Suddenly Dead Hard Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ryan
  • Start date Start date
R

Ryan

Hi,

I have two hard drives in my PC. The first (drive C) is a 30 gig and
the second (drive f) is 40 dig. I use the F drive a a "Media" drive
for MP3 library files, digital photos, etc. Both are about 2 years old
and I have never hard a problem.

I used the machine Friday evening and powered it off via Windows XP as
I always do. Saturday morning, I turn on the PC and all is well until
I go to open a folder of photos. The application I use loads fine
because it is on drive C but then it tell me drive F "can't be found"
when I try to get to the photos.

First, I was confused and thought I had done something wrong. Then, I
went to My Computer and clicked on drive F only for Windows XP to tell
me the drive is not formatted and it asks me if I wish to format it!!

I went into other apps and it is as if Drive F no longer exists. All
gone. :-(

Now, I have backups of the most important stuff from this drive so I
am not in sheer panic, but I have NEVER had a hard drive go on me on
any machine. Maybe I am lucky. Is this had it happens? One day the
drive just is dead when you power up?

Having never had this happen I am not sure how to diagnose and the
drive. Is there a utility in Norton Systemworks? In Windows XP Home?

How would I proceed? Gosh, if I could only get into those files for a
bit and get off some other stuff before it's gone for good. :-(
 
Ryan said:
Hi,

I have two hard drives in my PC. The first (drive C) is a 30 gig and
the second (drive f) is 40 dig. I use the F drive a a "Media" drive
for MP3 library files, digital photos, etc. Both are about 2 years old
and I have never hard a problem.

I used the machine Friday evening and powered it off via Windows XP as
I always do. Saturday morning, I turn on the PC and all is well until
I go to open a folder of photos. The application I use loads fine
because it is on drive C but then it tell me drive F "can't be found"
when I try to get to the photos.

First, I was confused and thought I had done something wrong. Then, I
went to My Computer and clicked on drive F only for Windows XP to tell
me the drive is not formatted and it asks me if I wish to format it!!

I went into other apps and it is as if Drive F no longer exists. All
gone. :-(

Now, I have backups of the most important stuff from this drive so I
am not in sheer panic, but I have NEVER had a hard drive go on me on
any machine. Maybe I am lucky. Is this had it happens? One day the
drive just is dead when you power up?

Having never had this happen I am not sure how to diagnose and the
drive. Is there a utility in Norton Systemworks? In Windows XP Home?

How would I proceed? Gosh, if I could only get into those files for a
bit and get off some other stuff before it's gone for good. :-(
Click to expand...

Download and run the disk diagnostic program that your hard
disk manufacturer makes available on his home site.

Do you have a good virus scanner & firewall? Are both of them
up-to-date?

It's a bit lit for this occasion but for the next occasion you might
want to remember the iron rule of computing: All important files
must be backed up to an independent medium once a week.
 
What you experienced is one of the many ways hard drives fail. I've had the
exact same thing happen on my wife's pc, one day it worked and then later
that evening it wouldn't boot. Fortunately I had a recent image of her C
drive so I just needed to install a new disk and restore the image, much
easier than installing an OS and then all the programs. That's why it's
best to take Pegasus's recommendation and make sure your data is backed up.

Hi,

I have two hard drives in my PC. The first (drive C) is a 30 gig and
the second (drive f) is 40 dig. I use the F drive a a "Media" drive
for MP3 library files, digital photos, etc. Both are about 2 years old
and I have never hard a problem.

I used the machine Friday evening and powered it off via Windows XP as
I always do. Saturday morning, I turn on the PC and all is well until
I go to open a folder of photos. The application I use loads fine
because it is on drive C but then it tell me drive F "can't be found"
when I try to get to the photos.

First, I was confused and thought I had done something wrong. Then, I
went to My Computer and clicked on drive F only for Windows XP to tell
me the drive is not formatted and it asks me if I wish to format it!!

I went into other apps and it is as if Drive F no longer exists. All
gone. :-(

Now, I have backups of the most important stuff from this drive so I
am not in sheer panic, but I have NEVER had a hard drive go on me on
any machine. Maybe I am lucky. Is this had it happens? One day the
drive just is dead when you power up?

Having never had this happen I am not sure how to diagnose and the
drive. Is there a utility in Norton Systemworks? In Windows XP Home?

How would I proceed? Gosh, if I could only get into those files for a
bit and get off some other stuff before it's gone for good. :-(
 
Best place to download hard drive diagnostics software is the website of the
drive manufacturer.

If it's still under guarantee they will replace the drive, but will not do
anything about the data that was on it.... unfortunately they hold no
responsibility for your failure to use Backup software. I have had hard
drives die on me.... any only ONCE did I lose data! Once learned the hard
way, NEVER forgotten!

There are data recovery companies that will try to recover your files and
folder, but they are very expensive.... I was quoted $1500 for an 8.4gb
drive (yes, it was that long ago that the first failure occurred). Since
then I have had a 60gb and a 80gb drive go bad, both under guarantee... and
both completely backed up!
 
before resigning yourself to losing the data try on of the following two
programs.

on track revcovery or getbackdatantfs

I've used them both when my hd failed and i recovered about 80% of the
drive
 
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