HDD corruption

[kimbo.ati]

So heres the rap,

i have used the same install of windows XP for around 2-3 years without a format. ive updated all pc components in that time but kept the same install. of course i used all the relative driver cleaners before hand to reduce any clashes. I always kept the system clean and virus/ spyware free. never missed a beat until...

A few days ago i left my computer on all day whilst at work only to come home to a moniter screen which displayed 'no signal detected' so decided to reset it. then windows loading screen came on and near the end of the loading phase BSOD. i decided to boot in every other mode all followed with BSOD. i have never come across this before in my experience. I am very desperate to recover a few files within my documents including uni work and photos amounst other things <1gb in total id say.

to rule out hardware failure i tried booting it with another computer but BSOD still follows. it must be a software issue. or perhaps the hard drive it self?

i also threw the HDD in an external hard drive box and tried to load it as a mass storage device it does show up however i cant access it because it says it needs to be formatted. also windows displays the drive as empty instead of partially full which it should be.

any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
im sure this comes up alot but it does teach a valuable lesson to back up!

thanks,

kim

 

[B00kWyrm]

Hello Kimbo
I would suggest that you d/l the tools from the website of the company that made your drive.
Most major drive manufacturers offer such tools.
Some are great... and highly recommended.
Not all are fully compatible with hardware from other makers.
SeaTools may be useful across makers, but I cannot say that it may be used with all.
That is why I suggest going to the maker of your drive.
(When I changed drives, I found that the WD utility was better for my new WD drive, and the Toshiba utility better for the old drive).
Again, YMMV.

Run both S.M.A.R.T. and Long tests, especially the Long.
This will let you know if the drive is bad, and (hopefully) whether anything can be recovered.

 

[kimbo.ati]

ok great

its a relatively new western digital 250gig sata drive. always ran defragments and other disk checkers/scanners through tuneup uttilities so hopefully i can get the files i need.

i wasnt aware they had such tools but ill check it out and finger crossed

 

[raybay]

We need to go back to basics... We need your brand and model of computer or motherboard, and hardware configuration.
Any of a number of things could have gone bad... CPU fan, hard drive, memory module, power supply rail, or other hardware.
And it can be as simple as too much dust and lint in the CPU fan, power supply fan, or elsewhere raising the temperatures...

 

[kimbo.ati]

i upgraded everything accept the power supply and hard drive about 1 month ago.
Im currently running the extended hard drive diagnosis downloaded from the WD website.

Thermaltake 430w psu
Asus PSKPL/1600
Intel Duo 3ghz
corsair 4gb DDR2 800mhz 5-5-5-18 (2x2gb sticks)
MSI Geforce 7800gt
Western Digital 250gig SATA Caviar SE16

 

[kimbo.ati]

my god that hard drive diagnostic actually worked funny how ive never heard of it.
it found one bad sector which i deleted and its come back to life!

VERY happy now thanks!

 

[B00kWyrm]

Glad to be able to help.