My D drive died.

Discussion in 'Gear' started by Tackhead #9, Jan 30, 2008.

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  1. Tackhead #9

    Tackhead #9 Harder, better, faster, stronger

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    Our old computer was in active use for probably ten years or so. We got this new one midway through last year, and kept the old one in working order for all of the old files, as well as a program that we can't extract from it.

    A little while ago, I noticed a terrible clicking sound coming from the old computer whenever it was on. Today, I turned it on, and got the clicking as the thing painfully tried to start up, then it stopped and this message came onscreen...

    Secondary master hard disk fail.

    ...Obviously not what I wanted to see. I rebooted it, and Windows loaded up fine, only entirely absent of the D drive (the larger drive we had installed which I was storing everything on). Yes, the drive seems to have stopped existing entirely.

    So what, am I screwed? That computer held all the important things from my teenage years... Is it really all gone? I'm in a state of shock now... Especially when you consider I was turning the computer on in order to finally save all my files onto a CD-RW. Wow. Wow wow wow.
     
  2. LT21Titans27

    LT21Titans27 Tebow Apostle

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    Wow that is the biggest dagger I have heard in a while, hopefully you can re obtain them somehow
     
  3. Well, when the clicking starts, the drive is either dying or dead from mechanical failure. If you can't mount it, it's likely a lost cause for conventional means.

    You can send it out to get the data recovered for a few hundred bucks if it's worth it.

    I know this is too late to help you, but rule number 1 of computers is to always have backups of your important data. And anything that is absolutely vital, you should have backups offsite in case of a complete disaster.

    Statistically speaking, 8 out of every 1000 hard drives fail every year. That may not sound like much until you consider how many hard drives there are out there. I had one fail in just a month while others last for years. You never know how long they will last and sometimes it happens with zero warning.
     
  4. GoT

    GoT Strength and Honor

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    agree completly. Most users never backup until a similar thing happens to them.

    Just too prove Murphy's Law will nail you. My RAID5 system lost a drive, wasn't really bad just the Raid controller could not find it. Well the software that was supposed to rebuild the array did everything except rebuilt the array with the data. Long story short I lost some stuff cause I thought I was golden. I rebuilt the system stripped for speed instead - yee hah.

    But I run a external BU every month or so wether I need it or not. lol
     
  5. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

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    All is not lost but as Starkiller mentioned,you may have to send the drive away to a data recovery service.

    Just because the hard drive won't boot doesn't mean it won't let you read data from it but in my experience when you hear the dreaded ratchet type of sounds before it dies, they usually die for good.If you really have to have those files, Google data recovery services & shop around for the best deal.

    If you have a bit of technical confidence there's a few things you can try yourself,it's probably too late to help with that drive but they're handy things to have so heres the info.

    You can make or buy a windows boot disk so that your system will boot from the CD writer which could allow you to access the disc.http://www.ubcd4win.com/index.htm.

    You can also pick up a cheap usb drive reader which is practically idiot proof.Just hook it up & see if you can access the disc.http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00008&dept_id=015&cat_id=032
     
  6. Kid Gloves

    Kid Gloves Guest


    Not that this helps you at this point, but you may wish to check out Carbonite. It's relatively cheap and you have unlimited space.

    As SK stated; you can have it sent for data retrieval and some places even send it back to you on a new HD. Check out this site. ADR Data Recovery

    Peronally, I have a Seagate External Drive as a backup and have replaced the original drive that came with my computer with a much larger drive. I still use my old one as a "slave".
     
  7. I just have a bunch of hard drives around that house that I can use in an external case as backups. None are huge (most are between 80GB-120GB), but I can swap them out depending on what I want to backup. And I use Acronis TrueImage to clone my Windows drive.

    I did hear a good philosophy on HDs, which is to buy 2 equal drives at the same time (or a backup drive the same as the HD you already have) and simply clone your computer onto the backup drive every month (or week or however often). So if something ever happens to your HD you can literally just swap out the bad drive for the external and it will boot right up just like when you last cloned it.
     
  8. Gunny

    Gunny Shoutbox Fuhrer

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    This website should help you
     
  9. Broken Record

    Broken Record Biscuit Eater Staff

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