Second hard drive

[Captain Henk]

Greetings;

I have an HP Pavilion xt938 that I've had about 3 years.

I have a second hard drive (Maxtor) that's been installed for about one year
without problems. Now I am getting an error message that the drive is not
formatted. In My Computer it shows the drive letter but no size.
I did recently defrag it with PerfectDisk, but I don't believe it's the
first time I've done that.

Do I have to reformat it and lose all data that's on it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Henk Verwey

 

[Matt Gibson]

Usually when a drive does that, it means it's either toast, or on the way
out.

I wouldn't have much hope of getting anything back off it.

Matt Gibson - GSEC

 

[Orin Oríg]

Greetings;

I have an HP Pavilion xt938 that I've had about 3 years.

I have a second hard drive (Maxtor) that's been installed for about one year
without problems. Now I am getting an error message that the drive is not
formatted. In My Computer it shows the drive letter but no size.
I did recently defrag it with PerfectDisk, but I don't believe it's the
first time I've done that.

Do I have to reformat it and lose all data that's on it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Henk Verwey

You are experiencing the early sign of a drive that is about to fail because
of a virus or worm infection.

If your computer can still read the data on this drive, backup the data . .
.. as many as you can that the situation allows you.

Then, you may watch your drive die slowly . . . or you can reformat it
right away.

I bet Dr. Gregory House will recommend an immediate reformat to avoid the
further spread of the epidemic.


Orinello

 

[Malke]

Greetings;

I have an HP Pavilion xt938 that I've had about 3 years.

I have a second hard drive (Maxtor) that's been installed for about
one year
without problems. Now I am getting an error message that the drive is
not
formatted. In My Computer it shows the drive letter but no size.
I did recently defrag it with PerfectDisk, but I don't believe it's
the first time I've done that.

Do I have to reformat it and lose all data that's on it?

Test the drive first with Maxtor's diagnostic utility. Download it from
their site and create either a bootable floppy or cd. Boot with it and
do a thorough test. If the drive fails, it needs to be replaced.

Here's a TinyUrl'd link to the PowerMax download:
http://tinyurl.com/4osje

If you have data on the drive that wasn't backed up, you can try
recovery software. Here are some suggestions - I have only used
Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro but it is quite expensive:

http://www.collina.us/files/REST2514.htm
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Ontrack's EasyRecovery -
http://www.ontrack.com/Homepage.aspx?id=3&pagename=Software
Executive Software “Undelete†-
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
Recover and Restore Deleted Files (Line 36) -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
File Saver Pro - Recover Deleted Files -
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_u.htm#xp_util
www.recovermyfiles.com

Otherwise, there are professional data recovery firms that can get the
data, but their services are expensive. Only you can decide what your
data is worth:

DriveSavers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services -
http://www.seagate.com/support/service/drs/services.html

Malke