HDD failure - WTF?

[kchen]

I have a Fujitsu MPG series drive, which I purchased because I previously got (and still use) one of their MPE drives, with no problems. However, recently the MPG drive gave read errors while installing Icewind Dale. Afterwards I ran a Scandisk with surface scan and no errors were found. Then today I was playing - guess what - Icewind Dale, and bam, in the middle of the game the system freezes. After I reboot, the drive appears to be dead. I haven't had any other problems with the drive, and in fact the Icewind Dale files were installed over the space where another game (Baldur's Gate) used to be, and playing BG never caused any problems. It just seems very strange to me that the drive would up and die like this. If I try to boot the system with the drive plugged in (it is my master drive), the system just stays at the BIOS splash. Is there anything I can do to verify or fix what's wrong with it? I am willing to open it up with my screwdriver if necessary, but I'd like to know what to look for.

 

[scamtrOn]

I am willing to open it up with my screwdriver if necessary, but I'd like to know what to look for.

loooooooolllllll roflmao hhaaa hhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaaaaahhhhhhaaaahhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa
dude u r soooooooo funnnyyyyyyyyy lol

well if you mean you r willing to open the hard drive lol you'd better not lol. but if u mean the pc, ok its not so funny.


ok did you say u have another hard drive? also is there anything important on the drive that crashed? if so, install an OS on the other hard drive and boot with it. see if the OS can see your data on the bad HD. if so great, save them. if not there are two things you can do, try "getdataback" and see if IT can see the data. if that also doesn't work you need to perform a quik diagnostic.

here is what to do, open the case and unscrew the HD. hold it by the wires and turn pc on. see if the drive moves. <b>NOTE: DO NOT touch any of the circuit boards. DO NOT work on pc while pc is on.</b> only once your done unscrewing the HD you can hold it by the wires and turn pc on. hold the wire about 4 inches away from the HD so that it can move freely in the air. when you turn on the pc it should move just a bit. if you see this, its good news. even if a virus caused this problem you can still get your data back with "getdataback".

this is a long reply and i prolly forgot to mention somethings, but i'll look here again

<b><font color=blue>micheal jackson is cool

 

[unoc]

I had a problem like yours on my work-computer (a Compaq using a Fujitsu hdd). The system hung without any previous malfunctioning and the BIOS told me that simply there were no hdd installed (I checked all cable that were OK).
Now. What about your bios ? Does it see the disk ?
If yes, you can avoid to open the computer case (Not the hdd case !!!!). If not, the disk is probably even not turning.
I followed successfully the same procedure presented by scamtron. After installing a new OS on an other hdd I was able to start the disk a save the data.
Because I heard that the Fujitsu disk may have frequently these kind of failures (probably mechanical or electronic/firmware failures because the magnetic surface of the disk seems to be perfect) after saving the data, I never used the disk even if it seems to be completely OK.
Note that if you open the hdd case you can only use the disk platters to play frisby !!! (they are nice to see).



the last is in the past

 

[scamtrOn]

Note that if you open the hdd case you can only use the disk platters to play frisby !!! (they are nice to see).

haaaaaaaaaaaaah hahh haahhhha ahhhhhhh, oh me head hurts now

<b><font color=blue>micheal jackson is cool

 

[kchen]

Ok here's an update. The drive appears to be alive again, for some reason the system will now get past the BIOS splash, but I have to boot with a floppy. FDISK reports that the drive is there but is empty (no partitions). I had 3 partitions on it. I'll leave it as it is for now and install windows on the other drive. But with the disk appearing blank is there any possible way to recover the contents, say with Partition Magic or something?

 

[hereward]

GetDataBack

 

[btvillarin]

<A HREF="http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/" target="_new">Drive Rescue</A> - freeware (I haven't tried this, but it might help)

<A HREF="http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm" target="_new">GetDataBack</A>

Bryan
_________________________________________________
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com" target="_new">btvillarin.com</A> isn't going to go down. I will stay alive. To keep updated about the future move my host will undertake, keep your eye on my <A HREF="http://btvillarin.fateback.com" target="_new">official btvillarin.com status site</A> and sign up for my mailing list.

 

[scamtrOn]

if you want, i'll send you getdataback. its a small program!

<b><font color=blue>micheal jackson is cool

 

[kchen]

Thanks for the help thus far, fellas. I am running a GetDataBack scan on the failed drive right now (4 hours to completion). I was wondering though if GDB can simply restore the partitions as-is on the drive. I know the smart thing to do would be to back up the data elsewhere, but that isn't an option right now - the bad drive is 40GB, most of it used, and my backup drive only has 300MB of free space left. The scan so far appears to be producing all of the files that were on the drive, so I don't think this was a mechanical error. I've actually experienced a similar problem before with an old IBM drive, and got through that by simply wiping the disk clean and starting over. But I don't want to do that with this drive as it contains oodles of data that I want to keep. In the interest of science, are there any documents that explain the reason and cause for these kinds of errors? Do you guys think that heat could be an issue (not that my system is really hot, but I noticed that the drives themselves get pretty warm)?

 

[scamtrOn]

how fast is ur net speed?

well do u have a cd burner?

onec GDB is completed, it will produce a txt file. save it so next time u don't have to go through the 4 hour task.

if u answered no to both my question, then just leave the drive alone till you have another option. leave it some place cool and on its side. gravity is one of the problems, tho very rarely does it harm a thing.

<b><font color=blue>micheal jackson is cool