Is there any way I can save my dying HDD?

[lektrix]

I have 3 drives:

C: WD Raptor 74GB SATA Port 1 - WINDOWS/APPS
D: Seagate 400GB SATA Port 3 - DATA/STORAGE/APPS
E: WD Raptor 74GB SATA Port 2 - GAMES

I just turned on my computer today and tried to run some programs off my data drive. It stalled, then gave me some message that it was missing some system application files. I went into My Computer and my D: was empty (it was listed but it said 0GB total size and 0GB free space). I double clicked it and my computer froze, so I did a hard reset. After getting back into XP, I opened D: and browsed through some files. I tried copying some large files to another drive but the 'time remaining' kept going up and down and most of the time the file transfer would fail. I tried playing some MP3s and it worked, but movie files did not load at all. My mouse would also freeze every few seconds while browsing through the drive.

So I reset my computer again and loaded some diagnostic tools. Ran some Seagate utility checker. Quick test passed, but Full test showed some errors. This is what it showed:

AtaCore Error 2 in SeqScan
Long Test Failed

When I went back into Windows, it automatically ran SCANDISK for me and there were a bunch of errors as well:

CHKDSK verifying files
Deleting corrupt file record segment 4287

CHKDSK verifying indexes
Deleting index entry from index $0 of file 25
Deleting index entry from index $0 of file 25
Deleting index entry from index $0 of file 25

Then it started deleting index entries of at least 100-500 files (there was so many I couldn't even count).

After, it would say: Recovering orphaned file at least another 100-500 times.


So it's obvious that my HDD is corrupt and probably dead (even though I can kind of access it). Is there any way I can save it and keep it or must I do a RMA?

P.S.: I haven't modified or touched my hardware in the past 3 months. I haven't installed anything out of the norm either. The last thing I did was download around 7-8GB worth of BT files yesterday morning but the HDD was running fine until today.

 

[king4lex]

Are you asking (1) is there a way to repair the HD and make it work well again or are you just asking (2) is there a way to save as much of the data on the HD as you can.

Assuming you are asking #2:

Boot using the Win XP install CD. When prompted, press R to get to the command prompt. This way, Windows will not launch scandisk. Now at the prompt, you can use the copy command to copy as much data as you can from the bad HD to one of your good HDs.

:thumbsup:

--king4lex

 

[Oyeve]

This is screaming virus or something similar. I had this happen to a few of my users and they were all from a virus. Cant recall the exact virus, but they were getting serious errors like your about the system files. Luckily I shut them down and put the drives in an external case, copied the data and wiped the drives.

 

[lektrix]

Originally posted by: king4lex
Are you asking (1) is there a way to repair the HD and make it work well again or are you just asking (2) is there a way to save as much of the data on the HD as you can.

Assuming you are asking #2:

Boot using the Win XP install CD. When prompted, press R to get to the command prompt. This way, Windows will not launch scandisk. Now at the prompt, you can use the copy command to copy as much data as you can from the bad HD to one of your good HDs.

:thumbsup:

--king4lex

(1) would be great. I don't want to lose the drive and ask for a RMA.

I don't have time to copy ~300GB of data right now, but would it be safe to leave my D: HDD running while I surf the internet? Or should I disconnect it?

This is screaming virus or something similar. I had this happen to a few of my users and they were all from a virus. Cant recall the exact virus, but they were getting serious errors like your about the system files. Luckily I shut them down and put the drives in an external case, copied the data and wiped the drives.

Could be, but I haven't had a serious virus in ages. I have NAV running and I usually do a full scan, with Lavasoft Ad-Aware and Microsoft Malware Remover a few times each week.

 

[lektrix]

BTW, I can play movie files now and the lag seems to have dissipated.

 

[brshoemak]

Personally, I would stop using that drive, only turn it on to copy the files to another hard drive (one purchased or a friends external). Then i would continue to use the older drive while I scanned, then copied the backed up files to DVD's - yes it would be a lot of DVD's. Just depends how important your data is.

Just as a side note I lost 53GB of videos, music and family pics the day before my friend was bringing his external burner over to help me backup the stuff i didn't want to lose. Damn. So I have some bias in this matter.

 

[Paperdoc]

This has an intermittent sound to it. Any chance you simply have a loose / dirty connection where a cable plugs in? Try disconnecting and reconnecting the data and power cables for this drive (both ends). I have read people say that one weakness of the SATA design is that the cable connectors sockets don't have a tight hold on the cables.

 

[imported_browsing]

If it is going bad, there is no way to revive it-- you need to get the data off it as quickly as possible.

 

[king4lex]

Originally posted by: lektrix

(1) would be great. I don't want to lose the drive and ask for a RMA.

If I were you, I would first save the data somewhere else then format the drive and try using it again. I had something similar happen to me and after I formatted the drive it worked perfectly (in fact, I'm still using it now )

I don't have time to copy ~300GB of data right now, but would it be safe to leave my D: HDD running while I surf the internet? Or should I disconnect it?

I would disconnect it, just in case. If it has gone bad, you never know what it might decide to do to your data.