Dead hard drive?

[havn't a clue]

I am running xp pro on a system w/2 hard drives. I have used this setup for over a year with no problem until today. On boot up, I get the blue screen of death with the following message:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

UNBOOTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

I can get the unit to boot to the second hardrive, but I can not read the primary. I get a pop-up window that reads:

drive not formatted. Do you want to format now

I can not boot in safe mode. I get the blue screen. When I boot to second drive and right click the first drive, again it says drive not formatted.

Can I correct this? If not, how do I retrieve the data on that drive?

Thanks in advance for all help.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Start > Run > CMD > Chkdsk [Drive letter:] /f /R
Can't guarantee that that will do it, but it's quite possible.

[havn't a clue]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Ok. I'll give that a try. Thanks.

[havn't a clue]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Ok. Tried that and got the following:

Errors found. CHKDSK cannot continue in read-only mode.

If the disk has gone bad, do you know a way to get data from the bad drive?

Thanks

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Instead, go into My computer and right-click on the drive, and then click properties. Go to the tools tab, and click "Check now," which should be listed underneath "Error Checking." Check both the option there and click start.

[havn't a clue]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Thanks. I already tried that and get nothing. Once I click start, the drop box goes away and nothing else happens. I've tried Norton disk doctor and the message I get then is: "Unable to access drive. The volume does not contain an recognized file system."

I've been reading a few of your other post on retrieving lost data. Since I can not even eccess the drive, do you have any "how-to's" on getting files from this hard drive. It was formatted in FAT32.

Thanks again.

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Dead hard drive?

I'd start by running a diagnostic tool (downloaded from the drive's manufacturer's web site) to see just how bad it is. If you can't even recover the file system with chkdsk, recovering files via cheap/free software may not be easy, and likely will be impossibly difficult for someone who hasn't done it. I had a partition of my own fail, and despite being able to locate the files, I couldn't recover them with any of the software I used. I can tell you that it's possible, without a doubt. But, as I said, it may be impossibly difficult to do on your own.

[havn't a clue]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Hey Yaw. Downloaded a program call getdataback 2.31 (found a crack to fully open the copy function) and retrieved everything in no time, without formatting the disk or anything else. This software identified the bad sectors, allows you to skip over them, listed contents of hard drive and allowed me to copy to second hard drive in less that a couple of hours. Could have been less because I am sure I copied things I don't even need. I'll go ahead and reformat to see if the disk is salvagable.

Turned out to be easy even for a first timer.

Thanks again for all your help.

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Hey Yaw. Downloaded a program call getdataback 2.31 (found a crack to fully open the copy function) ..............

Who is a naughty boy then ?

lmao

[havn't a clue]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Got desperate! Thanks for the reprimand :-)

[ANZAC_ELITE]

Re: Dead hard drive?

GetDataBack is a top programme, I use it myself ;)

The reprimand was "tongue in cheek" hence the "lmao" at the bottom :)

[Yawgm0th]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Hey Yaw. Downloaded a program call getdataback 2.31 (found a crack to fully open the copy function) and retrieved everything in no time, without formatting the disk or anything else.

I did the same thing actually, but I couldn't recover the files, even after finding them. It couldn't get past the bad sectors.

[Steelyb]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Id try spinrite 6, its suppose to recover data on hard drives and is quiet good ive been told by people who have used it. but to be honest have not tried it fully myself. However you do have to purchase it.

http://grc.com/spinrite.htm

Steelyb

[Ron Marsico]

Re: Dead hard drive?

Hi:
I have the same problem as you and downloaded GETDATABACK. would you be willing to share the unlock secret with me so that I can use the full capabilities of the program. My Email is [email protected].

Ron

[smallball]

Re: Dead hard drive?

You can download Easeus DataRecoveryWizard to try.