160GB WD HDD SATA (Trying to repair)

[SE14man]

Having a few problems with a friends HDD he gave me to repair.

Got 7 PCs in htis house and on every XP based one when added to as SATA just as it logs into Windows i get a BSOD.

when added to a windows 7 machine it says 'Starting windows' and nothing happens.

I must point out this drive is not the master the drive with the OS on are my masters so my C: drives.

Just trying to recover files for the friend.

I have got a USB adapter to plug it into PC via USB but then when i do that and try to run 'GetDataBack' it completely locks the computer up.
Exact same problem on all 7 of my home PC's.

I could be wrong but am i righti n thinking theres a piece of software out there which i can use to scan the HDD at PC startup?

something i can burn to disc as an image which i can boot and fix that problem with the hard drive which keeps not allowing me to see its contents.

Maybe a boot sector repair?

Anyone know what to do?

Thanks.

[DB83]

You may wish to try Zero Assumption Recovery

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

I do not understand why you get a BSOD from XP with this drive connected if it is not a boot disk. Your PC's should start up normally but the drive might not appear in explorer etc.

Is this an internal drive ? Not quite understanding your comment about a USB adapter. Is there such a thing as a SATA to USB adapter ? and what about the power ? The SATA would have its own power connector.

[OldMan64]

If the questionable drive is in a USB enclosure and the host PC is already running, does that cause the host PC to BSOD when the USB connector is plugged in? If that is the case, something is beyond simple extract data fix. I would start with recommend booting to one of these and running the scan: http://antivirus.about.com/od/freeantivirussoftware/tp/avrescuecd.htm Then this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-y...dows-computer/ Disregard the Vista thing as this will work with any Windows drive. If there is still no good response from the drive after the Ubuntu boot, then it most likely is beyond the "do it yourself" stage.

[SE14man]

Hi there

sorry ive just spoken to my friend and he has told me that it was his C: drive.

I have actually got it connected now in another PC through SATA (Standard way) and waiting for it to boot and its been saying 'Starting Windows' now for 10 minutes.

If i use my friends C: drive as my C: drive it wont boot it tells me i have a file missing.

However when i use his drive as the slave in any other PC it will either hang on 'Starting windows' or hang when i go into 'My Computer'
when starting up your recovery software you just mentioned upon scanning hard drive the whople thing just locks up completely.

I just want to recover files form the hard drive.

Im wondering if theres a boot tool i can use which fixes certain things which prevent the drive being seen properly by windows?

Thanks for your reply btw

[SE14man]

If the questionable drive is in a USB enclosure and the host PC is already running, does that cause the host PC to BSOD when the USB connector is plugged in? If that is the case, something is beyond simple extract data fix. I would start with recommend booting to one of these and running the scan: http://antivirus.about.com/od/freeantivirussoftware/tp/avrescuecd.htm Then this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-y...dows-computer/ Disregard the Vista thing as this will work with any Windows drive. If there is still no good response from the drive after the Ubuntu boot, then it most likely is beyond the "do it yourself" stage.

Its not in an actual enclosure but something similar i have been trying but only sometimes. It's a little block powered by the mains and has a cable for SATA data which i plug into the hard drive. Then form the block is a power connector which goes to the drive. Then from the block is USB which goes to PC.

My friend was running XP.

With these links u just gave me should i be doing all those with his HDD in his PC as his master?

Thanks.

[wulf109]

When using as D drive does it show in explorer? Can you drag and drop files from the D drive?
Right click drive,select Properties-Tools-Check Now-Automatic Fix Errors-Start.

[OldMan64]

With these links u just gave me should i be doing all those with his HDD in his PC as his master?

Thanks.

Use the USB enclosure or device to connect the questionable drive to the PC of your choice, not the PC from the friend. Of course your PC should be able to see the drive as an additional drive, but you had said it was causing BSOD hence the other choices. Do not try to boot to the drive. Windows will mark the drive and the original PC (from the friend) will not like the new designations the other PC makes in the records. It sounds as though this drive has been in one or more of your PC's as a boot drive and/or as an additional drive, so it may be already a problem.
Anyways, do the Ubuntu Live CD and see if the drive can be accessed and get the data.

[DB83]

C: drive or not as long as you do not set your bios to boot from this drive Windows should still recognise it or atleast with recovery software as above.

But I think you may be compounding the problem with this 'Heath Robinson' method of connection. The drive should be fitted internally either in your own PC or in a proper enclosure.

Chances are that the drive has lost its master boot record but to recover that you would haver to set the drive as your boot drive and use the Windows recovery module on the XP CD. You may still need that CD even as a non-boot drive (do not remember right now) but eliminate your hardware experiments first.

[aedipuss]

go to the drive manufacturer's website and get it's drive diagnostics program. download the version that will create a bootable cd. disconnect all other drives other than the one you wish to check and connect it internally. boot the cd, it has it's own operating system and you should be able to run the tests on the drive.

[martyfender]

Spinrite at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm is by far the best hard drive recovery and maintenance program I have used over the years. It is however, $89 so if there is no need to recover data from the drive, purchasing a new drive could be cheaper.
Spinrite is file system independent. It works at the sector level. It will work on any PC that can boot from DOS. I used it to recover my son's Macintosh drive by removing it and putting the drive in a PC. Spinrite works and works and can run for hours or even days to work it's magic. In the case of the Mac drive it took about 6 hours. No Mac recovery utility would work, so therefore I thought the hard drive had a true hardware failure. However, all data was intact. As a matter of fact, that drive still works today in an external enclosure, ~4 years later. If Spinrite doesn't boot your drive, chances are you have a true hardware failure which only a data repair company can get back. Spinrite is a 169K Windows exe that creates a FreeDos bootable floppy, CD, or USB key, if you have a system capable of booting from USB.
Furthermore, it is recommended that one runs Spinrite for drive maintenance about once a month to help keep the drive from developing problems in the first place. I have no affiliation with Steve Gibson, the former hard drive engineer and security expert, but I have truly seen his product recover data that no other utility can.

ADDED: To work properly with Spinrite, the drive needs to be mounted internally or externally as a SATA or IDE drive. Spinrite is not very effective in repairing a USB drive since it depends on SMART data that is not available when mounting the drive as a USB drive. It will work, but take many, many more hours, and won't be nearly as effective. This means to recover external USB drives, that they must be removed from their enclosures and mounted inside or external with a SATA or IDE adapter. Good Luck!

As long as the drive is mounted into a PC that can boot from DOS it will work on Linux, Tivo etc, drives.
GRC has extensive pages on their site about Spinrite and as I can personally a test to are very responsive to answering support questions.

[Bjs]

Spare system with double the space to be recovered, install ubuntu then add insert ... this avoids common windows device drivers issues upon startup and gives you enough space for recovered files to be stored ... if freezes occur under ubuntu then suspect bad hard drive pcb ... replace with exact same model and firmware revision only.

95% of data recovery and manufacturers tools are utterly useless.

[Cornucopia]

Here's what I'd do:

1. Remove your HDD (don't want anything to inadvertantly happen to it!)
2. Install the Sata HDD in question directly to the MOBO
3. Change your BIOS settings to boot 1st to your CD/DVD drive
4. Boot a copy of a Live Linux BootCD, or Universal Boot CD, or a Windows/BART PE CD that includes Spinrite, MBR utils, Checkdisk, etc.
5. Run Spinrite (wait.....)
6. Run one of the MBR repair utils
7. Run Checkdisk (or similar)
8. Hopefully now you can see the data on your HDD...
9. Insert/Mount a Flash Drive
10. Transfer the data files (this may require a couple of round-trips...)
11. Wipe/Erase the HDD
12. Give the HDD back to your friend, along with the backed-up data files (on 2nd HDD/Flash)
13. Have him Re-format & reintall the OS and then restore the backed-up files

Scott

[SE14man]

Its actually suddenly decided to work now somehow...

whether the cables a bit faultyi m not sure but it suddenly works again.

Which is good as it gives me time to get data off it quickly.

Thanks so much guys for yr help.

[SE14man]

Btw some very helpful info u guys have given me. Saved it all in notepad for later use on my next drive that comes in donald ducked.

Thanks!

[SE14man]

Btw now ive got this drive fully formatted in windows.
I do still worry that there could be defects on the drive.
What would be the best software to run on this empty hard drive which has just been formatted to thoroughly check it for errors or bad sectors and correct any problems with it?

Because i hope to reinstall Windows XP back onto it for him.

Let me know.

Thank you.

[fritzi93]

Btw now ive got this drive fully formatted in windows.
I do still worry that there could be defects on the drive.
What would be the best software to run on this empty hard drive which has just been formatted to thoroughly check it for errors or bad sectors and correct any problems with it?

Because i hope to reinstall Windows XP back onto it for him.

Let me know.

Thank you.

What aedipuss said.

A few years ago, a friend started getting a SMART imminent hard drive failure notice (BTW, it was a Seagate, out of warranty). He was running XP. Of course I immediately copied all important files for him. Since that went well, I cloned the drive too and the clone booted up fine. System file checker went fine as well (on the clone) and all data was intact.

For the hell of it, I did a full format on the supposedly bad drive and ran the diagnostics, The drive came up okay. Then ran SpeedFan, which will analyze the SMART parameters for you. What SpeedFan said was puzzling. and I''ll paraphrase; Your hard drive at one time exceeded a number of threshold values, but appears to be working properly now.

So, again for the hell of it, I cloned that hard drive from the clone I'd just made. I asked my friend to not save anything important on that drive and call me when it failed, as I'd remove it and swap to the cloned drive. It's still working, a few years later.

[DB83]

Do you spend your life asking for help, thanking for the help and then ignoring the help that was given ?

That formatted disk is as useful to your friend as a condom is in the Vatican.

But you seem to know better than everyone else around here.

[martyfender]

Spinrite will still run on a formatted drive and will reveal more useful SMART info while it is running, than just about any other utility on it's SMART Information screen. Spinrite is working the drive and generating these errors and looking at the rate that these errors occur, in realtime. These are realtime errors that show up on the drive as it scans. keep in mind that the areal density is so great on modern drives that all now have many errors that are corrected by modern drive electronics and this is on a good, normal drive. Of course many more will show up on a drive with errors. Spinrite trys and trys to by scanning sectors over and over again to get the last bit of data possible from the drive then it will write this recovered data back to sectors that it has determined are good and either mark the old sectors as bad or fix those bad sectors. There are even stories of it running for weeks to get the data off a badly damaged drive. Norton or Symantec saw Spintrite and was so impressed with it that they tried to buy it from Steve Gibson. Thank goodness he didn't sell it. They have to a certain degree messed up many products that they have purchased. And a previous writer is correct. If there is mechanical problems or a bad controller board this will not work, unfortunately. I do agree with the previous writer that after running Spinrite to run an MBR utility and CHKDSK, also. I have built and used BartPE and and a version of it called the Ultimate Boot CD For Windows and I am not certain if they have a plugin to boot into a DOS environment that Spinrite requires, bu maybe so. I haven't updated mine in a few years. BartPE is a Windows PE like boot environment that Spinrite will not run under unless the CD also has a boot menu to boot it into DOS also. Feel free, anyone to update or correct me on this. I happen to use Bootland's LiveXP USB key were I have a GRUB For DOS boot menu where I can either boot into the LiveXP, PE environment, or choose to boot into DOS to run Spinrite. There newer projects that are made for Window Vista and Windows 7 that are similar to LiveXP.

Furthermore, I would recommend setting Spinrite's option to keep a log file. Many times it will correct minor errors without showing that it has corrected anything. Sometimes one critical system file fixed is all that it takes to make the difference as to whether Windows will boot or not. I would suggest reading the info on it on the GRC site. Steve Gibson is also a well known security expert who has a great Podcast on the TWIT TV network,called Security Now, that talks about all of the lastest security threats and other topic of listener interest. When I emailed GRC support about Spinrite, Steve personally replied to help me with my technical problems. When Spinrite restored my son's Macintosh drive, I became a true believer in it as 3 or more, famous Mac hard drive recovery utilities choked on this drive as if it were failing. As great as it is, I have also run it on a WD Cavier Blue drive that apparently had a bad controller board, due to a power surge from an electrical storm. In this case, it obviously didn't work.
Good luck!

I also own one of those adapters which is a:
Vantec
SATA/ IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter
2.5"/3.5"/5.25" SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter

It is a temporary adapter that allows me to plug other drives into my system to work on them and also for data transfer.

[SE14man]

Do you spend your life asking for help, thanking for the help and then ignoring the help that was given ?

That formatted disk is as useful to your friend as a condom is in the Vatican.

But you seem to know better than everyone else around here.

Not all my life, some of my life. No i dont ignore peoples help.

do you spend your life getting your knickers in a twist over such minor things?

I have carefully read through all the help given and am most grateful for it.

I don't understand why you're getting wound up about it???????????????

I always am grateful. Infact as i said in above posts it was so useful ive even saved everyones helpful words to a document to help me out for future issues i have.

I'll definitely consider Spinrite it seems a very good piece of software.

Saw the video on the spinrite website and the bloke knows a hell of a lot.

So thanks very much again everybody for your help. It is most appreciated.

[DB83]

To respond to the more polite public reply:

The issue I have, had you actually read and understood the help, was that you formatted your friend's disk without first determining what was really wrong with it.

The drive could be failing. Yet equally it may not. The diagnostic tools would assist you in determining that.

Not familiar with Spinrite but I have used the Windows repair console and recovered a non-accessable drive - even a Drice C: - with that.

A defective disk will still appear to format but it could not last long. But there is always a chance that a simple command from the console could have brought the drive back to life. Your friend would then have his drive as he left it plus the data you recovered for him.

Now he has a formatted drive which you do not know is any use because you still have made no indication of using any diagnostic tools. And what is more, to expand my 'useless' comment, if he tries to install his OS on to that he will still have to format the drive and reinstall all the software which had you thought first instead of the gun-ho approach might not have been neccessary.

One miserable **** signing off.

[hello_hello]

Its actually suddenly decided to work now somehow...

whether the cables a bit faultyi m not sure but it suddenly works again.

Which is good as it gives me time to get data off it quickly.

Thanks so much guys for yr help.

Sounds to me like the drive's on the way out. Might be a faulty controller given it was causing a BSOD or locking up the PC when connected via USB. You could possibly run diagnostic tools on it for days now, it'll pass with flying colors, and then it'll die again in a couple of weeks. Or it might keep going again for a while.
Personally once a drive has given me trouble and I've got the files I need off it, I replace it. Or at best use it as a second drive while not storing any files on it which aren't backed up. Given it's a 160GB drive, chances are it's fairly old and replacing it will cause less stress in the long run.