Dying Hard drive?

[stravencroft]

Hey all,
After some issues getting my backup software to work I went about trying to make a volume image only for it to repeatedly fail. Chkdsk /f and /r returned unspecified errors and a couple of times /f had to be run so I could access my files on the drive at all!

I have a Toshiba 2.5 Usb 2.0 250 gig external Model: HDDR250E03X and there did not appear to be any manufacturing disk utility programs out there for it so I used a third party program called Stellar Phoenix Drive Recovery I chose to scan the drive for physical errors it would not finish but it had done about 60 percent of the drives and there seemed be a LOT of bad blocks. I ran the error checking one last time and it's hanging at phase 4.

I was going to try Spin Rite next but I'm thinking of cutting my loses buying a new external and RMAing the old one in. Since this one was less than a year old I"m kind of at a loss as to what to choose for its replacement. I thought this was a decent model when I was looking around for it last year.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ubrales]

Try the 3.5" drives - they seem to be more rugged than the 2.5" drives. Yes they are a little bulkier. I have had good luck with Seagate 1TB ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433 )
as well as with Western Digital 1 TB ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 )

The enclosures I use are http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817173042 - well built and quite reliable.

These ext drives (3) are primarily used for backups, and occasionally used to transfer data between computers. In use for over a year!

 

[stravencroft]

Thanks for the advice. In the meantime I picked up a 500gig seagate flex.

Currently having issues accessing the Toshiba the disc is showing up with no bytes and raw running chkdsk /r and /f are returning unspecified errors and in one case just quit with no message. Really need to get a few more files off the disk if possible. Happened when I transferred disc from main to laptop I did safely disconnect and stop before I did so though.

Any ideas to let me access my data however temporarily?

 

[Ubrales]

Try this gadget: http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=39

I have used this to get data off drives, and also to clone the dying disk containing the OS onto a larger and newer disk. Did this both on a laptop as well as an older desktop.

 

[stravencroft]

Checking it out right now.

After some messing around with data recovery software I was able to see my folders the space taken up, the capacity even through the my computer screen but it says my filesystem is raw and I'm unable to copy anything I keep getting error messages. However when I go into disk management it shows the volume as healthy and as NTFS. Odd.

I'll keep everyone updated.

 

[Ubrales]

If there is even the slightest doubt about the integrity of a HDD, get the data off the drive. After saving the data on a good healthy drive, you may experiment with the suspect drive.

 

[stravencroft]

It would seem I may have waited too long this time.

 

[Ubrales]

Don't give up! It's still possible to recover data by removing the HDD platters and re-installing them in a good drive - this is tricky and should be done by a data recovery service. Quite an expensive deal.

 

[stravencroft]

Not the end of the world I was able to get the most critical data off there was just some other files that can be replaced I would have preferred to save.

This has me avoiding Toshiba for awhile though.

 

[Ubrales]

FYI - I have had good luck with Seagate as well as WD drives - 1TB.
I read somewhere that the 1.5TB and higher drives have problems no matter who the manufacturer is (these may be just rumors).

These two are the good ones that have worked very well for me:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148433

 

[stravencroft]

Best answer selected by Stravencroft.

 

[Ubrales]

Thank you! I hope everything works out well for you.