HD Nightmare

skankinredskankinred
edited March 2006 in Hardware
This has been a nightmare for me. A month ago a 120gb Maxtor drive started failing. I could hear it clicking and trying to restart the motor as the system stalled. I ran the maxtor diagnostic software and it said the drive was failing.

A few days ago my 4 year old 80gig maxtor started acting funny. It started making clicking noises as well, but the diagnostic software said everything was fine. Last night it would not show up in the bios and the motor would not even turn on. This drive was my "backup" drive with all the data I've saved from the past 6 years.:mean:

Now another seagate 160gig drive crashed on me. Looks like the mft tables are corrupt and it's going to need a reformat and data recovery.
All this is happening just as I'm building my new pc. I think it's jealous, and trying to sabotage my data. I hope this pc lasts out for another week.
Since I don't feel like paying $500 to recover the lost data on the 80gig, I'll have to live without those 6 years of hard work :sawed:

I'm down to 1 HD with just my operating system. I can't believe everything's gone.:confused2

Comments

  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2006
    Do not reformat that drive!!!!!

    If you do it will be even harder to recover. There are ways to possibly do it but I am not where I can assist right now. Hopefully someone will chime in for an assist. If nothing else just keep it in a safe place for now and put up a reminder for help.
  • MountainDewMountainDew Kentwood, MI
    edited March 2006
    Jeez thats harsh, I've never had a HDD fail, or know anyone personally who has (luck of the draw?). Sorry for your losses.
    skankinred wrote:
    Since I don't feel like paying $500 to recover the lost data on the 80gig, I'll have to live without those 6 years of hard work :sawed:

    I've seen plenty of stories where people have bought an identical drive and swapped the boards, if you have to buy new drives anyway maybe you could give that a try.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2006
    For the corrupt drive, give TestDisk a try. :)
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    It's ok. I've had to do this 3 times already. Quick reformat then run Getbackdata for NTFS. Just need ANOTHER HD to restore the data to; which I don't have right now. :(
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2006
    If TestDisk saves your bacon you won't need a second HD for data restoration.
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    Thanks profdlp,it running right now. It's causing the pc to freeze up for a few seconds every 20seconds or so.
    Does anyone know if you can buy just the circuit board for a HD? I think the board is what died on my 80gig drive. I also saw some smoke when i tried to plug it in outside the case. :grumble: A little orange fireball on one of the chips on the underside. It's definitely toast. A new board should be able to fix this right?
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited March 2006
    skankinred wrote:
    ...Does anyone know if you can buy just the circuit board for a HD? I think the board is what died on my 80gig drive...
    What's the exact model number?
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    Model: 4D080H4
    S/N: D50V97HE
    Maxtor D540x-4D 5400rpm 80gig
  • rykoryko new york
    edited March 2006
    why quick format before getDataback for NTFS? i have hade great success with it without the quick format.

    also it is time to look towards something else as the culprit for eating your harddrives. 3 failures in this short of a span is more than coincedence. my first guess is psu. that generic 450w looks like it is turning out to be costly. besides system instability, this is another good reason why to avoid cheopo psus----they eat other system components!

    try antec, enermax, fsp (fortron source), etc...
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    Yeah. I have way too many components connected to the cheapo psu. I've learned my lesson. PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI-PFC to the rescue. The power consumption calculator said I'm using 460 watts. I doubt my psu even puts out 300 continuous.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited March 2006
    IMO, pc power&cooing products are way overpriced---especially for your system. i mean the 510 costs at least $200. you could spend $50-100 for a quality psu and then use the rest for a videocard upgrade or something else.

    something like this...
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104954

    or if you want to spend a litle more...
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103457

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103930

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    I'm building a new system with the psu. I'm trashing my current rig.
    I read the PSU review thread and eveyrone said PCP&C was number one, but antec was just behind. Although, some said that antec's quality is not like it used to be anymore. I'm worried about going to Antec since I'm going to be OC'n an opty 170 to 3.3ghz with Vapochill.

    Amtec true 480
    http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-103-930-04.JPG
    FSB AX500
    http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-104-934-03.JPG
    PCP&C 510
    http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/17-703-001-03.JPG
  • rykoryko new york
    edited March 2006
    you won't need a vapochill for a 300mhz overclock. stock air coolling will do that easily.

    anyway antec has had some recent troubles...especially with their HE line (triple 12v rails), their truepower and smartpower still seem to be very reliable.

    if you want to have a big OC with a dual core system, i have heard that a larger single 12v rail is better than a psu w/ dual 12v rails. the pc&pc510 has a large single 12v rail so it should work out well for you. just expensive for my tastes....
  • skankinredskankinred
    edited March 2006
    Air cooling won't work where I live. Especially around summer. Here in Socal, it can get around 80-95 in summer. Vapochill still cheaper than cranking up the AC. :banghead: I already have the Vapochill. Lemonlime helped me out with it on another thread.
    The 7900GT consumes more watts than the opty:mouldy:

    noob question:
    Would a SATAI cable work on a SATAII HD?
    Would a SCSI Ultra160 68 pin cable work connecting an Ultra160 68 pin controller to an Ultra320 68 pin HD?
    Would a SCSI Ultra320 68 pin cable work connecting an Ultra160 68 pin controller to an Ultra320 68 pin HD?
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