dying hard drive :( need some help.

DooMeR

DooMeR

DooMeR

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I pretty sure my hard drive is about dead. It wouldn't save anything to my drive when i tried the system would just hang or go really slow. Now it wont even load windows it just gets stuck on the loading screen.

Is there anything i can to make 100% its the hard drive i don't really have another system to test it on or anything.

And if it is the hard drive is there anythng i can do to recover at least some of the data once i get a new hard drive. There is manly just games on it but there is some music and pictures on there i would be sad to lose.
 
spare pc? hook it up to it and see if you can access the faulty hdd and try and save anything you need off it
 
Get another hdd, stop using the one you've got in case it dies fully.
Install os on to new drive plug in old drive try error checking under the disk properties may just be a bad sector.
 
Noo :( not got a spare pc which is annoying. I been looking through other threads some one suggesting changing sata cable so gonna try that now :)

And yeah bit worried i have totally broke it by trying to use it when i shouldn't have :s but thanks for the tips :)

Its a pretty old hard drive been with me awhile
 
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Sounds probable if you've not changed anything else.

Hard drives can eventually get dust particles in side of them. When this happens, every time the disk spins, the dust can cause catastrophic damage to the platters.

The best thing to do in this case is get another PC (a family or friend's) and a 4GB+ USB drive.

Download a bootable copy of Linux (such as Ubuntu) and stick it on the USB drive.

Unplug your hard drive, put the USB drive in a port. Boot up your PC, head into the BIOS and set the boot order to load off the USB drive.

If you can get it to boot off the USB drive, then its probably your hard drive.

Shut down, plug the hard drive back in. Boot back into the USB drive.

You can now try and see if Linux will read the drive. If it doesn't - hard luck. If it does, get that backed up ASAP on to another USB drive or online (MEGA give you 50GB free).

Its probably the hard drive, as its the only mechanical part, which means it fails slowly.

If it doesnt boot up on USB, it could be something else.

Edit:-
If you REALLY can't get access to another PC, use your phone to order a Live CD/USB (with Ubuntu, for example) pre-installed.

Don't turn the PC on in the mean time. Every spin may make things worse.
 
Find out what the make of your hard drive is, than head off to their website and grab their diagnostic tools:

Seagate (Maxtor) Sea tools : http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

Hitachi (IBM) Drive Fitness Tool : http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics : http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en

These will run as live CD/DVDs so won't need the installed OS. If the diagnostics fail and the drive is under warrantly then you have a good case at getting replaced because these are the utilities they will run to check anyway.

As above post us a PE or Linix distro to access the systemand your failing HD from a DVD or USB so you can lift the data.. but you won't need to because you have adequate backups .. right ;).

I always have Barts PE and Yumi stick handy with a linux distro for such occasions.

I have a full sticky here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19277792&postcount=2
 
Wow thank you for the great advice :)
Its a western digital
Going to give that stuff a try tonight :)
And no back up :S the stuff is not super important but would be nice if i can save some of it anyways.
 
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DooMeR said:
Wow thank you for the great advice :)
Its a western digital
Going to give that stuff a try tonight :)
And no back up :S the stuff is not super important but would be nice if i can save some of it anyways.
Click to expand...

In that case just get a Live CD/USB on the go, see if it boots.

If it does, check to see if the HDD is under warranty - RMA if it is. Failing that - grab yourself a new HDD :).
 
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