WD hard drive died

[rik]

Well one of my hard drives seems to have Shiite a brick. 40 gb WD simply will not boot. It tries, but then gives read failures.

I am so pis*ed...anyone know off hand which WD utility is best to use for testing? I'm on their site looking for one to run from a bootable floppy.

[efc]

rik, I am sure you know this, however for other's benefit, don't give up on that drive. Get the WD drive test utilities and run them. If that fails, hopefully it is still under warranty. You can check warranty status here.

http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp (http://support.wdc.com/warranty/policy.asp)

[rik]

Well my worst fears were confirmed...This drive is hosed. SMART error when running the WD diags.

I have 2 hdds in that system, both 40 gb. The primary drive is partitioned in half, the 2nd is one big drive and all partitions are over half full. I had ghosted the primary to the 2ndary awhile back but it isn't current by any means.
Anyone know of a way to at least try to copy that drive to something else besides maybe xcopy32?

[cash_site]

GetBackNFTS ?? can that be used on dead HDs?

[rik]

The problem is that the drive is FAT on a Win 98 machine. It had 2 partitions. I had a ghost image on a slave drive that I was able to reinstall on another drive but it wasn't a very current image. Theres data on there that I would like to at least try to recover...and I can't afford a Data Recovery Service although I'm sure they could help.

[efc]

The problem is that the drive is FAT on a Win 98 machine. It had 2 partitions. I had a ghost image on a slave drive that I was able to reinstall on another drive but it wasn't a very current image. Theres data on there that I would like to at least try to recover...and I can't afford a Data Recovery Service although I'm sure they could help.
Still not sure that I understand your issue. Assuming the following:

1. Primary HD failed (NTFS)?
2. Slave HD contains data that you wish to recover (FAT)?

You should be able to retrieve files from the partition with stored data files on it. Don't think you will be able to retrieve individual files from the ghost image. I think that is an all or nothing image. Before giving up, I would install Ghost on new primary HD and attempt recovery through it. I don't know what issues you have by storing a ghost of an NTFS partition on a FAT partition. As you know by now, you can't see files on a NTFS partition when you boot to into dos with a recovery disk.

Not much comfort, but you have provided the rest of us a lesson that it is best to have both drives formated with the same file system.

[rik]

Configuration is like this: 2 hard drives, both 40 gb. Running Win 98 on FAT file system. FAT on both drives. The primary was partitioned down the middle, 2nd drive was 1 big drive. Primary crapped out. Ghost image was on 2nd drive. the primary has data, probably on both partitions that I would like to retrieve but just didn't know if there was an app that might allow me to do that.

[joshsiao]

Hmm... A HD that won't boot. Now where's that thread about 200 ways to revive a dead HD?

Does it physically make noises? And how old is it?

[zipp51]

Rik I believe that you can put the drive in the freezer,reinstall it and quickly retrieve with either a cdrw or dvdrw all your valuable info.I have never done this but it has been highly recommended for a last resort one shot deal.

Here are some testamonies.

Freeze it
From: Travis Standen
One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves,
is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this
data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then
you can hook 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 15 minutes to cool it down...
sometimes this gets the drive up long enough to copy any critical files...

From: Itguy1

Put 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 work try..."
But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it sounded like the
drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the office freezer for an hour! I'll be
darned if it didn't work. The 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 take credit for it though—I had heard it in
some geek bull session but I thought it was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know
you're really screwed when you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try
something I saw in a cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"

From: mpicpu

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. The first thing you want to do is run
a disk utility like Norton disk doctor or wddiag (if it's a western digital drive) to verify whether the drive is
working mechanically or not. If it is a master boot record problem, sometimes running Fdisk/mbr will
correct the problem. It could also be a virus, and a program like F-prot will look at the drive as a physical
unit. As an A+ PC technician I have seen this problem many times. Usually if the drive is not making a
clicking sound I am successful in recovering the data.

From: Scott Greving

I've run into this scenario numerous times. One time it involved the main Novell SYS volume on our HP
File Server. I was really sweating as the server would not boot. I took the drive out and put it in a freezer
for 30 minutes. I then reinstalled it into the file server and Presto! I was up and running. Needless to say I
quickly mirrored the drive onto another and got rid of the bad drive.
In stand alone client systems, the method I've had the most luck with reviving drives from death has been
removing the drive, firmly tapping the top of its case several times, and then re-installing it making sure all
cables are secure. I've had a better than 60 percent success rate with this method.

[rik]

Well guys Thanks for all the suggestions and helpful hints but the WD Diags fail the drive with a read error. I was just hoping beyond hopes that I would be able to retrieve some stuff off of at least 1 of the partitions...I guess since this is what I do and speak daily to people that this happens to...I should have known better. :(

[Conan]

How old was the drive?

[joshsiao]

Yup, age is an important factor in determining if your HD is salvagable. The older, the more difficult.

[rik]

I believe it is about a year old...

[efc]

Check to see if it is still under warranty.

[phishhead]

let me guess 366 days old. ;)

[rik]

No warranty anymore.