200 Ways To Revive A Hard Drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

We based one of our most popular pop quiz challenges on a situation every tech support person has faced or will face at least once: a failed hard drive. In that particular case, a ompaq !rolinea "#$$ user was getting errors li%e &dis% 0 error& and &invalid drive specification.& 'ere were the other facts in the case:
(he data wasn)t bac%ed up. (he problem came out of nowhere. (he user had accessed *etup and tried to manually enter the settings for the drive type when &+uto&
didn)t wor%.
(here was no startup dis% made by this machine.

,eviving a drive li%e that one-even if only long enough to copy its data before you throw the drive in the garbage-is a tough challenge. When I as%ed (ech,epublic members how they would troubleshoot a situation li%e this one, we received over 200 solutions, and we heard from a number of (ech,epublic members who wanted to %now .what everybody else suggested./ *o we decided to publish this collection of over 200 ways to revive a hard drive. In editing this document, we tried as much as possible to preserve the voices of the (ech,epublic members who submitted these solutions. 0f course, as the legal blurb at the end of the document declares, we can)t promise that any of these tips will wor% in every setting. 1ut we thought you)d en2oy reading what your fellow I( professionals had to say on this sub2ect. 3n2oy4
How to revive a hard drive
!age 5
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Freeze it
From: Travis Standen 0ne tric% I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data6read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It ma%es the data more )readable,) but for a one6shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive 7which, if it)s a drive failure, you probably do8, then you can hoo% up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up. From: Thedeedj If the problem is heat related, I put the drive in the freezer for about 59 minutes to cool it down... sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files... From: Itguy1 !ut the drive in a waterproof sealed bag, put it in the fridge for an hour or so, then have another go. From: Kelly Reid Well, I won)t start playing with your specific situation, too many steps or possible solutions where everything starts &If that last thing didn)t wor% try...& 1ut I)ll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. 'ad a drive where it sounded li%e the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuc% it in the office freezer for an hour4 I)ll be darned if it didn)t wor%. (he drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I can)t really ta%e credit for it though-I had heard it in some gee% bull session but I thought it was some 2edi6gee% urban myth. :oes to show you that you %now you)re really screwed when you say something to the effect of &0%ay, hold on tight, I)m gonna try something I saw in a cartoon once but I)m pretty sure I can do it& From: mpi pu If this drive isn)t spinning up, putting it in the freezer for about an hour will usually get the drive spinning again so you can copy needed files before the drive warms up again. (he first thing you want to do is run a dis% utility li%e ;orton dis% doctor or wddiag 7if it)s a western digital drive8 to verify whether the drive is wor%ing mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running <dis%#mbr will correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program li%e <6prot will loo% at the drive as a physical unit. +s an += ! technician I have seen this problem many times. >sually if the drive is not ma%ing a clic%ing sound I am successful in recovering the data. From: S ott !reving I)ve run into this scenario numerous times. 0ne time it involved the main ;ovell *?* volume on our '! <ile *erver. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I too% the drive out and put it in a freezer for @0 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and !resto4 I was up and running. ;eedless to say I quic%ly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive.
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In stand alone client systems, the method I)ve had the most luc% with reviving drives from death has been removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re6installing it ma%ing sure all cables are secure. I)ve had a better than $0 percent success rate with this method. From: jphillips If the drive is spinning and you are eAperiencing these %inds of errors, my eAperience has been that you are out of luc%. If the drive is not spinning, I have been able to remove it from the computer and )spin) the drive on a flat smooth surface 7much li%e spin the bottle8. (his will usually free the drive and when placed bac% in the machine, it will boot. ?ou should immediately bac% up you data after a successful boot, because the problem will return. (he neAt )fiA) was actually given to me by a ompaq technician several years ago. I had a drive that would not spin and he told me to put the drive in a plastic bag in the freezer overnight and then install bac% in the computer. 1elieve it or not, the drive booted. I have only tried this the one time. From: "ohn Tur otte In the past, when a drive has failed after it has been running for a short period, I have removed it from the machine and placed it in a freezer for a couple of hours, then hoo%ed it up again. It sometimes will run long enough to remove the data to another safe storage medium. From: #avid Furlow 0ne of the methods I have used before 7sometimes even successfully8 is to actually remove the drive from the ! , place it in the freezer for a day, then quic%ly put it bac% in the machine and try to access it. Why does this wor%B Who %nows, but I heard about this tactic years ago, and it has saved my behind on a couple of occasions. 70f course, if it comes bac% up, bac% up the data immediately.... :uess that should go without saying.8 From: Keri #$ 'ard drive revival: + technique I have learned is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then ta%ing it bac% out, somehow the condensation from bringing it bac% to room temperature helps revive it for about 20 minutes. It can be repeated about 96$ times tops. Cong enough to get out any important files that need to be bac%ed up. It has been proven to wor% a number of times. From: %hristopher &ost 'ow do you bring a hard drive bac% to lifeB Dy situation: 'alf of a volume set goes south on a Win;( server, no good bac%up and an angry boss screaming about the data being mission critical. Dy solution: EE + bit unorthodoA but, it has saved my butt4 EE 0E(urn off the server.
!age @

5E(a%e out the failing hard drive and wrap a static bag around it. 2E(hrow it in the freezer conveniently located in the brea% room. @E!ray for 5 5#2 to 2 hours. "ECeaving the hard drive in the bag, quic%ly plug the drive bac% into the server. 7Fust plug the in cables and go.8 9E ross fingers, turn it on, and move all data off the drive as fast as you can4 (hen add a tape drive and start bac%ing the dumb thing up4 Dy so6called logic: Detal contracts when it is cold.... so the platters shrin% and increase the clearance for the read#write heads. From: %hris &oole !ut the drive in the freezer for about a wee% and then you can usually get one last read off the drive. From: %heyenne Ro'ert (lspa h 'ere are some drive recovery tric%s that have wor%ed for me, in the order that I do them. (ry booting the drive and copying the data off after every step. 5. 'old the drive upside down, ma%ing gravity change the head geometry ever so slightly. Gertical is also another option. 2. *lightly rap the drive with your %nuc%le, 7but nowhere near hard enough to damage the drive8. @. (ry the drive in another machine, 7slight drive voltage change assumed to be the miracle wor%er here8. ". ,ap the drive 2ust *CI:'(C? harder than you did above in 2. 9. Freeze the hard drive in the freezer for two hours, and place in a plastic zip loc% bag to prevent condensation from forming on the drive when you plug it bac% into the system, 7head geometry, electrical resistance lowered, electrical contact points ad2usted, etc., assumed to be the miracle here8. $. +fter the drive warms up to room temperature or better, rap it even harder with your %nuc%le this time. H. ,epeat all of above steps on neAt day, as sometimes I)ve gotten data off drive simply by trying again. From: "ames ) *aughlin 'mmm sounds li%e a toughy to me. 1ac% in the old days when I first started teching, if we ran into a problem li%e this, there were only a few ways to deal with it. I will go over these options now: I>3*(I0;: What do you thin% you can do about this, Dr. (echB <irst +nswe-r-;othing, your computer is too old, and the data on there is not really of that much importance. If you really want it bac%, you can get a hold of a company called &(otal ,ecall& out of Jenver and get charged thousands of dollars to get your files bac%. 1esides, with ?2K, this machine ainLt gonna run anyway, and prices are so low right now, there is no reason why you should not upgrade now. 28 Well, I can ta%e it bac% to the shop and pretend li%e I %now what I am doing for @6$ hours. (hen I will call you the for the neAt wee% and a half giving you eAcuses as to why I am not able to get your
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information off of that hard drive. 0f course, I wonLt charge you anything, but I will eApect compensation for all the time I wasted on your hard drive. @8 I could ta%e the hard drive out of your machine, plug into my *econdary IJ3 controller, and boot up. 'opefully, I can see your hard drive and have the ability to copy all of your files to a temp folder on my machine called &?our ;ame.& +fter I collect all information, I would run I1D)s WI!3 on the drive and then a thorough scandis%, 2ust to see if the cause was sunspot related or not. If......this was not wor%ing, then eAtreme temperatures always have a way of tal%ing older hard drives into giving us what we want. I would then wrap the 'J in a Miploc% bag and slam it in the freezer for 52 hours. !ull it out the neAt day and very quic%ly plug it into my machine, copying what I can as quic%ly as possible until the drive dies again, repeating until all files are copied and safe. If.....that donLt wor%, move onto the eAtreme heat. + *hrin% wrap gun wor%s best, but a hairdryer will do the tric% if that is all you have. Wrap one end of the 'J in a towel and use the shrin% wrap gun or dryer to heat the hard drive. Gery quic%ly plug it in and copy files until finished. ,epeat until all necessary files are copied and you are done. ?ou may not thin% it wor%s, but when you are down to that as your last option...it does. From: *i htenwalner (llen * TSgt *olution: $E arefully remove it from the computer. HE!lace it in the freezer for 2" hours, then put it bac% in the computer. ?ou should have approAimately @0 minutes of good spin time left before a finaNl-and much more permanenNt-shut down. (his problem often arises from a catastrophic hard dis% crash-bearings are usually the culprit, coupled with badly worn read#write heads. I)ve used this technique on many computers throughout the last fifteen years as &resident eApert& and saved virtually all important data. If you)re in a pinch for time, such as critical data needed for a briefing in twenty minutes, you can opt for the more drastic cooling technique-a 02 fire eAtinguisher... From: "eff Smoley 'ere is a solution for really dead drives: ones that won)t spin or ones that ma%e those funny grinding noises: !ut the drive in the fridge for a few hours. (his can shrin% up something inside that might let it run long enough to get critical data. If not, try the freezer for a few more. (his actually has wor%ed for me in the past. From: +eal )en,us (hings we have done in the past that wor%ed: 5. ,emove the drive, grab it, and sha%e the hell out of it: &What could it hurtB It)s not wor%ing anywayO.& 2. !lace the drive in a freezer for about 50 minutes. @. 0pen the drive case in a laminar flow6hood, and give it a spin. 70nce it was closed up and reinstalled, it wor%ed long enough to suc% the data off of it.8 ". *wap the logic board with one on another drive of the same type. ;umbers 5, 2, and @ wor%ed with older *eagate 7which we no longer purchase8 drives, which were prone to &stiction& problems. ;umber " wor%ed following an electrical surge 7lightning stri%e8, since the data on the platters were still there and 0K.
!age 9

From: %lifford *iles Jepending on the drive failure I have had success with some rather eAtreme solutions to data recovery. *ymptom: Invalid Jrive *pecifications (reatment: 1asic hec% your cmos battery hec% your IJ3 cable and connections hec% your 2umper settings ,emove all other IJ3 connections but the drive in question +dvanced (ry dis% manager software (ry data recovery software >se a bios upgrade card 7P@Q8 and allow it to setup the drive Coo% up the drive specifications on the manufacturerLs Web site and plug them in manually. (urn 0ff or 0n Write !recomp-@2bit dis% access
*ymptom: Jrive does not spin up: &*tic%tion& (reatment: 1asics Cightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriveNr-no power Cightly tap the side of the drive case with a screwdriverN-power on +dvanced Freeze in a zip6loc% bag *pray drive case with inverted can of canned air Cightly slap the drive on a des% top: 7mild frustration8 ,epeated hammering of the drive on a des% top: 7last resort-total frustration only8 1oot with a <+(@2 Windows Q9 boot dis% *ys the drive fdis% #mbr hec% for a virus from a %nown clean boot dis% old soa% the drive:
*ymptom: Invalid media type (reatment: 1asics +dvanced
(hese are but a few techniques for the doomed platters. (hese techniques can be used in con2unction with one another to arrive at the desired solution. Cather, rinse, and repeat if necessary. From: #aniel &hilpott 'ere is the solutions chec%list for this problem: (ools needed: RE1ootable J or loc%ed floppy disN%-<ormatted with an 0* that can see the file system of the hard drive. J0* is usually the preferred 0* for this function with ;(<*J0* from *ysinternals for ;(<* reads and J0* utilities for diagnostics#repair. QEIt should have the ability to boot to and#or see J6,0D drives, read <+(, <+(@2, ;(<*, or other common file systems, run common networ% card drivers and see the networ%, have dis% diagnostic and#or repair utilities, and have antivirus scanning software with current definitions. 50E0n(rac% Jata +dvisoNr-+ free download from www.0n(rac%.com 'ard Jrive 7large capacity8<ormatted for a <+( file system 7or whatever is your common file system8 and preferably with 1e0* as the boot operating system. 55E omputer ,epair (ool KiNt-*tandard repair tools.
!age $

52EFreezerN-(he one in your %itchen will do quite nicely. 5. (he first tas% to recovering a drive is not at all technical-It is social. !repare your user for the worst but also eAplain what the realistic chances of recovery are. (hen start collecting information that you will need. 'ere is what you need to %now before starting: 5@EWhat is the goal of recovery, returning to the previous state or recovering the dataB 5"EWhich is most importantB 59EWhat is the client willing to spend on recoveryB 5$EWhat 0* 7;(, Q9, CinuA8 and J0* 7<+(, ;(<*, <+(@28 was the system runningB 5HEWhere is the computer locatedB 2. hec% the environment: (he last question from step 5 is often forgotten and can lead to eAtensive troubleshooting of a simple problem. Coo% for an environmental problem that may cause problems for the hard drive. +re there magnets on the computer case close to the hard driveB Is there a fan or heater near the computerB Is a transformer, electrical 2unction boA, or high energy device near the computer 7on a floor above or in a nearby wall8B +ll of these will produce a magnetic 7or electromagnetic8 field that can cause problems. 3quipment that may vibrate the computer even at a very low frequency can cause hard drive heads to s%ip and 2ump or even scratch the platters. @. (urn off the computer, remove the cover, and get ready to the turn the computer on. (hen put your ear right neAt to the drive and power the system on. If you hear any %ind of grinding, scratching, or rattling from the drive, turn the computer off as quic%ly as possible and go to the neAt step. 0therwise go on to step 9. ". If the dis% has made noise that indicates some sort of mechanical stress, then the problem is the domain of data recovery eAperts. (his is where the client has to ma%e a decision. Jo they want to send the drive to a data recovery service, or do they want to destroy the dis% in an attempt to recover some dataB If the client has information that absolutely needs to be recovered, then send it to the professionals. ,emember, you cannot service a hard drive unless you are wor%ing in a clean room. If they are willing to destroy the dis% and try to get some data off the drive, there is a quic% hac% available. !lace the drive in a static6free bag, then place the drive and static6free bag into a ziploc% bag to seal out moisture. !lace this into a freezer turned to as low as possible for 2" hours. +fter 2" hours, pull the drive out and immediately put it into a computer 7the faster the better8 that boots to a floppy and has another hard drive to transfer data to. If the drive wasn)t damaged too much previously, you should be able to pull some data off before the metal of the drive heats up and starts destroying the data storage platters. ?ou can repeat the process only if you shut down almost immediately and go through the 2" hour freeze process again. hances are that the first time attempt will be the only chance to recover data. 9. If the drive boots to an operating system and you can get to either a networ% or bac%up medium, then start copying the most important data off first. 0nce that data is off, you can bac% up less important data. (he best bet is to listen to your client to find out what absolutely must be recovered. $. If the client wants to restore the drive to its previous state and continue operating, then you need to do two things to see if this is feasible. 5RE<irst, run a virus scan on the drive. >pdate the virus definitions then scan every file on the computer. 5QE*econd, boot to a floppy6dis%6based hard drive utility and run a low6level bad sector discovery utility. If both tests pass and the computer boots to the operating system, then your 2ob is done and you are eligible for a pat on the bac%. 0therwise, continue.
!age H

H. If the drive does not boot, then try booting to a bootable J or a bootable loc%ed floppy dis%. If you can see the file system, continue to step R. If you can not see the file system, then assess your tools. If you have 'ard Jrive Dechanic from 'igher :round Jiagnostics or (iramisu from 0n(rac%, then you can use these to diagnose and recover data. 0therwise, boot to the Jata +dvisor dis% to find out whether data can be recovered. (hey will recover it or suggest a recovery plan or even require the dis% be sent to a data recovery center li%e 0n(rac%. (he client needs to ma%e the choice as to whether the eApense of this solution is worth the recovery of the data. R. If you can see the file system, then priority actions are: 20E opy the most important data off the drive 25E opy the rest of the data off the drive 22EJetermine if the drive can be recovered 7scan with virus chec%er and dis% utilities8 2@E,epair the operating system (he best way of doing this is to install your spare hard drive in the computer and boot to either it or the J#floppy bootable. opy the important data off first, copy the less important data off neAt, and then do your diagnostics. If your diagnostics loo% li%e the drive is repairable, then go right ahead and repair it. (he reason I suggest 1e0* be the boot 0* on the hard drive is that it has the ability to mount more file systems than I even %new eAisted before using it. If you need to access an eAotic file system, 1e0* ".9 is almost sure to have a driver available for it. 'owever, the <+( 7or <+(5$8 is the most commonly readable file system around, so generally you will want to transfer data to this file system. If it becomes apparent that the file system is intact and not infected with a virus 7or has had a boot sector virus removed8, then you may need to replace the Daster 1oot ,ecord 7D1,8 of the drive. *imple. 1oot to a J0* dis% that has the fdis% utility and run an )fdis% #D1,) to replace the D1,. ,emember, balance the time it ta%es to restore the operating system against the time it ta%es to recover data, get a new drive, and install a fresh operating system. ;ormally, dis% recovery is simply a matter of recovering the data. ,eturning a drive to its previous state is a goal but may simply be more costly than recovering the data and replacing the drive. 'ow much effort to eApend on the process is entirely up to you and the client.
!age R
#rop it
From: -o' )atott 1esides the typical use of sys : to transfer bac% the system files deleted during &housecleaning& by typical users, I)ve gotten luc%y by turning the drive upside down and setting it on top of the power supply 7which seemed to remove &a static charge& that had built up8. +lso have used various Jis% Danager pac%ages to &tal%& to drives with <+(#;(<* corruptions 2ust to recover the data. If drives are being reformatted from an operating system that doesn)t want to &fully go away& 7can name a few48, the dis% manager software has also wor%ed in this scenario many times to get rid of the old and allow you to reformat with the new. 0f course, there)s always the &drop it from ./01 onto a flat hard surfa e& or &sma , the side of the ase with the flat of your hand& approaches. 1elieve it or not, both techniques have wor%ed. ,umor has it that sometimes the heads &stic%& to the platters during par%ing#cooldown. From: Kenneth *illemo *ometimes a hard drive that has been running since nearly forever won)t spin up after being shutdown for a while. (his can be caused by the heads stic%ing to the platter. +s a C+*( resort, I will drop the drive onto a firm surfa e from appro2imately eight in hes . Inevitably, this will solve the problem and the drive is useable long enough to remove the data. Dy *ys admin spouse gives me a funny loo% every time I do it but can)t argue with the results. From: &eter Tello If the low level diagnostics fail, I declare it officially dead. +t that point, I have nothing to lose, so I pull it out and over a thin carpet, drop it 31 s4uarely on all . sides5 repeating this 6 or 7 times . I have approAimately a 90 percent successful boot6up rate, usually enough to copy the data off and save my behind for not having it bac%ed up in the first place. From: T#% Te h (his is a one6time fiA-long enough to revive 'J to get data. 2"E(a%e the 'J out of the computer and s4uarely drop it on the losed side of the drive 7to your bench8 with perhaps a little slam. 29E(his seems to free up the bearings long enough to copy data off of the hard drive. I have quite a bit of luc%, 'ut 89 per ent of the time it only wor,s on e.
!age Q
Hit it
From: Karen:Roman 5. hec% D0* settings to ma%e sure the drive setting are what they should be-the D0* battery could be dead or the user may have changed the settings. + bad hard drive could cause the +utodetect to misread settings. 2. 1oot from a floppy dis% and run fdis%#mbr to restore the bac%up copy of the master boot record. @. Image the drive with drive copy program to a new drive. ". ItLs possible the 'JJ controller is bad. (ry the drive in another machine. 9. 1oot from a floppy attach to a networ% drive or have a secondary drive installed and if you can access the data copy it off to there. $. (he drive could have a stiction problem. Tap it gently on the sides5 prefera'ly with a ru''er mallet . From: (lan !ates +s &unscientific& as this sounds, I have found that rapping the drive case a couple of times sometimes allows the drive to come up. I have had several eAperiences in the past li%e this. *ometimes the drive is having trouble &spinning up.& 0bviously, the drive is on its last legs but a rap on the drive case will sometimes free it to spin up. (his will allow the system to boot so the data can be bac%ed up before the drive goes into the trash... From: -o' -ar,er I have found on more than a few occasions that older dis%s can develop a stic%ing problem. I believe it is a combination of wea% motor and surface6to6surface tension between the dis% and heads. (his problem usually shows up on older dis%s that have been running a few years 7usually 2" hours a day8 and then shut down for service or other reasons. 2$EWhen you try to start up again, the dis% will not spin and you get dis% errors trying to boot. +fter chec%ing for the usual problems 7power, cables, 2umpers, etc.8 and finding that the drive was in fact not spinning, I have had great success 2arring the dis% with my palm 7of my hand, not my !J+8. I some times have to be a little more violent to get it to start but I have never had to use a hammer. 2HEI would be careful using this method if the data on the dis% must be recovered at any cost which I would then send to 0n6(rac% or some other eApensive data recovery company. 2REI have found this problem mostly with older servers, but a few wee%s ago I ran into the same thing on a two6year6old ompaq IJ3 drive that was only used a few hours a day. From: Randy Forston If the hard drive isn)t ma%ing noise and when you place your hand on it 7not on the ! 1oard side, but on the metal casing8, you don)t feel any vibration from the drive, you may have a stic%ing problem 7some older drives with a variety of drive lube no longer used have this problem8. If the above describes the symptoms you)re seeing, try rapping around the drive case with the plastic handle of a screwdriver. (his will quite often remedy the stiction and allow the drive to come bac% up as normal. From: philn
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'i there, + few things can be performed on a crashed drive before declaring it J3+J: 5. (ouch the drive 7or listen to it8 to feel whether it)s spinning. *ome drives gradually suffer from spin6up problem but otherwise wor% fine once spinning. If it doesn)t spin at power up, gently ,no , on the side the drive on e or twi e to jump start it. (his wor%s best if you %noc% on the drive approA. one or two seconds after power is applied. ,epeat the procedure a few times and add a little more force if necessary. ,emember that too much force can permanently damage the drive, but again, you have nothing too lose at this point. 2. If drive spins normally and stays spinning, try listening for irregular sounds emitting from the drive. + series of )clic%ing) sound usually signifies multiple bad sectors including the boot sector that can prevent drive from booting. If drive )+uto Jetect) is enabled, ma%e sure that its signature is shown at boot screen. If not, drive is certainly suffered from ma2or hardware failure. @. hec% system)s !> to ma%e sure it)s not overheating 7 !> can run warm, but should not be hot8 due to a failed cooling fan, etc. 0verheating the !> can cause the system to be unbootable or cause the system to reboot itself frequently. ". ?ou could use another system to test the problematic drive to ma%e sure that the controller is not at fault. (ry both &+uto& and &>ser (ype& 7where you manually enter the drive)s parameters8 settings. 9. (ry booting with a floppy and run )fdis%) to view drive information. *ome drives suddenly lost all of their data possibly due to corrupted <+(, but otherwise, continue to wor% fine once initialized and formatted. In many cases, <+( can be restored by eAecuting ;orton >tilities from floppy. If all failed and data from drive must be retrieved, you can try swapping its hardware 7drive)s main board8 with similar wor%ing drive. (hough this procedure can void drive warranty, but your data is more important, rightB 0r else, you try services that can save your data from dead drive for a fee. From: *yle !iese !ut D0* bac% to auto for 'J and see if it sees an 'J at all. !ut in a bootable floppy-can you see the 'JB 7Jon)t forget to write protect the floppy in case this was a virus.8 ;ow try 3M6Jrive. *ome versions 7I have several on hand with different advanced options8 show what parameters the hard drive is set to in D0* and what parameters the drive was formatted with. (he second set is important. *ometimes the 1I0* doesn)t auto correctly. Cisten to the 'J. If it powers up normally by sound 7no strong thumping sound8 and the platters seem to spin up, you still have a chance. If the drive spins up and then down or if it emits a strong thumping sound, the hard drive is toast and only a professional recovery company with a clean room can help. If the 'J doesn)t spin up at all, o asionally you an gently slam it down to get stu , platters unstu , and it will spin up long enough to 'a , up your data. (he 'J is toast physically at this point, and it needs to be replaced before trying the slam technique. (here were also a few older 'Js that had the flywheel eAposed, and you could nudge it slightly and they would spin up long enough to bac% up the data. +gain these are last resort te hni4ues and you +,3 planning on replacing the 'J anyway. <rom here, one of several software products are available to assist you as long as the drive spins up physically to assist the technician. Dost of these products can read drives with damaged <+( tables or missing sectors.
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+nd it could be 2ust a simple matter of losing the +ctive attribute for the partition4 +lso, viruses can cause this by blasting the partition table, and some of the professional revival products can assist from here. :ood luc%4 From: %hristopher Tolmie 2QEIf the drive is not spinning up on power6on, I)ll lightly rap on the side of the drive en losure with the handle of a screwdriver while listening for the platters to begin to spool6up. @0EIf it doesnLt spin up, I)ll increase the pressure of each rap until it does start spinning. I)ve gone to the eAtreme of pic%ing up an eAternally mounted full height 9.29& dis% drive and slamming it ontinuously on the des, while it was starting up. @5EI did this for over siA months until the drive finally died completely, but I did eAtend its life and it never had corrupt data on it. 0f course, it was all bac%ed up. If the drive won)t spin, then you aren)t going to recover the data. @2E?ou can you a third6party utility li%e ,3* >3 that reads the drive directly using its own operating system and saving individual files and directories to another drive. I)ve recovered entire drives this wayI-it is time consuming but it wor%s. When all else fails, send it to the professionals. @@E*earch the Web to find different companies that specialize in rebuilding the drive, but eApect to spend mucho dinero. From: %raig Shipaila 1efore you do the following, ma%e sure that the controller is not the problem or a cable on bac%wards, etc., by ta%ing the drive out of the computer and putting into another one to see if itLs the computer causing the problem. If the other items have been chec%ed, then do 7what we call8 the slam test. If the drive is dead the only thing you can really do is: 5. <ind out if the person needs any important info that you might be able to get off of computer. 5a. If person has data they cannot live without and the drive is not running, ta%e the drive out of the computer and slam it down to the des,top to get the motor running. ;ine out of 50 times, this will get the motor running long enough to get data. If needed you can also send the drive into a White ,oom to have them get the info. From: "oseph -runo +ctually, the solution isn)t mine. We had several Jell ! s and the drive went out on one 7with no current bac%up, of course8. (he Jell tech came out with a new drive but the warranty didn)t include data recovery for which they wanted a P9,000 deposit and offered no guarantees. I as%ed the tech if there was anything we could do on our own to get the drive to spin up so we could get a bac%up. &Well&, he replied, &there is one thing I)ve done that sometimes unstic%s the drive.& He then too, the drive out and slammed it flat down on the des, as hard as he ould . +fter putting it bac% in the drive, it spun up. I was advised to bac% up the data before shutting down the system as &the slam& doesn)t always wor% and seldom wor%s a second time. <ortunately, once was enough in this case. (he data was bac%ed up to a portable tape drive and the drive was replaced and restored. From: Sam ;spana
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I have used several ways to solve the same issue. (he reason is the fact that a hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive, or is itB (he answer is ;0. If a hard drive is failing itLs usually because it is legacy equipment that often doesn)t even support C1+ mode. 1ut, sometimes it isn)t even the hard drive thatLs causing the problem. *ay whatB (hat)s right. 1y in large, I first approach this situation by as%ing the user how much hard drive space he#she used to have. >sually the answer is over 952 megabytes. 1ut, again, you)ll be surprised. *econdly, I as% the user if this is the first time this situation has occurred and whether or not he#she %nows if we are dealing with a new or old computer. +rmed with the above answers. I usually solve this problem by performing a combination of the tas%s described below. 58 (est the motherboard 1I0*# D0* battery. 0ften, the hard drive is 2ust fine. 1ut, the internal battery is dead. *ome computers li%e a few !ac%ard 1ells I have dealt with have C1+ and @26bit mode turned off by default. (hose settings may have been enabled during assembly, but now that the battery is dead they are set bac% to factory settings 7when the user turns his#her computer off8 rendering the hard drive inaccessible. *olution: hange the internal battery and enable D0* C1+#@26bit mode. 28 +s% if the computer has been moved recently. 0ften, when computers are moved, data cables are detached from hard drives and#or motherboards. 0bviously, without a data or power cable, a hard drive will never wor%. *olution: ,eattach cables and be prepare to actually replace them. @8 Worst case scenario. It is the hard drive that does not seem to respond. (hen, replace the hard drive with a new Daster drive and install the faulty drive as a *lave drive. Da%e sure you install the same 0perating *ystem used by the *lave on the Daster. (hen, proceed to probe the *lave drive. Ideally, at this point you should use diagnostics tools such as Dicro6*cope from Dicro2000. If you have eAperience, you should not close the computer boA ma%ing sure that the *lave drive is within reach. (wice, I have been able to restart a hard drive after gently 'anging on it 7once as *lave and once as a Daster.8 Jon)t miss the boat. 3ven if you happen to restart the faulty *lave drive, you must copy your info to the Daster so that you are not placed in the same situation again because the neAt time you may not be as luc%y. (he above procedure wor%s whether the drive is an IJ3 or * *I drive. 'owever, when using * *I hard drive, you may have to test the * *I card as well. I am leaving now to fiA a drive that belongs to a ,+IJ pac% because it seems to be out of the scope of this drive quiz. From: ;arle &ear e When a drive is really gone-cannot be read at all-due to a physical failure, I employ a tric% that has yet to fail me. 5. Install the replacement as an additional drive. 2. ,emove the bad drive and smite it firmly on both edges 7 'ang it on something solid84 @. ,einstall it, reboot, and it will wor% long enough to get the data copied to the replacement drive. ". I haven)t had the opportunity to chec% this step yet but I thin% it should wor%. If it)s the boot drive that)s bad, mirror the boot partition to the replacement drive, then brea% the mirror, remove the bad drive re2umper, and boot to the new one.
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The rest of the solutions

From: S ott <ittell5 )%& (= I had to laugh when I saw this easy fiA, and it does wor%. We were able to bring bac% a failed drive in an older '! server running ;etWare ".55. <irst step is to remove the drive from the machine. *econd, hold the drive flat in your palms. (hird, sha%e the drive a few times in an up6and6down motion, li%e you)re trying to hammer a nail. Jon)t let the drive hit the floor though. I)ve used this technique on numerous occasions, wor%s every time. From: %olle #avis The Hair #ryer )ethod <or the last resort 7when the drive really did die, it6is6not6even6spinning type crashes8, there is a possible solution that comes from the early days of hard drives. 1ac% then you were not supposed to turn them off -I don)t %now why but I1D said never turn them off unless you are standing there. 0ne of our main computers was housed in a closet where I could not hear it well and had a power supply failure that apparently too% days to complete. I happened to open the closet for some other reason and discovered a warm boA and immediately went through the shut down sequence to ta%e it off line for a new power source. *everal days later, the unit was shut down again for a long wee%end of downtime on a routine maintenance schedule and upon restarting the system the hard drive would not wor%. I am pretty good at bac%ing up everything but could not find the bac%up dis% anywhere. !anic. I am the author of a newsletter that goes to hundreds of subscribers everyday, and the mailing list was on the dead drive. I replaced the drive and reloaded everything but was going through sobbing spells as I loo%ed for solutions to recover the lost data. Jata recovery companies wanted over five thousand dollars to try to recover the data. + client of mine told me he once possessed an old 2R$ that required a hair dryer to get it running every time he turned it on. (he fellow who had built it for him was an I1D technician and gave him the hair dryer idea because that is what I1D used to do to restart the drives in down machines. *o on the bench machine with the drive out where the dryer could get to it and still be hoo%ed up, I began the process. Co and behold, it wor%ed. While it was running, I downloaded all the missing data and immediately uploaded it to the new drive. Jon)t laugh, I got my outcome and can now say I recovered a fully dead hard drive with my wife)s hair dryer. From: "ohn -$ +s for me, I have had good success with this method 7about 906908. I ta%e the drive, and suspend it "& over a plastic carpet tool 7one of those things you see in an office to help the chair wheels go8. I then let it &fall& while still holding it, twice on each long edge, then once flat on top and bottom. ?ou want firm, but not too hard raps on the plastic. I find that the carpet underneath seems to cushion the blow 2ust enough. (his appears to wor% on drives with stuc% read6write heads most of the time. If the center bearing is loc%ed up, nothing short of a miracle will bring it bac%. In any case, have a second drive ready to receive your files when you attempt to restart. From: Tony +. Jead system-*ystem &+&
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1. Known wor%ing system-*ystem &1& . I am assuming that the system board is posting and responding in the correct manner. +nd that no Fumpers have been moved on any of the equipment. *tep 5. Gerify power to 'ard Jrive 7'J8, Dulti6tester 7GJ 8, or another system plug. If power 7*ee step S28 If no power, swap#replace plugs#power supply. *tep 2. *wap hard drive from + to 1 and boot. If boot, then 'J is good. 7*ee step S@8 If ;o6boot, then replace 'J. *tep @. ,3D0G3...JI*+1C3 if onboard.... all un6needed devices from *ystem +...modem, sound card...etc. ;0(3: Cabel 'J ribbon cables + and 1 before removal from systems. &+& for *ystem &+& and &1& for *ystem &1&8 *tep ". ,emove from system + and 1 the 'J, and ribbon cable that connects it to the motherboard...7D18 *tep 9. *wap drive and cables from 1 to + and connect to D1. If boot then controller on D1 &+& is good 7*ee step S$.8 If ;o6boot then D1 controller is bad.... replace D1. *tep $. ,eturn 'J)s and cables to original systems, ,emove 'J ribbon cables from both systems, swap 1 for + and boot...If boot then ribbon cable on + is bad...replace. If ;o6boot then... 1alance your chec% boo%, and get out the sale pages...you)ve got bigger problems44 From: ;ddie +$ (he two techniques that I have used to get a failed hard drive to come bac% to life is to *ys the drive from a boot dis% and#or to use the fdis%#mbr command form a boot dis%. I have used these together and independent of each other. From: &aul <$ Jead dis% drivesB (here)s a bunch of steps I would ta%e if the drive werenLt being recognized by either the auto setup or manual entry. 58 hec% your Daster#*lave#*tandalone 2umper settings and ma%e sure they are correct and don)t conflict with another device on the same IJ3 channel. 28 hec% for bent pins on the connectors. @8 (ry a %nown good cable-<loppy and IJ3 cables often seem to go down the gurgler at the worst possible time for some un%nown reason. "8 (ry a %nown good drive on your IJ3 channel and chec% the channel. If it doesn)t respond: @"E(ry another IJ3 port 7if there)s two8 @9EJisable onboard IJ3 and try another I#0 card 7one thatLs %nown to be good of course8 98 (ry the dis% in another ! . $8 'ere)s where it starts getting tric%y. 1y now you must be reasonably convinced you have a bad case of galloping dis% rot. 0n some drives 7not all8, if you have an identical same model drive, you can swap over the logic board. (his will let you %now if it is the embedded controller on the logic board. With luc%, your dis% will roar into life and you can suc% the data off onto somewhere safe. H8 If your dis% is ma%ing a hideous noise li%e a peg6legged man with a vacuum cleaner on a wooden floor 7whirrr, clun%, whirrr, clun%....8, then it is li%ely you have a dropped head. (his is where you have start ma%ing decisions about how much your data is worth, because to go any further is going to cost big time and may require factory technicians to try and repair the dis% in a clean6room environment. If your data
!age 59

was that important, then it would have been bac%ed up. 70f course it would have been, they all respond in loud voices8 R8 She>s dead5 "im$ How fast an you type? In a nutshell, this is my summary of the death cycle of a hard dis%. From: #aniel F$ :et an identical 'ard Jrive and swap out the Cogic >nit 73lectronic 1oard8. *et your D0* to auto6 detect. ?ouLre good to go444 From: )iles H$ hec% cables are on and are the correct way round. hec% 2umpers to ensure the dis% has the correct setting 7depending on otheris%s or J6,0D used on the same controller, if any8. hec% 1ios setting for Dodel of ! is current. Jownload latest version if necessary. 1oot from J0* floppy, use <JI*K to chec% if dis% can be seen. If the dis% is there, then I would suggest using :'0*( or similar to copy the image from dis% to dis%. If the dis% was not apparently running, I would swap the dis% out and install it into a ! that was wor%ing. (he options here would be to have the )faulty) dis% as the master or slave depending on your situation. If installed and wor%s as master, ghost the image to the networ%. If installed as slave, boot the ! and use ghost to copy from dis% to dis% or to ;etwor%. If dis% was still in a state of absolute failure, I would suggest contacting the dis% manufacturer to as% their advice. (hey may have some low6level dis% chec%ing#repairing software. I would also install a new dis% into the original ! with 0#* on and as% the user to ensure all data is put onto the networ% 7if possible8. If all else fails, then you)d have to chal% it up as eAperience and hopefully someone would learn to ensure sufficient bac%up procedure were implemented. (herefore, the neAt time this happened it would not matter. ?ou would be able to reinstall the 0#* and +pplications 7manually or automate8 and restore data bac% to the user 7if held locally8.
From: *awren e Shipins,i 3asy, go to DaAtor)s Web site or *eagate Web site and download the utility software. It)s free. !lease bac% up whatever you can first4 From: "a,e !$ Well, I)m %ind of new to this, but I)ll throw my hat in the ring. <irst, I would try flashing the D0*. If the battery is built into the system board 7I bet it is8, then find the D0* 2umper, pull itN-or move it from pins 562 to 26@-then %ic% the power on for a few seconds. !ower downT put the D0* 2umper where it started. If the battery is removable, then pull the battery and flash the D0*. (ry rebooting. If that doesn)t wor%, put the Iuic% ,estore dis%s in, reboot, and eAit to J0* when you get the chance 7I don)t remember the eAact steps to that8. ;ow, depending on how this I, was put together, you may have !age 5$

to change to a virtual Ndrive-possibly ;: and then the (00C* directory. ?ou may be able to do this straight from the +: or : prompt. ,un the command <JI*K #D1, and reboot. If it still doesn)t wor%,then I would have to chec% into a dis% utility you can run from a bootable floppy 7assuming you can even get that far8. Jon)t have a whole bunch of eAperience with those. (he neAt step after that is to 2ust swallow hard and %iss that data bye6bye. ?ou could replace the hard drive but why %eep a relic li%e that around when you could buy another one five times as good for the same money the !rolenia cost you when it was newB From: !ordon !$5 IT )anager (he following is the normal procedure used at my company 7before sending the hard drive to a data recovery agency8. 5. ,eturn the 1I0* to the original state. If &auto& for hard drive then &auto,/ otherwise to &user defined& with C1+ enabled for Dicrosoft)s operating systems. 2. If the system still doesn)t boot off the hard drive, then boot off a write6protected bootable floppy using the same operating system and version as what is on the : drive. @. If there is no hardware error during the boot process, see if the c: drive can be accessed at all. If it can be accessed and files and directories can be viewed, now is a good time to bac% up files if the physical condition of the hard drive is suspect. ". hec% the hard drive with an antivirus program. *ometimes computer viruses damage the boot sector. + good antivirus program will identify the problem and may even correct the situation. 9. If there is no virus found on the c: drive, then run &sys c:& to restore the boot files to the hard drive. 0nly run the sys command if you are sure the 1I0* settings are the same for the hard drive as before the problem was reported. 0ne way to chec% this is to loo% at the file and directory structure of the drive. If you see garbage, then the settings are probably not the same 7or the <+( was corrupted8. ,eboot the system after running sys. $. If the drive boots, you)re almost done. If not, then reboot off the dis%ette and scan the drive for errors. ,einstall the operating system without formatting the drive. H. If the drive ma%es any unusual sounds or doesn)t spin, then your best option is to send the drive to a data recovery agency. +ttempting to recover data from a physically damaged dis% usually results in further damage to the drive and little chance of recovering any data later. (he best question to as% here is &What is your time and data worthB& R. In step $, I said that if the drive boots you)re almost done. What)s leftB Da%e that recovery dis%ette, ma%e a bac%up of the drive and thoroughly scan the hard drive for any physical errors. !erform the scan last, since the drive may fail during a scan if there are any physical problems with the drive mechanism. From: Tra i + Thrash I hope you have good luc% on your data recovery. >sually, the first thing I do is to pray, then scold the user :3;(C? for not ma%ing bac%ups. I hope they never as% to see D? bac%ups. 5. !ull the dis%. !ut it in a %nown wor%ing machine. (his gets you out of the malfunctioning environment and into a controlled space, ?0>, wor%bench. 2. (ry &+uto config& to set the drive type. @. If &+uto config& does not find the correct drive type, you have two options: @$E,ead the actual specs off the drive label 7this may or may not wor%, depending upon whether the set6 up tech used them or not8. @HE>se a dis% utility to read the specs off of the drive. ". If this does not wor%, is the drive spinningB @REIf not, try to &shoc%& it by setting it flat upon the table top, applying power, and rapping it on the side a couple of times with a plastic6faced hammer or handle of a screwdriver. Jon)t be afraid to rap it pretty
!age 5H

good, these little guys are pretty sturdy nowadays, and worst case...you already have a bro%en drive4 70ften you will hear the drive spin up immediately.8 (ime to 1+ K >! 7:rab the data and run8. @QEIf it is spinning, power it down and clean the connector with the cleaner of your choice. I li%e pre6 moistened alcohol prep pads from a medical supply. !ut the cables bac% on and try again. 9. *ometimes, it helps to remove the ! board from the drive and reinstall it. 7 onnector problem again.8 $. Jis% utilities li%e *pin,ite, Jis% <irst +id, or Jis% ,escue are useful 7but only if the drive is actually spinning.8 In every case, bac% up the data the minute you see anything that even loo%s li%e a directory. 'ave a drive ready to put it on. I li%e to have a dis% drive connected to my test machine and put everything there +*+!. ?ou might be advised to use the &new& drive that will go into the user)s machine. Jon)t put the &bad& drive bac% unless you 2ust li%e to ma%e service calls over again. (hese steps have made me a hero more than once on my 5H years as a ! tech and#or salesman. 'ope they wor% for you. From: !eoff !$ 'ere)s my solution to the quiz &'ow do you bring a hard drive bac% to lifeB& In order to ma%e the best use of a drive that may be failing, one could ta%e the following steps: 5. hec% the system to see if the drive will detect and boot up successfully. If so, s%ip to step 9 for bac%up#data retrieval procedures.
2. If the drive is not detecting properly on the system, chec% to see if the problem can be solved in the systems bios, by either manually reconfiguring the drive, or by autodetecting it. If this wor%s, s%ip to 9. @. If the drive simply will not wor% in that system, try putting it in another system that is wor%ing properly with a similar hard drive 7the same drive type and#or size if possible8. If the drive wor%s in this system, but not in the original system, then perhaps the old system has more serious problems such as a bad IJ3 controller. ". (ry booting up on the drive. If it will not boot properly, try <JI*K or some other partition viewer to see if it has valid partitions defined. If no valid partitions are defined, or if partitions are unformatted, then the data may be lost. (ry redefining to the eAact same partitions that were %nown to eAist before the problems were encountered. If you have a wor%ing drive at this point, but no data, then it is li%ely that data is gone. If irreplaceable data was lost, you can try bringing the drive to a hardware shop for professional data retrieval. 9. If any of these attempts to revive the drive has succeeded, then immediately bring the system up and bac% up any important files to another drive or to removable media. ,un scandis% and#or any other drive chec%ing utilities. If serious problems are found with the drive, or if you have suspicion that the drive will continue having more problems li%e this, then prepare to replace the drive. While you still have a wor%ing system, ma%e a complete bac%up if possible. !erhaps the entire drive image can still be retrieved and copied onto the new drive, and no system re6install will be necessary. From: %hris Heizmann I. If the drive wor%s intermittently and wonLt boot to Windows: 58 reate a boot dis% on a different machine if available 7format c: #s8. 28 >se the boot dis% to start the machine in J0*. @8 *witch to drive c:U. "8 opy all data files to floppy 7more than one dis% will be needed8.
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II. If the drive does not wor% at all. "0E58 0pen up the case. "5E28 Cocate and remove the 'ard Jis% Jrive. "2E@8 (ap on the side of the hard drive with a screwdriver a few times 7not too hard8. "@E"8 ,e6install the drive and start the ! . ""E98 If the ! $8 If the ! boots to Windows, bac%up all data files via D*bac%up. wonLt boot to Windows, follow the above instructions.
From: #avid ($ Hunt "9E<irst establish the correct drive characteristics 7cylinders, sectors, %apazitVt usw.8 from the drive or from internet if not printed on the casing. "$E hec% all cables and connections 7!ower, 3IJ3, or * *I8. "HE(urn on the !ower and correct the 1I0*. "REWatch for failures such as controller failure during bios chec%. "QECisten for unpleasant noises 7after head crash8. 90EIf the ! won)t boot from dis%, use a boot dis% in the floppy and establish if drive 95EIf not, try <dis% and see if a drive is visible 7if not, it)s starting to loo% bad...8. 92EIf visible and reachable, copy any important data to floppy dis% 7if possible8 or another drive if available. 9@E,evive the boot bloc%, and try booting from the drive again. 9"EIf the drive wasn)t visible, then remove the drive and try to revive it in another ! . 99E*ometimes removing the drive and gently sha%ing it can help to revive it if the user hasn)t been using his ! on a regular basis, especially in older ! s. +nyway, this a problem one can spend hours with, it 2ust depends on how important the data was. 0nly cowards wor% with a bac%up4444 From: )auri &resser 9$E hec% the D0* setup for drive settings. is available.
9HEIf an auto detect drive option is there, use it. 9RE*ave the settings and reboot. 9QECisten to see if the drive is spinning by putting your ear close to the drive 7hopefully the drive is not so loud that you do not need to get close to it to hear it8. $0EIf it does not spin, shut down the computer. $5E hec% to ma%e sure pin one of the cable is on pin one of the drive 7you might have seen a steady drive activity C3J lit up if it was bac%wards8. $2EIf one was on one, then physically remove the drive and <I,DC? holding on to it, twist your wrist in an attempt to brea% the &stic%tion& 7bearings stuc%8 free. $@E'oo% the drive bac% up and power up to a boot floppy. $"EIf it spins up now, try <JI*K or other third6party software to see if it recognizes the partition7s8.
!age 5Q

$9EIf not, try ;orton Jis% Joctor or equivalent to try and recover the partition. $$EIf it does see the partition 7or if you recovered it8 try and read the files. $HEIf not, bac% to ;orton Jis% Joctor. $REIf this does not wor%, it)s time for 0ntrac% or other data recovery service 7if the client will pay48. :ood hunting44 From: Karl #e!raff (he most successful methods I have used are: 5. <ind a computer with the eAact same operating system 7Win Q9, Win QR, etc.8 that you can use as a surrogate host. (his wor%s best if the secondary IJ3 channel is unused, allowing the private use of that channel by the ailing drive, and usually eliminating the need of changing 2umpers. 2. :o to the drive)s manufacturer)s Web site 7or use a drive parameters database8 to get the actual physical drive parameters. @. *et the surrogate computer)s 1I0* parameters to eApect the ailing drive and turn it off. +uto is the best initial setting. Da%e sure the second IJ3 channel is enabled and power management is off, at least for the hard drives. ". able the ailing drive to the surrogate computer)s secondary IJ3 channel using a reasonably long IJ3 cable 7see reason for long cable below8. 9. If the drive does not spin during power up when it should 7note that some * *I drives have delayed spin ups8, ta%e the drive, hold it in the fingertips of both hands 7spider on a mirror style8, and rotate the drive)s casing around the dis% platters inside suddenly 7the reason for the long IJ3 cable8. (he most effective motion is to prepare by rotating slowly to a starting position where your fingers are turned &up toward& your chest as far as is comfortable for you wrists, then suddenly rotate &down out& from your chest as far as is comfortable, and then immediately snap bac% to the original position. (his technique wor%s by moving the casing with respect to the platters based on the principle of inertia and will often allow a drive with &frozen& bearings to spin up one more time. Jo not eApect this technique to wor% twice4 $. If the drive does not spin up, see a drive#data recovery lab that has the ability to disassemble the drive to get at the platters and recover the data from them by using specialized clean room equipment. When performed by a qualified lab, this process is quite successful, but very eApensive-bac%ups are much cheaper4 hoose the right lab, you usually only get one shot... H. If the computer recognizes the drive, proceed on to recovering the data by any means you desire. ;ote that since the drive is not the boot drive and host operating system, all of the boot and operating system information are accessiblNe-no &in use& files4 R. If the computer does not recognize the drive, especially if set to +uto, go to the 1I0* and set the drive parameters to the manufacturer specified values and reboot. If still no recognition, try ad2usting the values for sector translation. (here are several options for the primary translation type 7;ormal, C1+, Carge, etc.8, but please note that there may be other settings that also effect drive communications. (hese other settings usually have values of ?es#;o. *ome of these other settings are &large drive& 7note there are many different names for this setting8, &enhanced mode,/ and &bloc% mode./ (he important thing is to try different combinations of any of the settings that effect hard drive communications for the second IJ3 channel. 'int, ma%e a list of all of the possible combinations and chec% off each one as you try it. Q. Dost important, try not to let anything 7e.g., operating system or &fiA6it& programs8 mess with the dis% contents until you have eAhausted all other avenues of access. (hese programs are great, but should be reserved as the first line of defense against software corruption and the last resort for hardware corruption. If your problem is a hardware issue, these programs will usually &finish the 2ob& in terms of denying you the possibility of recovering you data. 0nly use them +<(3, the hardware problem has been corrected. From: #an )iley
!age 20

I)ve had this happen before, and one thing that wor%ed for me involved the following: (he 'ard Jis% +ssembly 7'J+8 is usually separate from the IJ3 controller board. If the controller board is the bad part, the data is still good, you 2ust cannot get to it. (he symptoms for this are: Jis% not spinning up at all, &drive not found,& or &no boot dis% available& type messages. I)ve swapped the data module 7'J+8 from the bad drive controller to a good replacement drive. >sually it)s 2ust "6$ screws and a couple small cables. >se static care procedures as always when wor%ing with computer parts. If the data is good, send the new 'J+ and bad board bac% to be fiAed, put the good drive 7with original data8 bac% in, reboot, and away you go.
!age 25

From: "a , Ho $QE<irst of all, get yourself a WinQ9#QR startup dis% and an emergency boot dis% from your favorite virus6 scanning software and dis%6repairing programs. H0E*econd, note the number of drives in the system and reboot the machine. When it boots up, ma%e sure you can hear the all drives spin up. If the spinning sounds are confusing, you may have to open up the case. H5EIf any of the drives didn)t spin, turn off the ! and ta%e the computer case off. arefully unplug the drive cables and power cables and reconnect them. (hen power up the system. If the drives still do not spin, swap the power cables and try again. If they still do not spin, then you %now for sure those drives are dead. (o retrieve data from these drives, you may have to ta%e them to a nearby data recovery center and be prepared to spend some buc%s. If they spin after you swap the cables, then you)ve got power problems, and you need to replace the power supply on the system. H2EIf the drive is spinning but the system does not recognize it, such as &invalid drive specification& or &dis% 0& errors, cold boot the machine and enter D0* setup. Da%e sure the dis% controller 7whether it is IJ3 or * *I8 is enabled. *et it to +utoJetect if it is an IJ3 drive. *et the correct * *I options 7by entering the appropriate * *I utility8 if it is a * *I drive. *ince the system was wor%ing before, I assume the * *I IJs and master#slave parameters are correct. +fter the correct options are set, reboot the system. <or an IJ3 drive, if the system still does not recognize it, manually enter the drive parameters in the D0* set up and reboot again. If the system has a J6,0D drive, note if it was being recognized by the system. If the system does not recognize both hard drives and J6,0D drives, ta%e the computer case off and replace the IJ3 cables 7or * *I cables if they are * *I drives8. ;ote any bro%en pins when you replace the cables. If there are any bro%en pins, you may have to replace the drives or motherboard. H@E+fter you)ve replaced the cables, if the drives are still not being recognized, the drives may be bad. If you have a spare wor%ing drive, plug it in. If it wor%s, then you %now the other drives are bad: either a severe virus has contaminated the drives such that the drive parameters are overwritten, or there are physical errors with the drives. If the system does not even recognize your spare wor%ing drive, then the dis% controller is bad and needs to be replaced. H"EIf the system recognizes the drive but does not boot up your 0*, cold boot your system from a bootable virus 3,J and do a complete scan of the failed drive. ,epair any corrupted master boot records if possible. If the virus6scanning dis% does not find any virus, cold boot the system with a bootable 3,J from your favorite dis% repairing software such as ;orton Jis% Joctor. If this still does not help, but you are able to access the data from a floppy boot dis%, you can recover the system by bac%ing up all your data and reinstalling the 0* on the hard drive. If the failed drive canLt be accessed from a boot floppy and is not repairable by any &dis% doctor& programs, ta%e it to a data recovery center. From: Ro'ert K$ Kuhn *ince you did not state what %ind of hard drive this is 7D<D, ,CC, * *I, 3*JI, IJ3#3IJ38, I)m going to assume IJ3#3IJ3. +n &Invalid Jrive (ype& error usually means that the wrong drive type has been selected in D0*. I am also going to assume that the 1I0*# D0* supports this hard drive size 7some older 1I0*Ls required a
!age 22

third party software patchT drives that were 900 D1 and larger for instance...8. If +uto Jetect does not wor% or if the 1I0*# D0* setup does not have an +uto Jetect feature, then I would do as follows: 5. Gerify that the drive is spinning up and that all the cables are hoo%ed up properly. 2. I would then verify that the drive itself is configured#2umpered correctly 7master#slave#single drive8. Dost of your current IJ3#3IJ3 drives have the 2umper setting on the drive itself, which ma%es it nice. (hough some of the older ones do not, which forces you to call their tech support or search their Web site for 2umper configuration. @. If I had access to another computer, I would either try swapping out the cable to see if I had a bad cable or I would 2ust simply install the &bad& drive into the other computer and see if the 1I0*# D0* detects the drive. If it does not, then chances are very good that the drive is %aput. 'owever, if the other computer does see the drive and I am able to boot up with it, then I have to assume that there)s a problem with the other computer)s IJ3#3IJ3 controller. 0ne last attempt would be to find the geometry of the drive 7cylinders, heads, sectors8 and add them in manually. If it booted fine with the other computer, the geometry can be copied from there. 0therwise, a call to the vendor or a search on their Web site would be order. If the hard drive controller is found to be bad, depending on the motherboard 7going with the assumption that it has an onboard controller with both a primary and secondary controller8, I would chec% the D0* to ma%e sure that the IJ3 controller7s8 were enabled. *ometimes you can boot from the secondary IJ3#3IJ3 controller, so I would try that too. If it boots, great4 (ime for a new motherboard or perhaps 2ust purchase a new controller and disabling the onboard controller. 1ut I would seriously consider getting a new motherboard when budget allows. ". If I only had the one computer, then I would have to search for a %nown good hard drive 7and cable8 that the 1I0* supports. (hen if it too does not boot, then I would have to guess it)s something with the controller#motherboard. If it does boot, then I would have lean towards a bad drive. 9. *ometimes with an &Invalid Jrive (ype&, you can actually boot with a floppy 7assuming that the drive is not an ;(<*, '!<*, CI;>W, ;ovell ;etWare or some other format....8 and then access the hard drive. If this can be done, this might be one way to bac% up any data. ?ou can set up the &bad& drive as &slave& and then with a new drive formatted with whatever format is needed, copy over whatever data that can be read on the &bad& drive. 1ac% in the good old days, when we had a drive that went beyond the 502" cylinders 7which is QQ.QQ percent of all the IJ3#3JI3 drives made since 5QQ2 and on8, we had to &tric%& the 1I0*# D0*. (his was done by ta%ing the cylinders, dividing the number in half, and then doubling the heads: 3Aample: 55@R cylinders, R heads, $@ sectorsNs-this would translate to 9$Q cylinders, 5$ heads and $@ sectors. I would try this tric% as perhaps my last resort. 1ut this was used#done on @R$#"R$ machines bac% in the late 5QR0s to early 5QQ0s. 0ne last attempt, and I doubt that it will wor% but it)s worth a shot, would be to get *ymantec)s :host or !owerIuest)s Jrive Image. + trial copy can be downloaded from their site. *ee if a drive6to6drive image can be made 7from the old &bad& drive to the &new& replacement drive8. 'owever, :host and Jrive Image must be able to read the &bad& drive)s partition. 0ne could loo% into a sector6by6sector copying tool. 1ac% in the late R0s, I had one but for the life of me can)t remember who wrote it. 1ut I remember it was shareware. :ibson research, perhaps 7the ma%ers of *pinWrite, an eAcellent utility for it)s time...8 If the data is that important 7mission critical8, a drive recovery center would have to deal with it. 1ut be prepared to pay for it4 We)ve had to use a local data recovery center 7'ard Jis%s 0nly8 and :ibson
!age 2@

,esearch in the past to rebuild a bad drive. ;ot cheap but would have cost us more had we not been able to recover the data. :ibson ,esearch is perhaps the best out of the two we)ve dealt with. *ome other things to consider include that a bad power supply can also cause a hard drive not to boot 7not allowing it to spin up to full ,!D8, the amperage required to spin the motor is more than what the motherboard draws#needs even if it has a full bus. +lso, I)ve even seen some I*+, ! I, and +:! cards cause conflicts with onboard IJ3#3IJ3 controllers 7usually in the form of I,I and#or memory address8. (hough these are usually fun%y6specialized boards, I have seen it happen. +gain, I am assuming that the drive is an IJ3#3IJ3. If it)s an D<D, ,CC, 3*JI or * *I, then the tactics would differ slightly as each are set up and controlled differently. 1ut since IJ3#3IJ3 is perhaps the popular and most used drive, I am going to assume that is the drive. From: "im #avison *ince you did not state IJ3#* *I, I will assume IJ3. I will also assume that drive is not using a bios modifier li%e those used to ma%e older motherboards support larger drives. 7I have seen situations where users tried to enter drive spec%s in setup for * *I drives8. I would use the following steps even considering that you state the user had &(ried& to manually enter the settings in setup and also tried auto. (he user may not %now what they are doing. I also would not trust the error codes. I would assume the error codes are only letting us %now there is a problem but would not trust the codes to give an accurate description of what the problem is. 5. In setup, (ry IJ3 +uto Jetect to see if the bios can even see the drive. If yes, then I would use that setting and everything should be 0K. If yes, and the drive still does not boot, I would use fdis%#mbr in case the Daster boot record was destroyed. If no, then I would go to step 2. 2. 0pen the boA and chec% all power and data cables. 7I have seen DoleA type power connectors lose a connection intermittently even if they are plugged in tightly8 you need to wiggle them around. 7I have also seen one case where the data cable came loose when the computer was moved8. If cables were the problem, then you should be o%ay now. If you still have a problem, go to step @. @. 0ther Jrives are bad and interfering with the boot dis% In case anything else is sharing the IJ3 bus with the drive, e.g., a J6,0D, then disconnect anything that is also connected to the IJ3 bus and rechec% the Daster#*lave settings if necessary and try again. ". !ossibly a faster way to chec% if the problem is the drive or something else ,emove the drive and plug it into another computer and see if the other computer can detect the drive. If yes, then the problem is a cable, motherboard, etc. on the computer, so go to step 9. 9. D0* or <lash problem !ut the drive or at least a drive bac% on the computer with the problem. :o to setup and reload the bios from defaults and then redo the settings and save. (hen try the IJ3 auto detect. If this does not wor% and your system has flash upgrades, then reload the flash. Dight as well chec% for upgrades before refreshing. +fter refreshing, then again reload the defaults and save settings. ,eboot into setup and try the auto detects again. If the 1I0* can now see the drive but the drive still does not boot, then you may need to reload the 0* or at least replace the necessary drivers.
!age 2"

If the thing still is not wor%ing, then it is most li%ely a defective drive and you will need to decide how badly you need the data on the drive. If you need the data, then I would send the drive to a data recovery lab that can eAtract the data from a dead drive and save the data to a tape, J, 'J, etc. (his can be eApensive but may be worth it. From: Ron %harity + tric% I was told that sometimes wor%s is to remove the drive from the ! connected8, lean it on its side and attempt reboots. From: &hil )urphy <irst thing I would do is to chec% the 1I0* to ma%e the sure the dis% is set to +uto and doesn)t have any settings in it. (hen I would reboot the computer using the WinQ9#QR *etup dis% and run fdis% to chec% to ma%e sure that there are partitions visible. If there are no partitions visible, then I would have to assume that the data on the drive has departed. ;eAt, if I do see a partition, then I will eAit fdis% and go right the drive. I would run a directory on it to see if all of the files are intact. If they have strange names and numbers, then the drive has suffered a serious malfunction and the data is not retrievable. If the directory appears to be in good shape, then I would use Jrive Image to ma%e a image file of the hard drive and move it to either a zip dis% or a J6,0D, for the neAt time this happens. From: Shawn %ole H9E:et a second 'ard Jrive larger than the current bro%e or fairly non6functioning one. H$EDa%e Jis% S5 0CJ Jrive *lave and the new one Daster because you want the new one to become your !rimary 1oot Jrive. HHE<ormat and <JI*K the ;ew Jrive into one or two partitions. I do two for personal reasons, <ormat c: so it)s bootable. X:o buy a program called C0*( Y <0>;J G5.0 from www.necA.com under software, dis% utilities from the company !0W3,I>3*( 0,!0,+(I0; found at http:##necAdirect.necA.com#cgi6bin#auth#manuinfoZqB%ey[!0W3,I>3*(= 0,!0,+(I0 for a price of P99.Q9 and follow the instructions in the boo% to the letter. HRE,estart machine with the CY< dis% in and follow the on screen prompts, and it will 0!? all the data you choose. When itLs complete, it will give you a report of success and#or failure on particular files. +nd as long as the hard drive is not physically destroyed, you will be able to copy over all the recoverable data . (he nice thing about this is it 0!I3* only-no writing to the messed6up drive. I used this very successfully on a drive that the <+( became corrupt on and would not IJ or boot up on. From: Tomer Har +esher 'i, I have three ideas: 58 Install the hard drive on other machine that is running same 0*. If the dis% partition is <+( or <+(@2, you can start the machine by using WI;QR system dis%ette without install the hard drive on other machine. 28 We found some problems with hard drive that happen after few minutes of wor%. In this case, you should disconnect the hard drive from power 7by turning off the machine8 for few minutes, then turn it on and bac% up immediately until it will be warm again and you)ll not be able to read the data. Jo it until you)ll have all files copied. @8 If you have same drive 7*+D3 D0J3C8, you can replace the unreachable dis%)s main board and trying to read the data. 7leave power and data
!age 29

From: +;TS&;%S (here is no one way to this matter to the dis% drive quiz. *o I am going to give it a try. I have had this problem in the past, actually a few times. HQEI chec%ed to see if there are any viruses that affected the <at table of the drive, and then I used a hard drive that was sys)ed and set the other one as slave. I was able to read the partition and copy the data over. If that didn)t wor% use eA: ;orton dis% doctor or any other dis% eAaminer and see if that was able to correct the problem. ,un it off the first hard drive. R0E0ne other way it could be done is if you %new that the controller board on the hard drive was bad is to replace that board with a eAact one off of another ! and go bac% into setup and use auto to reconfigure. I have only used this method once and it wor%ed. From: #arren -rown 'mmm....gotta hate those hard drive problems..... &(he sounds of the game& CetLs ta%e a loo% at the hard drive itself. Is it plugged in properlyB Fust as% the customer a polite question about it possibly being moved or bumped. Coose cables are the most common problem in a case li%e this. If it is plugged in properly, 2ust try to boot it again after chec%ing the connections. *ometimes a connector did come out a bit on one side and you put it bac% properly without noticing. &!ut the right spin on things& ;eAt, is the drive spinning when you turn the computer onB If it isn)t, chec% the power cable to the drive. If that was fine, tap the drive lightly on the side to see if it spins up. *ometimes that wor%s 7if it does, bac% it up and order a new drive immediately48. I encountered a drive that acted li%e this a year ago. If you %ept tapping it, it %ept spinning. *o, for three hours, I sat there tapping this drive until I got all the company)s accounting data off of it. *ometimes you have to ma%e sacrifices for your customers. &*omething * *I this way comes& (his may seem stupid, but is the drive a * *I driveB +gain, chec% the cables and the termination. 1oot up and chec% the * *I bios to see if it is set up properly. &1ac% to the 1ios& If the drive is spinning and the cables are properly seated, chec% the &Jetect IJ3 'ard drives& in the bios. <or some reason, on some of the older motherboards, it will pic% up a drive that &+>(0& won)t pic% up. &*wap meet& (he old &swap& maneuver. Is there another drive in the company that is eAactly the sameB 1ac% up that drive and remove it from the other computer. ,emove the logic board on that one and transplant in onto the drive that isn)t detecting. 1oot up. If it detects, get the data off of it and return the logic board to the other drive. Jouble chec% that the drive you too% the logic board still wor%s4 7Warning4 ;ot for the faint of heart4 Day result in two defective drives48 &(hird !arty444& :et out the big guns. (iramisu from 0ntrac% or Jrive!ro from Dicrohouse are great tools to get into spinning drives. Jrive!ro to set up the drive in the bios, and (iramisu to retrieve the data. &;ever believe everything you hear4& 0ne thing to remember, listen to the problem the customer has, but find your own solution4 I fell into that trap once &I tried this and that,/ and yet, after a couple of hours of painful wor%, I tried the customerLs solutions, too. *ure enough, the customer may have tried those solutions, but he didn)t do them properly. !age 2$

(hese are presented in no particular order. ?ou will do things differently depending on the situation 7usually chec% the bios first and see the problem for yourself, then try to boot it up without doing anything to the machine. 1ased on the sounds the drive ma%es, or doesn)t, this will give you a place to start your problem6solving s%ills8. +lso, if the drive does detect, but has bad sectors, try *candis% 7thorough option8 or ;orton >tilities Jis% Joctor. + bad sector can ma%e a bad day too. +nd a rule of thumb for bad sectors, even one grown bad sector means there is a problem, and should be replaced. Danufacturers may argue this, but in the field, you don)t want to ta%e anything for chance. I really hope these help you out. From: Rod *ee Dy solution is as follows: *end the faulty drive and a new 7fully tested and compatible8 drive to the newly6 formed (ech,epublic support company where, for a very reasonable fee, the industry6leading eApert technicians will solve the problem for me and copy all data onto the new dis%4 +s well as fiAing the immediate problem, a new system will be installed whereby if data is not bac%ed up within a specified period, or if the dis% eAhibits any pre6crash symptoms 7whatever they might be48, the dis% will be halted and all access to the dis% will be prohibited without a special password %nown only to (ech,epublic and myself. (hus, for another reasonable fee, I will be able to go to the customerLs premises and save the day, thereby being accorded the status of &'ero& for recovering from a catastrophic system crash 7and maybe even getting a cash bonus to boot84 From: )i hael #al *ago Daybe try the followingT R5E1oot from a bootable dis% that every good I( tech has and carries. ;ow you should carry bootable Windows QR dis%s with files li%e <dis%, <ormat, h%ds%, and other diagnostics files. ;ow if you have an ;( system with ;(<*, you can boot with 0*2 bootable dis%ettesT with will read ;(<*. R2EIf the 1I0* still sees the 'J but you cannot access it, your Daster 1oot ,ecord may be defective. If this is so you may be able to recover it with the following command 7<dis%#mbr8. (his should recover the master boot record so you can read the drive. R@E+fter that, you may be able to run J0* base bac%up software. Da%e sure that you realize long file names are not supported by J0*. R"EIf you wish to copy files to a different one, maybe you can use W 0!?@2 to copy C<;s. 0f course, if the user was not bac%ing up the system before this would be a good time to buy bac%up software since you will be in the store for the new 'J. ?ou may also use software li%e :'0*( to ma%e a image of the 'J when it is running and install this image and ghost software to a bootable J. When the system does crash, which will happen no matter what you do, remember to always plan for the worse. If you ma%e the J bootable, you can recover from a crash 2ust by booting from the J. +nother suggestion I would have is have an +pplication dis% that contains all the applications and a different one for data. Keep a good daily bac%up of the data dis% and maybe a bac%up of the application drive when ma2or changes are performed. From: "ohn #alnes +lready had this one this wee%. >ser deleted command.com and wouldn)t boot. (omorrow)s presentation on the drive. Installed as secondary master in another machine and transferred data to the server. ,eformatted and bac% online the neAt day.
!age 2H

From: "ohn %allison 5. ,un diagnostic, chec% post, chec% for error messages. (hese could indicate controller failure, etc. 2. (ry hard drive as slave in another computer. @. If the above does not get me access to the data, contact manufacturer and overnight drive to them. (hey may be able to fiA the drive enough to get the data off of it or repair it without erasing the data. ". *ell them a new hard drive and a tape bac% up or 2az drive, etc. It is best to maA out the sales to them at this point as eApensive lessons are usually the best learned. 9. If they call again with the same problem, no bac%ups etc., give them the number of your competition. From: "im -urns hec% or swap the power supply to see if it)s putting out the proper voltage. (his can give a dis% failure message during bootup. From: -ailey5 @in e I would try fdis% #mbr to try and restore the master boot record to the drive. From: <illiam &erry I would remove the hard drive, set it as a slave and install it in another computer as a slave. opy data to another location. ,un scan dis% and defrag if drive will run at all. ,einstall in original computer and try it. If still fails, go to step 2. 2. I would remove the hard drive, set it as a slave, and install it in another computer as a slave. opy data to another location. ,eformat the drive, install a copy of startup files, then all other files if they do not contain errors 7try opening them on the host computer8. @. If the above fails, install a new hard drive and salvage as much data and files as possible. From: Ro'ert Hird (ry the hard drive as a secondary IJ3 in another computer, 7e.g.: your own, seeing as you are so nice8. +fter booting, burn the info on J, and run the dis% utilities from your computer. From: -ill ;$ !arity I would try to use <dis% #D1,-perhaps the master boot record is corrupted. From: Sprynet R9EIf the drive 0 cannot be accessed at all, not even by the *etup program, it could be that the cables inside the machine are not properly connected, or crac%ed suddenly 7heat always dries the plastic wire cover and sometimes it brea%s8. R$EIf I don)t hear the hard dis% noise when I turn on the machine, it can also be that the hard dis% is not receiving any power. In this case I would also chec% the power cable and the connections. RHEIf all is well connected and receiving power, the I#0 controller 7onboard or on a separate card8 may be damaged. I would try to connect the ribbon to the other eAisting port7s8. I sometimes connect the hard drive to another computer too.
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RREIf the I#0 controller is fine, the hard dis% is receiving power, then I boot from a dis%ette. I always ,eep #AS dis,ettes in all versions B0$95 3$95 3$66C. RQE(ry to access :U\ Q0EIf it doesn)t wor%, I try the setup program again. +uto configure will not wor%B I use >*3, and type in the parameters written on the hard dis% 7of course I have to open the machine to find out8. If it still doesn)t worN%-if when I enter :U the computer returns &1ad command ...& or &Invalid drive...,/ or anything for that matter, I will try ;orton utilities or another third6party hard dis% utility. Q5EIf it is a Western Jigital, I will try 3MJrive tools. If nothing wor%s, I tell the client to be more serious about bac%ing up neAt time. From: #an +i olay 5. omplete hard drive failure 7catastrophic hardware failure within drive8 7clun%ing, etc.N8-send out to a lab if data is critical. 2. an attempt to manually configure drive in biosN-open case and get heads, cylinders, etc., if bios won)t auto detect. If that failsO @. !lace drive in another system, attempt auto detect, etc. If the drive is detectable, but not bootable, solution will depend on whether itLs home system, whether it has networ% access, etc. 1y far the easiest solution is ma%ing a :host image 7*ymantec8 and use :host 3Aplorer to eAtract essential files. :ives you a bac%up and allows you to eAtract files that frequently aren)t even accessible on a corrupt drive in a J0* or Windows session when attempting data recovery. + :host image can either be sent to another drive in a system or using a boot dis% or with networ% protocols 7copied to a networ% drive8. With the &ghost& image, you can chec% the drive and start over if the failure is not drive hardware related. From: % * !illies 5. (ry going into setup cmos and correcting the hard drive settings 7primary master8 from +uto to >ser#C1+, whatever it was supposed to beT eAit and save settings. 2. If this does not wor%, order *ymantec)s :host and ma%e a clone. 'ope this wor%s. 0f course, you could try reinstalling the operating system after formatting but you)d lose all data without a bac%up. From: #ave (dams Q2E(he first thing I would do is as% the user what system he#she normally booted to. Q@E(hen I would cold boot the ! , go into D0*, and autodetect the hard drive. Q"EIf it did not detect, I would open the unit, verify the connections and try again. Q9EIf it still did not autodetect, I would try my spare test hard drive. Q$EIf my spare wor%ed, I would test the user)s original hard drive in another computer. QHE+ssuming I got the hard drive autodetecting in the usually +, then J, then . D0*, I would then verify boot order in D0*,
QREI would neAt cold boot to a virus scan dis%ette and verify the hard drive could be accessed and free of viruses. (he dis%ette I use automatically removes any viruses detected. QQEIf I get to this point, I would again try to cold boot to the hard drive. 0bviously, there would be some type of error message or symptom at this point to let me %now better where I was in resolving this issue.
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500E If I received &missing operating system& on a Windows Q9 machine, I would attempt to transfer the operating system from the appropriate media. If it was a Windows QR machine, I would use a Windows QR boot dis% to boot to an +: prompt and then use the *canreg command, view the log, and use an file that was dated long enough ago to hopefully restore the registry. 505E If it was an ;( machine, hopefully the user had a ;( 3mergency 1oot Jis% specific to that unit and I would use it and go the &,epair& route. 502E +fter this, I would chec% with tech support, because I would not want to overloo% something that could help me avoid reloading her original hard drive, as quite a few users never 'a , up their data. 50@E If tech support came up with a solution, I would be sure to add it to my noteboo% so neAt time I could resolve the issue more quic%ly, efficiently, and professionally. From: -rad *ewandows,i Well, since you said you were going to replace the drive, I see the options as these: 50"E 509E 50$E 50HE 50RE 1oot from a floppy with a full set of J0* utilities, double chec%ing 1I0* settings, fdis%, etc.O >se Interln% and Intersvr and start a Afer ?an% the drive out, change it to a slave, stic% it in a functioning computer and Acopy#:host Daybe the D1, is bad, try copying one over with *ys command... :od forbid you should send the drive to a )Jata ,ecovery) place...
From: &$ %hristensen 50QE :o to bios and as% the machine to automatically detect the hard drive. *ometimes it loses the hard drive due to a virus or faulty battery. 550E If the machine finds the hard drive, go in and do a virus scan. If the battery made the bios lose the info, you shouldn)t shut off the machine until the hard drive data files are bac%ed up. Don%ey 1 virus will alter the boot sector and ma%e the hard drive disappear. 555E *ometimes you have to be sure that in bios the machine will boot to + and then sure it has recognized the drive in bios and then do a virus scan. From: )urray @oight 552E ?ou need to be able to boot into the system. 55@E 55"E 559E 55$E <irst get a generic boot dis% that will allow this. If youLre able to boot up, then see if you can access the If you can access the drive through J0*. drive. drive, then you should be able to access the files on the and then ma%e
If you can)t access the files, then try running a scandis% from the boot floppy.
55HE If you can)t access the 1I0* or the drive through a boot dis%, then the neAt step you need to do is shut down the computer and pull out the hard drive. 55RE 0nce you have the hard drive out you need to douse it in lighter fluid and immediately eApose the non6functioning hard drive to an open flame. 55QE +lthough the last step is of great controversy, it will bring great satisfaction to %now humans will always have the last word. From: Howard "$ %astello
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1oot from floppy drive and then try running fdis%#mbr. From: (ndrzej -ednarz (he answer to the hard drive question is more compleA than you may thin%, but the bottom line is that you really need to %now how damaged is your hard drive or rather how much functionality is left in the hard drive. 520E <irst, I would try to approach the problem by distinguishing if it is a hardware or software issue. If the problem is software6related, for eAample, the operating system is corrupted, the hard drive can be attached as a &slave& and the important data copied to the &master& bootable drive. Dany times that approach can be used even for hardware6related problems, for eAample, when the hard drive is getting fla%y, but it)s not bro%en yet. 525E It is a lot easier to prepare yourself for the bro%en hard drive, but to really motivate yourself for any preventive steps, you)d have to answer the question: would I be still 0K if my hard drive crashes todayB +lso, how much time do I want to spent for a data and#or system recoveryB 522E 0ver years, I was developing many different methods of data recovery and bac%up, therefore the following is the fastest and probably the most reliable method of doing so. <irst of all, install the 0* with all the associated programs and utilities including D* 0ffice, Internet browsers, etc. 52@E When you test everything and you)re sure that everything is the way you want, you can ta%e an image of your hard drive by using ;orton :host. 52"E <or the files that you create from now on until neAt computer crash, create a folder called &data& and in that folder subdirectories for D* 0ffice, !hoto*hop, etc. 529E <rom now on, all you have to do is to bac%up your &data& directory to the J and copy the :host image to the second J, and if you need to restore your system, it would ta%e you anywhere from 9 to 20 min to have everything bac% where it was. 52$E If your hard drive snapshot image is bigger than $90 D1, choose option to compress the image during the process. If after compression the image is still bigger than $90 D1, you can split the image on as many chun%s as you need, for eAample 20 chun%s to bac%up 5@6:1 hard drive without compression. From: )i,e Fogarty I have a really quic%, no real science approach to this problem. +ssuming that the drive will still spin, there is a quic%, however with some ris% involved, solution. In past situations, I have successfully accessed a damaged drive by &replacing the drive./ (his method involves the 3W+ ( *+D3 J,IG3 as the one in question. *tep 5 With all power off, remove the hard drive in question and place it on the side where it can be easily accessed. *tep 2 Install the &;3W& drive 7a drive of the same type, and manufacturer8. *tep @ *tart the system up and get it to recognize the new drive. It is important to only start a command line session. ,emember that we are only trying to copy some files here-this is an emergency maneuver. +lso, the drive must be formatted the same as the drive we are questioning here. *tep " With the system ,>;;I;: 7be careful, this is the ris%y part I told you about, do it in this sequence8, G3,? I>I KC? detach the power umbilical from the running drive. (hen detach the data ribbon cable from the running drive. *tep 9 G3,? +,3<>CC? reach for our drive in question and attach the data ribbon cable to it. ;eAt, G3,? I>I KC? place all four contacts simultaneously in contact with the drives power connection.
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*tep $ ;ow enter at the %eyboard some command-I use the JI, command. ?ou should see the list of files for the questionable drive that you have '0( !C>::3J into this system. ?ou should now be able to access the files needed to get you over the hump4 What has happenedB (he system &thin%s& it has the bootable drive you started it with and will allow you to use the device with the eAception of booting with it, of course4 (his approach wor%s quite well on drives that have sector one physically trashed. From: Tron Dy business is built on 500 percent 0n6*ite *ervice. I carry most everything in my van that a )shop) would have. I have a power inverter for + power and two networ%6ready systems at my disposal for bac%ing up customer data or to use as a loaner. +nything to get the customer bac% in business. First: I boot from a floppy and run a program called &IJ3IJ& that will identify the drive. I then compare these results with what is in the 1I0*. I also will see if the 1I0* can automatically and correctly identify the drive. If not, I use the user6defined fields. Se ond: +.8 I boot from a floppy and do a virus scan on drive :. If is there. 1.8 If is not therNe-I carry a few older hard drives with various boot managers on them. I)ll ma%e my drive master and boot from it letting my boot manager load. (his would allow me to see their drive if I used the right boot manager. .8 If no boot manager is being used, and is not present, I use ;orton)s &;JJ#,31>ICJ& to recover the dos partitions. ;0(3: +CW+?* D+K3 ('3 >;J0 JI*K4 J.8 If is now seen, step 1 may need to be repeated. Third: With bac%, I)ll identify the version of Jos#WinQW on the system-I carry boot files for all versions bac% to D*6J0* @.@. Fourth: 1oot off of if possible, &*?* :& if it is not possible, ,eboot4 Fifth: I use Jrive Image to Jupe to an image on a R." :1 7remember the R."6:1 limit48 drive that I carry with me. I let the customer put in a password so they feel secure in my not loo%ing at their data. (he above is predicated on the fact that the drive will spin up. If it doesn)t, I sometimes have luc% in placing the drive upside6down. *ometimes, I)ll quic%ly spin my wrist when I turn the power on. (he upside6down mostly wor%ed on the *(5520+#*(@520+ drives 7*eagate 520D8. I have no definitive answer as to why. (he *(5@R, had a problem with what I call &*(I (I0;./ (his is my opinion, *eagate4 I theorize that the armature would get stuc% between the poles of the magnetic fields. In any case, those days are mostly gone. (his is usually the eAtent that I go to. +fter this, the customer must decide if the data on the drive is worth the cost of the recovery. I end by selling the customer a new drive and restoring their data from the image. (his is usually on a second visit since I don)t ma%e it a habit of stoc%ing drives for sale in my van. From: &eter -e ,er (his has wor%ed about $6R times over the last 9 years... I have found the drive is not spinning... If this is the problem, 2ust remove it and rotate the drive quic%ly and immediately reverse direction. ?ou may have to repeat 26@ times. It wor%s for a while... (his appears to be more of a problem with old Captops. From: -ill Ran,in 5. <irst some bac%ground info is needed: +. Joes the 1I0* recognize#see the 'JB 7 orrect drive settingsB Jis% Danager in useB8 !age @2

1. What is the 0*B 7Win Q9#;(#CinuA#etc.B8 . What is the partition typeB 7<at5$#@2#;(<*#etc.B8 2. If +. is yes, and . is <at5$#@2, try a boot dis%ette 7WinQ9#QR8. + command prompt, a couple of utilities, and a wor%ing parallel port will get your data off safely. @. If +. is yes, and . is ;(<*T try a new hard drive as :, load a new ;(#;(<* system, and access the &dead& ;(<* drive as the J:. *ometimes the hard drive)s onboard controller can fail, yet be chained to another)s board a l] master#slave mode. opy the data off +*+! and ditch the old drive to avoid the temptation to %eep it as spare storage. ". If + is no, try another computer-the 1I0*#motherboard# !>#memory#I0 controller may be dead or malfunctioning. (roubleshoot the computer later when you have time. 9. If all else fails, attempt a drive recovery with 'ard Jrive Dechanic, or similar drive utility. If successful, copy the data off +*+!. $. If the data is 3W(,3D3C? valuable, and if you have a certified clean room#booth 7or a professional service8, transfer the dis% platters into a eAact duplicate wor%ing drive. (his is a very costly option due to the requirements of a certified clean room#booth. H. Cast, but not least, !,3+ ' (+!3 1+ K>!*4 C3:+C3*3: (hese techniques have been used by me to recover failed hard drives. >se of any of these techniques does not in any way bind me, nor any companies associated with me, liable for your attempts, actions, or losses as your circumstances may be dissimilar or conditions not covered by the aforesaid instructions. 1e sure to get technical advise from a reliable source familiar with your situation. From: "on Tor'ert Well, things are a little ambiguous here. Jo we %now that we are wor%ing on the ompaq !rolinea "#$$B *ince it didn)t specify, I will %eep this somewhat general. 52HE (he first step would be to boot off of a J0* startup dis% and see if you can access drive . If you can, then you at least %now that you can manually save some crucial files on the machine. If the drive is not accessible, then you need to go into the D0* settings and see if the proper drive parameters are entered. If it is a newer machine, you can sometimes find a section in D0* that will query the hard drive and determine the proper settings. 52RE If there is no such section, then you need to open up the computer and see if the drive settings, li%e heads, cylinders, sectors#trac%, etc, are listed on the drive. 52QE If none are found, get the drive ma%e and model number and go to the company)s Web site and get the parameters. ;ow go bac% into D0* and enter the proper settings for your 'J. 'opefully this will solve the problem since it was mentioned that the person had been in trying to input the setting themselves. 5@0E If the drive still won)t boot, and you are getting a &non system dis%& error, I have found that sometimes you can copy the sys.com program onto your startup dis% 7I %eep a generic boot dis% around with various files li%e fdis%, format.com, sys.com, etc on it.8 and at the +: prompt type sys c: which transfers the system files to the 'J. 5@5E If you are instead getting Invalid drive specification errors, you probably aren)t able to access the 'J at all, even at a J0* prompt. If this is the case, you probably need to try reviving the drive with a program li%e ;orton Jis% Joctor. ?ou have probably lost partition info or your <ile +llocation (able 7<+(.8 (hese are things that ;orton JJ can sometimes fiA. If none of these things wor%s, it is probably
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a lost cause. Write it off to eAperience. 3veryone gets this fatal wa%e up call every once in a while to remind them about bac%ing up crucial data. From: Ronald ; Rietz 5.8 3Aamine all connections inside and outside the ! to ensure they are secure. ,emove and label the suspect drive. Da%e sure all fans are operating correctly. 0btain a replacement hard drive and install the operating system and Web browsing capabilities. ,etain the boA in which your replacement drive was shipped in case you need to ship your suspect drive away to a media recovery firm. Gisit the Web site of the hard drive vendor and download the latest version of the vendor)s diagnostic program as well as information regarding drive)s geometry and 2umper options. Jetermine the %eyboard stro%es to get into setup mode as well as setting up dis% drives for auto detect, etc. 'ave an ample supply of blan% formatted dis%ettes readily available. Da%e sure you have space available to copy any needed files from the suspect drive. Da%e a boot dis%ette. <JI*K, <0,D+(, 3JI(, * +;JI*K, J6,0D drivers, and the hard drive vendors diagnostic programs should all be on the dis%ette. 2.8 Install the suspect drive as a slave. arefully handle the suspect drive as to not bump it around at all. It may be in a ZveryZ fragile state at this time. lose the ! Ls case or otherwise ensure that there is positive air flow across the suspect drive. @.8 (a%e a brea%, thin% about how you will do the following carefully and as fast as possible to avoid possibly damaging the drive further. ".8 (urn on the monitor, insert your dis%ette from step one. (urn on the ! and go into setup. Jetermine whether or not the setup program auto6detects the suspect drive. If auto6detect is 0K, the dis% drive)s controller is 0K and proceed to the neAt step. If auto6detect is not 0K, the hard drives controller card7s8 are faulty. (ry substituting a different controller card from another drive of the same type, if available. +ssuming the controller is faulty and swapping the eAternal controller card does not fiA the trouble, you have a choice of sending the drive off to have the controller card repaired in a clean room or to abandon your data. 9.8 If the auto6detection was 0K, let the ! boot with your dis%ette. >se <JI*K and see if it detects the suspect drive as a partition. If <JI*K does not see the drive, you have an internal problem, quite possibly a damaged read#write head or an internal I . ?ou now have a choice of sending the drive off to be repaired in a clean room or abandoning your data. $.8 If <JI*K detected the partition, you may have a damaged file structure. 1oot the ! with your dis%ette and then do something simple li%e a JI,. ?ou are not ready to even thin% about writing anything to the suspect drive at this time4 If you can not do a JI,, you may be able to recover the drive with ;orton or your own favorite program. Keep and label recovery dis%ettes 7don)t reuse them8, you might need to bac%trac%. H.8 If you can do a JI,, try booting up your machine normally. It may be possible to copy directories and files across to your new drive. :ive priority to the user)s data such as mail files, data files, settings, and similar. ?ou probably want to try copying the registry files as well. R.8 +fter you have copied the userLs data, try * +;JI*K with the thorough option. +lways save the files and always ma%e recovery dis%ettes. (he saved files may 2ust need to be eAamined and renamed. Q.8 If there are any bad spots on the suspect dis%, try repairing them with the vendor)s diagnostic tools. 50.8 +fter you are satisfied you have recovered all of the data from the suspect drive, do a low level format with the vendor)s diagnostic program. Jo an <JI*K and an operating system format and then reuse the
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drive as you wish. + second hard drive in a system ma%es a reasonable place to do quic% bac%ups as well as for swap files, temporary files, temporary internet files, and the li%e. From: Tom Hayes ,ecently we had a user with a (ecra 920 J( lose his hard drive. It could have been a surge or some other problem but the electronics of the drive wouldn)t wor%. We simply ordered a new identical drive and eAchanged the electronics board connected to the drive, and we were able to access the drive to recover the 2906D1 mail file the user had to have recovered. From: Raymond S %ross ;ot all hard drive problems are hard drive problems. I had a situation li%e this 2ust recently. omputer booted with a )fiAed dis% 0 failure). (urns out the drive itself was o%ayI-it was a motherboard problem, possibly a bad IJ3 connector. I had recently put in a new motherboard, so I swapped the old one bac% in and the hard dis% wor%ed fine4 From: hhewel I would have a spare fdis%ed and formatted hard drive running whatever 0#* was needed, install it into the down computer as the new master drive, change the 2umper on down drive to slave, reboot, run D0*, setup auto hard drive detect, and setup drives, reboot, and retrieve info on the bad hard drive using new temp drive. 0nce new hard drive comes in, fdis%, format, install 0#* and software. From: %oy Thorp <irst thing I would do is eliminate possible problem areas. 5@2E I)d switch the drive to the secondary IJ3 chain and see if it auto configs. If not, ILd try it in another machine if that is possible 7it is possible in my lab8. 5@@E 'opefully, I)d be able to get a drive letter and boot up to recover data. 5@"E If neither of these wor% 7and you)re usually luc%y if they do8, then it)s time to boot to a virus scan floppy and scan the boot sector for viruses. 5@9E If there are none, then I)d move to a third6party utility, li%e ;JJ, and give that a whirl. If all of those fail, then I send it out to a data recovery center and drop 5,200 buc%s of my company)s money to recover data that the developer should have bac%ed up in the first place. From: "effery (ronson +fter the routine chec%s of D0* and drive settings etc., the most important step would be to clone the drive first as it is. I would recommend a program such as ghost, but there are others available. +fter completing the drive clone, wor% with the drive that you cloned and not the original drive. ?ou can use a program called 0n (he Wire or Jrive Wizard. (hese programs will attempt to rebuild the various different aspects of the drive, <+( tables, Jirectory *tructures, <iles *tructure etc. In most cases, you can at least get enough of the drive bac% to get to that important data, and never ris% the original drive. From:Tim #anner 5@$E Da%e sure you put the drive type bac% to +uto in the D0*. (hen listen to hear if the drive is even spinning up. If the drive isn)t spinning up, you can try the old tap technique to try and wa%e up the drive. If you are able to wa%e the drive, have the user bac%up important files immediately. (hen replace.
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5@HE If the dive is spinning but it still isn)t seen by the !0*(, then you need to try and locate a drive of the same ma%e and model. *wapping the controllers on the two drives may allow you to access the data. 5@RE If neither of these techniques help, then I usually tell the user to have a good cry, and then start over. 1ut this time ma%e sure you bac%up important files on a regular basis. From: Steve Summers I would suspect a bad dis% controller first. 1efore I replaced it, though, if I was luc%y enough to get the drive to come up, I would immediately run scan dis% and scan the surface area. If everything chec%ed out, I would replace the drive controller and see if the problem went away on the same problematic drive. From: %hris (he way I would approach this is to use one of several dis%6cloning programs such as Jrive opy or ;orton :host. 1oth of these programs create boot dis%s that you can use to &rescue& a failing or error prone hard drive. ?ou boot with this dis% and then select either copying a partition to another partition 7on another drive8 or simply clone the entire hard drive. (his process is very fast 7depending on the machine8 and very reliable. It copies all files and even preserved <+( setup and partitions when cloning a hard drive. +nother eAcellent tool to have in your arsenal is the ;orton 1oot Jis%s that will have the Jos versions of ;orton scan dis% and dis% doctor as well as the >nerase and >nformat. (hese tools can restore lost files and correct and identify many more problems than 2ust Dicrosoft scandis% even when using the )scandis% #all) command. +lso, try replacing the IJ3 cable7s8 to eliminate the possibility that there is a bad cable. If the error still happens, then the hard drive has probably failed. (here is a remote chance that using DaA1last or a similar hard drive utility from its manufacturer will at least identify and hopefully repair the problem. 0therwise...remember hindsight is always 20#20. 3specially after you lose data... From: Salman Siddi4ui (here would be a couple of points to chec% before going into recovery mode: 5. Is C1+ mode on or offB (oggling it and setting drive type to auto may help. 2. Was a Jis% Danager type program in useB If it was, refreshing the D1, with the Jis% Danager may do the tric%. If first has been tried and answer to the second question is no, I would use a low level dis% editor to discover the bounds of the partitions, first and last cylinder. ,emaining data, number of heads, and sectors per trac% can be wor%ed out easily. From: Thomas -ounds 0f the many different solutions that could solve this problem, I will start with the easiest. 5@QE <irst, does the drive even power upB 7Jo you hear the platters spinningB8 If not, chec% all connections. 0therwise, you have 2ust acquired another paperweight 7since you will have to resort to snail mail until you can get online again8. 5"0E If you do hear the platters spinning, I would resort to trying the simple options in 1I0* such as C1+ mode on or off and 'JJ 1loc% mode. hange them to their opposite state and try to reboot now. (here are aftermar%et utilities that can detect the logical parameters of a drive such as Jrive!ro by
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Dicrohouse. (his handy 7old8 tool has gotten me out of many 2ams in the "R$ 'JJ world. It will tell you the parameters that the drive was set up for so that you may manually enter them into the 'JJ config. section of 1I0*. (his is also handy if you happen to be the 7not so8 proud owner of a drive with an overlay installed. If that is the case, you will probably want to use the overlay install dis% to repair or replace the overlay. 5"5E (he problem could be related to the 'JJ controller. (ry replacing it. I could rant for a long time on other solutions, but I don)t have time to get into it that deep. From: <illiam )a2well 'ard drive failures can result from a number of causes. 5"2E <irst line of business is to tal% with the client: Was the machine recently movedB Were any boards recently installedB + cable may have come loose during one of these operations. hec% eAternal causes, e.g. loose and#or oAidized connectors. Jon)t discard the possibility of little rodentsN-I)ve seen flat cable gnawed through by these little critters. 5"@E Jon)t forget to chec% the power cable to the driveN-no 2uice, no data. 5""E (here)s always a possibility that the on6board controller is shot, so to eliminate that factor I would remove the drive, 2umper it to be drive 5 and install it in a %nown good machine. 5"9E (hat done, I turn to a setup program called 3MJrive by Dicro 'ouse International. With it you can read and configure drive setup data, bac%up and restore trac% 0 or copy an entire partition. 5"$E *umming up: <irst of all, be a good listener. 0bserve carefully, use good tools and be creative. I got a call from a client who had been away for three wee%s and had gotten bac% to find his machine wouldn)t boot up. When I listened to his machine as it was turned on, I noticed that the drive motor wasn)t spinning. *ince we live in a very high humidity climate 7the +mazon ,ain <orest8, I had an idea of what had happened. I politely as%ed him if he would get me a glass of water, as it was quite hot that day. +s soon as he left the room I gave his drive a smart rap on the bac% with my %nuc%les. (he motor immediately started spinning and by the time he came bac% with refreshments, Windows Q9 was up and running. I emphasized the need to maintain regular bac%ups and to purchase a good de6humidifier. I also suggested that neAt time he was away, he have his wife run the computer for a couple hours a day. 'e never pressed me as to how I got the machine running, and I thought it prudent not to offer that information. From:)ar, Householder 'ow about stictionB ,emove the hard drive and give it a couple of firm twists while holding it in the palm of your hand. (his will free the drive from the combination of static and friction that has caused the problem. ,e6install the physical drive and it should boot. 1ac%6up the data and replace the drive +*+!. From: 6K #esigns If you are going to replace the hard drive, then use ghost software and copy the hard drive you want to the other hard drive. (hen once it is copied, try reinstalling windows. (hat will usually copy any files that could be causing the problem. If not, then reformat the hard drive, then reinstall Windows. If that doesn)t cure it, then you will need to do a deltree, and erase Windows, reformat, then run windows again. (his always wor%s for me.. From: )i hael A>Duin
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Cisten for the dis% to see if it is spinning. If not, ta%e the drive out of the system and rap it on the side. 'oo% it bac% up and see if it spins. (his is for an IJ3 drive. From: "ames #$ &atton "r$ I)d add another 'JJ as master and the questionable drive as slave. 5"HE 1oot off the good drive and try accessing the bad one. 5"RE If the bad drive is accessible then I)d install whatever 0#* the user had previously on the bad drive. 0nce the 0#* is installed, go to the bad drive to recover any data needed. If the bad drive wasn)t able to be seen as master, then I)d try once more to access the drive using *3(>! to add the drive specs according the manufacturer. 5"QE If this still doesn)t wor%, then they are out of luc%. 590E (hey can pay a good chun% of change and have the data recovered from a company that deals with that sort of thing, and buy another 'JJ and start all over again. !.*. I)d also put a password on the setup to ma%e sure that any new drives won)t be changed accidentally -ssince users never ma%e mista%es. It)s always the software or hardware to blame. From: #ave %ason >se IJ3I;<0 or equiv. to chec% what the hard drive prams. were actually set to. N!.*. 0r if you)re bored, swap motherboards. 'ec%, a few years ago for fun we swapped platters on *eagate *(6295 and it wor%ed4 7grin8 If it)s stic%tion, grab the drive Y crac% it4 (here)s lots of ways you can play4 From: Tony #e@os <irst we must determine if this is a setup issue or a hard drive issue. 595E Is the floppy drive properly recognized and wor%ingB onnect another hard drive to this system to verify the setup is o%ay. 592E 59@E 59"E 599E 59$E If the setup is wor%ing, then we must loo% at the hard drive itself. When powered up, does the drive spinB Joes it 2ust sit there and &clic%, clic%, clic%B/ If it spins, it could be controller failure. an you obtain another controller for this drive and swap itB (ry it again. If the drive does not spin, it could be a symptom of &stiction./
If it is &stiction,/ you will most li%ely be able to assist the drive to spin up to allow it to boot and then bac%up the data. (he way you help the drive to spin up is simple. 59HE ,emove all mounting hardware that is securing the drive to the system. 59RE With the drive held in your hand horizontally with both power and ribbon cables attached, turn on the system and rotate the drive with a flic% of your wrist. 59QE Keep the drive on the same horizontal plane as you flic% your wrist twisting the drive as you would spin a top to ma%e it spin. If the problem was stiction, the drive should now be spinning and you on your way to retrieving the data. If the drive is 2ust sitting there &clic%ing, clic%ing, clic%ing,/ good luc%4 !lease remember the only 500 percent way to %eep your data safe is 1+ K>!, 1+ K>!, 1+ K>!. >se the tools provided in your operating system to scandis% regularly or obtain a dis% utility program li%e ;orton >tilities to ta%e the best
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car of your hard drive possible. 'owever, hard drives are sometimes li%e light bulbs-when you turn them on, turning off the power may mar% the last time they will ever wor%4 From: Karl (ndrzejews,i 5$0E 5$5E 1oot with a Windows QR startup dis%. :et the J6,0D support.
5$2E (ry reinstalling the 0*. If this fails, boot to J0*, bring along my MI! dive, fire it up in J0* :uest mode. 5$@E opy any critical files to the MI!, format the hard drive. 5$"E ,einstall the 0* bac%up system and boot files and let the user %now they should %eep their sausage fingers on the (G remote and off of the computer. From: -rad )arin <irst find the disc parameters and enter them into the bios. iI the disc is accessible at that point, I would copy the needed files to another drive. If the <+( is damaged I would run tiramisu and hope for the best. From: *arry *$ ) +eese I have in the past found that if you can find another hard drive of the same ma%e and model, you can remove the circuit board from the dead hard drive and replace it with the one from the good hard drive. Dany times the board is the problem, and it has saved the files and me several times. 0f course, when you get the files off you need, scrape the bad drive and replace it with a new hard drive. I am ta%ing in consideration that the tech doing this %nows how to properly set up a drive-v ery important. From: "eff <ilson +fter going through the usual hoops, chec%ing the 1I0* setting, and booting with a boot dis%. With the current pricing on hard drives, I don)t fight with drives any more, I pull out my copy of Cost and <ound by !ower Iuest and let it detect the drive. 5$9E If it does, I will then install a drive equal to or greater than the old drive as master and set the old drive as slave. 5$$E I reboot and rerun 7C<8 and let it bac%up the drive. 5$HE If the drive is three years or less old, then the manufacturer will cover the warranty and we are all happy. (his all assumes that the new master was seen by the 1I0*. (his wor%s Q9 percent of the time for me-game over, other than some diagnostics. 5$RE If not, then I would reboot with the new drive by itself and see if it is detected. 5$QE If not, I would install an IJ3 card and disable the onboard IJ3, reboot and run 7C<8. (his will wor% QQ.Q percent of the time and allows me to bac% up all of the data on the old drive. With the data bac%ed up to the new drive and the old drive still as slave, it should now be able to boot the system. If it boots, I would chec% to see if the slave is visible. If it is, then double chec% to see if all the important data was bac%ed up. <or grins, I would now try to boot the old drive from the IJ3 card. If it boots, then a possible motherboard problem and would ta%e some more time.
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From: -ru e #$ )eyer *imple, 5H0E Dove the defunct hard drive to secondary slave, or master or whatever is unused-but don)t hoo% the IJ3 cable up yet. 5H5E 7!recaution8 Install a new hard drive as primary master set it to )+ (IG3.) With fdis%, format, install Windows, power down, hoo% IJ3 cable up to the defunct 'J, reboot, set 1I0* to show the drive, and then copy all the files 7data files only please48 over from the defunct 'J to the new one. !ower down, remove 'J, change bios to reflect no 'J there, and youLre done. 5H2E +lternatives are using +, 0 ,+IJ IJ3 controllers to bac% the data up from one drive 7!rimary#defunct8 to Dirror#;3W88 and then remove +rco raid 7Juplidis%8 and install new 'ard drive as primary master. 5H@E +lso, you can use 3M Jrive, :'0*(, or one of several other software methods to copy or mirror the hard drive. If you have bad sectors on the original, you)ll quite li%ely have bad data on the new drive where the bad sectors were on the old. 5H"E If the old drive won)t spin up, or can)t be recognized in 1I0* whatsoever, power down and up 7!ower completely off each time8 relentlessly until is it detected 71I0* set to +>(0 for that drive8. ?ou will possibly get luc%y once in @0 boots. 5H9E 0nce up, do your wor%, because it may be the last time it comes on. +lso, try letting the computer cool down for several hours, remove the drive to get it out of a warm case, and let it cool down. (hen try it cold. 5H$E 7(hermal deficiency may cause it to fail when hot.8 In the same vein, if it is cool, then let it 2ust sit there with power on it for thirty minutes, then 2ust reboot for about @0 times 7Jon)t power down.8 (his may wor% too. 0f course, let)s do first things last. 5HHE ,eplace your IJ3 cable, remove the other IJ3 cable from the motherboard. I have seen ,0Ds fail that rendered sound cards, networ% cards, and 0*Ls brain6dead. J6
5HRE *imply removing the J ,0D from the IJ3 cable was all it too% to prove this point, and fiA the computer. 7'ey4 'J is fineI-it)s the J that is tying up the IJ3 bus and I,I#JD+ controller48 ;o data loss. I probably missed some of the better tric%s, but generally, that should solve what is solvable. From: "oel Ealung 5HQE hec% to see if the primary hard drive ribbon is correctly attached or connected to the Dotherboard and 'ard drive. 5R0E 5R5E Da%e sure it)s not loose. 0r chec% the ribbon itself-ma%e sure it still good.
5R2E (his usually solves the &invalid drive specification& and &1I0* +uto 'J detection not finding the 'J.& From: Troy S hlueter Jo the normal ritual of ma%ing sure power and IJ3 cables are tight, and changing the IJ3 cable. Is the drive spinningB If not, then: 5R@E ,emove the drive and connect it bac% up outside the case. 5R"E !ower up the boA and give the drive a quic% twist to see if it will spin up.
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5R9E (ry the drive on a %nown good wor%ing machine as a slave, if you can get it up in the cmos. 5R$E If you still have no response, find a functioning drive that is identical 7same ma%e#model8 and swap the circuit boards. (his usually does the tric%, unless the original drive has a physical error. 7i.e. bad motor or platters8 Cast resort-send out to a data recovery business. From: stan Jepends on why it)s dead. 0n older drives, it was quite common for the heads to stic% to the platter. It would not have the torque to start, so it couldn)t wor%. 5RHE 1est method in that case was to put a long eAtension on the power cable, leave the data line off ,and with the drive between your palms, quic%ly rotate the drive and at the same time power on. (ry both cloc%wise and counter cloc%wise. 0ne should wor% if it)s a &stiction& issue. 5RRE If the drive spins and has a problem with the logic board, it)s sometimes possible to swap the electronics without opening up the dis% cavity, but that)s a last resort.
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From: )i hael <agoner (ough question and in some aspects it depends on what operating system the machine was running. 0bvious chec%s are: 5RQE Da%e sure all the cables are properly and firmly attached. 5Q0E ?ou might want to swap out the ribbon cable and#or change it to the secondary controller connection. 5Q5E !ull the power plug off it and plug in a different plug. an you hear the hard drive spin upB 5Q2E If you 7were smart enough and8 brought along a different hard drive, does the machine recognize ('+( hard driveB Joes it spin it upB Joes it start itB +ssuming all of the above is intact and you)ve narrowed the problem down to that 0;3 particular hard drive as having the problem 7and that 0;3 hard drive J03* spin up8, I)ll tac%le it from the perspective that the machine was running either WinQ9 or WinQR 7the steps for both are similar8. 5Q@E I would bring a startup dis% from a WinQR machine to start with 7ma%e sure you have the correct startup dis% type <+( 5$ for machines fdis%ed that way <+( @2 for machines fdis%ed that way If the )owner doesn)t %now which it was, chances are high it was <+( 5$, especially on older machines8. 5Q"E (he reason for this is simple-it allows you to start up the machine with J6,0D support 7this is assuming that the machine has a J6,0D8. +t bootup, I would access the D0* settings and set the machine to try to recognize the hard drive automatically-once again, the neAt steps would depend on whether the D0* was able to identify the hard drive or not. 5Q9E +ssuming it did recognize the hard drive, I would boot the machine 7without the boot dis%8 and chec% what error messages I got 7if any8. 5Q$E 5QHE If it did not recognize the hard drive, I would try to manually input the hard drive settings 7some D0*)s allow this, others ma%e it a bit harder to do8. ;ow try to boot without the boot dis%.
+ssuming that one of the above methods at least got the hard drive recognized, but at boot up there is some other error regarding the hard drive, I)d stic% in the boot dis% and boot with it. ;eAt question is at this point can#does the machine &see& the hard drive. I)ve had both cases, some where it did, some where it didn)t. If it sees the hard drive, can I see my informationB If yes, can I access the informationB >sually one of those two questions is a no. If you can access the hard drive 7the system sees the hard drive, sees your directories8 but not access the information 7when you try to enter into a directory or call up a file you get an error message8 chances are you have a messed up <+( table. 5QRE ?ou can try to fdis% #mbr from your boot dis%, it will re6write the <+( table. 5QQE ;ow pull out the boot up dis% and try to reboot again. +ny luc%B If so you may be in business, if not you)re hosed. I)ve tried, with miAed success, using !owerquest)s Cost and <ound program to try to retrieve data from a hard drive. It)s hit and miss enough that it will depend on budget and how &important& the information is before I try to recover it. We 2ust had a hard drive crash that we sent out to have the information retrieved, at P529 an hour it was eApensive to recover. (hose are my solutions, for what they are worth. From: ri harr
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(his has happened here several times. 200E I install the new hard drive, ma%e it a bootable partition, and install the operating system. 205E (hen place the old drive on the secondary dis% position and copy the contents to the new drive. 202E >sually into a folder called 0CJ J,IG3. (his provides a directory tree map for where to place the files. 20@E (hen after reinstalling all the software, original files can be placed bac% into the proper place on the new drive. Gery rarely does this procedure not wor% for me. From: K% Freels 20"E 209E (ry putting the drive in another machine. It may come up there. !ut it in as a second drive and boot from a wor%ing drive.
20$E (ry and access it then. <ailing that, try using a program li%e :host and image the drive onto another one. If this wor%s, you)re really luc%y. 20HE If the motor is stuc%, or the drive isn)t spinning right, open the top of the drive 7it)s dead anyway8 and spin the platters using the spindle. 20RE 20QE *ometimes this will get the drive spinning and usable one last time. It will never wor% again though, so this is a last resort.
From: #avid %ham'ers (his is a common situation. +nd, it has turned out to be a simple resolution 7most of the time8. I)m the ;etwor% Danager at the *an Jiego 1lood 1an%. (he non6profit status of our organization ma%es purchasing new, up6to6date equipment quite a challenge. onsequently, the largest percentage of my 220 des%tops are legacy "R$#$$ boAes. (heir relative age brings about hard6drive failures on a monthly basis. I)ve been able to eAtract the data from these drives using a boot dis%, and one of two bac%up methods. 5. >se a portable bac%up tape drive that runs from the parallel port 7(ra%%er8. 2. >se J0* lient and a boot floppy to get the boA on the C+; then map a drive with ;3( >*3 and W 0!? the important files to the C+;. 0f course, the boot floppy method wor%s for about H9 percent of the failures. If the boot floppy fails, I try using <JI*K#mbr to rebuild the Daster 1oot ,ecord. (his is successful 9650 percent of the time. *ince the user mentioned in the quiz had messed around with the 1I0*, it)s possible the settings are wrong and even more probable that the 2umper on the drive is misconfigured because, although the user &didn)t do anything,& that new J6,0D they installed is on the same controller as the hard drive. (he disappointing part of ma%ing a hard drive spin bac% to life eAists in the 50659 percent that are actual physical failures that will require depot level repair to eAtract any data. + very eApensive process. From: Ron )asters 'ard Jrive Jies. 0h, you)ve got to love these %inds of situations, don)t youB Well, this may sound strange, but it)s wor%ed for me before. 7(hat is, if booting off a floppy still won)t gain you access...and there are strange sounds coming from the drive...8
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5. *hut down the power and remove the case cover to gain access to the drive. ,emove the drive from the case, but leave it connected to power and ribbon cable. 7If the ribbon connector cable isn)t long enough, attach one that is.8 2. ;ow, hold the drive in your hands and %ic% on the power 7use an assistant if you)d li%e8. +s soon as the power comes on, twist the hard drive quic% and fast in your hands. 7Kind of li%e steering a car hard right8. (his sudden &torqueing& is sometimes enough to &brea%& a drive free, allowing it to spin...usually for one last time. 7'ave a Mip or second drive already ready to gain access to the files.8 @. + slight variation on this 7once again with long power and ribbon cables8 is to set the drive down on a flat surface 7non6conductive please48 so that it can be &spun& while flat. Why does this wor%B Well, in this situation, my guess is that the lubrication of the drive has failed, and the torque overcomes the initial spin6up of the drive. From: o 250E I would open the boA and ensure that all of the connections are still are where they are supposed to be, including the controller card, if it has one. 255E I would as% the client what operating system they were using, so that I cold ma%e a startup from another boA. 252E I would try to copy the sys files to the hard drive by booting to the floppy. 25@E If that doesn)t wor%, I would boot to one of the hard dis% utilities available for the brand of hard drive in the clientLs boA 7maAblast, ontrac%, etc., also norton dis% doctor8, and get to a dos prompt, to copy the needed files. 25"E +s a last resort, I would consult the Internet.
From: "im #avison (he symptoms you describe would lead me to believe that the drive lost power or died. Daybe the DoleA power connector wor%ed loose. I would use the following steps even considering that you state the user had &tried& to manually enter the settings in setup and also tried auto. (he user may not %now what they are doing. 5. (ry IJ3 +uto Jetect to see if the bios can even see the drive. If yes, then I would use that setting and everything should be 0K. If yes and the drive still does not boot, I would use fdis%#mbr in case the Daster boot record was destroyed. If no then I would go to step 2. 2. 0pen the boA and chec% all power and data cables. I have seen DoleA type power connectors lose a connection intermittently I have also seen one case where the data cable came loose when the computer was moved. If cables were the problem, then you should be o%ay now. If you still have a problem go to step @. @. ,emove the drive and plug it into another computer and see if the other computer can detect the drive. If yes then the problem is a cable, motherboard, etc. on the computer and needs to be replaced. If the thing still is not wor%ing, then it is most li%ely a defective drive and you will need to decide how badly you need the data on the drive. If you need the data then I would send the drive to a data recovery lab that
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can eAtract the data from a dead drive and save the data to a tape, but may be worth it. From: ppotts 1oot the ! <JI*K.3W3 *?*. 0D 5. 1oot the computer and see if you can see the drive. If you can, then 0DD+;J. 0D may be damaged or missing or the boot files may be corrupt. ,un *?* : to ma%e the hard drive again bootable. 2. If you still can)t see the hard drive then, run the following command, <JI*K #D1,. (he <JI*K utility updates the master boot record only if one does not eAist. 3ven repartitioning a hard drive with <JI*K does not necessarily rewrite this information. 'owever, this switch allows you to write the master boot record to the hard drive without damaging the eAisting partition table information. ?ou should not use this command if you are using special partition software 7not partitioned with <JI*K8, if you have a dual6boot dis% 7such as ;( and Windows Q9#QR8 or if you have more than " partitions on your drive. From:!ary )oon ?ou have to troubleshoot from the hardware up: 1. *wap the IJ3 cable to eliminate that as a cause. +lso, chec% any 2umper settings, and remove any other drives from that cable. 2. *et the drive type bac% to +uto. If drive IJ isn)t ta%ing place, then you can)t communicate with the drive anyway. 3. If you can)t hear the platters spin up or the heads doing their &positioning dance,/ and it)s a few years old, it might have a &stic%tion& problem caused by the lubricant on the platters stic%ing to the heads. With the ! off, give the hard drive a couple of sharp taps on the side with the handle of a screwdriver4 (hen power it up again. 4. If all the hardware seems to be functional, you)ll have to see if you can get at the data. 5. Dany ompaq ! s have an R6D1 system partition that launches the system diagnostics when you press <50 7or another combination8 on boot up. *ee if you can access this partition. If so, your hard drive is not completely lost. 6. Jepending on the manufacturer and model, the drive might require a special boot6time driver to access the full capacity of the drive. (wo eAamples are 0ntrac% Jis% Danager, or DaAtor)s 3M6 Jrive. (his driver usually resides in the root directory of the system drive or the D1,, and if it is lost, the system won)t be able to correctly see the drive partitions. 0n some later "R$s and early !entiums, even though they can read the drive information into the 1I0*, they still cannot properly translate the '* information. (his can lead you to believe that the computer can use the full capacity of the drive, while in fact, it cannot. (ry re6installing a translation driver using original software, if the drive came with it. (his should not require any formatting of the drive or loss of information. 7. ,un <JI*K and view the partition information. If <JI*K cannot access the drive, then the hardware is still messed up, and you need to bac% up a couple of steps until that is corrected. 8. (ry switching the drive into a new machine you K;0W will support its capacity natively. 9. If none of these steps wor%s, and you are certain the drives hardware is functional, then get a data recovery software such as (iramisu, or as a last resort, try fdis%#mbr. From: "ohn -ragdon I have tried only a couple of steps on my own: from a J0* 1oot Jis%. Da%e sure that the boot dis% has the following files on it: J, 'J etc. (his can be eApensive
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5. If you are a &computer person& you would have brought a bootable floppy with you. 1oot off the floppy and hopefully you can read the c: drive then. 2. 0pening up the boA and slapping the hard drive can revive the hard drive if the servomotor is &frozen.& @. I have turned the data cable around and powered on, and after about two seconds, turned the boA off and then put the cable on correctly. !owered on the boA and the system found the hard drive. ". I have used the utility *peed *tor in the passed to tell the D0* about the hard drive if the D0* could not be read from the system. 0f course you have to %now the head and sector size. From: *ou S hwei hler (his procedure assumes you do not hear any &grinding noises& or other evidence of a physical damage, i.e. worn6out bearings, dragging read heads, etc. If you do, then the 'JJ is &toast& and you might as well offer your customer your condolences as the 'JJ has 2ust headed to the big computer in the s%y and it)s cheaper these days to replace the 'JJ then to repair it. <irst, hec% the D0* settings and verify they agree with those preprinted on the 'Jrive)s Cabel, If not preprinted on the label, either use a program li%e 3M6Jrive to obtain the correct values or remove the hard drive and connect it to a %nown newer motherboard and use that boardLs D0* setup utility to detect the proper values. (ry rebooting to the :U prompt on the new board. If successful, reinstall the hard drive to the original board. (hen ensure the D0* settings on the original board agree. +d2ust as necessary. (ry rebooting. If the your luc%y your finished. If not try the second step. *econd, if the first step didn)t solve the problem, then the <+( (able may be corrupted. >se a utility li%e 3M6Jrive, which usually can be downloaded from any of the Da2or 'Jrive 03D)s Web site, to switch to a bac%up version of the <+( 7file allocation table8. >sually there is a bac%up of the <+( on the 'JJ, but switching to it requires the use of a 'JJ utility li%e 3M6Jrive. <ollow the instructions for the +dvance 0ptions to switch <+(s, then reboot. If reboot to the :U prompt is successful, +;J you can access your data files, ,un * +;JI*K from the J0* prompt to verify the integrity of the <+(. (hen do a cursory search of the 'JJ for any documents you may have recently created. If you can get a good JI, listing of them, you)re done-smo%e) em if you got em4. If not, then try third step. (hird, this step will result in the total and absolute loss of all data on the hard drive and should only be used as a last resort. ?ou can use the J0* commands, &<JI*K, <0,D+( : #*&, to reformat the 'JJ and reinstall the operating system. 1etter yet, using a 'JJ utility li%e 3M6Jrive accomplishes this in about one tenth the time. Da%e sure you have a bootable floppy dis% that includes any special device drivers and programs to access your peripheral equipment 7li%e the J6,0D8 so you can complete the 0* installation. If your computer system came with a restoration dis%, you could reinstall the 0D!C3(3 0!3,+(I;: *?*(3D +;J +CC *0<(W+,3. +lternatively, once the 'JJ has been reformatted and the 'JJ set up, you should now be able to reinstall the complete operating system, 7WI;@5, WI;Q9, WI;QR, D+ , CI;>W etc.8 and all your application software from the original distribution Js or Jis%s. From: -rett ;dmonson 259E <irst I would ma%e sure all cables are connected and ma%e sure it is getting power.
25$E (hen I would chec% the setting in the 1I0*, and ma%e sure +>(0 doesnLt wor%. If not, I would confirm the settings of the hard drive to the settings in the 1I0*. 25HE 25RE (hen I would see if <JI*K sees the hard drive from a WinQR boot dis% 7which has <JI*K on it8. (hen I would proceed to use the utility 'ard Jrive Dechanic, if it does not see it, I( I* J3+J4
From: %hris Karo
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25QE <irst I would chec% the 'J and write down all the numbers. ;ame of manufacturer, Dodel S, serialS, 'ds, *ectors, landing zone, etc 220E *econd, I would enter into setup mode and chec% the settings for 'J5 and or 'J2, if any. advances settings to see if C1+ or any other settings have been changed. 225E 222E If I have another ! thatLs the same, I would compare all D0* settings. hec%
If not, go online to the manufacturer site support and find the model. !rint out all settings for the D0* and any 2umpers that may be on the drive. D0* and 2umpers accordingly. : dir.
22@E hec% the power supply plug for the 9.9 7= or 68 voltage. *et the 1oot the machine. 22"E
If the drive still does not come up, boot to a D*6J0* $.2 1oot dis%.
229E If I can see the files and directories, I can then either slave a driveor put another master on a 2nd controller, and then copy data to the drive or to a formatted a:Udis%. From:-ryan "$ *y,ins (his solution comes from the &been there, done that-multiple times./ 22$E <irst, get physical access to being able to see the dis% drive and then use some type of diagnostic utility 7off a boot floppy8 to see if the drive is even recognized. 22HE If there are no lights on the controller and the diagnostics do not identify a valid drive, then you can usually recover quite easily. 22RE :et yourself another identical dis% 7with no important data on it8 and swap the controllers. I have used this method to recover @ different dis%s. 22QE If the controller lights come on and the diagnostic program recognizes your drive, but the dis% is still not accessible, then most li%ely it is &frozen& internally. (here have been several drives that have had this problem in the past. 7*pecifically, there were some I1D 26 and "6:1 drives, DaAtor H$0 6D1, and *eagate 2 :18. 2@0E +nyway, since we are not going to %eep this troublesome drive, remove it from the machine and gently tap the side with a screwdriver. 2@5E !ut it bac% in and see if the motor will start the drive spinning. If it does-get the data bac%ed up immediately and then either get rid of the dis% or use it as a non6critical storage area. 2@2E 0nce a drive has this problem, the solution has been %nown to wor% multiple times and the problem usually re6occurs after a reboot#shutdown sequence. From: T"R6 Invalid drive specification. If drive is IJ3: 58 >se the D0* IJ3 auto detection. (ry to use both C1+ mode and normal mode. ,eboot and see what 7if any8 failure comes up. 28 1oot from a floppy 7this is critical that the user %nows what version of 0* he#she is running: Q9, Q9b, QR, QRb, etc.8. >se <JI*K after this to see if the drive is present. If so, *?* the drive and reboot 7crossing eyes, fingers, and toes8. @8 (ear into the computer and ma%e sure the cabling is correct. <or good measure, reseat the 'JJ cable 7both ends8 and power cable. (urn system on briefly to ensure the 'JJ is spinning up.
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"8 (ry using the secondary controller on the motherboard 7being sure to ma%e the D0* change as well8. 98 (ry a different IJ3 cable. $8 If none of the above steps wor%, it must be "th down and time to &punt.& If the data is irreplaceable and critical, call 0nsite for a quote on data recovery. If drive is * *I: 58 >se the controller utilities to see if the card settings are correct. >nfortunately I am not eAperienced in * *I drives and would not be able to apply anything more than what is listed. From: !ary !illaspie Jepending on the operating system, I would use a boot dis% with <JI*K on it. 1oot the ! , and run <JI*K #D1,, which would fiA the boot sector so you would then be able to loo% at the hard drive after a reboot. + 2nd option is to use the hard drive manufacturerLs dis% utilities from a floppy that D+? 13 able to repair without losing data. From: K(SHIF S(*I) -(<(+E *olutions: 758 1oot computer from a bootable dis%, load J6,0D drivers. (hen run ndd)s 7;orton Jis% Joctor8 revive option, this will revive the mbr 7master boot record8 and all the data. 728 Da%e the faulty drive slave drive on a system running WinQ9#QR. (ry to bac%up data as much as possible, then shutdown the system and then ma%e the faulty drive as primary drive and boot from a floppy drive and run fdis%. 7@8 If it doesnLt wor%, then boot the system with faulty drive as primary drive with a dos#windows bootable dis%, then run hard dis% manager 7e.g. *eagate)s JD8. From: "a , *evin (he first thing I do is see if the drive is spinning. Dany times the drive 2ust gets stuc% and a small tap will get the drive spinning again. If that is the case and the drive does come bac% after some mechanical agitation, I &:host& the drive to a new replacement as fast as I can. If the drive is spinning but still not accessible, I have had luc% ma%ing it a slave drive with a %nown wor%ing master. *ometimes that helps. 0nce I get access, I copy as fast as I can because I %now every minute is borrowed time. When the <+( has become corrupt, I have tried third party recovery tools with little success. If the <+( bac%up is no good, I am at a loss 7short of sending it out to a data recovery service8. From: Howard (d,ins hec% the parameters in the D0* and verify they are correct. If they are, I would attempt to boot off of a floppy to see if I could get to the hard drive, sometimes the D1, is bad but you can still boot to a floppy an copy the info to dis% From: Ted Senn Iff 7If and only if8 the drive doesn)t spin up, the bearings are possibly dry. In this case, I ta%e the drive out and give it a hard rotation and quic% stop parallel with the platters, reinstall, and get out the chic%en
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bones. (his will sometimes allow the drive to spin up long enough to get the data off. +t the same time try to sell the owner on the idea of a bac%up device. From: Raymond @$Hall 5. ,eview documentation regarding the installation-drive type, cylinder, sectors, etc.Nand identify the drive by physical inspection. ,eseat all cables and power connectors. Just out the interior of the ! . 2. *ecure current info and drivers from manufacturers www site. @. >se floppy dis% to start the ! and determine if drive maintenance can be performed. Is the data availableB Is the drive not booting or not operatingB *can for viruses. ". While virus scanning and perhaps using scan dis%, review the documentation, instructions, and ,eadme files about the drive. 9. 3specially with an older ! , chec% the battery and replace if necessary. $. >se setup to confirm accurate drive settings. H. +pply any patches, switches, 2umpers etc. noted in the current documentation. R. (han% the user for showing patience. From: #avid &$ &edersen 2@@E <irst, you would give the offending computer user a short sermon about benefits of always bac%ing up that important data. 2@"E *econd step would be to remove the offending &dead& drive from the computer. 2@9E (hird step would be to put it out of its misery with your shotgun if you have one and if not simply give it a good whac% with your sledgehammer. 2@$E <ourth step: go down to the local computer store and have them install a new one for you with bac%up this time4 I am sure glad people call me about computer problems because, as you can see, I am one good &,epair Dan./ (han%s. From: "ohn %$ -ritt "r$ ,emove the ailing drive from the boA, install it in another machine as a secondary drive, and then bac% up the necessary files. From: Kampstra Ri hard %ontra tor ()% %SSFS(S If there is any way you can read the dis% at all, chec% out (iramisu for shareware data recovery tools that are the best. (hey have a version for every type of operating system. Win;(, <+(5$, <+(@2, etc. hec% http:##www.simtel.net#simtel.net#msdos#dis%util.html for the software. I have used their tools in the past to recover data from dis%s. *ome dis%s are 2ust impossible because the electronics on the drive have failed. In this case, the only hope would be to swap the circuit card on the drive with a %nown good one. From: -rad !ore ,i
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(o remedy this situation, I would verify that the drive will still spin. If that is the case, I would use a product called ,ecover QR. +s long as the drive is spinning, I can get the data off. +fter verifying 1I0* settings and ma%ing sure the ! will at least detect the drive, slave the new drive off the bad one. ,un this software pac%age and transfer the data to the drive. (his software wor%s on deleted files as well as formatted drives. I believe this would be the easiest solution. From: -o' )atott 0ne additional thought for the rare problem-swap the circuit board from a %nown wor%ing identical drive onto the bad one. *ometimes the electronics do ta%e a &hit./ From: %raig %onnelly 5. hec% the old D0* on board battery. ,eplace if necessary. 2. :et the drive specs and go to the manufacturerLs site and get the info on the drive. @. (ry to use a boot dis% from a well6%nown >tility software pac%age. ". >se a Jata ,ecovery program if the drive will spin up. :et the data off the drive. 9. <dis%#D1, the drive and see if it will then accept a new 0* install. $. Jon)t waste too much time on the issue. Jata is only as good as your last bac%up. <igure out how the cost benefit of trying to bring the drive bac% to life and 2ust getting a new drive. &*ave early, *ave often./ From: &ahl "eff TSgt (F)I(F)ISA <or <+( file systems. 5st boot from floppy and try to access :. If that doesn)t wor%, run <dis% #D1,. *ometimes replacing the master boot record will fiA a non6booting drive. From:)atthew Harvey 'ad this happen last year. (ried running the drive as a slave in another machine 7could be the controller, you %now8 but that didn)t do the tric%. *o we sent it away to a recovery shop. (hey charge P500 to loo% at it, send you a list of all the files they could find and recover, and then they want P5,900 to send you those files on a J6,. We bal%ed at the charge and said, &;o than%s, 2ust send us bac% our hard drive.& (hey did. 0f course, in order to read the dis% and list the files for us, they had to ma%e a repair to the drive. When it was returned to us I was able to slave it in another machine and copy all of its contents-2ust finished before their 2ury6rigged repair failed on us. <ull data recovery for P500-not a bad deal, huhB From: Spi,e (here are many different ways to approach this. It should depend on the 0#* involved. 2@HE In a WinQ9 situation, the first thing is to chec% the 1I0* configuration and ma%e sure that the user didn)t inadvertently turn off the 'JJ. 2@RE If this chec%s out o%ay, open the ! rule this out. and chec% to ma%e sure the cable is secure...or replace it to
2@QE If still no go, boot from a floppy 7J0* or WinQ9 *tartup Jis% will do8 and sys the drive using the sys c:U command. 2"0E 0ften this will wor% with WinQ9. 2"5E If the drive boots 7even 2ust to a prompt8 run a virus scan. Dany viruses hide themselves in the boot record and will actually copy the boot record to a different part of the drive...thus, not allowing the
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0#* to find it. If no viruses are found...run a scandis% 7from the floppy or from *afe Dode8 and ma%e sure there isn)t too much corruption. 2"2E orruption or not...it)s time to bac% up your important files and format the drive. (his may be all that)s needed to restore a drive to a functional state. 2"@E If after the format there are still problems...trash the drive. Jon)t ta%e any chances with a fla%y hard drive. 2""E If the suspect drive is a Winnt drive...there are not a whole lot of options. <ollow the steps above to the point of rebooting the system. 2"9E In the case of ;( 7if it is not 1I0* related8, you will generally get a ntos%rnl error and the system will halt. 0therwise...the 1*0J is always a possibility. 2"$E (o lessen the chances of losing all of your data, boot with a clean dis%ette 7Jos or WinQ98 and run a setup from the ;( floppies. 2"HE hoose the option to repair the eAisting install, selecting all of the options of what to repair. 2"RE If this wor%s, the worst thing that will happen is you will have to reinstall your applications to re6 register them in the system registry 7which will be replaced8. 2"QE In the event that the drive will not boot at all, ta%e the drive to another machine and slave it to an eAisting hard drive 7preferably with ;( as you won)t see the ;(<* partitions otherwise8. 290E 295E 1oot the second machine and see if the drive is visible from eAplorer...if it is...luc%y you4 1ac% it up pronto.
292E If you cannot see the drive because it has an ;(<* partition and the machine you)re using is WinQ9...there is a utility available called ;(<*Jos. 29@E :et this...it)s an invaluable resource for ;( techs. It allows you to boot from a J0* floppy and see the ;(<* partitions from the command prompt. ?ou can then copy or bac%up necessary files prior to a re6format. 29"E If the drive is still dead in the water after all of this...chances are it)s going to stay that way but I haven)t come across too many drives I couldn)t re6animate. :68 From: "amey %opeland Da%e sure the drive)s data ribbon cable is connected securely at both the drive and the controller. If the cable is damaged, try a new one. 3nter the D0* setup and ma%e sure that all the parameters entered for the drive are correct. 1oot from a floppy dis% and try accessing the hard drive. If that is possible, then it is probably because boot files are missing or corrupt. If that is the case, use a third party software fiA %it. (ry *ysing the c drive if it is visible from dos. hec% the power connector. ,eplace the hard drive...hehe. From: !eorge Rosser 299E (he first thing I would try would be to ma%e a boot dis% from another machine and boot up the machine and see if it can read the drive.
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29$E If that didn)t wor%, chec% the settings for the drive and the size of the drive if the user has been playing around with the system. It is possible they changed the CJ+ or other settings. 29HE If all else fails, loo% at the user and tell them that they 2ust learned a lesson the hard way tell the user that they should invest in a tape bac%up or similar item when the new drive is purchased... From: )il iades )arro hi
0ne thing I did successfully was to replace the 'J electronics. (he complete board is sometimes standard in many models of the same brand. If the problem is there, then chances are that you will get it to wor%. ,eplacing the eAternal electronics of a 'J is simple. +nother one I had was a dis% that would not start spinning. We fiAed it 7and don)t as% me why8 by giving it some hits with the tips of our fingers 7while powered on8. +t one point, it started spinning and we could get out its data. From: )ar o (ntonio I li%e to use shiramitzu. It^s a powerful software provided 7free8 by ontrac% 7www.ontrac%.com8, I found it when I had some hd^s with their boot sector erased by hernobyl virus and this software allowed safe bac%up of the files in it. From: *awren e Taylor/#un an 5. Coo% up manufacturer, model number etc. on drive. +t same time, chec% 2umper settings on drive correctly set to D+*(3,. If there)s a slave drive chec% its settings, too. 2. *earch for model in the Dicrohouse (echnical Cibrary using your trusty laptop 7call yourself a techB 0< 0>,*3 you have a copy of this in your arsenal...8. @. Write down manual settings from Dicrohouse database 7S cylinders, etc.8. If you need 2umper settings above, they)re there too4 If no Dicrohouse Cibrary available, try manufacturer)s Web site, 7this all assuming this setup data is not stamped on drive8. ". 3nter data in D0*
9. *ave and re6boot. (ime to completioNn-50659 minutes. I< ;0 *> 3**
$. hec% D0* to insure on6board controller not disabled. Jisconnect slave. hec% ribbon cable is not bad. hec% ribbon cable is in correct IJ3 slot. hec% that I,I 5" has not been used for manually setting another peripheral 7if so, reclaim I,I for controller8. I< ;0 *> 3**
H. ontroller may be bad. Install drive in alternate computer with good controller to test, or try 2nd controller slot using I,I 59. I< ;0 *> 3**
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R. 1oot sector or partition table possibly bad in drive. ould use ;orton >tility to debug if you li%e living dangerously. 0ther alternatives include sending drive to 0n(rac% for data recovery 7eApensive8, or re6 <JI*K and start all over 7free, but data gone8. From: %urtis %oons ,un ;orton)s recovery dis%s. (his is done from J0*. From: )i,e )et alfe (he process of restoring a drive is fairly straightforward. It relies on 2ust a few facts: 5. (he drive data is in 1I0* correctly. 2. (he data cable is in good condition. @. (he IJ3 port on the main board is functioning. ". (he drive powers on, i.e. you can hear it spin up. 'aving been a field engineer for a number of years, this is one of the worst situations we face. (he customer is frantic about the possibility of losing some or all of his data. 'e never thought that this would 7or could8 happen to him. 'e has made no effort to bac% up his data but now wants you to perform some magic that will save the day 7and his data8. 0nsite retrieval of data is at best a ris% that poses undesirable consequences for both the customer and the technician. ?our first action is to be as honest with the customer as you can be. (ell him in no uncertain terms that you may not be able to save anything. (his does two things: first it allows the customer to prepare himself for the worst outcome 7no data8, and secondly it allows you to proceed with more confidence in that you are not going to be held responsible for the data that was 7or still may be8 on the hard drive. (he technical stuff is basic. ?ou should be carrying with you a wor%ing boot dis%. I li%e to use my Windows Q9#QR setup dis%, the one that gives me several options on how to proceed after the initial boot process. I first loo% at the drive 7physically8 and get as much information off of the case as I can. >sually it will include how many cylinders, heads and sectors the drive has. I then go to *etup and input this information in the 1I0*. *aving that information I boot to my trusty boot dis% and hopefully get an +: prompt. >sing <dis% I loo% at the drive and see if it still has a J0* partition. If it does then I switch to the : prompt 7if it comes up, I then breath a sigh of relief8 and loo% at the directory tree. (his only means that I can see the <+( 7<ile +llocation (able8, I still may not be able to actually get data off of the drive. ,emember that while you are wor%ing in J0*, your file names are in the R.@ format and any information transferred in that environment will be rendered difficult if not impossible to use. *o letLs say that we have been blessed with a good Jirectory (ree and we can see the desired information buried somewhere on the platters. Knowing I will most certainly replace the drive, I need to attempt to get the data off of it in its most usable form, which will be in a Windows long filename format. +t this point, I)m eAcited enough about becoming the local computer hero that I pull the drive out and hoo% it up as a secondary drive to a wor%ing system. I then boot the second system and see if it will recognize the drive. It does, and I happily transfer the data to a directory on a good drive where I can either burn a J for the customer or restore it to the new drive when it becomes available. If you have no second drive available to install the failing dis% drive into you are now going to have to ma%e a tough decision. (his premise is far too vague for actual fieldwor% but we will say that the customer has no idea where his data resides on the drive 7the usual case8. 1eing familiar with the R.@ format you then as% him what the last @ letters of the filename was. 'e states .doc or .wpd or some other format. ?ou !age 9@

do a file search such as &dir E.wpd#s& which will then search the drive and its subdirectories for the data. ?ou then can move the data off of the drive to a floppy and even though you may have to rename all of the files bac% to whatever they were originally named, you have the praise and honor of being the guru of the moment. +t best you can hope to get some data for the customer, at worst you now have a wor%ing %nowledge of the system and its integrity 7i.e. controllers, peripheral cards, etc.8 ?ou also have the opportunity to discuss valid bac%up options with the customer. 1ut that is another story. From: "oe -la ,ledge ,ecently I had a machine that would loc% up at various times. (his was a critical ! attached to a piece of measuring equipment. (here was a lot of time invested in writing the measurement programs stored on the hard drive. 0f course, the programs were not bac%ed up. I discovered that if it was cold 7had been off for some time8, it would run for about 50 minutes. (o ma%e a long story short, it was a heat6related problem with the hard drive. (he warmer the machine got, the shorter the period of time the hard drive would wor%. I opened the case up, too% the hard drive out, stretched the cables out and replugged them so the drive was outside the machine. I found two large zip6loc% bags and filled them with ice. I laid the drive on one of them and placed the other on top. I waited about @0 minutes for it to get real cool. I connected a zip drive to the parallel port and booted the machine. I had plenty of time to ma%e a complete bac%up to the zip dis%s. I actually let it run for a couple more hours 2ust to see if it would %eep wor%ing. When I shut it down, it was still wor%ing fine. I installed a new hard drive, restored the data from the zip dis%s and made a lot of people happy. From: prusz,o 5. (ry the &auto& settings in the 1I0* again 2. If that does not wor%, use a J0* formatted boot dis%, boot the system to the a: drive, type & :& to see if you can access the hard drive. If this wor%s, bac% up valuable files then re6install Windows. @. If that does not wor%, you can ta%e off the cover and reseat the cables and try again. ". If that does not wor%, you will have to go to a third party utility or reformat the drive and re6install Windows. From: "oe #ougherty (he quiz scenario didn)t mention the operating system in use, so I)ll assume the user has Windows Q9#QR installed on the system. 0ne simple and valuable tool to have up front is some %ind of boot dis%, either a Windows startup boot dis% from the original software pac%age, or a recent J0* boot or setup dis%. I %eep a set of J0* $.22 setup dis%ettes in my tool%it, since the first dis% has an eAtremely important tool: fdis%. 7We run a completely ;( shop at my company.8 Dy first inclination would be to open the system and pee% at the cabling. ! ribbon cables are notorious for wiggling free from drive connectors, or, even worse, not being installed securely in the first place. 3ven the mild vibrations from a power supply fan or even moving a !> case 2ust a few feet could possibly wor% the cable off the connector enough to give errors. 3liminate that right off the bat. (he neAt thing to do would be to reboot the system, get into the D0* or 1I0* settings, and reset the 1I0* for an automatic setup of the drive 7this also assumes IJ3 drives8. Dany modern 1I0* setups have a utility that scans and sets IJ3 drive settings. (his would be helpful to get the hardware synched up
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properly. Da%e sure the system correctly detects the drive. (his should be apparent on the information screens that appear when the system reboots. If the hardware still can)t detect the operating system, one of two things might be wrong. 3ither the Daster 1oot ,ecord on the hard dis% is corrupt or damaged, or the system is attempting to boot to a partition that isn)t bootable. (his is where fdis% helps 7no matter what operating system you use8. +t this point, I would reboot the system using the J0* boot dis%ette. (he Dicrosoft J0* $.W setup dis%ette allows you to boot to the first setup screen, then press <@ to eAit to a prompt. <dis% is located on that first setup dis%ette. <rom the +: prompt, start fdis% and have a loo% at what the current partition settings are. (he first thing to loo% for is to see if there are multiple partitions, and if so, which one is active. If the partition is not labeled active, use fdis% to set it to active and try rebooting. :
If that fails, the Daster 1oot ,ecord on the boot partition may be corrupted. ,eboot to the J0* dis%ette, and at the +: prompt, invo%e the fdis% command using the #D1, switch. (his won)t start fdis%, but it will rewrite the Daster 1oot ,ecord and may allow you to boot the system bac% to the hard dis% partition. I)ve done this a number of times on systems running Windows Q9#QR, Windows ;(, CinuA, and 0*#2. From: edward$fearon *o your hard drive has failed, ehB +nd itLs got that all important invoice# G#document that you cannot afford to lose... &It was wor%ing last time I used it& and &I never touched it& drift into the conversation. In the case when a 'J has failed, it can be due to a number of factors 7so many that I wont indulge you8. 'owever, one that I find that regularly is the fact that the drive will not spin up 7listen for spin up and spin down sounds8. (his can be a common problem particularly after a cold spell, or after a wee%end when the machine has been stuc% in your spare room in the cold. I have it on good authority that often this is caused by the lubricants on the spindles getting thic%er due to a temp drop... and the 'J motor not having enough inertia to overcome the 7now thic%er8 lube. Well, you may 2ust be able to recover most of the 'J, or perhaps even 2ust that one file if you... 58 (a%e out the hard dis% of the *ystem >nit... get your local (echie :uru to do it for you if you aren)t happyO 28 +nd give it gentle twists along its horizontal aAis. @8 !lug it in and try again... if it wor%s, go to step Q +*+!. "8 *witch on the monitor. 98 ,est the 'J on the top bac% end of the monitor 7forget it if you have a (<(48, where the 'J will gently warm up over the neAt "6R hours. $8 !ut that dis% bac% into the machine while itLs hot#warm. H8 ross your fingers. R8 *witch on the power. Q8 If it wor%s start ripping off the data as fast as you possibly can, if not put it on a radiator, and leave for a while 7then go to step @8. 508 If under warranty send it off, or if not buy a new one4 +nd if that fails... !+;I 4
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0r call a professional 'ard Jrive ,ecovery *ervice444 From: #an %alloway I would ta%e the following approach when trying to revive a hard drive that doesn)t boot up and where there is no startup dis% that had previously been made: (here are really three different tas%s involved here. 758 (o get your data off the hard dis%T 728 you must ma%e the dis% hardware respond to the systemT and 7@8 you may want to ma%e the dis% bootable again and perhaps %eep it in service. 'ere are the steps involved: 758 1oot from the floppy drive with whatever drivers and system files your system uses, then try to read drive . (he first and most important piece of data on the hard dis% is the D1, and the partition table. (here are a number of programs that will read an D1,. 0ne such program is a J0* program called <dis%. ;orton >tilities is another. 728 If you can read drive , bac%up the contents of the dis% and then either reformat the dis% and reload the data. If you can)t read see drive , then start <dis% or some other D1, reader to see if the system ac%nowledges the eAistence of the hard drive. 7@8 If the drive isn)t recognized, then chec% for loose connections and chec% the drive)s configuration in D0*. Is the drive too hot or coldB Is it spinning at allB ,emove and reseat the controller. + controller swap might possibly ma%e the drive respond where it wouldn)t before. 7"8 If drive is recognized, then eAamine the partition table located in the D1, with <dis% or ;orton >tilities, to see if the partitions are well6defined 7they should be for a drive that wor%ed previously8. 798 If the partitions don)t eAist on the D1,, then the response is to rebuild or restore the data to the dis%. ?ou may have to rebuild the D1, from a previously bac%ed up copy of it or, if you haven)t bac%ed up the D1,, steal an identical D1, from another ! by bac%ing up the D1, from a wor%ing machine onto a floppy dis%ette and restore the D1, of the troubled ! . 7$8 ,eformat the first trac% of the dis% with an autoconfigure controller. If you can low6level format the dis%, then use 'J(3*( or some other selective low6level formatter to reformat the first trac%. If this doesn)t wor%, then there is probably a physical problem with the drive at cylinder 0 head 0. (a%e another hard drive with identical characteristics and partition layout and boot from it. (hen par% the good drive, disconnect the power leads from it before disconnecting the data cables, connect the bad drive up to the system via power and data cables and unpar% it. 7H8 ;eAt finish up by eAamining the J1, or J0* boot record. (his is the first sector in the J0* partition. It contains a small program that loads the hidden files and boots the operating system. ?ou can repair the J1, by further eAamining the data structure inside the J1, called the 1I0* !arameter 1loc% or J!1. It describes the dis%, how many <+(s are on the dis%, how large the clusters are, what the total number of sectors on the dis% are, and so on. ?ou can reconstruct the J!1 from a program called JI*KC00K or ;orton Jis% Joctor. ?ou can write the good data from a wor%ing dis% to the non6wor%ing dis% using these utilities to revive the drive. 7R8 0nce the data has been eAtracted from the drive, throw the bad hard drive away. From: Fran, *una >pon reading the error, this appears not to be an issue with the drive but the controller or the logic in the auto drive setup. If so, this should wor%.
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!lace the drive in a different machine and chec% all 2umpers. 1oot from a floppy dis% and pray that a drive overlay 7dis% manager, 0ntrac%, 3Mdrive8 was not used to setup the drive. From: %$K$ Smith (his is not an easy one to answer. +ll of it can depend on the problem at hand 7what type of hard drive8 and the error messages received. *ometimes, certain brands of hard drives 7such as ompaq and (W8 have no &raising the dead&. If there is no internal cloc%, and the hard drive doesn)t realize it is there ... well ... eAcept for replacing the D0* chip, say &+JI0*&4 From: Steven Troester + lot of time a drive failure is not the physical drive, but the drive)s circuit board. I)ve successfully revived dead drives by finding 7sometimes purchasing8 an identical drive and carefully swapping the circuit boards. From: marian1 (he situation you suggest best describes inability of 1I0* to determine the type of your primary hard drive. Its parameters can be determined from the h#d manufacturer)s stic%er and entered manually in *3(>! under >*3, or D+;>+C entry, depending on your 1I0*. (he parameters can also be downloaded from (echnical *upport site of the manufacturer as pdf file and read using +crobat. From: "im (ugherton I would go into setup and ma%e sure that the hard drive is configured properly. +lready had it happen. From: Tim &ayne *ometimes you need to run a chec% on a dis% but you can)t get it to load ;( to run it. <or eAample, you get an inaccessible boot device. 0ne way to run the chec% is as follows: 29RE (a%e a set of Windows ;( *etup 1oot floppies and begin a new install.
29QE If you don)t have a set of boot floppies, you can ma%e a set from the Windows ;( J. ,un Winnt@2#oA from the i@R$ directory. 2$0E Jo not upgrade but choose );) for a new install. When prompted for a directory name, choose WI;;(2 by simply adding a )2) to the suggested location, which is the current location of your crashed ;(. hoose 2$5E &Ceave the urrent <ile *ystem intact& when given the partition choices.
1y installing to the same partition you will be given the chance to do a complete scan. Jo the thorough scan and when it)s complete, you will see a message that indicates that changes were made and to press )<R) to restart your computer and begin the setup. ,emove your floppy and#or your J6,0D. When your machine reboots you will see your familiar boot menu and the process continuing normally. What)s left is to log in to your regular installation. (here will be no WI;;(2 directory or changes to your boot.ini but simply your repaired ;( installation. If this does not wor%, or 'KJ*K cannot be run the D<( may be corrupt. 'ere is the solution to that one. 5. If you have a second boot of ;( on another partition you may be able to boot into this to do the repair. 0therwise mount the dis% on separate system running Windows ;(, assigning it a %nown drive letter.
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2. 3Aecute Js%probe.eAe from the ;(" resource %it. @. <rom the Jrives menu, select Cogical Golume. ". <rom within the )0pen Cogical Golume) window, double clic% on the drive letter of the corrupted volume. 9. ,emove the chec% from ),ead 0nly) chec% boA and select the )*et +ctive) button. (his establishes a handle to this volume. ;(<* maintains an eAact copy of the first records of the D<( in the D<( mirror. (he neAt few steps copy the first four records from the D<( mirror to the D<(, fiAing the D<(. $. *elect ),ead) from the )*ectors) menu. H. In the ),ead *ectors) window, if )*tarting *ectors) does not already read &0&, type in the number &0& and select the ),ead) button. R. *elect );(<* 1oot*ector) from the Giew menu. Q. <rom within the ;(<* information window, select the ):o) button neAt to ) lusters to D<() field. (he *ector &W& for 5 that is displayed in the (itle 1ar is the cluster number that begins the D<(, W,I(3 ('+( &W& ;>D13, J0W;. 50. 0nce again repeat $ and H to return to the 1oot*ector 55. ;eAt, from within the ;(<* information window, select the ):o) button neAt to ) lusters to D<( Dirr) field. ?ou have 2ust selected the spot where the copy of the first few records of the D<( eAists, you will copy and paste from here: 55. *elect ),ead) from the *ectors menu. 52. In the ,ead *ectors window, type &R& in the ;umber of *ectors field and select the ),ead) button. 7We are gathering the sectors to write into the original D<( location.8 What we)re trying to get is " 502"6byte D<( records, and that means R 9526byte sectors. 5@. *elect )Write) from the *ectors menu. 5". (ype in the &W& number that you W,0(3 J0W; above into the starting sector to write data field and select the Write It button, reply to the message: +re you sure you want to permanently overwrite the data in... with the ?es button. 59. Iuit Jis% !robe. 5$. 0pen Jis% +dministrator, select the partition you 2ust fiAed. 5H. ,ight clic% and select )+ssign Jrive Cetter.L 5R. *elect Jo ;ot +ssign + Jrive Cetter radio button and select 0K, selecting ?es in the onfirm window that appears. (his dismounts the partition. 5Q. Jo steps 5H and 5R again, but this time re6assigning the drive letter. (his re6mounts the partition. ?ou should no longer get a message boA indicating the drive is bro%en at this point. If you do, then some part of this rescue process went wrong.
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20. ,un ch%ds% W: #f from the ommand !rompt. If you get errors fiAed, run ch%ds% W: #f again and again until no errors are found and reported fiAed. From: Thomas < *awren e 2$2E <irst replace the IJ3 cable to your hard drive
2$@E If that don)t wor%, second, you could ma%e this drive a slave install a new hard drive and try copying the drive to the new drive orO 2$"E 0ne could access the drive by using Western Jigital 36M 1ios. (his dis% comes with most Western Jigital hard drives and comes with a software program to copy the one hard drive to the other. 2$9E ?ou could install a new drive and using the software from this dis%, copy the entire drive to the new drive. 2$$E I have done this several times and it wor%ed.
From: ro'$hardman I have used the following techniques very successfully for a number of years: 5. !ut the hard drive in the fridge for about 5 hour. *ounds crazy, but this wor%s if the drive suffering from a heat6related problem. 2. :et hold of an identical wor%ing drive, ma%e, and model. *wap the ! 1 from the wor%ing drive to the faulty one. If the ! 1 was the problem, the faulty drive will now be accessible again. @. If the ! 1 was not the problem, then the 'J+ is. hances are if it is not accessible, then the boot sector#partition info has been trashed. ?ou can use ;orton Jis% Joctor to directly edit and repair these areas. 'aving done this, you can use Jis% lone or ;orton :host 7with ignore errors switch8 to then selectively copy the readable sectors off to another dis%. ". If all the above fails, the drive has probably suffered a head crash and the heads or the dis% platters are physically damaged. In this case, you need to engage a specialist data recovery service. (hey will remanufacture the drive by replacing the damaged parts and recovering the readable sectors off the damaged platters. From: #avid Forster 2$HE 2$RE (he first thing is to find out what was the last thing the client was doing before the crash. *ometimes, the clue gives a starting point.
2$QE (he neAt is to suspect a virus and boot with a clean dis% from my arsenal. If no virus is found, then chec% the drive parameters to be sure they are correct in the D0*. 2H0E (hen boot to the + drive with fdis% on it, run &fdis% #mbr to reset the &master boot record& onto the drive. If the drive was set up with 3M or 0ntrac%, then possibly their utility could be used to bring bac% the drive. 2H5E +lso, most manufacturers have good diagnostic programs available at their respective Web sites. I.3.T D>J from DaAtorT Wdiag from Western Jigital, etc. (hird party vendors also have various utilities to bring bac% a driveT *ymantec 7;orton8, and 0ntrac%, to name a couple. From: tal
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5. I will enter into the machine 1I0* and see whether it will identify the 'J. If not, I will open the machine and loo% to see if the data cord is connected and the power supply is connected and give them a little push again 7sometimes it misplaces8 2. (hen I will try again to reboot it and chec% again within the 1I0* 7if it will not wor% or the user tried to install a new hard drive when it happened, I will loo% at the * *I termination if this is a * *I 'J. If it is a 3IJ3, I will loo% at the 2umpers settings of the 3IJ3 drives because some 'J will not wor% with the 2umper sets as primary with other drives on the same channel _primary or secondary` so the 2umper should go out8. (hen again I will reboot the machine and if it will not wor% or be recognized inside the 1I0*, my last resort will be to ta%e out the drive plant it in a different machine and see if the 2nd machine will wor% with it. From: Sami$Hanninen 'ello, here)s my suggestion: 5. Jiagnose if the fault is in the drive or in the machine by plugging the drive to another computer 7preferably identical8. If you don)t have one, go to a computer store and as% them to try it out. 2. If the fault is in the drive, try changing the controller to identical one 7from an identical dis%8N-that is sometimes possible, sometimes noNt-be careful in this step. With controller, I mean the controller in the bottom of the drive, not the computer)s. @. If that didn)t help, plug the drive to a computer which recognizes the parameters of the drive correctly and try a dis% reviving tool li%e ;orton Jis% doctor 7if your partitions are format that it understands8 or some other that understands your partition format. ". If the partitions do not eAist anymore, at least not visibly to the computer and nothing else helps, it)s best to send your drive to a company that restores your data-if it)s important enough. 1ecause this %ind of restoring costs a lot. From: (nirudh Singhania (he data cable connected to your hard dis% is not functioning properly, or your hard dis% has crashed. (he only circumstance when the computer cannot detect your hdd from the bios setup very directly means hdd failure or data cable failure. From: (dil )$ +iazy Gadil:niazy If the ! can)t detect the hard dis% type from the setup, then we definitely have a hardware problem. +ny of the following may solve the problem. 5. 0pen the case and chec% that the power and controller cables are connected properly. 2. (ry a wor%ing hard dis% to test that the controller, cable, and power are o%ay. @. If you have a similar wor%ing hard dis%, try changing the ! 1 7IJ3 board8 on the bac% of the hard dis% with wor%ing one. From: "ames Fylan Whenever I)ve come across a drive that)s got that fun%y dying tic%6tic% rhythm on power up, I call upon the ancient and mystical powers of gumbyism and smac% it repeatedly about the upper housing with a blunt ob2ect. It may be dumb but if the drive is caught early enough, the )gumby mallet of might) will often give you enough time to whip that data off.... From:)eng *ing *ee I will try the following:
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5. Jisconnect dis% drive and reconnect again. 2. Da%e sure the dis% connection and the power are connected properly. @. hec% the 2umper setting on the dis% drive and the dis% controller. ". +ccess *etup and run )+uto Jetect) to detect the dis% drive type. 9. Cisten to the dis% drive when it is booting. $. ;otice the dis% drive C3J when it is booting. H. 1oot from floppy dis% and run )<JI*K) to display the dis% drive capacity. R. Da%e sure the dis% drive is the primary and set &+ctive./ Q. If the file system is <+(@2, try to display the content of the drive by type in .JI, :/ 50. (ry to transfer system to the dis% drive by type in /*?* :/ 55. Dove the dis% drive other machine, and repeat steps 5650. 52. ,epeat steps 5650 with other wor%ing dis% drive to confirm the problem. From: <alt *onn'org <irst, chec% to see if a nonboot floppy was left in drive +: (he D0* may be set to read the floppy drive first and will give an error trying to read a nonboot floppy. hec% controller cable connections and power cable connections. hec% to see if the power cable is loose or the flat ribbon controller cable is loose at the drive or the controller#motherboard connection. hec% to ma%e sure the cable red line side is plugged to pin 5 at the 'ard Jrive and the controller#motherboard. hec% the 2umpers on all drives for master#slave settings. (urn on the computer. 'it the Jel or other %ey combination to get into the D0* setup utility. Da%e note of the *tandard settings for the drives. Gerify them with the settings required for the drive. ?ou may autodetect the drive if there are no settings for it. 0lder computers require you set these settings manually. ,eboot the machine and chec% the settings. If the 1I0* has lost these settings you need to replace the motherboard battery. If it autodetects the drive, try a reboot. If you can read the drive bac%up everything you can. ?ou can bac%up files from a J0* prompt. ?ou don)t have to get Windows running to bac%up essential data. If the reboot doesn)t wor%: *et the D0* to boot from an appropriate operating system dis%ette +: or J and reboot. If you can read the drive bac%up everything you can. >se fdis% #mbr to rebuild the boot record. (ry to reboot. If reboot still doesn)t wor%, reinstall the operating system. From:Ian Steele + common problem with incorrect D0* settings is that the : drive will not boot. !roviding the D0* settings are valid 7that is that they do not specify a bigger drive then what the drive is8, then the system should be able to see the drive if you are booting from a dis%ette. If you can see the drive from a dis%ette, then you are very close to recovery. +dding another hard drive and Acopying the data will save the data. ?ou can then set the old drive specs to +>(0 in the D0* and then run <JI*K#<ormat and restore the drive. It is a good idea to reboot off the : drive when you have formatted the drive to verify that the drive is o%ay-it should be if the original problem was a loss of D0* settings.
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If the : drive was a ;(<* partition then of course the booting off the dis%ette will not see the drive. In this case using a shareware program ;(*<"J0* or something li%e that will allow you to read the drive and copy it to another drive. From: ;ri Springler (hese are some of the things that I would do... a8 hec% the cmos settings to be sure that they are correct for the drive. b8 +s% if the user wrote to the dis% while the cmos settings were wrong. If they were, then try and use those settings to retrieve some of the data. *ometimes data can be written to the dis% and retrieved even if the cmos settings are incorrect. c8 1oot off of a floppy dis% with a recent virus scanner. It could be a simple virus. d8 If it)s 2ust a case of the dis% not being bootable, do and <JI*K #D1, to the drive, or do a *?* : off of a different WinQR#Q9 boot dis%. If it)s ;(, do a repair of boot#system files. It as%s for a repair dis%, but you can use any old repair disc for that. e8 *tic% the drive in another WinQW boA 7if it was a fat5$#@2 drive8 and run norton dis% doctor 7tm8 on it. *ometimes ;orton will recover enough of the directory listings for you to retrieve some of the data f8 If none of these wor%, put @ hard drives in a machine: 58 ;( Wor%station 7or Q98, 28 1ad Jrive, @8 eAact model and size drive as the bad drive. <ormat drive @, and do a sector6by6sector copy of 2 onto @ with something li%e Jis%probe. g8 !ut the drive in a wor%ing Windows ;( machine and drive ,ecover;(. (hat)s about all that I can thin% of right now. From: !ary Stevens Welcome to the wonderful of crashed computers. (o revive or attempt to revive a failed hard drive I would recommend the following steps: 5. +scertain what the user was doing before it stopped. 2. +s% what they did to try and fiA it. @. hec% the D0* settings. 1attery may have failed thereby dropping the configuration. ". 1oot from a :00J floppy at J0* level, if possible. If it boots, see what is available on the hard drive with a ;0 '+;:3 eAamination. 9. hec% the files, if available, with a ;0 '+;:3 integrity dis% process, li%e ;ortonLs. $. If data can be recovered then do so before ta%ing any other steps. I would then clone or copy the hard drive contents to another drive or location. H. ,emove the hard drive and test in another computer to confirm it is not a general I#0 communication failure. R. ,ebuild the system based on diagnosis. If all else fails, then ta%e it to someone who really %nows what theyLre doing, sit down in the sun, and en2oy a 1udwiser. From: "erry &a he o 2H2E 2H@E 2H"E hec% to see if the drive spins upT if not, replace drive. If drive spins up, chec% cmos settings. If cmos settings are o%ay, chec% fdis% to see if partition is still accessible.
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2H9E 2H$E 2HHE 2HRE 2HQE 2R0E 2R5E If fdis% doesnLt show partition, create partition and format drive 7importance of bac%ing up data8. If fdis% shows partition, chec% to see if you can access drive from prompt. If you can access drive, run sys.com to ma%e drive bootable. ,eboot from drive. If you can)t access drive, run scandis% or norton utilities from floppy. If scandis% or norton fiAes problem, reboot from drive. If scandis% or norton doesn)t find errors, re6partition and reformat drive. If you encounter errors while formatting the drive, replace drive.
From: I%(+ <ARKS ('3*3 (,I K* '+G3 W0,K3J <0, D3 *3G3,+C (ID3* W'3; D0* C0*( ('3 0>CJ ;0( ,3+J I( J,IG3 0,
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rom: #oug %arpenter 5. hec% the D0* battery, your problem may be simple. It could also be an intermittent short on the system board or a failing battery. It holds the system info until you shut down, maybe for as long as five minutes, then fails. What)s the cloc% sayB 2. Da%e sure a dis% manager isn)t installed on the drive. If that)s at least a possibility 7greater than 2.5:1 on old "R$ computerB8, try using the usual drive parameters for a dis% manager: 502", 5$, $@ @. Daybe the master boot record was lost. (ry fdis%#mbr. Da%e sure youLre using the correct operating system version. ". 1oot from a clean floppy and try to change to : If you can see the drive, you may have a virus.
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9. an you hear the drive spinning upB an you see a hard drive access C3J visibly wor%ingB Daybe it)s spinning up slowly, press pause or reset to allow time for the hard drive to get up to speed, see if the problem disappears. $. hec% for a bad cable connection or power connection. (hey should be seated firmly. +re they oriented correctlyB Daybe someone else wor%ed on the machine. Is the ribbon cable made for cable selectB Is it set that wayB hec% the 2umpers. H. If all else fails, put another drive in and see if it wor%s o%ay. R. If you get it running, chec% for viruses 2ust for fun. From: *etehumy Rajavalu5 !SS,eboot the ! , get to the detected. D0* setup and set the drive type to &auto& again to confirm if the hard dis% is
3lse, get bac% to the D0* setup again and try to set the correct drive type based on the capacity of the hard dis% which can be found on the hard dis% itself if you open up the !> casing. From: -rent Hunter Gery simple, I thin%B4 While the drive is running, you should be able to get all the information off the drive, unless it has &bad sectors, etc.& Dy usual tas% list involves using &:'0*(& to get the data of the hard drive. 1ut sometimes this doesn)t wor%, because of bad sectors, or the drive timing out while trying to sort itself out. Dy neAt solution is to use W 0!?@2 under a Windows QR dos prompt. (his enables you to use more and interesting switches. ;inety6nine percent of the time, this gets the data off a failing drive. Dy syntaA is a follows: W 0!?@2 A:UE.E y:U #3 #' # A: [ source drive 7i.e. failing drive8 y: [ target drive #3 [ copies all directories and subdirectories including empty ones. #' [ copies hidden and system files 7i.e. *?*(3D.J+( Y >*3,.J+( are Windows registry files with the 'idden and *ystem attributes8. # [ this switch is the tric%. 3ven if the drive times out and then starts up again, W 0!?@2 will continue copying the data over. From: S,ip -erryhill ?ou didn)t say, but often, when a hard drive won)t boot, you can boot on a floppy disc with <JI*K on it, log onto the hard drive, and eAecute some commands 7JI,, 0!?, and the li%e8. If they wor% o%ay, you can use the following from the floppy: <JI*K #D1, and re6write the Daster 1oot ,ecord of the physical drive. ;eAt, remove the floppy and reboot. It will usually be alright. If it operates properly, all it means is that the D1, was somehow corrupted. ;othing ma2oNr-it was re6written by the <JI*K #D1, command. (he #D1, switch was undocumented for a long time.
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From: &hil (dams 2R2E 2R@E 2R"E :et the new hard drive and setup as the master the old drive as the slave. +fter running scandis%, you should be able to Acopy everything to the new drive. Worse case, install the 0* to the new drive then copy the user files over.
From: Ro'ert & )ulhearn5 "r >se *teve :ibson)s spinrite on a quarterly basis to %eep trac% of 'J condition and recover bad drives as long as they are recognized by 0*. From: Kevin Flateau <irst of all, is the drive aliveB When you turn on the machine shortly after a quic% tic%ing noise 7watch the memory count on the screen8, then you)ll hear the floppy do a quic% clic% and the light on the front will go on, then you)ll hear some short clic%ing from the hard drive and its name will appear on the screen. If you don)t hear anything and the period after the floppy and before the notification of hard dis% failure is more than 206@0 seconds, then your drive has most li%ely run out of gas. If it did ma%e a noise 7hum type8 odds are the drive is still alive so let)s try to wa%e it up. (his is my methodology for firing that suc%er up to breathing again. 5. Identify the drive and its parameters. ?ou)ll probably need to ta%e it out of the case. 0n the outside is a label with a model number, cylinders, heads, sectors, and landing zone 7usually not necessary8. (he model number may be necessary to see% out the parameters of the drive if they are not readily available. (he ! !oc%et reference manual has an eAtensive list of older drives. ;ewer drives are labeled with specs. 2. With the parameters in hand, boot the machine and enter the bios. :o to the Jrive 0 settings and enter the cylinders, heads, and sectors in there appropriate areas. @. 'it escape, <50, and answer &?& to the .*aveB/ question. From: Shadow ('3 *I(>+(I0;: ?ou get a call from a user at wor%, a consulting client, or a neighbor who)s found out you)re &a computer person.& 7*ometimes they all call on the same day, don)t theyB8 Daybe you)re luc%y. When you get there, the machine boots 2ust fine. (he user says, &(hat computer doesn)t li%e me.& ?ou tell the user to bac% up important files while the system is running because you)re going to order a new hard drive so this doesn)t happen again. 1ut then there are the times you aren)t luc%y. ?ou get messages li%e &dis% 0 error& and &invalid drive specification.& I recently got those errors trying to revive the hard drive of a ompaq !rolinea "#$$. It doesn)t matter what the boA is, though. (he circumstances are all too familiar: (he data isn)t bac%ed up. (he problem came out of nowhere.
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(he user had accessed *etup and tried to manually enter the settings for the drive type when &+uto& didn)t wor%. (here was no startup dis% made by this machine. ,eviving a drive li%e this one-even if only long enough to copy its data before you put it in <ile 5@-is a tough challenge. 'ow would you approach itB ('3 *0C>(I0;: 1efore going on6site I would be sure to have my various boot dis%s available 7J0*$.22, WinQA, Win;( and +ntiGirus8 containing the usual dis% and file utilities, a spare hard drive and a small hammer. When I arrive on6site, I would first reset the D0* settings to factory default. (here can sometimes be corruption of the D0* and can cause drives to seem to have &failed&. (hen I would go over the D0* settings and ma%e the appropriate changes for that particular system, including setting the primary 'J to +>(0. If this fails, then I would boot to floppy and determine if <JI*K can see the drive. If not, then itLs time to open the case. With the ! turned off, I would first chec% the drive cables to verify a solid connection to both power and data cables,and install my spare drive 7to save data with8. With the case still open, I would power6on the machine and listen carefully for the drive to spin up. If I cannot hear the drive spinning up, then I would remove the drive 7with power off of course8. (hen with the drive in my hand and still connected, I would power up the ! again, feeling for the centrifugal force the drive would create from the spinning platters. If there is no torsion effect felt, then this would mean that the platters are not spinning and that the heads may be )/stuc%./ (his is where the hammer comes in. !ower up the ! again and CI:'(C? tap the drive case edge once or twice with the hammer handle. (his will usually unstic% the heads from the platter and allow me to copy the data 7or whole drive depending on the situation8 to the spare drive for safe%eeping until the user can purchase a new drive. If this also fails, then once again the hammer comes into play...this time to allow the user to beat the crap out of the old drive and relieve the frustration of having lost everything because they thought &bac%ups are for sissies.& From: %arla )asla,ows,i 1oot ! into setup and restore drive settings. D0* battery must be dead which is why setup lost settings. ,eplace D0* battery in this ! and drive should %eep settings.
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From: Todd *ayland !ull the 2umper on the motherboard that will reset the settings 7bios, password, etc.8 of the system. If it boots, you %now it was a config setting that screwed up. If it doesn)t, well 'J are cheap. From: #ale <irst things...first: 2R9E I would flush D0* and then loo% at the drive and write down the correct drive settings for ylinder, 'eads, and *ector. 2R$E I would manually enter this data if auto detect could not figure it out. 2RHE If unable to boot after manually setting up the drive, I would chec% settings in D0* and then boot from a floppy 7('+( I W0>CJ '+G3 1,0>:'( WI(' D348 that contained sys.com, fdis%.eAe. 2RRE +fter a successful boot to a floppy, I would do an <JI*K#D1, and then reboot the system and let it fallbac% to a bac%up D1,. 2RQE If that failed, I would boot to a floppy and do a sys c: then reboot. : 2Q0E If unable to access the drive after the mentioned steps, I would boot from floppy, change to and attempt to recover as much as possible to floppies. From: Ken -e ,ett I would ta%e the drive out of the ! it is in and ta%e it to another ! put on the secondary IJ3. I would loo% up the drive parameters and enter those parameters in the bios. *tart the ! and hope to get the drive to run as a secondary drive. From: +et)ar,% I)ve lost my & : drive before and was able to get it bac% by removing and reinstalling the From: dmo <ind out from user which 0* he was running on the hard drive. Install a new drive as !rimary and the damaged drive as secondary. Install the same 0* on the !rimary drive and you should be able to see all or most of the data on the second drive. opy all data from secondary to the !rimary drive. From: #avid Knapp 0ops, didn)t read the question close enough. In order to revive a hard drive that won)t boot, I do the following. 2Q5E 1oot to floppy that has the basics on it-fdis%, edit, sys, format, command.com. <dis% to see if the drive is being recognized by the system. 2Q2E If the drive shows up and has a valid partition, then try to access it from dos. 2Q@E If you can)t access it from dos, I would basically give up, but you can try to sys it too. Jepends on the problem. From: #Kaus hjr 2Q"E I would first go into the bios and attempt to redetect the hard drive. D0* battery.
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2Q9E If I was unable to get the bios to detect it, I would then go to the drive manufacturerLs Web site and get the manual settings for the drive. 2Q$E ;eAt I would get a boot dis% from another machine nearby and do a format #s on the drive to bring the operating system bac% up. 2QHE +fter fiAing the machine, I would then loc% the bios and then proceed to flog the user with rubber bands and paper clips for even loo%ing at that enter setup option. From: #avid Knapp We have about " standard ghost images that we base most of our machines 7Jell8 on. We have a boot dis% that has ;etWare drivers for all the networ% cards we use. We boot the floppy, login, and re6image the machine once the new 'J has arrived. (hen we configure networ%ing, printers, capture batch file, and install custom software. If they want their data bac%ed up, then they should %eep it on a server. From: *-yer1 ,eboot the machine hitting delete %ey entering into the cmos setup. (hen clic% on the restore default values to allow hard dis% to reboot by itself again. From: %hris #raper When you support any number of users, hard drive failures are an unfortunate fact of life. I have had users cry in front of me when I have had to tell them that all of their data has gone to &data heaven./ ,ecovering data from corrupt or failed drives is more of an art that a science. 2QRE <ar and above, the best thing to try first is the old <JI*K #D1, command. 2QQE (his will rebuild the master boot record. +lthough not always successful, it has recovered many drives that were not at all readable. 'owever, drives that have eAperienced head crashes refuse to spin up and need much more attention. @00E In these cases, method is critical. *et up the machine with a second hard drive. @05E 1oot to dos and try to copy the data off the drive using W 0!?. (his way if you do run into bad sectors or a crashed head you can simply stop the copy by hitting _ trl` . @02E I have even been able to get some drives to spin up by &gently& tapping on them with a screwdriver while they were powered up. @0@E !lease %eep in mind that this is a last resort technique. @0"E I have even frozen a few drives to less than "0 degrees below zero. (his will sometimes allow them to spin for long enough to get some data from the drive. From: (vraham S h,loven <irstly, I chec% all my cables 7data, electric8. Is the dis% spinning does it ma%e those little noses at startupB If ;0(, I try a little tap with the bac% of a screwdriver. If it comes to life and boots, I ma%e bac%ups and replace the dis%. If not, well all dis%s die-itLs 2ust a matter of when. If the dis% is spinning at startup: 1e aware that many older viruses effect the boot sector and fats of hard drives and give errors &invalid drive specification.& a good J0* antivirus should be used.
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(hen I try to reset the setup to the proper numbers and boot from a floppy dis% with the proper operating system. 0n this dis% is <JI*K. I personally use a program call ,3*IJI*K from Invircible +nti Girus. It has saved my s%in many times in rebuilding the boot sector and fats 7one could try the <JI*K #D1, command8. ;orton JI*K 3JI(0, for J0* fits on a floppy and once you boot from a floppy you use it to dump the content of the drive off to another drive. If available I use a new hard drive. Da%ing the bad drive the slave and the new drive master and try dumping the dis%. (his wor%s only after access has been restored. >nfortunately, some patients do not survive. From: Kris)Horn +t times, the hard drive has lost its Daster 1oot ,ecord 7D1,8. *ometimes it will wor% to type fdis%#mbr at the dos prompt 7usually from a system bootable floppy8. 0ther times, you may want to use the old handy command, *?* a: c: 7,e6creating the system files on the drive8. >sually, if these don)t wor%, your drive can be sent to a data recovery center 7if the data is 2ust so critical that they can)t live without it.8 >sually, this costs hundreds of dollars.... +nd you would still have to replace the hard drive in order to obtain the data bac% from the recovery center. From: #enford *$ Awens I use Jrive!ro by <ore<ront Jirect. It analyzes problem areas, can find and repair D1,s as well as repair them. From: #avid %ro ,er @09E @0$E I always start by booting from a floppy and seeing if I can access data on the failed hard drive. If you can, I then do a sys.com to c: and reboot.
@0HE 0nce you are bac% to a c prompt, bac% up all the crucial data and start over by installing a new hard drive. @0RE *ince this does not always wor%, more drastic measures have to be ta%en. I use several different utilities that may be useful. @0QE If dealing with a windows operating system, I first try scandis%. 0bviously if you cannot see the c: prompt, then this does not wor%. @50E @55E @52E I would use ;ortonLs Jis% Joctor first, then would try using *pindoctor. I only use this program as a last resort because I have lost the drive in some rare instances. ?our data is usually still on the failed drive, the problem is the boot sector.
@5@E If these programs do not wor% to restore the boot sector then, I would try and use Jrivecopy to get the data to a good drive and start from there. @5"E +s we all %now sometimes all your best efforts are in vain. :ood luc% with your test drive.
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From: FS683 If the drive 2ust does not boot to and it appear that it is spinning and responds to prompt commands, I would slave it to another drive and drop and drag files to safe location, i.e. eAternal hard drive, Mip drive. From: +orton Seron 5. Jisconnect J6,0D drive and#or 2nd 'JJ. 2. ,emove 'JJ and read label regarding &2umper& position for master 7without slave8 if necessary. @. hec% power cable plugged into 'JJ properly. ". hec% data cable plugged in properly on 'JJ and Dotherboard. 9. ,eboot ! and verify that problem is still present. $. ,eplace 'JJ data cable. H. hange power lead for another lead 7test for voltage with multimeter8. R. *ee 9. Q. onnect different 'JJ to ! and see if bios can pic% it up. 50. *ee 9. 55. hec% D0* chip is plugged in firmly. 52. If any of the above result in function, then boot onto system floppy and &fdis%#mbr& to fiA master boot record and then fdis% to chec% partition, followed by J0* scandis% and surface scan to chec% for bad sectors on 'JJ. If bad sectors are found, then bac% up needed data and replace and reinstall 'JJ and 0* and +!!*. From: !il'ert -etan ourt 'ereLs one solution I am using out in the field. I see many brands out there. (he most popular in my area are Iuantum 1ig foot, Western Jigital, and *eagate . I carry about 2 logic boards of each brand 7popular in my area8 and when I see init problems not relating to crashed heads, or burnt motorsO I 2ust replace the board and bac%up the data for the customer. In many occasions, I sell them the logic board by itselfO send board bac% to factory to get eAchanged for a reasonable price.... 0ut of all my customer hard drive problems, H0 percent are ta%en care of this way. 'ope this might get some techs out there thin%ing about implementing something similar. From: #ave Rutherford ?ou need to first figure what is not 7or is8 happening. If the drives are 2ust not spinning, you might be in luc%. 0therwise, you had better be carrying the )tool%it) 7mostly software these days8. Jrives not spinningB 0pen the boA, and chec% the cards and cables. Joes the floppy /see%./ If it should and should not, chec% the power =52v is required mostly for motors... ;othing loose, then pull and reseat everything-esp. the memory. Watch it, ma%e sure you are grounded... you left the system plugged in rightB ;o plug, no ground. *till nothingB 'ereLs one *eagate tech support told me in the early R0)sO it still wor%s li%e a charm. !ull the hard dis% from the chassis and plug the power and data bac% in. (hen holding the drive in the left, with the +1C3 end towards you, 1>D! I( with the '33C of your right hand. 0; 3 medium hard 7this will unseat magnetics, release bra%e mechanisms, and even pull heads stuc% in soft platter coatings.... I)ve loo%ed8.
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*till no go, try one more bump W'3; you first turn the power on.O *ometimes stuc% heads need the motor to move before they will spin. C+*( +((3D!( to spin, pull the cover 7(his will not destroy data recovery service offerings. Fust ma%e sure nobody smo%es around you and itLs fairly clean.8 off the drive. +,3<>CC? with power on, push the platter to spin it. <inally, do you have another drive same modelB ?ou can swap logic boards...2ust donLt leave it that way. (he read#write electronics are balanced to the heads inside the drive. (his D+? wor% if you have a bad motor chip, etc. ;ow you can send the drive to the service for data recovery and the big bill. I< I(L* ;0( + *!I; !,01C3D, use a drive id software 7many available8 to chec% how the drive *+?* itLs set... even though the bios does not get this report does not mean the drive is dead to this question...4 ;o answer, you can use some software 7li%e Jis% DanglerN-commercial8 to rewrite trac% 0. ('I* I* dangerous, so %now what you are doing. I practiced on bad drives that I had first. 0ther things not quite right, swap the !C+ 3D3;( of ,+D in the system... surprisedB *houldnLt be. ,am is used for 2ust about anything, right from the start. hec% the !0W3,. >se a good meter. From: #avid %$ &rojans,y With all troubleshooting, you have to have a logical approach and be able to eliminate problems. When I get a call from end users that a hard drive has failed I first as% several questions that will help determine the course of my actions. 5. I first as% what were they doing before the failure, i.e. did the ! perform and illegal operation in an application and have to be rebootedB Jid the user 2ust turn the ! on and nothing would happenB Is the hard drive ma%ing any %ind of unusual soundsB 2. I)ve found most supposed hard drive failures are really operating system problems, and can easily be repaired without ta%ing the case apart. I usually li%e to turn the ! and pay close attention to any error messages that come up. *ince I always have a WinQ9 boot dis% with me, I usually boot to J0* so I can at least attempt to recover any data by copying data files onto floppy dis%s. @. (hen I usually reinstall WinQ9. In worst cases, I have to fdis% the hard drive a reinstall the 0* and all applications. ". 0n the other hand, I)ve had dis% drive fail because of bad cables 7a good indication of this is if the 1I0* can)t detect the hard drive8, power supply problems, and bad power cables. It)s important to wor% logically and try to eliminate the easy stuff before you have to replace a hard drive. From: Steve S hoene ,er +fter questioning the user to eliminate the upgrade#2umper issues or other changes such as playing with encryption#privacy utilities, etc. @59E I)d boot from a clean floppy 7watch closely for indication of an overlay program which might say &to boot from a floppy, hold the spacebar down.& (his can really eat your lunch48 and then run a dos6 based virus scanner such as <!,0( or something li%e that 2ust to be sure. If the drive is not detected or canLt be accessed at all: @5$E Coo% inside and see if the drive configuration specs are on the drive or loo% them up... ma%e sure power is connected securely data cable etc. Da%e sure drive is spinning up, verify cmos settings for 'J type, and boot order, etc. Gisually verify which devices are on which IJ3 channel etc.
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@5HE If I fiA the cmos settings, then the system boots o%ay but not after being turned off...suspect cmos battery...drive is probably o%ayNgood idea to bac%up important stuff at this point anyway4 @5RE If I cant get to c: drive, I)d probably run fdis% and loo% at the drive information to see if it thin%s that the drive had partitions defined, how many, what size etc. I)ve seen the fdis% table scrambled mess because of a virus... I have fiAed this problem a couple of times... 0*2 fdis% utility can help here sometimes... 7more of a last resort8 best to get important data 7if I get it running8 and then start over with fdis%#format#reinstall.... @5QE I thin% I would isolate it on the bus and set the cmos and 2umper settings accordingly 2ust in case the other device is disrupting everything @20E +t some point I would probably replace the drive with a drive %nown to wor% normally, and run it to eliminate other system, problems cable problems, etc. @25E @22E If another drive wor%s but not this one, and I still cant access the drive at all....punt. If critical, consider sending to a data recovery specialist.
If drive is detected but wonLt boot: @2@E *tart the system and watch to see how far it gets. If possible boot to c:U prompt.. if not, boot from floppy. @2"E If I can access the stuff on the drive, I)d bac% up. If drive is accessible but wonLt boot, I)d chec% the version of 0* then sys the c: drive with an appropriate boot dis%. If this doesn)t wor%, maybe fdis% #mbr will help. @29E If the 0* dies while loading drivers etc.. loo% there...
'ope I haven)t forgotten anything obvious... each one is different and I usually win4 I have a couple of dead drives in a boA... I)d love to hear some new tric%s to try on them4 From: )I%H(;* <$ -RA<+ 0rder a new identical drive and swap the controllers. From: hotmail >nfortunate the boA does matter4 58 0pen the boA and chec% for 'J)s modelT go to manufacturerLs Web pageT find out the details 7'eads, ylinders, sectors per trac%8 and use those at setup, configuring manually the 'J)s paramsT download specific software 73Mdrive, etc.8 for the 'J)s model. 28 hec% for 0* the user is running. @8 If 0* is D*6based 7eAcluding ;(8, then get a boot dis% under WinQ9b#QRT start the machine and use the program you)ve downloaded or if the 'J is old, try to use ;JJ 7only if 0* is D*J0* or WinQ9 do not try to use it if there is a possibility to have G<+(@2 installed8. "8 >sually most of us do carry with them some startup dis%ettes with an antivirus, so >*3 I( <0, 100( 7I myself use an emergency 1oot Jis% made with the help of Dc+fee +ntiGirus since it)s very usual to run up to a virus8. 98 If all the above are pretty hard to do, then try to install the new 'J, and 0*T connect the old 'J as a secondary master 7or primary slave if that)s easier8 and start the computer booting from new 'J and try to access the old one. $8 If the old one is inaccessible then be sure that the drive was installed through 1I0* without using any overlay driver to eApand 1I0*)s addressable 'J capacityT If there was, try to get from Web the latest update of that driver and install it temporarily 7>se a boot dis%ette rather then installing at !rimary Daster)s 1oot *ector8 and boot from that dis%ette.
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H8 'opefully you)ve been able to access 'J. If not there may be some tools in the manufacturer)s soft you)ve downloadedT otherwise ... try to stay calm444 and proceed with some Web searching. (here are some good tools to access the partition and try to fiA it manually 7If you Jare8 using a dis% editor to repair boot partition. Well it )s much more complicated sometimes but you may try it at your own ris%. 0r you may 2ust say & 'mmmm..... (old you so... *orry there is no way out... you should %eep bac%ups4& 7an easy solution :6\8 From: #oug <ood I have found that if you cannot hear the drive spinning by putting your ear neAt to it, try removing the drive from the computer and twisting the drive rapidly in your hand in the plane of the drive. (his will sometimes unstic% a bad bearing and allow the drive to spin up. From: -ill %homi, What I do in this situation is as follows. @2$E I always have a spare hard drive with me. I hoo% this drive up to the computer in question ma%ing it the primary drive. (he drive that doesn)t wor%, I change the 2umper to become a secondary master and attach it to the same ribbon in the computer. @2HE (he computer is then booted up with the good hard drive. In a lot of cases, I then have no problem accessing the bad drive. +ll necessary files can then be bac%ed up to tape, or copied to the good drive. @2RE 0nce this is done, a new drive is put in as the primary drive. (he 0#* is then loaded on with all other necessary software. (he spare drive is then connected as the secondary master and booted up again. +ll files that were recovered are then copied bac% to the new drive. @2QE If the above doesn)t wor% where the bad drive cannot be accessed, any and all loses are accounted for. (he old drive is thrown away and replaced with a new drive. (he person who doesn)t ta%e the responsibility for bac%ing up his data has to learn to live with the consequences of these actions. + lot of times, I)m the one that ends up getting blamed, but you learn to ta%e this with a grain of salt and brush it off. From: -illy #unn (he first thing I do is boot on a boot dis% and fdis%#mbr if the computer can see the hard drive but can)t boot after you sys :. From: -en Hardman Cets see... @@0E <irst, I would see if I could see the dis% in the 1I0*. @@5E @@2E If the 'J is visible in the bios, I would try something li%e fdis%#mbr. I would view the partition info and see if it was showing the correct partition info.
@@@E +ssuming all of that is correct, I would try running microscope diagnostics and see what %ind of errors it is producing-whether it be a see% error or an actual damage to the drive. @@"E I would first get another drive preferably the eAact same model drive. @@9E I would try and run *ymantec :host on it and write a script file telling it to ignore bad sectors and continue copying anyway.
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@@$E It may not be able to recover all files but this sometimes wor%s. If that still did not wor% to recover the data portion of the drive... @@HE I would probably ta%e the new drive that I ordered and ta%e the controller off of it and put it on the failing drive. Dany 'J situations is not actually a failure in the surface of the 'J but in the controller failing due to the fact of the I chips and many surface mount resistors and capacitors which many times are already failing somewhat before leaving the manufacturer. @@RE (hey allow functionality for sometimes several years but you are tossing a coin with each boot of the machine. @@QE 1ut I digress, bac% to the controller... +fter switching controllers see if the drive is visible and the data is in tact. If that does not wor% verify the drive is spinning up. @"0E If the drive is not spinning sometimes you can open the drive up and ta%e a pencil eraser and give the platter a little push and the drive will spin up. 0f course, this is a last resort option because you will void any warranty that is on the drive. @"5E I have even gone as far as ta%ing a bad drive whose drive head was bad and removed the platters and put them in a new drive)s platters place. @"2E I had to do this with a >;IW server once because the company had not bac%ed up any data on its servers drive. From: Hlito @"@E I always try to reset the defaults in the setup first.
@""E (hen reboot see if the computer holds the info to see if the on6board battery is dead. ItLs simple to replace and could save a lot of time. @"9E If not, maybe a voltage surge hit the cmos and cleared it. (his could ta%e some time to find the settings the manufacturer used. @"$E 0r find out if the hard drive had an overlay on it-older proprietary systems used them a lot. If so, try reinstalling the overlay and see if that brings bac% c:U. If not, leave it with me for a wee% and I will have it wor%ing at full steam. From: Sasha -aer I have 2ust had this eAact problem. I had a drive with an ;(<* partition and a <+( partition. (he ;(<* partition was my boot partition. +nyway, the sorry story was that my girlfriend hit the power cord accidentally while doing the vacuuming and the resetting of the computer caused the boot sector and the D<( to corrupt. +fter much searching, I found a helpful article 7http:##support.microsoft.com#support#%b#articles#q59@#Q#H@.asp8 on the D* site describing how to repair the boot sector. I built a new ;( machine and went through this process. I could then mount the partition but it still showed up as un%nown in Jis% +dministrator. I loo%ed for ages on the net and the only thing I found 7over and over8 was a program called ,ecover;(. I downloaded this and went through the instructions. It said to format the drive 7that is for my symptoms8 and it then searched the entire drive cluster by cluster to find the files. (he only real annoying this is that the demo copy only allows for @ files to be restored and it costs >*P290= to buy8. 3ven though it)s eApensive, I must say it does a great 2ob, both for ;(<* and <+(. >nfortunately for me, I still was not able to recover my !*( file and (rac%er J1Nboth of which must be corrupt badly as they were open at the time8. From:"im %laypool
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*tart with the basics: @"HE ,eseat the IJ3 cable at all connection points, chec%ing for bent pins.
@"RE >se a different power connector to the hard dis% and ma%e sure it is the only device connected to that branch. @"QE lear the 1I0* settings.
If the above three did not bring it bac%: @90E I)d loo% at neAt trying a different IJ3 cable. @95E If that didn)t help, try slaving the drive to another hard dis%. (he big problem in the way you described the failure is that there is no communications between the hard dis% and the IJ3 interface. 'owever, if your new master drive does not autotype 7even when by itself8, loo% into getting that old drive onto a different IJ3 interface 7li%e a different machine8. ;ew master did autotype but still can)t see the old driveB Juring power up, use the fat end of a screwdriver to gently tap the outside of the suspect hard dis%. *ometimes the arm gets stuc% and a gentle tap will free it. From: Salvatore @alela I saw this problem once before. (he mon%ey b virus will ta%e a piece of your boot sector and move it at an unspecified location on the hard drive. I would run a virus chec%er software program to see if you have a virus. From: Kim %happell I came across a situation where the computer would not boot from the hard drive. (he drive was ma%ing a horrible whining noise, and I was getting messages li%e &invalid media& or something similar. (he user had all of her e6mail stored in a !*( file on the hard drive and had never bac%ed it up. *he was frantic. (his is what I did: @92E I got another hard drive, loaded it up with Windows Q9, and put it in the station. @9@E @9"E @99E I made the original drive a slave and then booted up with the new drive. I then had no problem seeing the files on the old drive. +pparently only the boot sector was corrupted. I was luc%y 7so was the user8.
@9$E I copied the !*( file, and whatever else the user needed, over to the new drive. Wor%ed li%e a charm. From: mhi ,s + common problem with older hard dis% drives in particular, such as those found in )"R$ class machines, is termed /stiction,/ a condition in which the lubricants that the manufacturer coated the drive platter surfaces with have gummed up, eventually causing the drive spindle motor to no longer be able to spin up the drive at power6up time. (he problem may manifest itself intermittently at first, allowing the user to get started today, by switching the computer)s power off and on again. 1ut finally the day comes when no amount of power switch 2iggling will help. 'ere)s a tric% that 2ust may allow you to get the drive started, and recover the data the user refused to bac% up, even after wee%s of obvious notice that the drive had every imminent intention of going belly up.
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@9HE @9RE ,emove the computer case /s%in,/ and dismount the hard drive mechanism from its mounting. 'old the drive in your hand, still connected, and turn on the computer)s power switch.
@9QE ?ou will be able to hear and feel that the drive refuses to spin up. Dost drives have logic that delays the spindle motor start6up about a second, in order to allow the drive electronics to stabilize, and reduce total inrush, or starting current, to the system power supply. @$0E (urn the power off again, and this time, about a second after you turn the power bac% on again, move the drive in a quic%, forceful, circular motion. @$5E (he ob2ect here is to impart some force to the spindle platter, as a sort of mechanical /2ump6start,/ so that the force of your manual motion, added to the drive motor)s normal start6up torque, will be sufficient to overcome the eAtra dragging stiction of the gummy lubricants, allowing the spindle to start up. If this fails the first time, try again. @$2E >se both cloc%wise, and counter6cloc%wise attempts, since you probably have no way of %nowing what the actual direction of spin is. @$@E ?ou)ll %now immediately when you succeed by the feel of the vibration of the spindle motor starting, and the sound. @$"E ;ow, bac% up that irreplaceable data, ma%e that new drive sale, and restore. *mile modestly when ac%nowledging your wizardry. From: (rve (lsvi, (he procedure I suggest is absolutely a last resort thing to do. I)ve would have tried to replace the hard drives controller6card. (he card sitting on top of the dis%. >sually it can be removed. +nd most li%ely malfunctioning controller card is the reason for the hard drive crash. 1ut it have to be replaced with another card from the same type of hard dis%. In a corporate environment this would be easy, but alas, it may be more difficult in a home situation. +nyway: (his is my only suggestion. From: "ohn:(:%oo, @$9E (he first thing I would do is pull in a 1I0* upgrade from the ! system. manufacturer and flash the
@$$E ?ou said that the user got into the *etup and changed the settings. If an upgrade for the 1I0* does not find the drive and auto detect the it, then get out the tools and open the machine up to have a loo% at it)s guts. @$HE ,emove the 'JJ and get the info off of it and manually enter it into the settings.
From: Tor($Rysstad (he most important thing to do in this situation is to protect the data on the drive. +nd in my eAperienceT the more one try to &loo%& for data on the dis%, the more it might get destroyed. (ry to listen to the hard drive. +re there any weird sounds emitting from itB I have two &sound categories./ (he first is identified by sort of &buzzing& sound or perhaps a loud &ploin%& sound. (he second category: no sound at all, or the drive seems to running at full speed, even if the ! is &frozen./ (he first might
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indicate a physical damage. (hat might be hard to solve, but that does not imply that everything is lost. I often find almost everything on the dis% li%e this: @$RE (a%e the damaged hard drive out of the clientLs ! .
@$QE (a%e particular care not to bump the drive. (here is a chance that the heads are not par%ed properly. ?ou don)t need more damage to the dis% than there already are4 @H0E !ut the damaged dis% in another ! .
>sually with modern dis%s you can auto6sense the needed specs 7'eads, ylinders, etc.8, but sometimes you)ll need to type this manually. +nd of some reason the hard drive manufactures has not considered it important enough to print this information on the label. (his has puzzled me more than one time... 1ut you can find all you need on the Internet. (he ompaq that was mentioned was 7I thin%8 originally equipped with a *eagate dis%. (heir dis% *upport can be found on http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/discsupt.shtml ,emember that you will probably have to change the 2umper setting. D+K3 *>,3 ('3 J+D+:3J JI*K I* *3( (0 13 *C+G344 opy the needed files from the damaged dis% (ry to copy the files you need from the damaged dis%. J0 ;0( try to run *candis% or ;orton Jis% Joctor etc44 (hese programs might ma%e things worse4 Jo every thing to get the files you need first4 +fterwards you might consider attempts to revive the dis%. (hen *candis% will be very helpful. 1ut remember, if the dis% has crashed once, then you should not trust the dis%. If you cannot find anything on the dis%, then I have found that ;orton >tilities is amazingly effective. 1ut there are alternatives available at http://hotfiles.zd et.com/ ,evive is a simple small program. (ry it4 I)ve tried it a couple of times, and it really wor%s44 1(W: (he !rolinea should not be thrown away 2ust yet4 If there is a networ% card in it, then it can be used as a intranet server. Install CinuA and +pache Web server on it, maybe even <ront!age eAtensions, and voila, you)ll have a splendid intranet server, or a test bench for testing Web6ideas4 Fust remember that: @H5E + computer this old might not be able to support very large dis%s 7\ 5.2 :18
@H2E >pdate the 1I0*. (he !rolinea has <lashable 1I0*. *o updating the 1I0* is very simple. (a%e a loo% here: http://www.compa!.com/support/files/des"tops/us/1#$22.html Install CinuA without graphical interface. (he "R$ processor will not offer the power needed to run KJ3 or :;0D3 in a satisfying way. ?ou will also save allot of dis% space. If you can find a old 9"0Db dis% then that can be more than enough4 If you install ;( @.95 *erver, then this computer might be used as a separate printer server. It should be able to serve approA. @06"0 people without any trouble. 1ut you should have @2ZD1 ,+D and approA. 9006D1 free space if the users are printing large files, li%e !ower!oint presentations, etc.
(his document is provided for informational purposes only and (ech,epublic ma%es no warranties, either eApressed or implied, in this document. Information in this document is sub2ect to change without notice. (he entire ris% of the use or the results of the use of this document remains with the user. (he eAample companies, organizations, products, people and events depicted herein are fictitious. ;o association with any real company, organization, product, person or event is intended or should be inferred. omplying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means 7electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise8, or for any purpose, without the eApress written permission of (ech,epublic. (he names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademar%s of their respective owners.
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200 Ways To Revive A Hard Drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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How to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

The rest of the solutions

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

200 ways to revive a hard drive

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