hdd crashed can i recovr my data
- Thread starter kamran
- Start date
shaneturner12
Tutorial Creator
Best thing to do is to get the hard drive out of the system and put it in a USB disk caddy. You can then connect this to another system to recover your Trainz information.
Shane
Shane
That's assuming the drive isn't completely knackered. An alternative to try if you have one is a CD or DVD with a live OS on it such as Linux from which might be able to copy and burn to a CD or copy to a memory stick. Linux can sometimes read failed drives that don't show in the bios.
As a thought, check all the plugs and cables, sometimes they can come loose or in the case of a cable actually fail.
As a thought, check all the plugs and cables, sometimes they can come loose or in the case of a cable actually fail.
Not a good sign when this happens. I've had it happen to me many a time, and really, there's not much you can do.
What I usually do in this instance, leave it a day, then try using the hard drive again. You may get lucky and it may boot one final time. (I managed it once thank the heavens!) If you do get it to boot, make sure you have something to back up on to immediately because it may not last, and you may find files corrupted. Don't worry about continually trying to boot it up, if it's already broken it isn't going to break more.. Well.. I suppose it could blow up in an extreme circumstances, but there's probably more chance of the moon hitting your house.
What I usually do in this instance, leave it a day, then try using the hard drive again. You may get lucky and it may boot one final time. (I managed it once thank the heavens!) If you do get it to boot, make sure you have something to back up on to immediately because it may not last, and you may find files corrupted. Don't worry about continually trying to boot it up, if it's already broken it isn't going to break more.. Well.. I suppose it could blow up in an extreme circumstances, but there's probably more chance of the moon hitting your house.
Sounds like the logic board that is the heart and brains of the drive has died. The only way that I know of to get your data off of that drive without resorting to a VERY EXPENSIVE data recovery vendor is to buy another drive that is an EXACT match for the one that failed. Switch out the logic boards (minding all Static electricity cautions), then plug it into a external usb/firewire hard drive docking station and see if it works. If it does, download everything from the drive and make a backup for safe keeping. Why make a backup? If it died once, you can be sure it will do so again.
The only issue with that is that not everything works for a year as guaranteed! Although we all hope it does.
I do hope kamran if you have been working on anything you did the old sensible thing and did a copy and keep elswhere? A month ago my main pc crashed big time losing much of the Operating System. However I always do copies of my route build for a portable HD. As it happened I had just made a copy of the whole Trainz Folder the night before!
The only issue with that is that not everything works for a year as guaranteed! Although we all hope it does.
Yep! I have had brand new hard drives go kaputski in one month.
Very annoying indeed!
Im going to take the thread to ask something like Kamran's situation. Because here the temperature goes to 35º, i have the PC disarmed and out of the box, so i have it on my desk. And the other day, my little brother tried to take the TV that i use as monitor to see a magazine, and he accidentally throw my HDD to the floor from a height of 1 meter while i wasnt at home. So i put it again on the PC and works fine, but i heard a "clack,clack" after BIOS detects it at startup and playing a game or searching on the net. And that isnt all, if i try to install a large program or i try to move a big amount of files, 120 MB for example, all stops working, i only can move the mouse for 5 or 7 secs, and the PC freezes and i need to restart. What can i do? I dont have money for a new HDD, not yet, and is the only that i have, as there is only 1 PC on my house apart of the laptop, so i cant get one new or used. And i dont know if this is going to be bad or worse or if only is going to freeze while trying to copy files. Thx for your attention
Cheerio
Ivan
Cheerio
Ivan
Afraid if it's making noises it's probably not going to last very long, drives do not like being dropped and it's probably damaged the heads and or the platters. I'd look at backing up any important data somewhere urgently. Then run a full disk check on it, may be lucky and it's just damaged sectors which it may be able to repair or mark bad so they are not used, but you will need a replacement drive as soon as you can.
It's always a very bad idea to take the PC out of its case, Even if it doesn't get bits dropped, you still run the risk of static damage or spilling liquid on it, either of which would be fatal. Even if it is excessively warm, just taking the sides off it if it's a tower or the lid if it's a desktop and leaving everything attached including fans is just as good and less likely for anything to get damaged, you can use a table fan or similar to blow air into it if that isn't enough.
It's always a very bad idea to take the PC out of its case, Even if it doesn't get bits dropped, you still run the risk of static damage or spilling liquid on it, either of which would be fatal. Even if it is excessively warm, just taking the sides off it if it's a tower or the lid if it's a desktop and leaving everything attached including fans is just as good and less likely for anything to get damaged, you can use a table fan or similar to blow air into it if that isn't enough.
One backup solution (and this might work for you, Ivan) is, if you have a lot of data, to upload it to hotfile.com or a similar service. Hotfile allows up to 400Mb with the free service and I think 1-2Gb for the paid service per file. Just archive data with WinRAR or 7zip.
In your case, Ivan, you can transfer TO the laptop, you'll just have to transfer as many files as you can, archive, then upload. Obviously, you should prioritize the most important stuff first, and you may have to try to keep track of where the HDD is stalling since those files may actually be corrupted; if you can't copy a file after, say, two tries in a situation like this, odds the part of the disk holding some piece of that file is damaged.
In your case, Ivan, you can transfer TO the laptop, you'll just have to transfer as many files as you can, archive, then upload. Obviously, you should prioritize the most important stuff first, and you may have to try to keep track of where the HDD is stalling since those files may actually be corrupted; if you can't copy a file after, say, two tries in a situation like this, odds the part of the disk holding some piece of that file is damaged.
recovery -- assuming it's win7 and that you have the dvd of the OS!
Boot up with the DVD OS
Pretend you are going to install the OS!
ON THIS PAGE win7 gives your chooses, etc -- select to recover data and/or resert windows from an eariler version!
And see what happens!
MY HDD Crashed, but I did not panick -- win7 did a great job in reinstalling all of the back up files, thus making the OS start up! But it can only be done form the blue screen, etc
NOTE -- give yourself 12hrs to do this -- in other words, it's very time consuming, etc
Good luck
Ish
Boot up with the DVD OS
Pretend you are going to install the OS!
ON THIS PAGE win7 gives your chooses, etc -- select to recover data and/or resert windows from an eariler version!
And see what happens!
MY HDD Crashed, but I did not panick -- win7 did a great job in reinstalling all of the back up files, thus making the OS start up! But it can only be done form the blue screen, etc
NOTE -- give yourself 12hrs to do this -- in other words, it's very time consuming, etc
Good luck
Ish
I use Paragon Backup and restore, I can restore my system drive in around 20 minutes to any drive big enough or bigger so long as its backed up frequently, beats the 12 hours plus it takes Windows to do it and is dead easy to replace a defective hard drive avoiding, the need to reinstall. Best thing is it's free http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/
Lots of thanks for the comments. My question is about getting out the files from the crashed drive, in what im writing now, to a new HDD. Will it freeze copying files from the old HDD to a new HDD? And i have at least 80GB of free space XD, and the laptop haves 320GB of HDD
I am going to use it a little to get more damaged and i am thinking in buying a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 2 times my actual Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200.12, and i will try to backup all files. The HDD sint going bad, the only thing is that i cant copy nothing, and downloading too XD
Cheerio and thx for your support
I am going to use it a little to get more damaged and i am thinking in buying a 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 2 times my actual Seagate Barracuda 500 GB 7200.12, and i will try to backup all files. The HDD sint going bad, the only thing is that i cant copy nothing, and downloading too XD
Cheerio and thx for your support
Wessex_Electric_Nutter
New member
You're right, they don't, because of their delicate nature, the heads hate it and can scratch the platters if you aren't careful. So your data gets "chipped away", quite literally. Bad sector marking can only go so far though.
Not always, I have a spare 1TB drive that I removed from my computer and that stays in my drawer (since thats a safe place as only I use the room thankfully.) until I can find a computer to recover whats left on it, well, I did clone it so there is a clone of the drive on 2 different areas.
As to the hard drive failure, believe it or not, you can drop a hard drive if its failed and the heads refuse to move (that unsticks the heads), you can freeze a drive which sorts out the bearing issues (although you also need to make sure its in a sealed bag and not likely to get moisture in it), I've seen that done, my dad used it on a friend of his. If the board goes, you can find the same model of hard drive and yank the board out of that. I did when I blew the board off mine. (One of the controller chips got 12V through it and not 5V which it should of had!) Theres also wacking it and shaking it. One thing I would NEVER recommend however, DO NOT TAKE THE TOP OFF!!!!
Why? Because if you do, you induce dust on the platters and dust on a drive that has a head which floats less than 0.1mm above the surface is a very very bad idea. Also, I should mention, don't use any other method unless you really really have to and its a last resort. When you do and you finished with the drive, bin it immediately, because the drive will be unusuable.
Also, here is something of an interesting read:
http://www.capsicumgroup.com/resour...thods-for-physically-damaged-hard-drives.html