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Thread ID: 34073	2003-06-03 10:00:00	Urgent Help! Facing HDD failure	agent (30)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
149467	2003-06-03 10:00:00	Uh... what more can I say? Hears CyberChuck blab on Oh... Well, I don't do backups (it would take up 30 650MB CDs to back up all my HDD, which is a Seagate Barracuda IV ATAIV (ATA4, or 133) 40GB drive - plus, I don't really see a point in backing up if I have a HDD from a good manufacturer - despite hearing of Seagate drives dying within six months on some people). I've had it for approximately eight months. Absolutely no problems up until Sunday. Booted it up, and it made weird sounds on and off, requiring three reboots before they went away (they froze the computer). I later figured, on Monday, it might be the avast! on-access scanner (had set it to scan every file, on any access, creation, or modification). Despite this being a stupid idea (what kind of HDD wouldn't withstand that kind of access? I have an older 6GB drive that's handled it for more than a year), I had only set avast! to do this on Friday... Later, on Sunday evening, heard the same sounds again. Waited for them to go away. My computer (Windows XP Professional) had been hanging at times noticeably since Friday, is now unusable. Monday evening, I had to reset and ran scandisk ran at boot up. It found two folders that were corrupted (not quite the word I was looking for, but cannot remember it) and 28 files on bad sectors (28!). Made the same sound again, so I got my dad to try and identify it for the first time. He said it sounded like it was trying to access bad sectors (hence my files on bad sectors). I also mentioned how the rounded ATA133 cable (faster than standard ATA66) I had put in in the last two months had been under a certain amount of stress (due to it's shaping and design), and he also said to check if it had come loose - which could give the computer the impression there were bad sectors. So this afternoon, I substituted back in my old ATA66 cable, booted up (booted fine), and scheduled a scandisk on both my C and D partitions, reset, and left my computer running scan disk. It found one error (assuming it's on my C partition, as I scheduled that first, but I really have no way to tell), in /FOUND.001/CHECK.0004 or something like that - one of the files scan disk had recovered yesterday. Then proceeded to check free space, and completed. It then started the check on the second partition, and I left it running with the screen off (doing my homework, and was checking back on scan disk every now and then). Next thing I heard was the sound my BIOS makes when my computer boots - wondering why it had rebooted, I turned the monitor on, and was presented with the first boot up screen - and an error message from the SMART HDD check. It said something along the lines of "Back up all your data immediately. Imminent hard disk failure". I turned my computer off, and left it. I ain't touching it again until I can sort it out. Unless there is an extreme circumstance where I have to do something extremely important. I'm now faced with a very difficult situation. And I don't have Norton Ghost, or anything like it. Also don't have any other HDDs which could hold all my data, if I used a backup program. Any suggestions? :8}	agent (30)
149468	2003-06-03 10:11:00	1. Find someone with lots of hard drive space that will let you try to copy your HDD on to their machine. and/or 2. Except your loss. .Chris	Chris (3346)
149469	2003-06-03 10:12:00	BTW been there done that, lost 5,000 MP3s :_| .Chris	Chris (3346)
149470	2003-06-03 12:09:00	good luck on the installing and asking windows and office for those registration codes again. thats why i use norton ghost. a old version will support ntfs - jus make a file for each parition than one file thats for all partitions of the drive. v worth it. :) what i have done in the past is. hook up 2nd hdd - copy the crucial files only. u have to reinstall now..... so do not backup softwares. do not waste time now. only turn pc on when u really gonna start do this work. or else not hdd, u can try a cdrw etc... or use network. if its working that is. hdd may be easier cos the more and more u install it may fail at that sector/track. cos less software to be installed so it may not reach that track... last resort - reinstall windows again on top. hopefully it gets windows basic working again. then dump files across to other hdd. or try cdrw or network...	nomad (3693)
149471	2003-06-03 12:15:00	I've got an 50 gig partition free and live in Auckland area... you're more than welcome to drag it across our network, or onto one of our other PC's?? BTW one of my flatmates is a Microsoft Certified Engineer so knows what his stuff... I've never been a fan of the Baracuda IV's.... Lo.	Lohsing (219)
149472	2003-06-03 12:18:00	Oh and I have a DVD burner so can back up your data to DVD media.... 4.7gb a pop means a lot less discs to mess around with... Lo.	Lohsing (219)
149473	2003-06-03 12:22:00	Just take it out, as slave on someone elses computer (preferably with 80GB HDD) and try to copy, copy, copy. That sux dude. I got a Seagate Barracuda 40GB too! :_|	hamstar (4)
149474	2003-06-04 02:56:00	Am I missing something here?:| Surely a failng HDD means you need to buy a new HDD.:| Remove the failing HDD & go buy a BIGGER drive to replace it. Format & partition etc, then install your OS. Once that is all running to your satisfaction, install your old HDD as a slave and copy across as much data as you can recover to the empty partition on your new drive. Unless of course you were planning on operating in future without an HDD:D Later, and when you can afford it, buy another big HDD, install as a slave and set up a backup regime with Ghost or Drive Image to make compressed copies of your OS & data partitions at regular intervals. No doubt you saw the recent post on this issue. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
149475	2003-06-04 03:04:00	damn, i have a segate 40gb - the 7200.7 ones, dont know if its a V or IV fingers crossed	Dylan (800)
149476	2003-06-04 03:17:00	true get urself a new HDD. then u can copy urself D: to C: all the files u like. the stuffed HDD is now slave. hey u need the new HDD to work rite... unless ya claiming it under warranty so u want to copy files onto someone;s hdd than swap it for a new one...	nomad (3693)
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