cookie121 Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 My ext usb hard drive has become corrupted, can anyone help or point me somewhere than can help? the drive has two partitions, thankfully the second holding all my important docs all though crashes occasionally have got most back. However the other partition is inaccessible it is recognised by a data recovery software I have tried, but cannot retrieve the files as the drive crashes every time i try. This partition holds all my photos video and MP3 so am gutted, if you know a way or can help, I would be grateful Quote
gigglefairy Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 My ext usb hard drive has become corrupted, can anyone help or point me somewhere than can help? the drive has two partitions, thankfully the second holding all my important docs all though crashes occasionally have got most back. However the other partition is inaccessible it is recognised by a data recovery software I have tried, but cannot retrieve the files as the drive crashes every time i try. This partition holds all my photos video and MP3 so am gutted, if you know a way or can help, I would be grateful This probably won't help as I didn't understand the technical half of your email, but I had a memory stick that went mad and it decided it'd only work in machines running Windows 98. I imagine you're past that point though... :confused: giggle. x Quote
The Geoff Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 Disk Warrior is the best thing I've seen in action. [EDIT]: I don't think the stuff below applies - if the other partition is working fine then it's probably not going to help. Useful for 'academic interest' though.[/EDIT] Or... This isn't recommended, but can help if all else is lost: Sometimes the problem is caused by the read-head jamming. A 'kinetic event', AKA percussive maintainence can unjam it. Basically speaking, a sharp blow (just enough to sting your thigh slightly if you hit it pantomime stylee) can fix the problem. Try to do it in line with the axis of the platters, hitting it on the same side as the read-head/s, that'll minimise the chances of it trashing the platter. THIS MIGHT JUST TRASH EVERYTHING!!!! Equally, it might start working again. If it does, back everything up ASAP, because it could fail again at any time. Quote
mattnbrown Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 This is going to sound crazy but pop the drive in the freezer for a couple of days then give it another couple of days to unfreeze and give it a go... this an "old skool" method and has worked for me a couple of times Quote
The Geoff Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 Not a crazy idea. Keep it away from the motor & door seals though. Quote
cookie121 Posted March 31, 2007 Author Report Posted March 31, 2007 Using software would be ok if I could keep the drive alive during the read process, but i can't just crashes. The data is there the software recognises that fact in the details. I'm thinking the only way would be to send it to a data recovery firm who strip the platters out and directly recover, not sure how or care, but care how much any ideas? Quote
mattnbrown Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 This is a little something I have had kicking about a while.. may be of some use... http://www.mirrordemon.net/data/Hard%20Drive%20Rescue%20Techniques.doc Quote
cookie121 Posted March 31, 2007 Author Report Posted March 31, 2007 This is going to sound crazy but pop the drive in the freezer for a couple of days then give it another couple of days to unfreeze and give it a go... this an "old skool" method and has worked for me a couple of times But won't that destroy the data? moisture issues too? :confused: Quote
mattnbrown Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 If you let it dry out then you shouldnt have a problem cause no moisture will be left.. Quote
cookie121 Posted March 31, 2007 Author Report Posted March 31, 2007 worth a try spose....let you know Quote
The Geoff Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 Data recovery companies will charge upwards of a grand I'm guessing - they have to do the work in a clean room and it's tricky. Quote
marman Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 Hijacking your thread cookie... My pc is closing windows explorer when ever i try to access my second internal drive ideas... Cookie... talk to stu tomorrow, i remember he lost all the shop files once and needed recovery. Quote
mattnbrown Posted March 31, 2007 Report Posted March 31, 2007 Hijacking your thread cookie... My pc is closing windows explorer when ever i try to access my second internal drive ideas... Cookie... talk to stu tomorrow, i remember he lost all the shop files once and needed recovery. I/O time out to the drive by the sounds of things... kinda of annoying when that happens. Try the drive in another pc if its still the same its the drive otherwise its windows playing silly sods.. Quote
Simon Bailey Posted April 1, 2007 Report Posted April 1, 2007 When one of critical development machines HD went t1ts up, we tried everything, before we gave up and sent the drive to Kroll, to have the drive stripped and the platters put into another drive, then the data recovered...was not cheap and took 7 days... If the drive itself (the actual hard drive inside the unit) is IDE, would it help to remove it and set it up as a slave drive directly off the IDE cable? The reason I say, is that it may be the USB interface that is causing the unit to crash....just a thought. Quote
cookie121 Posted April 2, 2007 Author Report Posted April 2, 2007 Just an Update to whom ever interested: Crazy as it sounded, I liked it, so dropped the little blighter in the freezer for a couple of hours, took it out and left it till morning.. Next morning I used a piece of software called Final data and successfully extracted everything. I now have two western Digital books coming my way, not gonna happen again, but nice to know that sometimes crazy is good.... I also have an spare 320gb external hard drive....any takers??? Thanks to all hat helped Quote
The Geoff Posted April 2, 2007 Report Posted April 2, 2007 Yeah It's nice when that happens, the sense of triumph is almost worth the failure in the first place Quote
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