Hard drive failure - disk reads some data, waits a long time, reads some more, repeat
 

My hard drive is almost dead. I want to quickly get all the data off it and put onto a new hard drive. It seems to spin up ok (i can hear it spin up) but when reading data its like it reads a few bytes, then waits like 10 seconds, then reads a few more bytes (judging by the 'reading' noise the drive makes when its working). I think it will take months at this rate to transfer everything from one drive to another.. if it even works. But i have a hunch that I will get alot of 'cyclic redundancy check' errors before that even happens.

Any suggestions? I am using xcopy right now, and it has taken hours to move the first 10mb file (still working on it).

I can see the directory structure in explorer, but it takes at least 5 minutes to do so.

put it in the fridge

If it's to the point where its pausing like that, say good bye to your data. It will most likely die very soon.

Drives are cheap, pick one up and use it regularly to backup. :2 cents:

If you're lucky then it's just a bad spot on the platter and it may get over that.

If you're unlucky then it may be something mechanical, eg something has put the servo arm out of alignment and the feedback circuitry can't properly compensate for that.

The best solution would be to go back in time and regularly back up your data :), but failing that perhaps look at vendor provided utilities such as Seatools or WD Diagnostics. I don't know about WDD but with Seatools a "long" test will attempt to recover and remap bad sectors. (Note that this feature will probably only work with Seagate drives, so choose the appropriate application for your brand)

dammittttttttt
anyone successfully dealt with such an issue?

its a maxtor brand..
can data recovery companies recover my data? and how much will it cost me? its a 500gb drive, im sure the data is still ok (i can open a 15kb file in like 30 mins) and the problem is a mechanical one

Not 100% sure but recent versions of Seatools may support Maxtor drives since they own them now. Go to www.seagate.com and download it, I use the CD-ISO version, boots to FreeDOS then runs Seatools. Select SHORT test to see if that succeeds (it may fail), then run a LONG test to see if it can recover/remap the sectors.

Data recovery will cost a shitload, you'll need to determine whether your data is worth that much.

you can try the freezer trick, put in it in a ziploc bag and put it in the freezer for about 30 to 60 mins. take it out, hook it up to another computer and try to get as much data off of it.

Do not try to use data recovery programs untill you get the data you REALLY need. These programs usually do alot of reading and seeking, which will just shorten the life of a dying drive.

If this hard drive is your OS drive, get the drive turned off as fast as possible. use another drive and install your OS on, then hook this drive up as a slave to pull the data off.

Hopefully that made sense. ICQ me if need be.

Seriously. Put it in an antistatic baggy, and stick it in the freezer for an hour or two. Pull it out, stick it in an external case, and pray.

Does the freezer trick really work these days? What does it do, shrink the platter slightly? If so then a big-ass cooling fan pointed at the HD might also be a good idea

It still works. I used it in '06 to recover personal documents from a friend's downed drive. Sometimes the failure is caused to components overheating, and the 'freezer trick' cools them down enough for the controller to work. No clue as to mechanically, but you lose nothing by trying it.

Make sure all cables are properly pushed in and making contact:2 cents:

yeah it still works, I've saved customers data that way a few times in the last year

it will cost a minimum of $800 and will go higher. All depends who you use, but since your hard drive still gets detected in the bios and windows you can use data recovery software like http://www.runtime.org/ which works. I've used it to get data from a hard drive that had similar issues to yours.

Now if your hard drive isn't even detected in the bios a data recovery company would be the best option if you can't get it to get detected.

and the freezer trick does work, but if the hard drive has an electrical problem which in your case it doesn't it won't do shit.

you can try it out and see if it works. Freezing it will give ya about a 10 minute to 1 hour window depending on how bad the drive is damaged.

Really only try the freezer trick if the drive is not recognized by your OS or bios. Just get as much data off as fast as possible. It could be the arm or the motor spinning the platters. You want to have the drive powered on for as little as possible, and get the data as fast as possible.

The above two posts are contradictory.

One says that the freezer trick will not work with an electrical fault

The other says to only try it if the drive is not recognised (ie, an electrical fault)

So which is it?

I'd try cloning to a replacement drive using Ghost or something similar before I tried any freezer nonsense.

and the fact that it will not work due to an electrical fault is the truth.

if the drive is not recognized it doesn't mean that it's an electrical fault. the needle may have crashed on the platters and it causes the drive to not be able to spin even though there's power to the drive and causing it not to be detected by the bios. If he freezes it and it works than it was not an electrical problem. If he freezes it and nothing happens than it may be an electrical thing.

If it's an electrical issue and no matter what the person does the drive does nothing then it's best to bring in to a data recovery company. They will replace the logic board on the hdd with a good one from the exact same model hdd and, if that's all that was wrong, they can recover your data.

you can replace the logic board yourself, but you have to make 100% sure that the logic board used comes from a hard drive EXACTLY like yours (brand, model etc..) and you will need to know what you're doing. You'll have to solder some shit etc.. I would personally have a professional take care of that IF that's what I needed.

the freezer trick works, but in his case the drive is being recognized so it would be pointless to do that. As I said, he can try to use data recovery software to see if he can recover the data that he wants.

I haven't used Ghost before, does it give you an exact bootable copy of your entire drive?

is it the best and or only way to do that? and do all installed programs work perfectly as if it was the same drive if you switch?

Threads like these remind me I need to do a backup... :thumbsup

Open up your case and check for dust.

I had this problem once a long long time ago, and was about to take my computer to the shop and when I took the cover off there was a thick ass coat of dust on top of the drive and the RAM....I blew out all the dust and the computer worked like new again.

Use R-Studio, first thing you should do with it is create an image of the drive. Then you can restore from the image.

I'm saying create the image FIRST, because one time in my haste I tried to scan and recover from the bad drive first and in the process it died on me.

The software is really good tho, I've had it recover over 90% of the data and keep directory structure intact.

It really depends on the issue. 'electrical fault' is quite subjective, depending on your comprension level of the bits involved. If it's overheating and has a weak solder point that expands too far when it gets warm, yes, it will help.

If you have a crashed head, nothing's going to fix that - however, the thermal compression may assist in 'tugging it out', if it's literally carved itself into a tiny divot.

Basically: "It's free. Try it." If it's fucked, and it's not worth the grand or so it'll cost to have someone attempt recovery, you've lost nothing.