Can Windows Lose a PATA HDD or is it knackered?

[Kardon Coupé]

Dear All,

The other day I did a reset on my pc, it took forever to reset, then I'd
lost a drive......

Fearing the worst, I went on the hunt for HDD recovery programs..

The Drive is (when plugged in) showing in device manager, but not Disk
managment.

When plugged in machine takes forever to start up, the blue bar scrolls and
scrolls (which gives me slight doubts the OS is corrupt), using any 3rd
party apps won't detect the drive, but Seatools Win32 see's it, but causes
problems when 'detecting drives', so I thought, ok, DOS Based ISO Disk to
book, which I did, and it see's it, and did an advanced test didn't come up
with any errors? When the machine has booted up (after ages) when I'm doing
stuff, windows appears to be looking at the (or a) drive, HDD light on for
ages, and applications slow or even freeze for a few mins....

I'm wondering if something has mucked my pc up, some how? I did have an
issue with my Email Client, which I needed to re-install IE6 to IE7 to get
it fixed, I've scanned my pc for spyware, etc, but I'm thinking maybe (or
hopefully) there is something I can fix or change whilst the HDD is not
connected, so when I reset it re-detects it, and fixes the issues.......

I Don't want to have to resort to a re-install if the drive is knackered....

Hope someone can point me in the right direction before I relegate the HDD
to the bin and lose all the stuff on it.

Regards
Paul.

 

[smlunatick]

Happened to me last May (2007.) My primary drive got a corrupted MFT section.
Replaced it and "shelved" my old drive.

Then, in Feb 2008, I placed my older drive into a USB case and went searching
for disk data recovery systems.

TestDisk was able to "rebuild" the partition (in RAM) but somehow I could not
save files.

File Scavenger found all my files but the "free" features only allow the
recovery (to a different hard drive) small files.

 

[Kardon Coupé]

Thanks for the info, I'll have a go at that tomorrow....

Happened to me last May (2007.) My primary drive got a corrupted MFT
section.
Replaced it and "shelved" my old drive.

Then, in Feb 2008, I placed my older drive into a USB case and went
searching
for disk data recovery systems.

TestDisk was able to "rebuild" the partition (in RAM) but somehow I could
not
save files.

File Scavenger found all my files but the "free" features only allow the
recovery (to a different hard drive) small files.

 

[Kenny]

I've had success recovering files from an apparently dead HDD with Easy
Recovery Pro.
Also HDD Regenerator apparently "fixed" an HDD with numerous bad sectors.

 

[Kardon Coupé]

Very Confused......

Finally got around to removing the drive and chucking it on the USB
Adapter/Caddy and fearing the worst, I plugged it, windows detected it, and
read it like there was nothing wrong?

I'm error checking (chkdsk) it now, just to see, failing that, I'm stumped
as to why when it was connected to the IDE cable it was causing problems.

Any other pointers I should be looking out for?

Regards

 

[Kardon Coupé]

Cancel that last message...

After a while of scan disking it, it failed, I think it is an heating issue
and it is defo on it's way out....

I'm gonna let it cool down and grab off it what i can..... and replace
it....

 

[smlunatick]

Cancel that last message...

After a while of scan disking it, it failed, I think it is an heating issue
and it is defo on it's way out....

I'm gonna let it cool down and grab off it what i can..... and replace
it....









- Show quoted text -

One suggestion to help to keep the drive cool during the recovery:

Get a desk fan and direct the airflow over the drive.

 

[Kardon Coupé]

Well, managed to get all my stuff on the defunct hdd... =-)

on a plus side, I'd managed to fry a pcb on a similar hdd 12 months ago
(them silly molex splitters that the plastic is very soft, and I managed to
put it in the wroing way around), luckily I kept it, I swapped the PCB's
over, and whazam, managed to access that too....Bonus....

Thanks for all your help and advice....
Regards
Paul.

Cancel that last message...

After a while of scan disking it, it failed, I think it is an heating
issue
and it is defo on it's way out....

I'm gonna let it cool down and grab off it what i can..... and replace
it....









- Show quoted text -

One suggestion to help to keep the drive cool during the recovery:

Get a desk fan and direct the airflow over the drive.