[narlus]

two nights ago i started to get CRC errors on certain pieces of data; couldn't move, copy or play these files. i did a bit of web searching and found the suspected cause to be portions of these files were likely written to a bad sector of the hard drive.

so, i moved over all the data i'd not already backed up, and as one of the solutions i'd found, i ran chkdsk /r from the CMD prompt to repair the bad sectors.

i had to unmount the drive first (in the CMD window), and then it ran fine, checking 100% of the drive, and attempting to fix a dozen or so files. since it was a 500GB drive, i let it run over night.

edit - assuming i get this thing back and running, should i trust it? or junk it?

i rebooted and now, i can't access that drive. is there a way to 're-mount' this that i should know about? any ideas?

 

[$tinkle]

what was the error message? we have a vast resource of internal HW forums here at work i can check.

 

[narlus]

what was the error message? we have a vast resource of internal HW forums here at work i can check.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclic_redundancy_check

any ideas on how to get my drive recognized again?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Have you checked Device Manager and Disk Management to see what state the drive is in as far as the OS is concerned?

 

[binary visions]

Can you see it in Disk Management? Right click My Computer, click Manage and select Disk Management.

 

[narlus]

i checked it before the chkdsk and it was healthy (i was originally worried that my CRC errors were caused by drive failure or virus attack)... haven't checked it since (didn't have much time this morning to troubleshoot).

edit - i think i'm gonna connect it to my laptop and see if it's recognized.

 

[syadasti]

Did you check disk management afterwards though (as everyone has mentioned)? The partition might need to be initialized and formatted...

 

[narlus]

i checked it late last night after getting home from the Cat Power show and it said the entire disk was free. huh. my other WD external seems to not being seen via windows explorer now either. wtf?

any ideas for troubleshooting tonight?

 

[binary visions]

i checked it late last night after getting home from the Cat Power show and it said the entire disk was free. huh. my other WD external seems to not being seen via windows explorer now either. wtf?

any ideas for troubleshooting tonight?

Same advice as before. Check it in Disk Management

 

[narlus]

Same advice as before. Check it in Disk Management

i checked it late last night [edit - in DISK MANAGEMENT] after getting home from the Cat Power show and it said the entire disk was free.

i guess i should have appended my previous post.

what exactly am i looking for? the drive was never partitioned.

 

[binary visions]

Right click on the disk, create a new partition. Then format it. It'll then show up in My Computer.

I meant:

my other WD external seems to not being seen via windows explorer now either. wtf?

^ Check that in disk management, see if it's showing up.

 

[narlus]

Right click on the disk, create a new partition. Then format it. It'll then show up in My Computer.

I meant:

^ Check that in disk management, see if it's showing up.

but if i partition and format, i will lose a bunch of data i'd rather move over to a new drive if possible. i moved all the backed-up data, but there's a flaw in my backup system, and restoring all the files currently on that drive, from the DVD-R backups, will be a monumental PITA.

 

[$tinkle]

^ http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2007/03/faustus-and-monkey-trap.html

how fitting. (4th para & on)

 

[narlus]

ok, it seems like all the file structure stuff is gone (would running chkdsk /r blow that away?). i plugged the drive into my laptop, and it found the device, but said it wasn't formatted and asked me if i wanted to format it.

i don't want to if i don't have to, but do i have a choice? like i said, i'd like to recover some of that data.

i was thinking i could use ZeroAssumptionRecovery after formatting, which worked well when i rescued photos from a formatted CF card.

thoughts?

 

[H8R]

ok, it seems like all the file structure stuff is gone (would running chkdsk /r blow that away?). i plugged the drive into my laptop, and it found the device, but said it wasn't formatted and asked me if i wanted to format it.

i don't want to if i don't have to, but do i have a choice? like i said, i'd like to recover some of that data.

i was thinking i could use ZeroAssumptionRecovery after formatting, which worked well when i rescued photos from a formatted CF card.

thoughts?

STOP.

Same thing happened to me. Mrs H8R managed to toast the file partition info on the drive.

XP mirrors this info at the beginning and end of the drive. Mrs H8R managed to toast both.


FILE SCAVENGER.

http://quetek.com/prod02.htm

Worked beautifully where others did not. (I tried several)


I used this to recover everything and put it on an external drive, then I re-formatted it and went Ubuntu.

 

[narlus]

i ended up finding a copy of GetDataBack, and i'm currently running it on my drive (estimated time, almost 10 hours). it's a little over one hour into it.

 

[narlus]

well, it worked, but i'd forgotten which file structure i was using on this disk (turns out it wasn't NTFS, it was FAT, so i had to run that utility). GetDataBack is recommended based on my results.