Hard Drive Crash Problem Options

[Hahninator]

Guys I hate to post this kind of thing in the News but I'm in a dire situation. I've had a 250gb external hard drive that I got in mid 2005 right around the time of Live 8 and right now, it has just absolutely died. 4 years worth of my data is on it and I am pretty clueless on what to do. All of my Linkin Park shows are on it - audio and DVD...all of my music (albums) by other bands....all of my pictures that I've taken since 2006 with my camera are on there. I think I can pay to get it fixed but I was wondering if it's possible to fix it myself. I don't want to mess anything up, so if anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks.

[Threewingedfury]

You could try to buy a new enclosure to put it in off eBay. My hard drive fried a while back and I realized that the controls caught fire on the enclosure and not on the hdd itself. It may be worth a try, but then again, it may not work at all.

[INK 1 2Many]

That was your only back-up?
woah, might be a whole lot safer to take it to a professional because 4 years of data is priceless, especially to remember everything you had in there.

[jannelp]

Try giving us some more info, i.e., what OS are you using, what happens when you plug it in, etc...

[linkindude]

hey
i m not sure its gona work or not but u can try it
it worked 4 me
even i was in the same situation 2 weeks ago

if u are using windows xp

u can insert xp cd and reboot it

as the precess starts

1. press enter to begin intallation
2. it will show the drive in which previous windows was installed
3. select it and press R to repair it
4. the precess will start and there is no loss of data but make sure u dont have any stuff in drive u have windows.

best of luck

[Hahninator]

Windows XP, a Western Digital 250gb HD. It's like the computer recognizes it almost but it doesn't. When I plug it in and try to open shit like Firefox, nothing opens. When I unplug the external HD, Firefox will open for example. It's very weird but I've tested it multiple times and that's proven to be true. IE, Firefox, other programs, etc. Anyway it starts up and acts like it's running, and then bam a click and it shuts down. It's like it goes into hibernating mode but it's not showing up under My Computer at all, etc. You can tell it clicks and then basically just about shuts down completely.

[springer]

First and foremost, try it on another computer, and try using a different cable. That will rule out 2 problems (computer, cable) right off the bat.

Is the Hard drive an enclosure? (i.e. easy to unscrew the case, and remove the hard drive, which happens to be the exact same type of hard drive computers use internally)

Don't do what linkindude suggested. That would be for when your hard drive with your operating system (Windows) crashes.

I know there are programs out there that can either fix your hard drive, or try to retrieve data off a broken hard drive, but I have no idea which ones are good and bad.. i've never done any research on that kind of thing.

It might be best to get a professionals advice, and they could find out exactly what is wrong with it.

Once you get it fixed, always buy 2 hard drives at a time and keep them both in sync with all of your data.

[v1c70r]

Put an Ubuntu Live CD and reboot the system. Press to Try Ubuntu without Installing and then on Places, click on your Hard Drive. If you get an error mounting the hard disk, simply put on the instructions that appears on it. If you have any doubt feel free to contact me via email or msn. Good luck!

[Hahninator]

Yeah it's enclosed. Thanks for the info, I'll check it out.

[LINkin0827]

sounds like a physical hard drive error

i'm not sure what the best thing to do is, but i've heard that a desperate last attempt, nothing-to-lose situation would be to stick the drive in the freezer for a few hours. i know it sounds insane, but apparently it'll stiffen up whatever parts so that they're in usable positions, hopefully long enough for you to access and pull off all your data. i've tried it myself in hopeless situations and it hasn't worked, but some others online have had success stories.

i don't expect you to try this, but whatever you do, good luck

[MikeShinoda]

Hi Mark,
I've also a software that can recover 90% of the hard drive...I had the same error some years ago..If you need help I'm on msn...

valerio

[Wilderness]

By the sounds of it, from recent experience, it sounds like your hard drive may have a Trojan on it, which is known to be a variation of Vundo.

Have a look on google on how to cure yourself from it. Also copy and paste your problem onto Yahoo answers, some great people with great help on there!

[XefuzioNr]

take a look here if nothing else seems to work.
www.recovermyfiles.com
Or any other recovery software, i did it for a client and it worked .

[ana]

yeah you should use a date revovery software.

I think thats the same a professional will do, but id rather recommend you to go to a professional if it's so important.

Usually you can download testware of those kinds of software and they will only recover..30%..

[rawrzar]

Yeah I would get professional help. Since it's important data on the hard drive, you don't want to risk messing it up more while you're trying to fix it yourself. Do try what springer suggested and plug it into another computer first. It is strange that it is crashing your other programs as well.

[AlexonlyAlex]

try to delete your hdd driver in the hardware manager. Than plug the hdd in your pc again. I had almost the same thing.

[linkindude]

Windows XP, a Western Digital 250gb HD. It's like the computer recognizes it almost but it doesn't. When I plug it in and try to open shit like Firefox, nothing opens. When I unplug the external HD, Firefox will open for example. It's very weird but I've tested it multiple times and that's proven to be true. IE, Firefox, other programs, etc. Anyway it starts up and acts like it's running, and then bam a click and it shuts down. It's like it goes into hibernating mode but it's not showing up under My Computer at all, etc. You can tell it clicks and then basically just about shuts down completely.

k

but i think trying to reparing with watever cd provided will work

[SergSlim]

I'd recommend to provide more info about what type of connection you are using - USB, FireWire, eSATA?
Try connecting it directly to the MB of your PC, if you can remove it from the external box.

Maybe try using http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm to check your HDD's S.M.A.R.T. if it will be identified by the software.

If you connect it directly to your MB through (S)ATA, check if BIOS correctly identifies the HDD during PC Boot. If not - then I'd recommend going straight to proffesionals. Might be serios hardware problems with it. If it is identified by the BIOS correctly, then you should try other methods of recovery on your own.

[AndOne]

If it's a mechanical problem, stop using it immediately and take it to a professional.
A few HDD's died under my reign in the last years too, but in most of my cases the file structure was "just" fucked.

[sizedude]

My power supply screwed up a few months back and one of my internal SATA drives wasn't showing, got a new power supply and then it decided to show itself (in BIOS and in Windows). I think externals have bigger power issues as a lot of them just draw power straight from the USB.

I recomend trying it on another comp, if that doesn't work its not worth risking making the matter worse (especially with unreplaceable data like pics) and probably just best taking it to a professional. A lot of the time all the data is recoverable.

I REALLY need to start backing up my data.

good luck though man, tell us if you get it sorted.