External Hard Drive Failure - Not Good.

[Indybird]

I've been using my external hard drive to store just about everything with the exception of programs. I have all my music (3,000 songs), all my photos, all my pictures (photo-editing,wallpapers,comics,important stuff), all my videos, and all of my documents.

I just got the latest eSATA drivers from Asus, installed them and restarted. While viewing a PDF I had on my external, windows froze. I left it for 2 hours just to be 100% sure it wasnt going unfreeze. After that I reset my computer. When I got back to windows, I attempted to access my hard drive and it says the whole thing is corrupted!

I'm not quite sure if this was the right thing to do, but I ran Windows Error-Checker. Its still running, but its been stopped at one point for 20 minutes now and I don't think its working. What should I do!? Everything that is valuable to me (computer-wise) is on there!

Please help, any programs or services that can fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks alot,
Indybird

+rep to anyone who helps or tries to help me fix this...

[Spawn-Inc]

does the harddrive come out? perhaps trying it in a different computer or the same one but hooked to sata instead of through the esata with drivers might help (maybe not but if it comes out worth a try).

maybe a system restore?

here (http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/hard_drive_recovery_software/) is some free recovery programs that may or may not work i just did a quick google. i'm going to try to find other threads in here that have similar problems.

[Indybird]

After I restarted I hooked it up via USB because I was pretty sure the eSATA was part of the problem. The Disk Checker has changed what it says its doing which is some kinda hope but its still really not moving.

Boy, I'm such a spaz when it comes to stuff like this, it really worries me.

Thanks for the reply though, I checked those sites and they're all evaluation copies: they will show you the files available to be recovered but won't recover them. Thanks anyway though.

If this problem isn't fixed by tomorrow morning, I am taking it into a PC repair place to get it all recovered.

-Indybird

[Spawn-Inc]

i found the thread with a bunch of programs that should help recover the data, Link (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8860&highlight=hard+drive+recovery).

[Indybird]

Thanks again (I wish Dave would come in and give you a mega+rep for being so attentive)

Since the windows disk-checker is making some kinda progress Im going to see where that goes. If just stops, then I am trying FileScavenger, which was voted best in that thread you linked me.

Do you think the windows error checker/fixer could possibly be damaging my files?

Thanks,
Indybird

[Spawn-Inc]

np, happy to help if i can. i almost lost a hdd with lots of stuff on it, not nearly as much as you but was just as important. the harddrive was acting up and finally didn't want to boot. i installed windows on a second blank drive and ran the scan disk and it fixed it up so i'm thinking since you had to restart with it, it should help, hopefully. i sure wouldn't want to loose all that. when i get my own computer running i'm going to make use of the vantec external i got and put a 500gb or 750gb hdd and back stuff up bi weekly, if i remember.

here is the link (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8992&highlight=hard+drive+recovery) to my problem.

[Indybird]

The really bad thing is that I am selling my processor out of this computer tomorrow around 12:00. I have to sell it then and I'll have to turn this comp off, canceling the process if its still going (Which I really hope it won't). This is very , very stressful.

But I was going to say that, I didn't restart, I reset the computer. Resetting is usually bad during those situations. I am 100% certain that the computer was frozen though: no HDDs were showing any activity.

It is making some progress here: since I made the thread its gone from "5000 files processed" to "20000 files processed", but the bar hasn't gone up. Oi, I am so confused and uptight, I need to go have a soda... :(

Edit: Well at least I got 700 posts...yay

[Indybird]

OK, its definitely going somewhere, its about 75% done here. Windows won't let me view the drive while its performing these actions (probably a good idea). I sure hope this works. :fingers crossed:

-Indybird

[SgtM]

+rep to spawn for being helpful..

This is a little more work, but What about taking the drive out of the external enclosure and hooking it up internally? Is that an option? At least it would confirm whether there is an actual drive problem or just a driver problem.

[Indybird]

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

I got it all back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phew! Sadly it got rid of all my statistics in Windows Media Player which I based many of my playlists around...

Thanks for the help spawn...

[Spawn-Inc]

awesome! glad to see things worked out for ya.

[AJ@PR]

Wow.. nice!

+rep to everyone possible. :)

[ESX]

Speaking of HDDs (So I dont have to open a whole new thread), Im about to lose my current hard drive (this is why I am unable to post pics of EXAC).
This is the 2nd hard drive that dies on me.
Basically, what happens is the transfer rate slows down, and currently is around 3.5mb/sec, which means EVERYTHING loads VERY slow, if loads at all.
How exactly did it get to this? I've seriously no idea.
There are other symptoms such as BSODs (KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR) and corrupted files with CRC errors.

Lucky for me that the hard drive did not die completely so I was able to back everything up. Im going to get me a replacement hard drive tomorrow (gotta love the 3 year warranty. HD is around a year old, probably less)

I've tried my best to not let it heat up too much, and it sure did not fall or anything like that, so I've seriously no idea how did this happen.

The hard drive is a WDC WD2500KS.

This is what SpeedFan revealed:

NOTE: not all warnings are reflected on fitness and performance overall values as relevancy is based upon the settings from the hard disk manufacturer who is the best entity deputed to define such relationships.

NOTE : your hard disk has 239 reallocated sectors (this value is very large and your hard disk should be replaced). Hard disks do have spare sectors (usually from 256 up to 1024) used to replace bad ones. This remapping operation is transparent to the end user. Anyway, this can lead to degradated performances (because remapped sectors are in different places of the disk than the original ones and the head needs additional moving). If reallocated sectors grow over time, you might encounter some serious troubles. A backup of the most important data is suggested anyway.

NOTE : your hard disk has 2 pending sectors. Those are sectors that couldn't be properly read and that the hard disk logic is waiting for a write operation to try to remap to a spare sector (if available). According to the Reallocated Sector Count attribute, your hard disk seems to have available spare sectors. A simple disk surface scan won't be enough to force the remap operation. You need a read/write surface scan to remap the sector. The best option should be a tool that knows about what should be read from that sector so that it has some option to apply the best fix to the missing data.

NOTE : your hard disk has 2 offline uncorrectable sectors. Those are sectors that an offline scanning found as unreadable. Offline scanning is a process that can be automatically started by the hard disk logic when a long enough idle period is detected or that can be forced by some tool. Those unreadable sectors are identified and the hard disk logic is waiting for a write command that will overwrite them to try to remap them to spare sectors (if available). According to the Reallocated Sector Count attribute, your hard disk seems to have available spare sectors. A simple disk surface scan won't be enough to force the remap operation. You need a read/write surface scan to remap the sector. The best option should be a tool that knows about what should be read from that sector so that it has some option to apply the best fix to the missing data.

NOTE : your hard disk Power On Hours Count attribute current value (90) is below the normal range (96 - 100) reported for your specific hard disk model. Basically your hard disk was powered on for more than the maximum time the average user did. This means that either all of the reports collected are from hard disks that were not powered on for too long (this is realistic for recent models) or that your hard disk is becoming old. Usually this is not considered as a pre-failure advisory, but you should check whether you want to replace the hardware or keep an eye on its performances over time.

The overall fitness for this drive is 45%.
The overall performance for this drive is 100%.

If anyone has any info that can help, I'll be more than glad to hear it! :)

P.s. 500th post, wee!

[lukeisthecoolest]

i strongly suggest you get a cheap external HD pronto to back up all your songs! otherwise it could actually bite u in the ass one day

today....u just got lucky ;)
tomorrow..not so lucky :(

[Spawn-Inc]

get a seagate barracuda 7200.10! i'm 100 seagate (accept raptors).

[ESX]

Well, going to get my replacement hard drive later this week.
Currently on a freshly installed windows. By the way, a review is coming up :) (I REALLY enjoy my new headphones!)

[Indybird]

Im going to pick up a 250GB Maxtor External HDD from my friend and use it to back up my current 160GB... The reason I'm sticking w/ this one is because it has the insanely-fast eSATA connection. Im going to get a SATA to eSATA adapter instead of using the one integrated with my mobo. I have had minor problems with that one before...

-Indybird

[Spawn-Inc]

ya i bought a vantex esata to sata external case and it came with a braket to put in a empty pci slot (the braket not an actually pci slot) and it was a female esata to male esata WTF?! it should have been female esata to male sata so i bought a cable of ebay and use that.