Data recovery problem

[N-Guy]

I've had my computer freeze twice already as I need to leave it on for aprox. 2 weeks for the program to fully recover everything. Is there a quicker way to do so? Perhaps a more efficient program?

 

[DelJo63]

what are you trying to recover? Just one/two files or the whole system?

 

[N-Guy]

It was a storage drive, so pretty much the entire thing.

 

[DelJo63]

ok you lost access to a drive; internal, external, USB, SCSI, IDE?

what are your symptoms that require recover?
Did you try SafeBoot and CHKDSK /F and or SFC /scannow?

come on -- don't me so stingy with the description
talk to me -- "What we got here is a failure to commuicate",

Cool Hand Luke​

 

[N-Guy]

IDE

I've had some detection problems for a while with it but I thought it was a loose power cable because whenever I opened the case & replugged the power (it felt kinda loose) the comp could detect it again after turning on. I should've taken those as signs that it was dying

But anyway, eventually it cannot be detected any more - but the windows can still "see" it if I look at it from the disk manager, I did a few things like system restore, safe mode etc and it's now again seen in "My Computers" but if I CLICK on it it'll say that the drive MUST be formatted before it can be used again ;_;

Those safeboot stuff you mentioned, how does that work?

 

[russ]

usually on boot up if you keep pressing the "F8" key it will give you a menu that shows one choice as "boot up in safe mode". This will get you to the desktop with minimal stuff running and you may be able to copy your important stuff to a floppy or usb or cd-r drive. Also you may be able to read the drive if you boot up with a "live cd" which only runs in the memory of the computer and boots up off of the "cd" drive. You can then "mount" the hard drive and can copy the info you need to a usb, floppy or cd-r drive. Puppy has a small download (about 80mb) of version 2.13 or 2.14 that is very "user friendly".

 

[N-Guy]

Russ, thanks for the info, I'll give it a try tomorrow =)

 

[N-Guy]

usually on boot up if you keep pressing the "F8" key it will give you a menu that shows one choice as "boot up in safe mode". This will get you to the desktop with minimal stuff running and you may be able to copy your important stuff to a floppy or usb or cd-r drive. Also you may be able to read the drive if you boot up with a "live cd" which only runs in the memory of the computer and boots up off of the "cd" drive. You can then "mount" the hard drive and can copy the info you need to a usb, floppy or cd-r drive. Puppy has a small download (about 80mb) of version 2.13 or 2.14 that is very "user friendly".

The safe mode thing didn't work, it still says the drive needs to be formatted >_<

 

[russ]

If you have a friend with a live cd you may be able to get stuff off of the hard drive before you format. Also, you can boot with an XP setup cd, and I believe you have a choice of "restoring to an earlier date" option. I know you can do this with windows ME because I have done it, and it is worth a try to do it with xp. If you look around there are other options too, for example, you can fix the"master boot record" if it is convoluted by using and option called " fdisk /mbr" in a dos format(from a bootup on an xp disk) or "fixmbr". Google all of these options and see what you can find. There is also a file called "system.1st" that your computer makes that will allow you to boot from the first registry it made, that may allow you to restore without loosing data.

 

[N-Guy]

Okay I have all my data restored. I formatted the drive & it appears to be functioning normally. SpeedFan detected its fitness at 88%.

After reading Seagate's return policy where they send you a REPAIRED HD in replacement, it makes me feel uneasy about sending it back.

Though it seems to work fine now (With my new 700W PSU), should I keep using it or send it back?

When it was having problems speedfan detected 30% Fitness on it...

 

[DelJo63]

If the drive(s) have S.M.A.R.T. implementations, you can access the failure data
with Everest. If the failures are low, you might keep it, otherwise, I would reformat it and
return it.

 

[N-Guy]

Hmm... I just ran the SeaTools DOS short & long test, it said the HD passed. How reliable is the test? The drive is working but I'm getting a different icon than the other drives.

Could what happened have been just a power hiccup?

My thread about the problem's here:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic71726.html

 

[russ]

I don't know if it's just my experience but I have not come across hard drive failures very often, most of the time it is a "glitch" in the software or a convoluted master boot record (mbr). I have seen many failures of memory modules and power supplys, some motherboard and modem failures but not hard drive failures and it would seem that hard drives would fail more often because of the extreme use of the working parts in them. If I would have to pick out a working part in an old computer (286,386,486,) I would pick out the hard drive.