Is my HDD dead? Need the stuff on it!!

kefartokefarto
edited January 2007 in Hardware
Recently i got SLI. After I installed the SLI graphics cards, and used the bridge, set the jumpers etc. and tried to boot into windows, there was a problem. After the Windows XP loading screen, the black screen between that, and the 'Loading your personal settings screen' took about 2 minutes to get past. at the time I didnt really care as once Windows was loaded, everything worked fine.

It has been working like that for about 2 weeks now, but today, after numerous warnings from Diskeeper that one of my hard drives had a dskcheck pending (which never seemed to happen), I decided to run one from Windows anyway. It said I needed to restart for Windows to have access to everything on that drive. This is when things started to go wrong. After reboot, it didnt do dskcheck and my account was logged on. I went to my computer and found that the drive had the label Local Disk, which isnt what I had set before. After looking at the properties of the drive I also found out that its filesystem is RAW.

I don't know whats wrong, but all I know is that I need everything on that drive (photos, music, schoolwork and other personal stuff. Please help me recover my stuff from this drive.

The drive is a Samsung SpinPoint SP2014N.

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    Recently i got SLI. After I installed the SLI graphics cards, and used the bridge, set the jumpers etc. and tried to boot into windows, there was a problem. After the Windows XP loading screen, the black screen between that, and the 'Loading your personal settings screen' took about 2 minutes to get past. at the time I didnt really care as once Windows was loaded, everything worked fine...It has been working like that for about 2 weeks now, but today, after numerous warnings from Diskeeper that one of my hard drives had a dskcheck pending (which never seemed to happen), I decided to run one from Windows anyway. It said I needed to restart for Windows to have access to everything on that drive. This is when things started to go wrong. After reboot, it didnt do dskcheck and my account was logged on. I went to my computer and found that the drive had the label Local Disk, which isnt what I had set before. After looking at the properties of the drive I also found out that its filesystem is RAW...I don't know whats wrong, but all I know is that I need everything on that drive (photos, music, schoolwork and other personal stuff. Please help me recover my stuff from this drive...The drive is a Samsung SpinPoint SP2014N...Thanks in advance.

    Hello kefarto
    1. 1st of all, shut your computer down and disconnect power from the drive in question. Don't reconnect power to it until you are ready to proceed w/ a repair and data recovery.
    2. Do you have Acronis Disk Director as well?
    3. Do you have another computer you can install the HDD on as a 2nd drive?
      (Preferably one w/ a good disk manager/utility like Acronis Disk Director.)
    4. -OR-
    5. Is the troubled drive a 2nd (non-primary) drive? (in which case, there's no need to move it to a different system) (I'm assuming this is the case)
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2007
    Since this started immediately after you set up SLI, I'd wonder if your PSU is up to powering the whole system. I'd try disconnecting any drives and other components that you don't need in order to boot up, take out one video card, then see if that makes a difference.

    What brand and model is your PSU?
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    I've used RunTime Software's recovery utilities for years. You can download and run "GetDataBack for NTFS" for free. It will let you know, w/ it's results, whether it can recover your data for you. If it can, you can activate the software at that time w/ a key that Runtime will issue you. You can then go on to recover your data w/out having to run the HDD scan again.

    HERE is Runtime's price list. W/ the purchase of their software, you get updates for that product for life (including full version upgrades). They also offer FREE SUPPORT w/ the purchase of their recovery software.
  • kefartokefarto
    edited January 2007
    Thanks your replies guys. I will try your advice ASAP and post back ASAP, thanks for your help! The implications this problem might have is starting to sink in now :sad2: .

    EDIT:

    *Sorry, this is a secondary drive in my computer, so I don't have to move it to another computer.

    *The Powersupply should be in my signature, two of my friends have this power supply and it has never mucked up on any of us, and one of them is actually running a 8800GTX on it temporarily with problems whatsoever.

    *I don't have Acronis Disk Director, but I've heard that Spinrite 6.0 has worked wonders and I'm going to try that first.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    ...I don't have Acronis Disk Director, but I've heard that Spinrite 6.0 has worked wonders and I'm going to try that first...
    Ahh yes Spinrite! I used to use that utility quite a bit back in the day when HDD capacities were significantly smaller. You can find Spinrite HERE. Gibson Research (Steve Gibson) has a lot of great effecient little utilities on his site. Many are free. Spinrite isn't. If you're not upgrading from a previous version, it's $89.00US. The data recovery software I mentioned costs less but I think if you can recover your files w/ Spinrite, it'd be better for you in the end. Both are good tools to have on hand, however.

    It took Steve Gibson a while but he finally came out w/ a version that works on NTFS file systems. I will warn you, on larger HDDs it will take a l-o-o-n-g time for it to finish - how long depends upon the speed, capacity, and severity of the damage of your HDD. So you'll need to be patient. Spinrite will do the best it can to move data residing on damaged areas of your HDD to a safe location (that it tests 1st b4 moving the data there).

    Please, note: If Spinrite does not detect a file system, it will not work. In that case, you will need to resort to a data recovery utility.

    After you've gone through the trauma of recovering your data, post back here and we'll provide you w/ sound advice re: backing up your data so you're never put in this position again. :smiles:
  • kefartokefarto
    edited January 2007
    OK, Spinrite has about 5% to go and has been going for a little over an hour on data recovery mode. It has found 2 parts on the disk where data was lost, it tried to recover the data but failed at both points. These points are nowhere near the beginning or end of the disk, which I think means that the filesystem is OK which should mean that I can access the drive (tell me if I'm wrong). I'
    m going to chekc on it now and post back with the results when I get into windows. Fingers crossed!
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    OK, Spinrite has about 5% to go and has been going for a little over an hour on data recovery mode. It has found 2 parts on the disk where data was lost, it tried to recover the data but failed at both points. These points are nowhere near the beginning or end of the disk, which I think means that the filesystem is OK which should mean that I can access the drive (tell me if I'm wrong). I'
    m going to chekc on it now and post back with the results when I get into windows. Fingers crossed!
    Sounds promising Kefarto. And Spinrite must run much faster now. That's great! I think I'll go ahead and upgrade my older version.

    We're crossing our fingers... :smiles:
  • kefartokefarto
    edited January 2007
    Pterocarpous wrote:
    Sounds promising Kefarto. And Spinrite must run much faster now. That's great! I think I'll go ahead and upgrade my older version.

    We're crossing our fingers... :smiles:

    OMG OMG OMG!! IT WORKS!! Thank you sooo much guys! I don't know what else to say... thanks!

    You guys said something about methods to backup data?...
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    OMG OMG OMG!! IT WORKS!! Thank you sooo much guys! I don't know what else to say... thanks!...You guys said something about methods to backup data?...
    Congratulations, Kefarto. That's terrific! You are one lucky duck. You slipped by the executioner so to speak this time. Now let's get you backing up.
    • 1st, Do you have an external HDD (hard disk drive)?
    • If so, is it of sufficient capacity to hold multiple backups of your data?
    • For now, until we get you set up on a backup regimen, copy your data to another location for safe keeping.
    • The ideal situation is to keep a current IMAGE or your HDD primary volume AND to regularly and frequently backup your data to some media other than where it currently resides. Ideally an external HDD, DVDs, or network location. (You can use tape backup but that's expensive and it's slow.)

    I'll have more in a bit.... :smiles:
  • kefartokefarto
    edited January 2007
    Hi again. I don't have an external hard drive or anything like that, but are there programs that can continuosly or regularly backup data to say another computer on a network. I have a server that is doing little more than hosting teamspeak and ventrilo and I might consider buying a bigger hard drive for it and backing up my computer onto it. Please let me know.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    Hi again. I don't have an external hard drive or anything like that, but are there programs that can continuosly or regularly backup data to say another computer on a network. I have a server that is doing little more than hosting teamspeak and ventrilo and I might consider buying a bigger hard drive for it and backing up my computer onto it. Please let me know.
    Sure, you could do that, absolutely. How frequently does your data need to be backed up do you think? IOW, how often does it change. I usually set up all my clients on daily backups. These backups can be automated. So don't worry about having to handle running backups everyday. All you'd need to do is monitor your backup logs and periodically "audit" your backups.

    EDIT://
    There are freeware programs out there but you're going to get more functionality out of a quality backup program that you'll need to purchase.
    Take a look HERE and see what you think.

    Years agon this backup program used to be called VERITAS BACKUP EXEC. It's been sold from company to company and is now owned by SONIC. It's a great little backup program. You get a lot of features for the money. I've used it for years - since back when it was VERITAS BE.
  • kefartokefarto
    edited January 2007
    OK thanks Pterocarpous, I'll look into it. Thanks once again for your help.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    kefarto wrote:
    OK thanks Pterocarpous, I'll look into it. Thanks once again for your help.
    I'm an ardent advocate of backing up one's data. If you have any questions at all about how to proceed, how to configure your backups jobs and schedule them, etc. I'd be more than happy to help you.

    EDIT://
    And you're certainly welcome. We're glad to help! :smiles:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2007
    This article may be of help to you, kefarto. The guy who wrote it is kind of a jerk, but the advice is sound. :vimp:
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