HD Crash + Suggestions

[ratha]

Okay, im pretty stupid, i didnt have any backups of my drive.. well none current. Newest thing i had was 1.25 years old, and oh.... say 30 gigs smaller than the drive that crashed..

Apparently the fat 32 sector of the disk became corrupt and when trying to access the disk it goes bzzt bzzt bzzt, click click click. This is my first drive failure, im unsure if that means a crashed head, or what exactly.

So, right now im trying to figure out if im going to have to send the drive in for a seriously expensive (chance at a) recovery. Or if i can possibly access the drive. Someone i know localy has accessed it somehow, but i cannot. I have one last idea on that venture. I have to get back to him about that.

My next question is, with what should i replace my IBM 7200 RPM Deckstar 40 gig drive?

I need to get a new motherboard here soon aswell. My new videocard *HATES* my Epox 8KHA+. I cant even post half the time with it and when i do, if my moniter goes into suspend, so does my computer, and locks up solid. And for some reason, my computer isnt preforming well at all, processor power seems diminished.

So, needless to say, if i hadnt modified my computer in the last month, i would still be rather happy.

Here is what i would *like* to do when i upgrade:

80-160gig 7200rpm ATA100/133
RAID 1
Serial ATA support (possibly)

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Ive spent a few days reading up, but im not sure what to do exactly. If any of you could recommend a few things, about either the new harddrive, or something on recovering from the crashed one. It would be greatly appreciated.


Ratha

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Win98 SE
Epox 8KHA+
AMD XP 1800+ @ 1.533
3x 256 PC2100 Crucial @ 2.5-3-3
ATI Radeon 9500np (Currently 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500AGP)
Soundblaster Live
Samsung DVD SD-608
Memorex CRW-1622

 

[lhgpoobaa]

Sounds much like a Head crash. A common enough failure. The data CAN be recovered, but usualy only by using a profession data recovery company... and they charge LOTS.

And my condolances on having your IBM drive die. Many do. Including mine.

As a replacment i suggest something from Western Digital's lineup.

Either a 400JB 600JB or 800JB (depending on what capacity you require). High performance, decent noise levels and 3 year warantee.


And do you really need raid1? or just a backup every now and again.

Regarding the rest of your computer, that actually sounds like it could be a power supply problem. Insufficient power can cauze all sorts of bootup and stability issues.
A check of your system voltages can prove or disprove this.


<b>Paying for Sex didn’t mean you couldn’t get it any other way – it meant that you could afford the convenience option, same as any other service.</b>

 

[ratha]

The odd thing is, i know a guy localy who said he was able to access it, AND pulled some data off of it.. but the one dir that was important (well, the DIR that took up about half my harddrive) he said was corrupt. But that dosnt mean the data isnt recoverable.

After having this issue, i am pretty sure i would like to go RAID. I dont want to have this problem again. Plus, i hear read speeds are increased by RAID 1.. so a justifiable preformance increase, as well as insured data security.

Lets just put it this way.. the data on that harddrive is quite important. From financial information, to personal logs, programs ive written, and things back from the BBS-days. I would *HATE* to have anyone else work on the drive if possible.. not to mention the fact of the insane cost. The drive is probably under warrenty, but its likely that i dont have the receipt anymore.. not to mention sending it back before getting the data off of it would be a bit counter productive.

Power supply is an Antec PPX 350 or something like that. I dont remember the exact model, all that data was on my crashed drive, as well as the RMA number for the videocard which probably caused the issue in the first place, which has now expired. Lol, it has certainly not been a good year yet.

I loved my IBM drive.. it was a charm to work with. I can only guess that my constant power on and off, and resetting, moving, and tearing down my computer to try and get that new videocard to work, was likely the cause.. if not a power related problem.


Ratha

Thanks for your thoughts, they are appreciated. I will look at those drives, see if anything there is what im looking for.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Ratha on 03/16/03 07:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[lhgpoobaa]

It could be just bad sectors... if you boot into dos and try to copy the data accross to another you may get most of it if its just bad sectors.

I wouldnt use the drive again though. A low level format will get rid of them, but they allways come back.

Use IBM's DFT program to diagnose the problem.

If you DO manage to get the data off it, THEN do a low level format. that should be pretty secure. If your particularly paranoid, use a wiper program that writes 0's and 1's to the entire drive.

P.S. I loved my IBM drive too. It was a 40Gb 60GXP. Then it bad sectored on me one day. And they just kept comming back. the 75GXP, 60GXP and to a lesser extent the 120GXP lines all had SERIOUS reliability issues.
I wouldnt use IBM again.


<b>Paying for Sex didn’t mean you couldn’t get it any other way – it meant that you could afford the convenience option, same as any other service.</b>

 

[ratha]

*I* tried.. i cant access the drive in anything. I did run IBM's tools on it, thats what told me bad fat32 table, or whatever it was. I will call the guy who was able to access it in dos tonight, see what he says.

Thanks for the replies tho

 

[lhgpoobaa]

yeah. see if he can get anything off. If not, well thats just very unfortunate.

Either way i hope you have learnt a valuable lesson.

<b>Paying for Sex didn’t mean you couldn’t get it any other way – it meant that you could afford the convenience option, same as any other service.</b>