclosure should I look at getting?

I am looking to get a reliable hard drive since I've had a WD, IBM, and now this Maxtor (6Y160MO) 160gb SATA drive all crap out on me. I am looking at purchasing two new SATA hard drives, possibly a 74gb raptor (for gaming and my OS) and a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($85.99) for regular hard drive use.

My mobo which is a Soltek K8AN2E-GR Nforce 3 250Gb... does it support 320gb+ hard drives? I don't know what the 250Gb means, heh.

I've been out of the computing scene for half a year, mostly because my computer has been frustrating the hell out of me. I feel like a newbie asking this stuff, but I just want to make sure I'm not throwing money away, and I'm getting the best (working) stuff for the future. Annnddd I hope I can save my important files.

Thanks,
Rezzy
 
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Gentle

Senior member
Feb 28, 2004
233
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0
There is a possibility of getting the data off of it using disk utilities, by doing a hardware swap on the control board or by dealing with a professional data recovery company.

Using an enclosure is an option also I guess...

Those are about the options I can see.

Good luck.

Gentle
 
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LouPoir

Lifer
Mar 17, 2000
11,201
126
106
Im sure that board will support a 320gb HD. My experience has been that the raptors are not worht the money - Ive owned the 36, 74 and 150 version and went back to a SATA drive. They were faster, but the difference was insignificant.

I would get a Seagate or WD 320 SATA drive and install the OS. I would then install the bad drive and with any luck, you may be abel to get your date off.

G/L


Lou
 
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RezMN

Member
Jun 17, 2004
192
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0
Thanks for the replies...

I did not think of just buying a new hard drive, installing the OS, then having the other hard drive hooked up and explore. That seems like the best option, then I would only have to buy a new hard drive. If it doesn't work, I can then buy the enclosure.

So no on the Raptor's eh? Will ONE 320gb hard drive like the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($89.99) be the best for me? I do not want to go WD, Maxtor, or IBM... Seagate seems to be my best option, even tho it is a sister company of one of those brands.

Is it better to partition drives? I haven't had much experience with a drive larger than 160... wondering if it will make my games faster at all if I dedicate a certain partition to it, or to just the OS.

-Rezzy
 
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LouPoir

Lifer
Mar 17, 2000
11,201
126
106
Originally posted by: RezMN
Thanks for the replies...

I did not think of just buying a new hard drive, installing the OS, then having the other hard drive hooked up and explore. That seems like the best option, then I would only have to buy a new hard drive. If it doesn't work, I can then buy the enclosure.

So no on the Raptor's eh? Will ONE 320gb hard drive like the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($89.99) be the best for me? I do not want to go WD, Maxtor, or IBM... Seagate seems to be my best option, even tho it is a sister company of one of those brands.

Is it better to partition drives? I haven't had much experience with a drive larger than 160... wondering if it will make my games faster at all if I dedicate a certain partition to it, or to just the OS.

-Rezzy
Click to expand...

The Seagate drive you mentioned is super -
No speed difference any way you partition it.
I would partition it 50gb operating system and the balance for storage. The advantage is God forbid, you need to reformat, you can move all your data off the OS partition to the storage partion. Makes it nice and convenient for those of us who re-install OS frequently.

G/L


Lou
 
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Laputa

Golden Member
Jan 18, 2000
1,775
0
0
USB is a very good route. If not, just remember not to allow Windows to automatically repair the problem on the suspected bad drive when booting up with the good and the bad drive the first time. Just as a pre-caution cause you will definitely do not want to have any file overwritten at this time. See if you can get the data that way first. If still can not access the drive, you may have a firmware or partition corruption or posibly something else. Hopefully that's not the case.
 
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