Help! Hard drive problem after XP Pro install

[John S.]

My boot drive died so I had to do a fresh install of XP on a new boot
drive. After the install the partition on the secondary drive was
missing! The drive was a 120Gb Western Digital IDE, but now reports to
be an 8Gb drive! I've tried some free software which recovers deleted
partitions and these report the drive as faulty and unreadable!

I've had to disconnect the drive now as it makes a clunking noise like
it's trying to spin up and then switching off. I can't believe 2 drives
can fail at the same time...

Does anyone have any suggestions to recover the data?

 

[Mistoffolees]

My boot drive died so I had to do a fresh install of XP on a new boot
drive. After the install the partition on the secondary drive was
missing! The drive was a 120Gb Western Digital IDE, but now reports to
be an 8Gb drive! I've tried some free software which recovers deleted
partitions and these report the drive as faulty and unreadable!

I've had to disconnect the drive now as it makes a clunking noise like
it's trying to spin up and then switching off. I can't believe 2 drives
can fail at the same time...

Does anyone have any suggestions to recover the data?

Don't quite panic yet. Go through the standard checkouts for
the hard drives, starting with their connections to the ribbon
cable. Check jumpering, especially if the hard drives are of
mixed manufacture. Check for Master, Slave and CSel settings
and make sure that they conform to the cable being used. In
bios setup, see that the drives are being auto-detected for
large size.

After Windows has started, use Disk Management to check that
the 120 GB Western Digital drive is identified, along with its
partitioning information. And also that it is "healthy". Run
the diagnostic tools (in this case, from Western Digital). But
the "clunking" sound is ominous.

And, yes, there is the possibility of bad luck. I remember the
time when an entire batch of HD's was defective and the entire
lot number was recalled (quietly). For this reason, it always
pay to establish a sound backup policy and follow it. The going
rate to recover a 120-GB hard drive is in the mid-thousands (USD).

 

[John S.]

Thanks for your reply. I can't get the PC to start Win XP with the
drive connected, it just sits there at the WinXP start-up screen.
Luckily I do have a backup, but from a couple of months ago, so all
isn't lost. I was hoping someone could suggest what the problem with
the drive might be i.e why does it shows as being an 8Gb drive not the
120 it should be? I've run auto detect in the BIOS many times and it
remains at 8Gb.

 

[Mistoffolees]

Thanks for your reply. I can't get the PC to start Win XP with the
drive connected, it just sits there at the WinXP start-up screen.
Luckily I do have a backup, but from a couple of months ago, so all
isn't lost. I was hoping someone could suggest what the problem with
the drive might be i.e why does it shows as being an 8Gb drive not the
120 it should be? I've run auto detect in the BIOS many times and it
remains at 8Gb.

There is not enough information here to do a total analysis,
although one might hazard a guess that the circuit board of
the hard drive became defective. If this is the situation,
then the recovery problem simplifies for a professional outfit.
It could be as simple as replacing the circuit board and then
offloading the contents of the HD (and there is some voodoo
involved here and the process is not as simple as it sounds.)
Get a consultation.

 

[John S.]

Thanks. What info would you like to know? The 120Gb disk had been
making a high pitched buzzing noise, then my 80Gb boot disk failed, so
I replaced it, reinstalled Win XP Pro (twice!) and found the partition
on the 120Gb secondary drive had gone!

I disconnected the 120Gb drive, installed all my software on the boot
drive, then plugged the drive back in, but Win XP would not boot with
the 120Gb drive plugged in (it now made the clunking noise and reported
to be an 8Gb drive in BIOS). I used some DOS tools which report the
disk as unreadable.

I might take your advice and get a consultation...

 

[Mistoffolees]

Thanks. What info would you like to know? The 120Gb disk had been
making a high pitched buzzing noise, then my 80Gb boot disk failed, so
I replaced it, reinstalled Win XP Pro (twice!) and found the partition
on the 120Gb secondary drive had gone!

I disconnected the 120Gb drive, installed all my software on the boot
drive, then plugged the drive back in, but Win XP would not boot with
the 120Gb drive plugged in (it now made the clunking noise and reported
to be an 8Gb drive in BIOS). I used some DOS tools which report the
disk as unreadable.

I might take your advice and get a consultation...

Get a preliminary analysis or consultation. It would be good
luck if the problem is the circuit board although the sounds
made by the HD are also ominous. The reason I asked for the
additional information was to confirm for the jumpering, the
type of IDE ribbon cable being used (40 vs. 80-conductor), CSel
enabled, etc., in order to find a reason for the 8 GB reading.

 

[John S.]

Thanks for everyones help, WD are going to replace the drive. Pity
about the lost data...