PC Crashed Suspected HDD Failure

jcmcamis

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Jan 6, 2010
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18,510
I have a legacy PC running Windows XP. Recently it experienced a critical error and shut down. I have tried to repair Windows using the OS disk, and the Avanquest System Suite 9 boot disk recovery tools to fix the problem and failed. Any and all attempts to access the HDD causes a crash of the host PC. I have removed the drive and connected it to another PC running Windows XP. After a successful boot of the host PC, once the new hardware was recognized and installed, the system crashed. All further attempts to reboot responded the same as the first PC as if the HDD was the primary boot device for the second PC. I removed the suspect drive from the second PC and using an adapter, connected the HDD via USB to a laptop running XP. The same scenario occurred as it did with the second PC. I then attempted to correct an potential HDD problems using Spinrite. I successfully accessed the USB connected HDD on the laptop to scan the drive and no problems were found. All sectors came up clean. I attempted to reboot the laptop, and just like all previous attempts, Windows crashed during boot just after the moving bar screen just prior to the Windows XP logo screen. The only option I'm left with is to send the drive to a professional data recovery service since I need the data on the drive. I've been building my own PCs for fifteen years and know my way around PCs and hardware, but have never encountered this behavior before. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
 

jcmcamis

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Jan 6, 2010
4
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18,510
Just for clarification ... I checked and double-checked all BIOS and hardware settings to ensure the corrected Master/Slave configurations on the second two PCs.

 

jcmcamis

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Jan 6, 2010
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18,510
After more extensive work and testing it appears that the HDD has a physical problem and is not spinning consistently. Not sure if a lab can save the info or not, but would appreciate a recommendation on a reliable data recovery service. Thanks!