bigdog2626 Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Took me awhile to sort out my registration so I could post on this Thread, alas I now can. I read through all the comments on repairing HDD and would say this: 1. If a HDD has a mechanical failure, i.e. makes a clunking or clanking type noise (similar to a knocking noise) while you are attempting to use it, or it does not power on or spin at all, then the HDD most likely is "Kaput" 2. If however the HDD is recognized by the BIOS and it does spin, then there is hope. I have used Spinrite 5 and 6 from the Steve Gibson site as well as the HDD REgenerator both v1.51 and v1.71 from Dmitriy Primochenko many a time with success. The URL's I have provided are the defaults for their location. Yes HDD's can be repaired and Bad Sectors can be recovered ! - It just takes a long time to do so and may not be economical to do so. When I say a long time I mean an 80GB HDD can take a week or more depending on the number of bad sectors found that need to be recovered. 3. another point to remember, is that after the repair, and can be attempted before, is to download the "Low Level Formatter" from the HDD's manufacturers web site and load this on a bootable media (HDD, USB or CD or DVD) to be able to test and perform the low level format, and then run the fdisk to see if the failed HDD can accept partitioning , followed by a re-boot and then attempt a normal format with the /u (unconditional) option. E.G. at the cmd prompt type format ?: /u (replace the ? with the drive letter on which the HDD is mounted) If it performs and does complete the tasks in item 3, which is good and you have your HDD back. If attempts in item 3 fail, then you can try the Spinrite or the HDD Regenerators, as the sectors must be in working order before any partitioning or formating can be applied. I am currently running such a repair on an 80GB HDD (Seagate) with the older HDD Regenerator v1.51. It has so far run for 3+ days (continuously) and is at the 2352Mb of the 80000 (80GB) and has so far discovered and repaired 29428 bad sectors. This is not the first time I have used these utilities to repair HDD, this one is the 63rd HDD with the previous attempts being successful with 51 out of the 62 attempts. In closing, I will say to all the sceptics that they are wrong and HDD's can be repaired, if you have the know-how and patients to do so. BTW: I also do forensic file recoveries from HDD's and recently recovered a file that the User had deleted 9 month ago. I must try the Flobo HDD Bad Sector Repair 1.5 i found this after searching lost clusters with bad sectors on google it was the 2nd link at techarena lately i have been having hdd issue's which made my windows 7 completely mess up & not load to the desktop just to a black screen no water mark nothing i checked disk right before that & got tons of errors and after that i installed a 2nd hdd to bot from but xp not 7 :( is the a way you guys here would maybe recommended 1. If a HDD has a mechanical failure, i.e. makes a clunking or clanking type noise (similar to a knocking noise) while you are attempting to use it,or it does not power on or spin at all, then the HDD most likely is "Kaput" which this hdd isn't making no load noise it powers on & is recognized by windows im thinking it might not want to spin sometimes but it does spin since using this 2nd hdd to boot from everything seems to work i ran check disk in cmd & this is what i got 2. If however the HDD is recognized by the BIOS and it does spin, then there is hope.which it is recognized by the bios & does spin with no load clunking sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 (edited) That's a sign that your hard drive is on the verge of dieing. I would recommend backing up all your data and replacing it as soon as you can. If you continue using this hard drive, your data could get corrupted and you may end up loosing all your data. Edited February 23, 2012 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdog2626 Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtp Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 I am having hard drive problems also, I tried Hirens boot disk and did a memtest and checked & repaired all the hard drive clusters & sectors I think, but win 7 keeps locking up on that drive, with live OS like BT5 and Ubuntu I had no problems but when I tried to reformat and boot from the win 7 disc to format and reinstall it locks up when it shows the windows logo. Now I changed my hard drive to an older one I have and it seems to be working but sometimes my computer just reboots out of no where, any ideas? btw: Also coould my hard drives have been fried during a long distance moving process? say I had my hard drives on a moving truck traveling from NY to NV, I think the trucks have to goto stops to be weighed and scanned, could the xray of the truck have caused the issue? I also have 2 western digital external usb drives that did not work when I finally got them from the move.. but I threw them in the freezer for about 15 to 20 minutes and that seemed to do the trick to fix them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) I am having hard drive problems also, I tried Hirens boot disk and did a memtest and checked & repaired all the hard drive clusters & sectors I think, but win 7 keeps locking up on that drive, with live OS like BT5 and Ubuntu I had no problems but when I tried to reformat and boot from the win 7 disc to format and reinstall it locks up when it shows the windows logo. Now I changed my hard drive to an older one I have and it seems to be working but sometimes my computer just reboots out of no where, any ideas? 1) Make sure the CPU is not overheating! (Check the CPU cooler, ensure its not obstructed or clogged with dust). 2) Make sure your PSU has plenty of watts, to support all components. A good power supply should be of around 700 to 1000 watts. 3) Check all internal cables, ensure they are firmly connected. Number 1 and 2 will usually cause your system to restart unexpectedly, or even shutdown to prevent further damage. Edited April 10, 2012 by Infiltrator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtp Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 1) Make sure the CPU is not overheating! (Check the CPU cooler, ensure its not obstructed or clogged with dust). 2) Make sure your PSU has plenty of watts, to support all components. A good power supply should be of around 700 to 1000 watts. 3) Check all internal cables, ensure they are firmly connected. Number 1 and 2 will usually cause your system to restart unexpectedly, or even shutdown to prevent further damage. I recently cleaned out the pc with that air dust spray stuff, so theres not really too much dust in the box, the system has worked perfect for years and the only mod's I really did was upgrade the RAM, HD and graphic card, and that worked well until I moved my computer stuff from FL to NV. I also noticed one of the fan's on the side of the box inside of the clear see threw box stopped working, so I unplugged that fan. Is losing one fan (it is a neon fancy looking type fan, looks like for decoration maybe) could that cause it to keep rebooting? I figured the best thing is to unplug it since the fan was not spinning and using electricity still to glow green to save energy. Checked the cables and stuff and everything seems to be plugged in correctly. I dunno .. I have seen power supply units go out, maybe mine is about to kick the bucket and is warning me? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3TeK Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I would check out SpinRite..it's saved my ass a couple times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infiltrator Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I recently cleaned out the pc with that air dust spray stuff, so theres not really too much dust in the box, the system has worked perfect for years and the only mod's I really did was upgrade the RAM, HD and graphic card, and that worked well until I moved my computer stuff from FL to NV. I also noticed one of the fan's on the side of the box inside of the clear see threw box stopped working, so I unplugged that fan. Is losing one fan (it is a neon fancy looking type fan, looks like for decoration maybe) could that cause it to keep rebooting? I figured the best thing is to unplug it since the fan was not spinning and using electricity still to glow green to save energy. Checked the cables and stuff and everything seems to be plugged in correctly. I dunno .. I have seen power supply units go out, maybe mine is about to kick the bucket and is warning me? thanks I'd check your power supply and see if that's what is causing the issue. Moreover, if that's not the issue, the CPU could be the likely culprit. I experienced a similar issue, with my old computer where it would restart for no reason. After speeding some time troubleshooting, I discovered the CPU was causing the reboots, as it was old I simply disposed the computer and built a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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