Hard Disk Crash

[msheerazhaider]

Good day people,
This is Sheeraz. I have a SATA hd (500gb)
One fine day out of nothing my computer showed me an error saying my hard disk might be unstable and may crash and i should make a back up and in the process of making the backup my pc rebooted and now it does not boot anymore..
I checked my hard disk by connecting it to other computers as a slave disk..

Now the thing is that it is being detected in the bios , but when i boot in the OS it doesn't show it. Even when i try to install a new OS then two things happen -
1:- When i try to install Win XP .. during the setup it shows the partitions but when i try to either delete or format a partition it says it cant and aborts.
2:- And when i try to install Win 7 Ultimate.. it just doesn't detect the drive itself.

I need help desperately because I am a VFx artist and all my work that i have done yet is on it, including a lot of pics which are equally precious.
Any help or suggestions will be truly appreciated.

[northwind]

1. Need more info. What drive it is, make, model...
2. If i understand correctly, your disk contains all your important data and yet you tried to install new OS on it, format it, delete and create partitions etc?

[msheerazhaider]

I have attached a photograph.. i hope it'll give all the required details...
And about formatting and deleting the partitions .. If my disk is being read in the OS . i can recover all the data that was thr on it no matter how many times has it been formatted...
But my biggest issue is that it is not being detected in the OS...

Attachments

[northwind]

And about formatting and deleting the partitions .. If my disk is being read in the OS . i can recover all the data that was thr on it no matter how many times has it been formatted...

Pardon me for saying this, but i seriously doubt that.
You said in your previous post that you tried to install windows xp (and failed?). This means that data would have been written all over the disk (which would also have happened if installation of OS has only started), which would also mean bye-bye data.

Seriously, when you have important data on the disk, you shouldn't even consider formatting, re-installing OS, deleting partitions, cause chances you get data back are ... let's say ...(and i'm being optimistic here) slim ?

Judging by the entire history and your overweeningness (sorry about that) i'd say you'd better take this disk to a pro. Experimenting can be fun, but you have to accept the consequences too.

Those barracudas can be really bichin'.

[msheerazhaider]

I appreciate it brother. But this isnt the first time i have formatted the drive and recovered the data from it. I have asked a pro, he worked on it but he dint have the time. I will get back to him whenever possible. Anyways thats altogether a different matter..

The only problem which i am facing is it isnt being detected in the OS.
I am trying to format it coz that wud reset the MBR and according to what i figured thats what is stopping it from being detected in the OS.

So.. Any help.. Any ideas..

[northwind]

Again, i don't think the MBR has anything to do with the problem of your disk.
Nor is formatting and deleting partitions an accepted solution to ANY problem regarding a disk that has critical data stored inside.

Having said that, i would suggest you run a Linux LiveCD and see if you see the disk there.

[msheerazhaider]

Yeah.. thats a good idea.. i'd try that..
I know that formatting and deleting partition isnt a good idea, it is a longer path than any other , but in this case i cudnt do anything..
Thanks Man.. I'll check with knoppix and see if it works..

[Vulcan]

I know that formatting and deleting partition isnt a good idea, it is a longer path than any other

Doing that is not a "longer path" - it is never needed when using the correct recovery software / approach. Also formatting always causes the loss of at least some information which could help with recovery (or may actually be vital). Your previous "success" recovering after a WinXP format, is partly due to luck in the way that the recovered files had been written to the filesystem.

As northwind said, formatting / deleting partitions etc. is not needed when using the correct approach. And you should consider the difference introduced in Win Vista (and used in Win7) for a full format... Let's see how much success you have doing a recovery after that!

If you really want to go ahead with DIY recovery, with all its associated risks, then I wish you good luck. However your comments so far make me worried that you might make a catastrophic mistake due to incorrect understandings, that would prevent (or at least make much harder & more expensive) any later professional recovery.

[msheerazhaider]

i agree that it is not advised. And it definitely results in loss of data when the sectors are written over time n again..
But i am out of alternatives.

All i am trying to do is make it readable in windows.. can u help me with that..

[Vulcan]

i agree that it is not advised. And it definitely results in loss of data when the sectors are written over time n again..

Your comment about "time n again" has nothing to do with it! With respect, I really do worry about the misconceptions that you have, and what incorrect data recovery actions you may perform as a result

All i am trying to do is make it readable in windows.. can u help me with that..

Your target is wrong - you do not need to make this drive readable in Windows (and in fact you should not try to do so, based on the symptoms you are seeing now).

I am not guaranteeing to hand-hold you through to recovery via forum messages (it is very inefficient in cases like this, and I have a real day job to do), especially since you have already been getting good advice from northwind, but if you answer all of these questions, you may get further suggestions:

a) Do you accept the risks that your DIY actions might make things worse, and during DIY attempts, your errors, or misunderstandings, or just bad luck, could make recovery more difficult / more expensive / less successful / potentially even impossible, even if you later choose professional recovery? In other words, you are choosing that your data is worth less than the cost of professional recovery, and you accept that you might change a recoverable situation into an unrecoverable one?

b) If you accept that, have you checked whether the disk drive itself e.g. the raw device /dev/sda is recognised by Linux (don't worry about any of the filesystems e.g. /dev/sda1 - we don't care about those at this stage), by following the suggestion from northwind? (Note: Be careful to identify the correct disk of your two disks - checking the dmesg output will be helpful. Your "problem" disk might be /dev/sda or /dev/sdb or something else, depending on your h/w config, which is why you need to check dmesg etc.)

c) Where in the world are you? There might be a local pro on this board who might be willing to offer their services at a reasonable rate.

d) Do you have another 500GB (or larger) drive which you can connect (internally or externally) to this system, and which you would be happy to erase / overwrite - or if you don't have one, would you be willing to buy one?

e) How familiar are you with using Linux, Linux sys admin, and using raw devices?

[sadeq.azizi]

first check s.m.a.r.t attribute and scan with MHDD.

[lcoughey]

Why ask for professional advice if you have no intention of following the advice given?

If your data is important to you, as you suggest it is, stop and send it to a pro. Thus far, I suspect that your writing to the drive has likely increased the cost of the recovery by at least 25% and decreased the percentage of recoverable data. As the SMART error is suggesting, the drive is going to fail and likely has, if you cannot even access it now. Once it fails, your price will likely be 4 times as much, if it is recoverable at all.

[Vulcan]

@sadeq.azizi:

How do the results of either of those 2 actions, change the available DIY recovery options at this stage, and what about the risks of investigation vs. recovery on a failing disk? [Note what the OP has already explained about the symptoms (what further use would MHDD scan be?) and note the error message on the BIOS screen (what further use would SMART info be?)]

[fzabkar]

what further use would SMART info be?]

I would think that extracting the SMART data would be painless. AISI, the data would be stored in two sectors. The SMART report would also offer concrete confirmation as to the state of the drive. That said, I agree that the most likely reason for a BIOS warning is an excessive number of bad sectors, in which case a surface scan would be inadvisable.

[Vulcan]

The SMART report would also offer concrete confirmation as to the state of the drive.

We already know that the drive is reporting a SMART failure - that is concrete confirmation, from the same SMART data. While I agree with your guess as to what the detailed SMART data would probably show, given the actual symptoms reported by the OP, IMHO the specific attribute(s) triggering that SMART failure is irrelevant.

As you say, it is probably harmless to collect it, but I see no actual value in doing so (i.e. it wouldn't actually change the next step, whether DIY or pro). All IMHO

[Heman19]

Hello Everyone,
I have a - Buffalo ministation 1T portable hardrive ( HD-PC1TU2/BB )
By mistake , i unplugged without proper ( Safely remove hardware )

Thats cause,

as soon i connect my hardrive - In my computer - its shows: LOCAL DRIVE C
when i click on it - message appear as drive not formatted . As i know , if you format - i will lose every files in it.

i have important documents in my hardrive - unfortunately where im now, there is not IT guru.

I checked my hard disk by connecting it to other computers still appear as Local drive : C

im using - windows XP Professional

I need really help here because im working in somalia for humanitarian aid., all my work that i have done yet is on it, including a lot of pics important pictures
Any help or suggestions will be truly appreciated

Thank you very much

[Vulcan]

@Heman19,

Your problem is totally different from the issue being discussed in this thread. Therefore please start a new thread for your issue instead of hijacking this thread. There are lots of possible solutions which people can offer for you to try, when you have started a new thread - and please learn to make duplicate copies on different media (i.e. backups) of your important files