Next steps for dealing with possibly fried hard drive

[StevenB]

OK, so I know enough technically to be dangerous, but hardware has never been my strong suit.

We had a few power outages here today, and now one of my computers is hosed. Basically, it goes through the BIOS and then stops dead in its tracks.

The BIOS has an IDE diagnostic tool, and when I run it against the primary hard drive, it tells me "Failed - Return Code 7". Which I take to mean that my drive is hosed.

Fair enough. I have another PC, so I do have the possibility of swapping this drive into another PC to look at it further. I keep backups on an external hard drive using a product called Argentum Backup, and I was also using a program called Acronis TrueImage to take images of the whole drive, although I'm not sure when the last time that ran was.

So, what would you recommend I do next?

On a semi-related note, what, precisely, is the point of surge protectors if they don't protect your equipment from, um, POWER SURGES?

Thanks very much!

Steve

 

[vacunita]

Well first would be to slave the "hosed" drive to a functional machine. And try to access it with your garden variety file recovery tool.

If your in a hurry to get the machine working again, purchasing a new hard drive to replace the "hosed" one is the first step.

Then you can pull out one of your images and copy it onto the new hard drive.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[StevenB]

Any recommendations for "garden variety file recovery tools"?

 

[vacunita]

File Recovery Pro

http://www.netwind.com/html/file-recovery-pro.html

GetDataBack from Runtime.

http://www.runtime.org

My money is on the second one.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[CorruptedLogic]

Return Code 7 sounds like you have a Dell, i fit's still under warranty, Dell will replace the drive. Just make sure you get your data off before you call them (you need to return the defunct drive to them within 7 days of receipt of the new one or they charge you.) On another note, does the suspect drive make any pretty noises when you attempt to boot from it, or does it just spin normally?

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....

 

[StevenB]

It seems to spin fine, no ugly sounds. Windows just won't recognize it.

It is a Dell, but well out of warranty.

Any other recommendations for good data recovery tools?

 

[CorruptedLogic]

You might want to try Spinrite from grc.com, it's a very low level data recovery tool (it takes forever but is the best tool i've ever used). So long as the BIOS will see the drive, spinrite will attempt to fix it. Another, high level tool, that i like is EASUS Data recovery, that seems to work well in Windows, just slave the bad drive in a good system and install Easus. I'v emanaged to recover over 100Gb of media and docs from a dead drive (Which also had a return code 7, incidentally).



CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....

 

[StevenB]

Hmm, OK, 1 tried, not so much luck. I tried the demo of Easeus Data Recovery. It looked like it was doing well, so I left it on overnight. 14 hours later, it was still only about 20% done, and said "32 hours to go", and the timer was counting UP still.

So, I gave up on that, for now at least. I'll try something else.

 

[CorruptedLogic]

Data recovery can take a LONG time. I once left a system going for about a week, eventually, spinrite fixed it so i could read my data off and transfer if to another drive before burying the old one in the back yard. I guess what i'm saying is stick with it. Oh, and the more you power on and off that suspect drive, the higher the chance that next time it will not power up at all. How big is the drive you're trying to recover data from (and how full is it)?

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....
This was supposed to be the future.....Where is my JetPack?!

 

[StevenB]

OK, again, thanks everyone for your help. I was able to recover all of the data with GetDataBack. I was able to use Acronis TrueImage to restore an older image of the partition. Now tonight I just have to plug it back into the other computer and see if it boots. If not, I'll have to format the drive and reinstall Windows. But at least I won't have lost any critical data.

If I do go that route, does anyone know any easy-ish ways to get a hold of key software serial numbers on that drive? I'm especially worried about the Win XP license, because I'm not at all confident I can find the serial #...

 

[CorruptedLogic]

If you can get the drive booted, you can use Belarc Advisor (google it) to extract all the product keys on the system.
Or, you could try this

http://www.petri.co.il/quickly_retrieve_windows_cd_key.htm

Either one looks like you need to be bale to boot into windows (even if it's only safe mode). If anyone knows of a way to do this without booting to the drive, I, for one, would very interested to find out


CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....
This was supposed to be the future.....Where is my JetPack?!

 

[StevenB]

Yeah, I have Belarc on the machine, IF I can get it to boot. (Hmm, I wonder if Belarc saved a copy of the last time I ran that program. That would help, although it's been a while.)

In the few minutes I had before work today, I threw the damaged drive into the original machine and fired it up, and it said it couldn't find the drive. But, I might have the jumper set wrong. I put it on "master," but I can't recall if it was set there originally, or to "cable select." Not sure about that kind of stuff, really. (There's only the one hard drive in that machine.

Anyway, I didn't have much time to play with it.

This one might work too:

http://www.winkeyfinder.com.

Thanks again!

Steve

 

[CorruptedLogic]

Belarc does indeed keep copies of profiles. Try looking in \Program Files\Belarc\Advisor then look for a file called <computername>.bci . That should get you at least the XP key, then you can do an overlay install and recover most of your programs.

CCNA, CCDP, Net+, A+
Work Smarter, Not Harder....
This was supposed to be the future.....Where is my JetPack?!

 

[StevenB]

w00t! Score 10 points for Acronis TrueImage. The last valid image I created, about 9 months ago, installed like a charm, and the machine booted right up. (I *did* have the jumper set wrong. )

That was slick. If I had been more diligent about creating images more frequently, this whole thing would have taken me just an evening to restore the image.

But, between GetDataBack, Acronis, and Argentum Backup, I have everything back and functional, with no loss of data. And hopefully a little the wiser. Plus, I have confirmation that the backup plan I have in place would be pretty robust if I actually followed it.

Thanks very much, everyone, for your help.

Steve