Copying from HDD causes comp to crash

[semo]

Hi.

I've got a HDD that is causing some trouble. It's an old 20GB Fujitsu drive that's been running fine until a week ago or so. When i tried to backup its content (the irony ) to a new external drive it almost immediatly crashed and caused the comp to reboot.

I can browse the files on the drive but not access them - at all. I've tried copying a file at the time, copying to an other location/drive, fale-safe mode, DOS prompt, fixing the drive with Partition Magic, recovery with Nucleus Kernel for NTFS, new ATA cable, etc. All with the same result as previously mentioned - chrash and reboot.

No wierd sounds/clicks from the HDD.

Since it contains all my photos (baby, wedding, etc.) I'd be grateful for any answer. Otherwise I'm gonna send it to some data recovery company. You're m last hope..

Thanks.

 

[sub mesa]

Try Linux. Post SMART values, do surface checks, etc.

 

[semo]

Try Linux. Post SMART values, do surface checks, etc.

Thanks, but that's not really an opption. I don't even understand any of what ou wrote after "Linux"...

Any other suggestions or should I just give up and let the pros take over from here?

 

[semo]

Anyone?

 

[sub mesa]

SMART is something you can google on, every harddrive has SMART which can analyse if you harddrive is functioning properly or is on the verge of failing. Since there thousands of methods to check the SMART values, i will only mention two:
boot from Ubuntu linux livecd, install smartmontools package and execute a "smartctl -a /dev/sda" command - OR - download HDTune on a different Windows computer and use it to fetch the SMART values of your probably failing drive.

As a related note, is it still worth the trouble? A 20GB drive is not old, its ancient. It raises in value instead of dropping in value. You should get your data off and send it to a museum or so.

Seriously, if you store precious data on such old disks without backup you made some bad decisions. If there's no precious data on it; throw it in the waste bin and buy a new drive.

 

[semo]

It seems that there is bad sector in your hard drive, you'd better check disk firstly, two methods:
1. Start>Run, input "cmd", chkdsk x: /r (x is the drive letter);
2. Open My computer, right click the partition and choose "Properties", then Tools > Error checking.

you may connect this drive to another computer and check whether you can access the partition and files, or try a copy software to transfer to another drive http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/disk-copy.htm

Thanks! Gonna try as soon as I get home from work.

 

[semo]

SMART is something you can google on, every harddrive has SMART which can analyse if you harddrive is functioning properly or is on the verge of failing. Since there thousands of methods to check the SMART values, i will only mention two:
boot from Ubuntu linux livecd, install smartmontools package and execute a "smartctl -a /dev/sda" command - OR - download HDTune on a different Windows computer and use it to fetch the SMART values of your probably failing drive.

As a related note, is it still worth the trouble? A 20GB drive is not old, its ancient. It raises in value instead of dropping in value. You should get your data off and send it to a museum or so.

Seriously, if you store precious data on such old disks without backup you made some bad decisions. If there's no precious data on it; throw it in the waste bin and buy a new drive.

Thanks for the explanation, will try it later on.
And you're absolutely right, the disk is worthless, but its content is priceless, like I mentioned earlier. Some previous trouble led to me copying all my photos to this ancient disk. And now when I finally got around to do a proper backup it seems to be too late...

 

[sub mesa]

Is the data is truely important, any second its powered on may reduce your chance of recovering data if the disk is truely dying. In that case you should disconnect it and ship to a professional data recovery company, which will charge you an amount of 4 digits.

In the future, please make sure your precious data is on at least two different storage systems, preferably even more. In this age there is no good reason to lose precious data as there are countless ways to protect your data.

 

[semo]

It seems that there is bad sector in your hard drive, you'd better check disk firstly, two methods:
1. Start>Run, input "cmd", chkdsk x: /r (x is the drive letter);
2. Open My computer, right click the partition and choose "Properties", then Tools > Error checking.

you may connect this drive to another computer and check whether you can access the partition and files, or try a copy software to transfer to another drive http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/disk-copy.htm

Nah, none of it worked. But thanks anyway!

 

[MCGeeTech]

Your drive may have a thermal problem.
An old trick was to pop the drive into a freezer for an hour or so. Bag it first just in case.