Help!!

[how random]

I've just turned on my computer today and one of my hard drives gives the error

H:\ is not accessible

The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

I dont know what to do about it?

Can someone help me please?

 

[rpstewart]

Scandisk might be able to repair it, then again it might not. It's also worth running the disk manufacturer's own diagnostics to check the disk at a physical level because the drive might be on the way out.

In terms of data recovery be prepared to restore from backups....

 

[how random]

I ran chkdsk a little while ago hoping it would fix it, which it hasnt done, this is what it did do


I'll just go and lookup the western digital diagnostic tool and run that.

I have most of the stuff from it backed up, however 1 or 2 things arent, do you know of a free tool which would be able to recover these few files?

 

[Nefarious]

Is the drive making any noises that you can hear?

 

[how random]

No, it hasn't been making any strange noises at all.

 

[how random]

I just ran the western digital diagnostic tool quick test on the drive and it failed with a cable test error, so i replaced the cable and ran it again, this time it passed, just about to run the extended test now. Do you have any idea of how long it will take on a 250gb drive?

 

[rpstewart]

Couple of hours maybe. If the short test has chucked up a cable error then it's possible that's all it is but I'd run the full test to be sure.

 

[how random]

It's working!

I ran the extended test and it passed ok, so i decided to run chkdsk on it again, and it fixed it, keeping all the data on it as well which is a bonus.

All this just because of a dodgy SATA cable!

It's such a relief that its not broken