Dead Hard Drive

[Bravo Company]

It seems my hard drive has died, I can't load up Windows and the Windows disk repair says it can't find one so I'm pretty much screwed. If you know any ways for recovering info I'd be glad to hear him, I can boot up into windows very rarely but can never seem to log into an account which has me stumped. The hard drive doesn't make any strange noises, it sounds like it's spinning normally. I don't know what the issue with it is, its just saying it can't find OS and/or it starts up a Nvidia boot agent that says reinstall windows. Which I don't want to do.


I think I have to get a replacement, Would you reccommend a 1TB? something under $150 is my budget. I would also like it to not die on me in another 3 years like this one did.
I know pretty much jack about HDDs so a crash course would be nice.

It was a pre built computer so I can't expect much


I'm looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gb_hard_drive_internal-_-22-136-294-_-Product

Replys will be slow sense I don't have another computer.

 

[Ric]

It seems my hard drive has died, I can't load up Windows and the Windows disk repair says it can't find one so I'm pretty much screwed.


I'l Like to get a replacement, Would you reccommend a 1TB? something under $150 is my budget. I would also like it to not die on me in another 3 years like this one did.


It was a pre built computer so I can't expect much


I'm looking at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...gb_hard_drive_internal-_-22-136-294-_-Product

Replys will be slow sense I don't have another computer.

I have the same one except mine is the 1tb version.
No read/write delays, it's pretty good.
Mine is 90 dollars, but I bought mine at BestBuy.

 

[PD187]

That hard drive should be fine but for $30 more, you could have triple the space (if that matters). Also, for $9 to $20 more, you can double the space

Another idea is to check if your drive is still under warranty. When I have a hard drive drive, I've noticed that the Seagates/Maxtors are still under warranty but the Western Digitals aren't.

 

[iOprah]

If you want the data off a drive that is bad, its really hard to recover data, if it is really and really important you can bring it to best buy but they charge a lot. To just look at it and diagnose the problem is $350 then depending on the damage could be $400-$700 more, like I said unless you have like life or death things on it no reason.

 

[NUFAN]

Check to see if you BIOS recognizes the drive. If so, it could just have bad sectors.

2 Things to do here:

1. If you don't need any data off it, format it so this way it will ignore bad sectors and you can re-install the O/S

2. If you really want the data, bring your hd to a friend's have him slave the drive to his computer and drag files over. Or you could buy a new HD install the O/S and slave your old drive.

Good Luck.

 

[Bravo Company]

Check to see if you BIOS recognizes the drive. If so, it could just have bad sectors.

2 Things to do here:

1. If you don't need any data off it, format it so this way it will ignore bad sectors and you can re-install the O/S

2. If you really want the data, bring your hd to a friend's have him slave the drive to his computer and drag files over. Or you could buy a new HD install the O/S and slave your old drive.

Good Luck.

My BIOS won't recognize the drive. Can I still slave it if won't recognize it? That would be great. As I said, it sounds like its spinning, its not making any loud clicking noises or whatnot.

 

[ChArMz]

My BIOS won't recognize the drive. Can I still slave it if won't recognize it? That would be great. As I said, it sounds like its spinning, its not making any loud clicking noises or whatnot.

Yes you could still slave if it if its still spinning. If it's saying it cant find the OS you still have a shot at recovering any data that you may want so go for it

 

[alf_]

I just went through this myself a few months ago-I feel your pain.

You can try putting it into a bag in the freezer overnight and you may be able to get data off if the board is having issues with heat flexing. It's not a terribly common problem, but it may work for you.

If the BIOS isn't seeing it you can try to listen/feel for the platters are spinning. If they are, it's one of two things, either a bad controller board or a problem with the heads.

If you can find an identical controller board on eBay (board revision and firmware must match) you can try swapping them. Ideally, you're looking for an exact match of a fully functional drive.

Start by swapping the controller board. It's usually a few torx screws holding it in. If it works, consider yourself lucky and back up your computer. If not, you're looking at a platter/head swap or professional recovery.

If there is more than one platter in the drive DO NOT attempt to swap the platters. They need to be perfectly aligned as your OS can't put the 1's and 0's back together again if they move. I opened up my failed drive after finding a donor and much to my surprise there were two platters as opposed to the one I was expecting based on manufacturer spec sheets.

I should have swapped the read write heads, not the platters as I later determined the motor driving the heads was bad. I wanted my data, but didn't want to spend well over $750 to get it back. I found out on my particular drive I could have removed the heads without messing up the platters since they were parked.

If you open a drive, don't expect to use it for any long term period of time. This is usually done by experts at data recovery centers with clean rooms for the sole purpose of copying your data off onto another drive. If it works, copy the data off immediately and consider yourself VERY lucky.

 

[Bravo Company]

Ok, I got my second drive and I've installed windows on it. I can pull up my old drive (E: now) and see all my files, I tried using the software that came with my new HDD (seagate) but it won't let me clone my old drive onto my new one while I'm booted with the new one. Sense Booting with my old one is hit and miss with alot of reboots I don't want to kill my GPU with lots of on/off cycles and what not.


Can someone explain to me how to setup a master/slave, do I need any special wires or whatnot?

 

[crazyrockets]

If you are using SATA to connect the drive (which I am guessing you are based on the replacement drive you asked us about) you actually don't have a master-slave mode. Master-slave was mainly used by older PATA drives to let the drive know which location it was at on the PATA 40 pin connector cable. Since SATA drives are serialized (you can only have one driver per cable), you don't have as many of the configuration hassles.

As such, if you connect the sata drive, configure it in bios (if necessary) and configure it in the operating system (usually automatic) you are done for the drive setup.

If the system is crashing when you are booting off your old drive, you probably want to copy all the data off and make it into an expensive drink coaster. You might be able to use it as a secondary drive, but you will most likely still have problems with it.

 

[Bravo Company]

If you are using SATA to connect the drive (which I am guessing you are based on the replacement drive you asked us about) you actually don't have a master-slave mode. Master-slave was mainly used by older PATA drives to let the drive know which location it was at on the PATA 40 pin connector cable. Since SATA drives are serialized (you can only have one driver per cable), you don't have as many of the configuration hassles.

As such, if you connect the sata drive, configure it in bios (if necessary) and configure it in the operating system (usually automatic) you are done for the drive setup.

If the system is crashing when you are booting off your old drive, you probably want to copy all the data off and make it into an expensive drink coaster. You might be able to use it as a secondary drive, but you will most likely still have problems with it.

OK cool, So I can just copy EVERYTHING onto the new one, windows and everything sense I installed windows on the new drive right now. (thats how I'm typing this )

 

[crazyrockets]

You will only want to copy personal files and settings (Documents, music, pictures, favorites, ect...). Copying operating system files without using a drive cloning utility doesn't usually work, too many are hidden or otherwise protected to prevent it. You also should reinstall any programs you had installed before (again, too much is lost with just copying-mainly registry entries to tell it where to look for files or settings).

If you can get your hands on a drive cloning utility, maybe Norton Ghost, you can let it make an image of your old drive, and then restore that image on the new drive. This can sometimes do harmless but funky things if the drives aren't exactly the same size, but it usually works well.

 

[Bravo Company]

OK, I'm started up with my new hard drive that just has a clean windows install on it, I have Acronis 2010 trial version. I want to copy my old hard drive to my new one while using the new one. I go to start up the clone HDD in Acronis and it says that some useful info may be deleted. Will the clone just copy over the clean windows files without me having to do anything?


I'm just trying to not lose all my data what would be otherwise impossible for me to get, which includes losing some money too...

 

[Bravo Company]

I cloned my HDD over and everything seems to be working ok. The only issue I have is I can't log onto my master account but google should help me there.


EDIT:


I fixed my master account, it got into a backup state somehow and I had to edit some registry numbers but its all working now.


Thanks for you help everyone.

 

[NUFAN]

Congrats