Help!! I are not good with computer...

[the_lone_wolf]

A little help from those with more knowledge than me...

I have the following drives in my computer:

C - System disk, 74GB
F - Storage, 1TB
G - Storage, 1TB
H - Storage, 750GB
I - Storage, 2TB

All was well until recently drive F became unreadable, it began with the occasional chirp during playback of audio files stored on the drive, or the occasional glitch when playing back video, then after a few days I rebooted and Windows will not access the volume, when you double click on the drive letter in "My Computer" it gives the error:

"F:\ is not accessible

The parameter is incorrect"

The physical drive spins up fine and Speedfan can read it's S.M.A.R.T details, which are supposedly fine

Drive contains all my media, not irreplaceable but time consuming and very annoying to recreate as it was almost full

Recuva finds a load of files, I think all of them, and I'm in the process of recovering as much as possible to the new 2TB drive before trying to fix F, but it would be nice if it was something simple like a corrupted file table that could be rebuilt and save me sifting through 50,000+ files manually to recreate their folder structure...

Any ideas? Computer is Windows 7 and all drives are NTFS format with a single partition on each drive

[keithd]

Is it a Dell?

[the_lone_wolf]

No, built myself a couple of years back, can give you a component list if it'll help?

[Bri w]

its buggered

[Bibio]

the chirp is usually the bearings going south at which point the head usually crashes onto the platter causing the drive to be unreadable.

or it could just be a loose cable somewhere, or your powersupply getting a bit tired.

have you tried plugging it into another port to see if its the port or power?

[the_lone_wolf]

the chirp is usually the bearings going south at which point the head usually crashes onto the platter causing the drive to be unreadable.

or it could just be a loose cable somewhere, or your powersupply getting a bit tired.

have you tried plugging it into another port to see if its the port or power?

The chirp is in the audio being played back, not coming from the drive... Nothing to indicate the drive itself is failing, had several do that before so know what to look for...

Not tried a different SATA port yet, considering the drive is responding just fine to recovery software it makes me think the problem isn't hardware

[Bibio]

could be windows playing funny burger (wouldn't be the first time) as said try another port or a usb enclosure.

[andrewsmith]

I would pull it out the machine and try it on a external unit on different machine.
It does sound like the drive is starting to fail catastrophically replacement is recommended

I'm guessing your set up of drives is:
C: OS
D: CD Drive
then F-I as you've described

when did you put it up to 7 spec as 7 is just as bad as vista for being temperamental.

[Dave20046]

That's a lot o' porn!

Does the bios see the drive fine?

[the_lone_wolf]

Does the bios see the drive fine?Yep...

Drive appears in BIOS and My Computer, just isn't accessible

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr243/ktm_wolf/misc/comp1.png

ETA: pr0nz not on this drive;) - Only Music/Films/TV and My Documents, thankfully they're backed up to another drive nightly...

[Dave20046]

How long exactly's recuva going to take? If you can wait, I'd let it backup, run a diag on the disk - if all's ok format it and use with caution. If not okay it may be under warranty a lot of drives carry 3 year warranties (some, more).

[the_lone_wolf]

How long exactly's recuva going to take? If you can wait, I'd let it backup, run a diag on the disk - if all's ok format it and use with caution. If not okay it may be under warranty a lot of drives carry 3 year warranties (some, more).

Recuva takes a few hours to deep scan the disk

Haven't had the space to recover files yet but now I have the new drive it should easily do them overnight, after that I'm more confident trying things to see if the file system is salvageable, if so then great, if not I'll hopefully have got some of the stuff off it so I shouldn't need to get it again.

Already passed all WD diagnostics, and as above, not seen anything that screams failing drive yet, but we'll see. My suspicion/hope is that the MFT and/or partition table is corrupt, and should be repairable, but I don't want to do anything to the volume until I've run recovery for the files...

[fizzwheel]

My suspicion/hope is that the MFT and/or partition table is corrupt, and should be repairable, but I don't want to do anything to the volume until I've run recovery for the files...

Sounds like the above. If it was head crash or bearings, it would be properly screwed and be very obvious that that was the case.

I think you are going down the right path, I'd not do anything else till you've run the recovery program, including turning it off and on again ;)

[BigBaddad]

Sounds like it could be your reg/rec.

[the_lone_wolf]

Sounds like the above. If it was head crash or bearings, it would be properly screwed and be very obvious that that was the case.

I think you are going down the right path, I'd not do anything else till you've run the recovery program, including turning it off and on again ;)

Had to reboot it once to attach the new drive, doesn't seem to have affected it and it span up as normal

Still waiting on Recuva - 147085 files found so far - and I have a niggling doubt I've managed to set it going on drive C rather than F :rolleyes:


Edit: Oh dear!! 230,900 files - this is going to take a long time to sift through...

[Dave20046]

Sounds like it could be your reg/rec.

+10

:geek:

[Viney]

Should Buy A Mac

[the_lone_wolf]

Should Buy A Mac

I was all ready to tell the first Apple suggester to claim their free slap at the next AR, but having seen the size of you I'll reconsider...;)

[andrewsmith]

Should Buy A Mac

+1

[warrenhewitt10]

macs suffer from drive failures too! my first macbook only lasted 1 month before breaking! had my current one for over a year now tho :)

but yes they are just better lol

[-Ralph-]

If it's not the drive doesn't the event viewer give you any clues?

[andrewsmith]

aint had a spectacular failure with mine. On the 3rd keyboard tho

But better and runs windows seamlessly

[the_lone_wolf]

If it's not the drive doesn't the event viewer give you any clues?

I didn't think to look there - will go have a goosey...:cool:

And can the mac boys nip off and spooge over photos of Mr. Jobs in another thread please...;)

[andrewsmith]

ive gt a mac cos i loathe vista and 7. Ive spent more time fixing and bypassin the faults then using it.

Good 1 ralph 4 gt about tht route. The other is put the machine into safe mode nd inspect the disc

[the_lone_wolf]

ive gt a mac cos i loathe vista and 7. Ive spent more time fixing and bypassin the faults then using it.

I've spent more time on your posts fixing and bypassing the faults than reading them mate...:p

[barwel1992]

this forum is worse than a computer forum for the mac vs pc crap

we all know mac's are crap..... some people just dont like to admit it :P (ps im not talking about the OS)


TLW if the problem presists swap the cables for the drive and see if its the drive or the cable/slot then change the cable if the other hard drive has the same problem if not the cable then probs the Mboard socket(plug)

[the_lone_wolf]

Recuva decided after 6hrs of scanning the moment I hit "Recover" would be just doodly to cause windows to drop the disk

Hoo-****ing-ray...

Currently running GetDataBack to see what it can scrape

Testdisk has written the correct partition table information but both the MFT and mirror MFT are corrupt, so it looks a little bleak

GDB seems to be able to read the non-corrupted sections of the MFT so hopefully I'll salvage some data

However, the scan is currently at an ETA of over 9hrs - so I believe the expression "**** this for a game of soldiers" is apt and I'm off to bed...

[suzsv650]

Use Spinrite, should get all of your data back.

[-Ralph-]

I'm guessing 'restore from backup' isn't going to be a popular answer ;-)

[the_lone_wolf]

I'm guessing 'restore from backup' isn't going to be a popular answer ;-)

I understand the concept of backup:p

As above, all my documents are backed up on G nightly, these are also now backed up on H while F is down and will be restored once I have a functional hard drive

My most important stuff like family photos are also stored on my Dad's computer the other side of the Island, so even if the house burns down I can replace them

But back up ~900GB of music/video that's replaceable? Not worth it even if I did have the space...


As it happens GetDataBack has found pretty much my entire file structure by reading the non-corrupted parts of the MFT, so hopefully most of my stuff is coming back and I won't have to replace it all...

[-Ralph-]

But back up ~900GB of music/video that's replaceable? Not worth it even if I did have the space...

Don't think about the perceived value of the data, think about the amount of time that it's cost you so far trying to recover it, and the amount of downloading you'd have to do to replace it. Worth 50 quid at least

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002E7HEVU/ref=asc_df_B002E7HEVU744339?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002E7HEVU

Glad DataGetBack seems to be working anyway.

[the_lone_wolf]

Don't think about the perceived value of the data, think about the amount of time that it's cost you so far trying to recover it, and the amount of downloading you'd have to do to replace it. Worth 50 quid at least

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002E7HEVU/ref=asc_df_B002E7HEVU744339?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B002E7HEVU

Glad DataGetBack seems to be working anyway.

TBH now I have the 2TB drive I may well consider putting the two 1TB drives in a mirrored RAID

But most of the stuff on there is stuff I've watched and then hoarded when in reality I'm unlikely to use it again, it'd probably be good to have a clear out...

[phil24_7]

Have you tried hitting it with a hammer? I know people who swear by this technique! :)

[beabert]

I suggest you start using raid with redunacy in the future, then when 1 goes swap the drive and the data can be reconstruced. RIAD 5 is the one you want, if i recall correctly.