Help with hard drive

[tom4bren]

1. Try a different USB cable.

Done did it - No Go. Tried firewire cable - No Go.

2. Try a different power supply.

I measured the PS voltage OK but only unloaded. I never did try it loaded.

Handing over the whole mess to an IT buddy today. We'll see what happens. He thinks the read head is TU but not crashed.

[Kenny]

Ones you hook it up to your IDE or SATA vista should run chkdsk automatically on boot up. If it doesn’t fix the problem there is one other thing you can try. There’s a program called SpinRite it's the best HD recovery software I have ever seen. If you have any I.T. buddies they might have this program in there position, they can make you a SpinRite boot CD. The last time I checked SpinRite was still to expensive for the average user. It’s used mainly by data recovery firms and I.T. professionals.

Forgot about Spinrite, I've used that too with good success...

It's amazing, a zero in the wrong place in the boot sector and windows can totally ignore the drive.
So I mizspel a word, you still understand me... Windows is a retard. oops, uh-oh..

[Ldub]

So I mizspel a word, you still understand me... Windows is a retard. oops, uh-oh..

Hey...I resemble that remark !

Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk

[kodiak]

I had what seamed to be a completely unrecoverable HD I ran SpinRite on about 6 months ago. It only took 5 DAYS for the program to recover it. SpinRite can take a long time.

[nfpgasmask]

SpinRite can take a long time.

Yeah, TestDisk is the same. I think I let it run for 3 days when I did my revcovery with it.

Bart

[tom4bren]

Are Y'all trying to help me or scare me????

[nfpgasmask]

Are Y'all trying to help me or scare me????

Hey man, I would have let it run for 3 weeks if I had to. I lost like 6-7 months worth of digital camera pics, and for me, that is unacceptable!!!

Bart

[kodiak]

I just recovered a bunch of pix off a HD for a friend that got the Burito virus. That think was nasty! It even had it’s own desktop theme.

[nfpgasmask]

I just recovered a bunch of pix off a HD for a friend that got the Burito virus. That think was nasty! It even had it’s own desktop theme.

Does the burito virus give you gas too?

Bart

[don moore]

after loosing alot of stuff over the years ..i now have a backup usb hd.. for all my pics....just wish i had it when when i lost all my wedding pics...(she still reminds me of that every now and then)..good luck

[etlsport]

after loosing alot of stuff over the years ..i now have a backup usb hd.. for all my pics....just wish i had it when when i lost all my wedding pics...(she still reminds me of that every now and then)..good luck

at least you had them for a while.. my buddy just recently got engaged.. took tons of photos since he proposed on a beach at sunset... he lost the SD card somewhere on the beach!

but yea.. I keep like 4 thumb drives full of different stuff like that.. ive got thumb drives holding my photos, tax info, important school stuff etc.. plus i copy everything on my laptop to my desktop too

[tom4bren]

"..i now have a backup usb hd.."

That's what this drive was for. When the PC crashed, it took the internal & external with it.

IT buddy says he's stumped - he handed it over to some techno-geeks to have a try.

BTW, I copied all of my pix that didn't get lost to a DVD last nite. I learn - painfully I learn.

Thanks for all your help guys. I'll keep you posted.

[nfpgasmask]

When the PC crashed, it took the internal & external with it.

THAT is wierd. Did you have a massive power surge or something that could have blown the power on the external and somehow fry the internal? I have never heard of this happening. Your external drive has its own power supply, correct? Do you have any LEDs on it that light up or anything? It almost sounds like the external drive is not getting any juice, and thus, not spinning up, which would cause Windows to see nothing...

I would say you need to open the shell of the external, find out if it is IDE or SATA, and then get another enclosure that supports the capacity of the drive, hook it up and see what happens. What make/model/size is the external?

Bart

[tom4bren]

The drive lights, spins & chunks. Haven't talked to the Tech again. My original assumption is that I got hit by a virus. I haven't checked the internal drive (I saved it since it was only a year old), it may still work but I only used it for programs & not data. I just want my pix back. The drive is a write off as far as I'm concerned - I'd never trust it again.

[nfpgasmask]

The drive lights, spins & chunks. Haven't talked to the Tech again. My original assumption is that I got hit by a virus. I haven't checked the internal drive (I saved it since it was only a year old), it may still work but I only used it for programs & not data. I just want my pix back. The drive is a write off as far as I'm concerned - I'd never trust it again.

You know, I have seen viruses do a lot of things, but to this day, with 14+ years of IT experience behind me, I have never encountered a virus capable of damaging hardware.

Bart