Question on bad Hard Drive

[Aaron]

I've been having problems with a Hard Drive and I was
hoping someone here would have some insight. My main
drive is a WD 100 GB ATA, split into 2 partitions, C: (30gb)
and D: (70gb). Suddenly a few days ago, I couldn't boot
into Windows XP - it would get through the loading screen
then the computer would automatically reboot. When I
booted off another drive I found I could get to and back
up all the data on D: but every application shows that C:
is dead and won't even read the file system.

I'm almost positive the problem is physical because the drive
makes funny noises when spinning up and also reports SMART
errors for low raw speeds. My question is: since the partition
barier is virtual, it is frustrating that I can read the D
partition freely but cannot access the C partition. Are there
utilities people can suggest which will read files off of the
drive while ignoring headers and partition information? All
of the utilities I have tried won't even recognize that there
is a format on the and refuse to even start reading it.

Thanks for your ideas,
Aaron

 

[Peter]

I've been having problems with a Hard Drive and I was
hoping someone here would have some insight. My main
drive is a WD 100 GB ATA, split into 2 partitions, C: (30gb)
and D: (70gb). Suddenly a few days ago, I couldn't boot
into Windows XP - it would get through the loading screen
then the computer would automatically reboot. When I
booted off another drive I found I could get to and back
up all the data on D: but every application shows that C:
is dead and won't even read the file system.

You may have already taken this into consideration, but I might as well
ask anyway. What o/s did the other drive that you booted off contain?
Was just wondering if it was not XP and that the original C drive was
formatted using ntfs which can only be read by a 2000 or XP o/s.

Alternatively, you could try booting from your XP cd, if you have one,
and then running the recovery console to check the integrity of your C
drive.

 

[Shep©]

I've been having problems with a Hard Drive and I was
hoping someone here would have some insight. My main
drive is a WD 100 GB ATA, split into 2 partitions, C: (30gb)
and D: (70gb). Suddenly a few days ago, I couldn't boot
into Windows XP - it would get through the loading screen
then the computer would automatically reboot. When I
booted off another drive I found I could get to and back
up all the data on D: but every application shows that C:
is dead and won't even read the file system.

I'm almost positive the problem is physical because the drive
makes funny noises when spinning up and also reports SMART
errors for low raw speeds. My question is: since the partition
barier is virtual, it is frustrating that I can read the D
partition freely but cannot access the C partition. Are there
utilities people can suggest which will read files off of the
drive while ignoring headers and partition information? All
of the utilities I have tried won't even recognize that there
is a format on the and refuse to even start reading it.

Thanks for your ideas,
Aaron

Before hardware,try here,
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

HTH



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

 

[the gnome]

Try a program called GetBackData for NTFS or GetBackData

you can download and try them before buying to see what is able to be
recovered.

And, did you do a BiOS update to cause the problem.

the_gnome