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| Thread ID: 75389 | 2006-12-27 09:30:00 | Dead - Dieing Hard Drive ** Plan of attack Required ** | EX-WESTY (221) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 510019 | 2006-12-27 09:30:00 | Hi Guys, I've been given the task of rescueing some files of a dieing WD 20Gb hard drive that keeps freezing the PC it was installed in . More often than not on reboot it isn't detected by the BIOS but I have managed to recover part of the My Docs folder before it locked up . Despite the fact they also had a server the payroll backups etc are all on that drive as well as the source files :groan: I've moved the drive into my machine and a tap when rebooting will allow the BIOS to see the drive, but XP is slow to load and the drive isn't visible when my PC finally boots . Tools at my disposal include Ghost, Acronis, PowerQuest & Spinrite and a spare 20Gb drive out of another old PC :p . The drive spins up then stops then spins up again constantly accompanied by the odd clicking noise, small wonder said PC owner didn't take notice earlier or do their backups properly . I'd like to image the whole partition as that saves a reinstall but with the state of the drive file recovery is the 1st priority especially the business files they require . Any thoughts on how to read the drive in a useable state to enable some file recovery? My next step would be a couple of hours in the freezer in a bag, but if someone has another thought I'm open to suggestions . I've suggested a data recovery service but at this stage they like the cheaper option which is me :groan: |
EX-WESTY (221) | ||
| 510020 | 2006-12-27 09:54:00 | Use ghost with some command line switches (I forget what they are - look up the documentation) to clone the hard drive. One of the switches I use on really bad drives isn't available through the GUI. It makes the clone take all day (and sometimes a bit longer) but does a much better job of cloning a bad drive. |
Greven (91) | ||
| 510021 | 2006-12-27 10:20:00 | I'd definitely not be trying to access the drive via Windows, use a rescue/data recovery CD such as EBCD, Insert or BG-Rescue. Have a look through this lot. (www.livecdlist.com). Once you've got it off to a functioning drive you can look at it to your hearts content. One thing bothers me though; "Despite the fact they also had a server the payroll backups etc are all on that drive as well as the source files". That suggests to me that they should be paying for forensic data recovery unless the data is duplicated elsewhere or can be recreated at not much cost, which begs a question. |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 510022 | 2006-12-27 16:14:00 | make a ghost boot cd and use that ......when you have the ghost gui up on screen you'll need to goto options screen and set to 'ignore crc errors' and also to 'force cloning even if encountering bad blocks'.......then clik or tab/enter on apply...and try your cloning it may take a while if it works at all.....if it doens't then forensic data recovery is the only other choice....... | drcspy (146) | ||
| 510023 | 2006-12-27 19:24:00 | Yes Ghost it immediately before further messing about. And educate the idiots who didn't have proper backup procedures. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 510024 | 2006-12-27 19:53:00 | I used DOS commands in a similar situation once, though it was on a Windows 98 PC. It was much more effective at getting into the disk than any of the other methods I tried. I hadn't used DOS before, but google meant that I could find out how to run it and which commands to use. The two most useful sites I found at that time: www.ameriwebs.net www.computerhope.com I got all but a couple of records moved off the disk Hope helps |
annie (6010) | ||
| 510025 | 2006-12-27 21:35:00 | When you create your ghost boot disk, add these (service1.symantec.com) switches to it. | Greven (91) | ||
| 510026 | 2006-12-28 06:38:00 | Hmmmm Plan B Ghost doesn't work cos it can't 'see' the drive therefore it aborts cos you can't clone to local disk . :help: Weighs up the freezer or a sledgehammer . . . . . :badpc: googles data recovery to send links to client . . . . . :eek: |
EX-WESTY (221) | ||
| 510027 | 2006-12-28 10:17:00 | Eureka !!!! A trip to the frozen wasteland worked, well for about 15 mins at least, enough to recover a couple of files and sniff out some others, it's back in there with the ham and turkey and google knows what else and another try later. As soon as it warmed up again it dropped right out of the system with a cyclic redundancy error. Windows picked up the SMART error as soon as it was connected as well. :D |
EX-WESTY (221) | ||
| 510028 | 2006-12-28 20:10:00 | Yes, the freezer trick is very effective . You have heard about the man who owned a parrot that swore like a sailor, haven't you? This parrot was so terrible, it could swear for five minutes straight without repeating itself . One day the man finally got tired of this parrot's horrible speech, and decided to do something about it . He grabbed the parrot by the throat, shaked it really hard, and yelled, "QUIT IT!" every time the parrot said something ungodly . But this just made the parrot mad, and it swore more than ever . Next the man tried locking the bird in a kitchen cabinet . This really aggravated the parrot, and it clawed and scratched furiously until the man finally let him out (upon which the bird released it's fury in a torrent of language so horrible it could never be repeated) . At that point, the man was so frustrated that he threw the parrot into the freezer . For the first few seconds the parrot made a terrible amount of noise in protest to this treatment, kicking, clawing, and thrashing about . But after a few moments it suddenly went very quiet . As the silence grew longer the man started to think that the parrot may be hurt . After a couple minutes of silence, he became so worried that he opened up the freezer door . The parrot calmly climbed onto the man's outstretched arm and said, "Awfully sorry about the trouble I gave you . I'll do my best to improve my vocabulary from now on . " Of course, the man was astounded . He could not understand the transformation that had come over his unruly parrot . Then the parrot asked quietly, "By the way, what did the chicken do?" Sorry, went a little off-topic there . :p |
FoxyMX (5) | ||
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