Rescuing old hard drive

[lucadelcarlo]

I would like to resucue all the data on my damaged T42's hard drive and transfer it to another T43. When inserting this old drive into a newer T43, the following message appears:

"Error:
Warning: Your internal HDD may not function correctly in this system. Ensure that your HDD is supported on this system and that it as the latest...."

Hiting continue and a blue screen appears stating:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage"

Is the HDD damaged; what's the proper way to pull all the data off it then?

[ajkula66]

No, the hard drive is likely OK, but:

a) You're getting a warning about a non-supported drive in a T43, which is harmless and

b) T42 and T43 use different HALs, so the Windows installation "sees" unknown hardware and shuts down.

Try booting into the Safe Mode (F8 on boot) and let us know whether you're able to get in there.

Good luck.

[lucadelcarlo]

After booting in safe mode the same blue screen message appears, which also advises running a check disk. What's the next step to take?

Thank you.

[fefrie]

best thing to do is to buy a cheap enclosure for less than $10 and run it as an external hard drive.

[ajkula66]

Boot from a PC Doctor for DOS CD, run diagnnostics on the hard drive.

If it passes, find a retail XP disk and repair the install.

If it fails, boot from a "live" Linux CD and move the needed files to a flash drive or USB hard drive.

Good luck.

[lucadelcarlo]

Is their any consensus on the first suggestion, to obtain an enclosure and run it as an external hardrive? This seems simple.

[Neil]

Yeah, that's good and simple. Almost as simple as booting a Linux CD with the drive in the hard drive bay. Nothing to purchase that way, and you can quickly see if the data is still intact on the drive. You will still need another drive, either USB flash drive or USB enclosure to copy files.

Edit: Oh wait! I had this thread confused with another. Yes, put the drive in an external inclosure and copy the files you need.

[lucadelcarlo]

What type of external enclosure is needed? SATA?

Will the error message be avoided simply by accessing the drive from a second enclosure? It's sounds as if that's the case, but just double checking as it would seem to me that this would resolve the error problem.

Thanks.

[Neil]

Well the drive from a T42 will be IDE PATA, so I would suggest a matching enclsoure. And, yes you will bypass the boot error because you will NOT be booting the drive in the enclosure.

[lucadelcarlo]

Will this enclosure device work?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/2.5-inch-sata-i ... ure-221180

Note that I am using windows 7 in a t43 and the external drive was operating on windows xp in a t42. Hence the answer to this question on the maplin site causes some concern:

"will this item work with windows 7

A)

Windows 7 support is not guaranteed for this product currently. However the item should work using the standard mass storage class device drivers found within Windows."

Thank you

[ajkula66]

It looks like it should work...but you got me confused here...what is the end result that you're looking to accomplish?

Retrieve the files from the old hard drive, or actually use that drive in the T43?

[lucadelcarlo]

I intend to retrieve the files from the old drive and use them in the newer t43.

[lucadelcarlo]

I now have the new external HD enclosure and have been attempting to access the files on the old HD. When clicking on one of My Documets in the old HD, I receive the message "You do not have permission to access this folder. Click here to get access". Click and the drive begins working a great deal. On Windows7, I'm seeing the green bar up top indicating activity rise to the right and near the end, then stops just before it completes, while the drive continues to whir away indefinitely. What to do?


Here's the enclosure:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200594002117? ... 1423.l2649

[RealBlackStuff]

You need to take Ownership of the stuff on that external HD.
http://www.winxptutor.com/ownership.htm

[lucadelcarlo]

The t42 old drive in the external IDE PATA enclosure has ceased functioning properly. Most - but not all - data was copied earlier and I was continuing to use the old drive. When plugging the usb cable in, the IDE PATA enclosure's green light comes on, and some faint mechanical noise can be heard in the drive for a few seconds, then stops. A notification sound is heard on my t43 when plugging it in, but the drive does not show up on my computer. Previously, the green light would turn to red intermittantly showing some activity on the drive.

Is it....dead?

Thank you.

[Neil]

Apparently....Run the PC-Doctor HDD tests to confirm.

[lucadelcarlo]

Care to share a recommendation on which PC doctor to use?

http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.ht ... asc&rpp=10

Thank you.

[rkawakami]

IBM, and now Lenovo, provides a version of PC Doctor that has been designed to be used with Thinkpads. You can get a free copy from here:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... MIGR-56222

Click on the link: "PC-Doctor DOS Bootable CD" near the top of that page. It should start to download a file named 1ety48ww.exe. After the download finishes, you need to find where it was stored on your computer and then execute it. That creates a directory named C:\DRIVERS\WIN\PCDRDOS\1ety48ww. There will be an .ISO file there that must be written onto a blank CD. You will need a CD burner program that is capable of correctly handling the .ISO format. One such free program is:

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/

You cannot simply "write" the .ISO file to the CD as with a normal data file. The .ISO format requires that it be written as an "image". Once you have put PC Doctor onto the CD, simply boot the laptop with that CD (press F12 at the splash screen and select the CD/DVD drive) and follow the instructions. Hard drive tests are found under the Diagnostics/Fixed Disk menu. All of the options there are designed to not write any data to the disk, however if your drive has a physical problem like a crashed head, then there's a chance you could (further) damage the surface of the platters. If that's the case, then about the only thing you can do to retrieve the data is to send it in to a specialized company that performs data recovery (mucho $$$$$$).

[lucadelcarlo]

Great, thank you. Now just so I'm entirely clear, is there at least a chance that going through this and running PC doctor will allow me to use again - or find out how to use -my old drive? Or will it merely confirm what is obvious: it's not working. Thanks.

[Neil]

You are correct. PC-Doctor just runs tests. For many HDD failures, there is no repair. However, if the problem turns out to be a few bad sectors on the disc, there are apps like HDD Regenerator, that will block off (not really repair) bad sectors so that the drive is usable agian for a time. But, in my experience, the drive will still need replacing sooner than later.

[lucadelcarlo]

The new enclosure that the drive was installed in was a very, very tight fit. It was fine for a month, but perhaps after some movement, the tension finally did damage.

Honestly not sure if it's worth going through all this trouble. It depends, of course, on how badly the data is needed, but I feel a dead end coming on.

*Update: I've tapped the drive briskly...and it began to work And all data has been copied. Just fortunate this time.

Thanks again.

[Orclas]

*Update: I've tapped the drive briskly...and it began to work And all data has been copied. Just fortunate this time.

Thanks again.

Hehe, yeah, sometimes it takes small measures to make that failing HD run just one more time. Other (desperate) measures include a) heating it up in the oven (dunno to which temperature) and b) putting it in the freezer (both supposedly to make mechanical parts either expand or contract respectively).

Have never tried it myself, but a friend of mine did with success. Can't remember if it was the oven or the freezer that fixed it though

[cadillacmike68]

It's called percussive maintenance1

Glad you got all your files.

Now does anyone have a real HDD low level format utility so i can try to refresh the sectors IDs on a Hitachi 30GB that is giving me some additude? No worries about data recovery, as it was blank / cloned.

Thanks in advance.

[RealBlackStuff]

There you go: http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low ... rmat-Tool/

[Orclas]

Now does anyone have a real HDD low level format utility so i can try to refresh the sectors IDs on a Hitachi 30GB that is giving me some additude? No worries about data recovery, as it was blank / cloned.

I use UBCD (Universal Boot CD) as a one-stop-shop for a number of PC/HD tinkering purposes. Bootable and great set of tools in one place - including some that are quite beyond me to properly use - as well as a more or less full Linux environment, providing some nifty tools for GUI needy people like myself.

OK, having installed and configured an XBMC Live HTPC has indeed made me endeavour into some command line adventures (succesful such I may add), but it still makes me a tad nervous...

[cadillacmike68]

Thank you RBS.

Orclas,

Is that also referred to as the Ultimate Boot CD? I DL'd that and created 2 CDs (one for travelling and one for home) and will loot at it as well. Iff the drive will not refresh no big deal.

[Orclas]

Is that also referred to as the Ultimate Boot CD?

Universal, ultimate, age, absentmindedness, alzheimer, who knows?

[cadillacmike68]

That HDD utility worked - seems to at least. Now that is the only HDD that my T23 with SXGA+ will recognize...

One thing after another.

On the plus side i MAY have found the answer to my WDC 320GB (and now 250GB) HDDs keep on giving me the blank screen with a blinking cursor at top left...

film at 11