cyclic redundancy error

[Newsie]

Hi, last week my computer would not start, it kept going into safe mode. (XP
SP2) I'm sure it was due to malware/etc. so I phoned tech support (Gateway)
and after a several dollar phone call it was determined the drive crashed,
so they sent me another one.

The tech also advised me that after I installed and setup the new drive to
put the old drive in as a 'slave' and hopefully recover some of the data.

I did that, the drive showed up as e:drive and when I click to open I got
the message: Cyclic redundancy error: data error. Then it asked if I wanted
to format the drive.

I've been researching this but haven't found anything that I can understand.

Any suggestions? or is the drive kapoot? Thanks much--
N

 

[Glen]

How important is the data? Only you can decide if its worth the trouble.
Search google for data recovery software and see if you can get a shareware
trial. You can then see if any data is recoverable and decide if the cost of
buying the program is worth it. You will probably find its not worth the
trouble even if some is recoverable. Don't buy any software before trying if
its recoverable.

 

[Guest]

Also some stores such as future shop do a data recovery service. Howeverthey
charge an arm and a leg

 

[Newsie]

Hi Glen and Andrew,
thank you both for your input.
I have an external data port that I hooked up to my laptop with the bad
drive connected to it. Downloaded a demo of a program called R-Studio. Very
nice program, it gives you alot of info about your system drives even if you
don't need it for recovery purposes. Anyway, I did a scan of the bad drive
and it kept finding bad sector after bad sector. All with the cyclic
redundancey error. So I have to face the fact that this drive is no longer
usable. Hard to believe malware/adware/etc. could damage a system this bad.
The data on the drive is important but not so much to pay for a full
recovery.

You may want to check out R-Studio (google search) for future references.

Thanks again
N

 

[Guest]

I'm not 100% sure but I don't think malware can cause bad sectors on a hard
disk. Perhaps it could have been caused by a magnet coming to close or the
computer being bumped around. Anyway good luck.