Hi Guys! Well my c: drive is dying as we speak but I've managed to back it up so no real harm done yet. Unfortunately my big storage drive - 160gb seagate - has become unreadable and I was thinking that a few weeks ago someone here had a similer prob. Does anyone know of an app that can repair an unreadable, undefragable, unscanable drive?????? If not I've lost all my music (10gb), and 60gigs of home movies I was editing for creating dvds.

:( Thats horrible, I hope someone can help. Hugs

Attached Link: http://www.runtime.org/downloads.htm

It comes in both ntfs and fat 32 so you can pick which one you need..

sorry can't find a free program to do what you want. From their site:: "Recover your files when the data is no longer accessible due to formatting, fdisk, virus attack, power or software failure. Get everything back even when the drive's partition table, boot record, Master File Table or root directory is lost or corrupt."

Message edited on: 01/18/2006 07:55

I have tried this type of software in the past and it is sketchy at best (IMHO). Still, worth the try though:) Try these;) http://www.freebyte.com/filediskutils/#datarecovery http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm http://www.gold-software.com/download3032.html I dont know what these programs are like now, but when I used similar software in the past I actually had to have the data recovery software installed prior to the deletion or corruption, or whatever the case. Dont know how they work these days though. Backups are my friends. Good luck Bryster:)

That was me. And I'm just preparing to install a new disk and try to rescue the partition that went kaput. A friend recommended Restorer 2000 Pro. Not the free version, but the full one. He swears it saved him a couple of times because it can not only undelete files, but also completely recover damaged partitions, even when Windows don't recognise the disk anymore.

Hey! Thanks Guys! You've been a great help as usual and I realy appreciate it. However the big drive is terminal so it's been re-formatted and never to be trusted again. The good news is that the home movies are still on their orginal dv-tapes with the didgi-cam - I hadn't recorded over them yet! The bad news is I lost 10gigs of music but I think I still have most of that on dvd-rw. And yes! I did backup onto dvds. My c: drive is holding it together just but I backed everything up onto a spare 20gb hdd. The only thing I'm in danger of losing now is 7gigs of poser stuff. I'm now looking at getting a 400gb but I may have to upgrade to Windoze XP from win2k sp4. Word of warning though......don't trust Seagate SATAs using a pci card. They're just not that reliable. Thanks once again for all your input!

hmmm my dad always tells me not to buy seagate harddisks. He repairs computers and apparently the brand that seems to get the most defects was seagate...

seagate are a bit like watergate...have big crashes ;)

I would suggest buying the cheapest unbranded OEM type discs and setting up a RAID array so that your first disc is mirrored by the second one.

Dadt: problem with an array is that I would need to use a pci board and that causes a bottle-neck in my system. But thanks for the suggestion.

I've built 17 computers in the last 8 years. (Not all mine.) And the only 2 hard drives I've had a problem with were a 10 gig and a 40 gig seagate. They were both in duel HD systems and refused to recognise the other drive unless slaves. And they would only format to there full size after multiple formats. Stick to Western Digital.

I had a HD go kaput fairly recently. The sequence was: Some programs started to get slower to load. Data started going missing. Windows wouldn't do a re-start - except... After about an hour or two, everything worked fine. Then the same thing started to happen again. So I did the "burnt finger" test (touched the offending HD.) It was very hot. I guessed it was a siezed bearing or whatever, shut down the PC, waited til next day and got a replacement drive. Installed new drive, loaded system from CDs (BORING) and eventually had a working system back. Installed "packed up" drive and managed to get the vast majority of the data from it onto the new drive. Then junked the failed one. Just by coincidence, it was a Seagate drive that failed.... Cheers, Diolma

The best time to backup is before you need to
the next best time is when you think you need to
the worst time is after it's too late..;)
I've been fairly lucky so far on hard drives..but then I have 2 CD cases full of backups..suspenders and belt..;)

My 'dying' drive is a Maxtor. The compltely screwed-up-lost-data-drive is a 160gb Seagate SATA. Go figure.

Message edited on: 01/18/2006 15:09

I really do feel sorry for you Bry. On a lighter note maybe you could Boolean yourself a new computer. ;)

I stay away from Maxtor and Seagate. I only use Western Digital.

Uh-oh ... my C is a Seagate and my D is a Maxtor. Hmmm ...

"My 'dying' drive is a Maxtor. The compltely screwed-up-lost-data-drive is a 160gb Seagate SATA. Go figure" Strangely enough Bryster i have a 120gig Maxtor HD here that o use for a paperweight. I got it about two years ago and after i had it installed and everything put on it the thing started playing up. Forunately i still i had my original HD which was a Sony HD(i think) so i went back to that. Reason i Still have the Maxtor and use it for a paperweight is because i got burnt. I bought it off E-Bay and the person i got it from used a bogas return address.. People at E-Bay were great to me after the replied to my emails, they looked up all the details on the person for me and found that they had used a net cafe to setup the account on E-Bay.. So be warned all..you can get burned even from an online buy..

In the past I have had massive data loss from both Maxtor and Seagate. I suppose you will get different advice on drive selection but the general consensus here is that both these brands have issues. Close call Bryster:)

One brand I always liked was Connor. But Seagate bought them and closed them down.

The Maxtor Maxline series and diamondmax series is fantastic, so it always depends on the series of the drive. Hitachi is always reliable, I have a 250 gig that in addition to my boot drive is on continuously. I read that the most stressing thing for a HD is spinning up and down, so they say leaving it on continuously is better than turning your computer on and off all the time. Just run folding@home and help cure cancer while you sleep :)

Leaving a computer on is like leaving your car on. Eventually the moving parts die. Not to mention all the dirt that gets sucked into the computer which causes heat problems. If you leave your computer on 24 hours a day and only use it for 8 hours each day, that's 16 extra hours a day of wear and tear and dirt sucking your computer doesn't need. Do you leave car idling in the garage when you don't drive anywhere? There's earth, wind, fire, and water. Computers only like one of them. And that's wind. The rest kill computers.

Bryster, If someone throws away an old computer I'm on it either to recondition or scavange what I can and environmentally dispose the rest . . . that reminds me - I gotta go through all 6 computers (cleanung) next month. I now have a couple older computers relagated to playing games and wordprocessing and keep the xp focused on the important things so I share the time I use a computer between the group. Sorry to hear about the drive. sounds like you already backed it up though. - TJ

Well after all your kind support what can I say? A great big Thanks!!! The thing is my pc is on 24/7, does work 16/24, runs SETI or burns DVDs for the rest. These last few months we've been turning home-movie footage into DVDs, editing, adding titles, that kinda stuff. It's a lot of fun. But a strain on the hardware. We're looking at getting 400gb and winXP, so that's like 150-200. ...mmmm... now where did my piggy-bank go? Thanks again, Guys! You're the best!

Shonner, I've been arguing that very same point of leaving computers on, with many friends who think it's better to have their personal computers running 24 hours a day. My son who is an NT Specialist says that personal computers should be shut off when one goes to bed at night. I agree with this observation. :)

Shoot it.

Hard drive life-spans are rated in hours. The more hours, the more wear. It's a moving part that end-users don't realize. Same with the power supply, floppy/ZIP/CD-ROM/DVD drives, and video/CPU fans. The more hours, the more dust that gets sucked into them and the more heat added to the system to toast things.

But computers are cheap now, so end-users should look at that as a plus when having to replace their fairly new system so soon. Computers kept on floors are high risk. Computers kept on carpets are severe risk after 3-6 months of being left on 24/7.

Message edited on: 01/20/2006 01:05

Now you tell me! I just bought a 400gb Seagate external drive... darn!