VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Chuck Davis · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:31 am Post subject: Hard Drive issue

Had an interesting problem pop up today. The D drive on my Windows XP studio computer..a repository for random stuff, no sessions...seems to have gone south on me. I get a "drive is unformatted. would you like to format now?" message when I try to open it.

I pulled the drive from the system and have it mounted in an external firewire case. I still get the same message. I'm guessing it's probably toast...unless someone here has an idea.

Anyone for a trip down into "COMPUTER HELL?" (insert halloween fx here)
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Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Hi Chuck!
Chocolate covered cinnamon toast. Laugh

Bummer bout that drive.
Some computer service companies have ways of extracting the data out of defunct hard drives. You might try some in your area.

Eddie

bobsouer · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:51 am Post subject:

Chuck,

There's an amazing piece of software that has helped me recover from situations like this more than once. It's called SpinRite. From a company called Gibson Research Corporation.

You'll find information here ...

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

I hope this is of some help. I keep a copy of this program around just because you never know when you might need it. I can't guarantee it will fix what ails your drive, but if you put it back in your system and book the SpinRite disk it will walk you through what you need to do to see if it can be recovered.
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Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

SimondsSays · Guest

Yeah.. toasty,...

There are a few senarios..

A is that the drive electronics aren't actually reading the drive and you are getting a generic message.. a clean-room could mount the disc on another set of electronics and see if there is data there... $500-$5000

B is that the index of the drive is shot, but the Data is still there. In such a case a recovery software similar to the one mentioned above can get the data back.

It could be that the drive surface is corrupted and you are in a descending hell of no return.. so is your data... this is a physical thing whereby particulates are dancing around and every time they get under the read/write heads more disc sufaced is tilled up..

Are you getting any noises from the drive.. repeated click/shudders of the r/w arm??

Chuck Davis · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:10 am Post subject:

Thanks guys.

Bob - I'll give that utility a try. Great "steerage" from you as always.

Jason - Sounds pretty normal really. No grinding or arm clicking.

I'll have to dig some more! Good thing it's supposed to rain here this weekend. Give me a change to sort this stuff out.
_________________
Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com

bobsouer · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:42 am Post subject:

Chuck,

If I can be of assistance in any way, don't hesitate to call. My number is in the footer of every one of my messages on this board.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Did you try the disk clean or defragger on it yet?

Chuck Davis · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 12:18 pm Post subject:

Can't clean or defrag as windows says there's no file system.
_________________
Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com

Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

Chuck Davis · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:45 pm Post subject:

LOL. S'OK Eddie...thanks for the thought!
_________________
Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com

Doc · Guest

Chuck,

Just another thought...have you scanned that drive for viruses? If so, and still indications are there's no file system on the drive, it's possible that there's a boot sector virus - be sure to scan ALL partitions.

Wink

Chuck Davis · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:55 am Post subject:

Thanks Doc. The computer sees the drive as unformatted/raw so there's really no way to scan it. Good thought though!
_________________
Wicked huge.....in India.
www.chuckdaviscreative.com

louzucaro · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:15 am Post subject:

louzucaro · Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:17 am Post subject:

Chuck, it's not cheap, but I've had excellent success on several corrupt drives in the past using VirtualLab. Price-wise, it'll be inbetween the cost of shareware and sending the drive off to get it recovered professionally.

https://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/windows.html
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Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

That would be a drag! I'll remember that if I ever have it happen. And it has in the past.
Thanks Lou!