WD Caviar XP Drive Suddenly partition unknown

[jnathan]

Hello Guys

I am so Sad with my WD Caviar SE SATA HDD.
It just ran fine until today morning when the PC wouldnt boot to XP.
POST went fine, so did the loading thing of Windows LOGO.
After that the PC keeps on restarting and halted on POST.

I only saw a message that HDD S.M.A.R.T is bad, Backup and Replace.
But only once I could get into XP and started copying some files, and the PC restarted - it keeps on doing this.

I ran the WD diag tool and it sees all the files within that 250 GB C:\ only HDD partition.

So How to copy those files to Another HDD???
Or, Any way to Reinstate the Partition?

 

[Harvey]

You can remove the drive, mount it as a slave on another machine and copy your files. You should definitely back up your critical files before doing anything else.

You could to try to save your installation by using the old DOS version of Norton Ghost to clone your drive to another one. If the file system and OS are intact, it MAY transfer correctly to the second drive and run when you connect the Ghosted clone as the primary drive. Even if it doesn't run, you'll still have all of your files safely copied to the second drive.

I've seen cases where the S.M.A.R.T system has misread the condition of a drive. For example, this can happen if the if your SATA cable is bad or the connector is dirty so, once you have backed up your files, you can try removing the cable and reseating it or connecting it with a different SATA cable.

Once your files are safe, you may want to try some disk diagnostic tools like Partition Magic which can restore some failed conditions. You could also try deleting and resetting the partition and reformatting it.

No guarantees that any of this will restore your drive, but it may. Worst case, you'll no worse off than you are, now.

Good luck. 🙂

 

[Emulex]

i'd use a stronger tool to do a disc scrub and attempt repair.

here's the deal - i had a drive the same way - you hit a bad sector - kaput - hang - game over. usb internal whatever connection. might as well pull the power.

so you have to focus your collective effort to retrieve your files without hitting that spot.

not that hard if you think about it. work in small chunks - keep track of your progress. when you see a failure skip to the next dir or batch of files.

i'd do that with the drive as a slave then try some deep repair utilities - likely it is kaput though.

Good time to upgrade to SSD 🙂

 

[jnathan]

very good reply, wish the drive had its file system and partition recognized by XP OS CD.

I would have cruized on making it as a slave to recover the data had it let me use it as a 2ndary drive. even if I hook it up with a good drive as slave, its not letting the PC to come to XP Desktop. if it did, I'd use Partition magic. So I hope, guys, its time for your 2nd thought.

 

[Harvey]

Partition Magic may still be able to repair your drive. In one mode, it boots to a floppy or flash drive and works at a much lower level to repair bad sectors, etc.

Also, check Western Digitals disk tools. They may have a repair tool that could help, as well.

 

[jnathan]

yes I am gonna install PM 8.0 tomorrow and make an emergency disk to do as you adviced. I will let you know. Only yesterday bought a HITACHI SATA II. This will surely die too as I work at least 14 hours a day with my PC. Just in search of a reliable HDD. I keep 100 Firefox pages opened at the same time, so I truly test the limit of my CPU, memories and the HDD.

Another think hovering over my head ! I am using DDR 2 Memories of two different Clock speeds, 667 and 800. could this be a reason of these disasters?

 

[Harvey]

This will surely die too as I work at least 14 hours a day with my PC. Just in search of a reliable HDD. I keep 100 Firefox pages opened at the same time, so I truly test the limit of my CPU, memories and the HDD.

Get a copy of the old DOS based version of Norton Ghost a backup drive and a mobile rack.

I use the version that came with Norton SystemWorks 2003. It can clone your drive, and if your drive dies, the clone plugs right in and works. If you get hit by a virus, just clone back from the backup drive to the main drive, and you're up and running. It doesn't even have to be the same size drive. It works very well with XP.

I Ghost my drive after every virus/spyware sweep. I also Ghost before installing any new program just because it can fail or leave corrupted files that get in the way of a second attempt. You can afford to be brave about trying non-standard installations because the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, in which case, you restore your previous condition and try again. It only takes about 20 minutes to clone the whole drive.

The program has saved my ass any number of times. :biggrin:

 

[Emulex]

hiren's boot cd 🙂

 

[Elixer]

Get a copy of the old DOS based version of Norton Ghost a backup drive and a mobile rack.

I use the version that came with Norton SystemWorks 2003. It can clone your drive, and if your drive dies, the clone plugs right in and works. If you get hit by a virus, just clone back from the backup drive to the main drive, and you're up and running. It doesn't even have to be the same size drive. It works very well with XP.

I Ghost my drive after every virus/spyware sweep. I also Ghost before installing any new program just because it can fail or leave corrupted files that get in the way of a second attempt. You can afford to be brave about trying non-standard installations because the worst that can happen is that it doesn't work, in which case, you restore your previous condition and try again. It only takes about 20 minutes to clone the whole drive.

The program has saved my ass any number of times. :biggrin:

'DOS' ghost was nice. Now they ruined it.
However, your 20 min figure is for what size HD? It can take hours for a TB HD. Huge PITA, which is why I think it is best to partiton the OS drive and the data drive, and only backup what you need. 🙂