Hard Drive Failure? [Archive] - Zophar's Message Domain

GhettoFabulous

01-21-2006, 06:37 AM

Ok, so I'm sitting here playing UT2004 and all the sudden my hard drive starts making noises and my computer freezes. I am pretty sure it is my 80 GB SATA drive (I use this drive for all my games), so I unplug the 80 GB SATA drive and turned it back on and it works fine. What should I do? Any suggestions?

Lenophis

01-21-2006, 08:12 AM

<blockquote>In reply to:<hr>

What should I do? Any suggestions?

<hr></blockquote>
Put it back in one more time. If it does not boot up, grab some masking tape. Put some tape about 3/4 of the length of the drive on the drive. Then get a marker. Write this: "I'M DEAD." <img src=smilies/cry.gif>

The great hard drive crash of '06. Unfortunately, it's not something you can recover from. All data on it is forever lost, so it's pretty much the worse-case scenario. Sorry bud...
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Kitsune Sniper

01-21-2006, 02:23 PM

> In reply to:What should I do? Any suggestions?
> Put it back in one more time. If it does not boot up, grab
> some masking tape. Put some tape about 3/4 of the length of
> the drive on the drive. Then get a marker. Write this: "I'M
> DEAD."

Or, you know, keep it unplugged while you get a replacement, then transfer the files to it when you can. Or back stuff up to DVD-R while you get the new drive.

SirDaShadow

01-21-2006, 10:33 PM

> for all my games), so I unplug the 80 GB SATA drive and

lemme guess, it's a Maxtor, right?

GhettoFabulous

01-22-2006, 09:58 AM

Well I took your advice and reconnected it. Luckily it worked for about 30 minutes allowing me to backup saved game data and format the drive before it totally died on me.

Isildur

01-22-2006, 04:52 PM

> Well I took your advice and reconnected it. Luckily it
> worked for about 30 minutes allowing me to backup saved game
> data and format the drive before it totally died on me.
>

Unless you work for the CIA or something, why bother reformating a dying drive?<img src=smilies/eek13.gif>
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king killa

01-22-2006, 05:25 PM

> Unless you work for the CIA or something, why bother
> reformating a dying drive?
>

he doesn't want his kiddie porn to be found.
http://neohjuggalos.comKilla's Blog</a> (which only works sometimes because the host sucks.)

MegaManJuno

01-22-2006, 09:26 PM

Well, unless you do a low level format (i.e.: write zeroes to the drive), the data can still be accessed after a "normal" format using a program to read the disc directly and ignore the FAT tables, etc.

GhettoFabulous

01-23-2006, 01:17 AM

> Unless you work for the CIA or something, why bother
> reformating a dying drive?
>

It was running long enough for me to backup several hundred megabytes of save game (Doom3, Half-Life 2) data and perform a quick format on the drive. After that it was toast. The PC wouldn't even boot with it connected.

I see no point in keeping data on a dead hard drive, do you?

Isildur

01-24-2006, 12:49 AM

> It was running long enough for me to backup several hundred
> megabytes of save game (Doom3, Half-Life 2) data

That part made sense.

> and perform
> a quick format on the drive. After that it was toast. The
> PC wouldn't even boot with it connected.
>
> I see no point in keeping data on a dead hard drive, do you?
>

If a hard drive is dead, for most practical purposes it's as if there's no data on it anyway. At the dump where the drive is going to end up, the rats really aren't very picky about which way the platters' surface areas are magnetically polarized.
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