Computer freezes and restarts while copying files to an external HD

djoreo

Posts: 12   +0
Could someone please help me with this .dmp file? I was dj'ing outside with my laptop two days ago and a gust of wind launched it off the laptop stand and slammed it onto the paved sidewalk. I believe there is something wrong with the hd.

I've been trying to copy my music library onto an external hd but 2 or 3 minutes into the copying process the comp freezes and restarts.

Any help would be appreciated. I'll have to send it back to Dell but I'd like to know what's going on before I talk to them at customer service.

Thanks,
-MB
 

Attachments

  • Mini091110-01.zip
    21.4 KB · Views: 4
>Something wrong with the hd

Given the report of what happened it is likely.

It may be possible that the drive is okay.
I would use CrystalDiskInfo to do a quick-check on the the drive.
Then, unless you get a flag that your drive health is bad, I would follow that with ChkDsk.
ChkDsk may allow you to recover / repair at least part of your drive.

To use chkdsk,
using windows explorer, right click on your drive then, click properties.
Click the tab that says "tools" .
Under "error checking" click the button that says "check now".

In any case, given the "abuse" that has accidentally happened, I would suggest changing the hard drive, and reinstalling windows.
It may be possible to recover some of your data afterward, using a product like Apricorn's DriveWire.
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=39
Or perhaps even just a usb enclosure for your drive...
but read that as "maybe", not "should be possible".

You may have issues beyond the hard drive.
Let us know how these starting ideas go for you, and we'll go from there.

HTH
 
Thank you very much for your suggestions. I will try what you say and report back tomorrow morning.
Mike
 
So I just ran CrystalDiskInfo and I received a "Caution" health status. The following attributes are yellow flagged:

05 Reallocated Sectors Count: Current-100, Worst-100, Threshold-10
C5 Current Pending Sector Count: Current-100, Worst-100, Threshold-0
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count: Current-100, Worst-100, Threshold-0

Can anybody shed some light on what these cautions might mean? Should I sill run ChkDsk?

I really need to get the music off of this hd. I'd rather not copy 10 files at time (as I have thousdands of songs) or whatever the number of songs it allows me to transfer before it freezes.
 
It is as we feared.

The physical medium of the disk suffered damage in the fall.
As a result there is likely debris within the hard drive which will only continue to do further damage as the drive is used.

You have irretrievably lost some data.
Apricorn (or something similar) may help you to retrieve some of what remains.

What I would suggest is
a. immediately stop using the drive to prevent further damage.
b. replace the drive and reinstall your OS on the new drive.
c. Use the Apricorn Drivewire device, or something similar to then "clone" your remaining data.

At this point I would not recommend ChkDsk as it will go through your drive sector by sector looking for problems, and as it does so, further damage is likely to take place causing further loss of data.

Someone else might suggest another approach, but that is how I would try to salvage what remains.
Sorry I don't have better news for you.
 
Well at least we've figured out the problem. Thank you very much for your help. I'm sure everything will work out in the end.

I'm speaking with a Dell representative right now and they are going to send me a new hd for free. Hopefully that was the only thing that was damaged in the fall.
 
I have a question about using the Apricorn DriveWire device or another similar device. Won't connecting the damaged drive to a device like that simply turn it into an external drive? Won't the drive just freeze again in the copying process? I've received the drive back from Dell and I have 10 business days to get whatever information I can off of the drive before I have to send it back.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hi djoreo

I cannot guarantee that Apricorn's drivewire device will help you recover all, or even most of your data.

I do know from experience that, in some circumstances, it can help you recover data that is otherwise not accessible.

It has been about a year since I last used it, but as I understand it, operating outside of windows, it uses a different process in "cloning" than the normal "file system" being used by windows. Therefore it seems to not be as susceptible to the failures you were experiencing trying to copy files within windows.

All I can say is
1) It is not expensive.
2) It often does retrieve otherwise "lost" data
3) So, I think it is worth a try.

I believe Route44 also may have some experience with it.
I will ask him to add any comments he may have.
I am out of town at the moment, and just had an email saying you had posted, so I thought I would check in between appointments.
Good luck with the process.
I should be back to check in again, sometime on (possibly) Sunday or (more likely) Monday.
 
Thank you very much for your answers (and time). Please don't worry about responding while you're out of town. You've been more than helpful. I'll report back after I give it a try.

Cheers B00kWyrm!
 
Ok. So I got the drive back from Dell and I borrowed a friend's USB 2.0 to SATA adapter (it's a Bytecc USB 2.0 Drive Mate). I was feeling pretty good at this point. I fired up the drive and attached it to my desktop via usb. I see the pop up bubble "you're hardware is ready to use" and think that everything's all good. Well, the drive is nowhere to be found in "My Computer". So I check disk management and I can see the drive but it says that it's unallocated and needs to be initialized (which i'm pretty sure I don't want to do if I want to copy my songs).

To make a long story short, I've spent the last three to four hours reading forum posts and blogs etc. and I still can't get the drive to work. I've read many posts with people having the same issue that i'm having - but no solution. Does anybody in this forum have any experience with this sort of thing.

Last thing, I'm not sure if Dell ran any diagnostics on the drive before they sent it back to me (like Chkdsk or something that might have damaged it further). All I know is that I was able to access the drive when it was installed in the laptop before I sent it away.

-Mike
 
Hi Mike
Been away...
Let me see if I understand...
Dell sent you a new drive?
Dell checked your other drive and sent it back?
You are trying to look at your drive (that fell) from within windows?

Apricorn sometimes will allow you to recover data that is otherwise not accessible from windows.
I know, because I have used it to do so.
What you are doing now, I am not so sure.
 
Sorry maybe I was a little unclear in my previous message.

Dell said that they wouldn't help me get the data off of the damaged drive. They sent it back to me so that I could try to get it off myself. A friend of mine has this device, a Bytecc USB to SATA drive adapter, that allows you to hook up a hard drive without having it installed directly in the computer. When hooked up, the drive is supposed to act like an external hard drive. However, when I hook it up the drive won't pop up in "My Computer". I can see the damaged drive in disk management but it says that the drive is unallocated and needs to be initialized before I can access the drive. I think that it might be the device itself that's the problem because the drive was working "technically" before I sent it away.

I'll have to go buy the Apricorn DriveWire and try it out. I was hoping that this other device would work so that I could save a few bucks. It actually might be a good idea to have apricorn device anyway, because I want to upgrade to a faster, larger drive anyway.
 
Not surprised that Dell wouldn't help with data recovery.
If you want to try a free tool (I have no experience with it, yet, but it comes as a suggestion from a friend)
you might look at TestDisk
this is a freeware "filesystem / data recovery tool".
I have heard that not all cases are successful, but I cannot guarantee that apricorn will be either.
Since this is freeware, it might be worth a try first.

Note: Thanks to LookingAround for this suggestion!
 
TestDisk did not work for me. Thank you for the suggestion though.

I'm picking up the fixed laptop this morning. I'm wondering what would happen if I just put the damaged drive back in my laptop and try to recover as many files as I can. It seems like that might be my last option. Will the drive work in the laptop as it did before?
 
Well i figured out why I couldn't get anything off of the hard drive that Dell sent back to me...IT WASN'T the damaged drive. I received the damaged drive with my fixed laptop this morning. They must have sent me a brand new drive. I'm not sure why.

And the good news is that i'm copying my files from the damaged drive as i'm typing this. Keep my fingers crossed. Thank you again for your time.
 
I used that Bytecc USB 2.0 Drive Mate device that I mentioned above. http://www.byteccusa.com/product/adapter/BT-300/BT-300.htm

It allows me to use the drive like you would an external hd. I've been copying the files 50 or so at a time. Might take me a little time but i'll do whatever I have to. I'm getting the occasional i/o error on certain files but i've almost copied my entire library. It's a beautiful thing.

Thank you again!
 
Hey,
The same problem is happening to me. I have run the CrystalDiskInfo and I also got a Caution health status.

These were yellow flagged-
05 Reallocated Sectors Count: Current- 100, Worst- 100, Threshold- 36
C5 Current Pending Sector Count: Current- 100, Worst- 100, Threshold- 0

Any help on what to do now would be appreciated thanks.
 
hn9821,

I don't know enough about computers to help you. I wish that did. If I were you, I'd start another thread with as many details as possible. The people in this forum are great! Hopefully you'll be able to figure out your problem.
 
Back