I think my hard drive is shot

16 years ago

I've had an external hard drive for a few years now. All of a sudden, accessing the drive became a real chore for the computer. It would sometimes take forever to access it, and then when I tried to close the My Computer window, I would get a "Not Responding" Error.

When I was finally able to get access to it, I knew I had to copy anything over that I could. I was able to copy some stuff, but my biggest folder -- the one with all my MP3s in it -- is missing. It just plain won't show up in the directory.

A friend suggested I try a recovery program. He loaned me a disk (I forget what it was called now), but when I booted the computer and ran the darned software, after 4 hours of "scanning my hard drive" it gave me some kind of error, telling me it couldn't do anything until I upgraded the firmware.

The files aren't important enough to pay someone to look at the hard drive, but on the other hand I could save days' worth of time if I could get into it. I know that the information is still there, and that probably the directory is just out of whack. Any suggestions? Thanks!

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Comments (6)

zep516
16 years ago
Put it in the freezer the try it.
zep516
16 years ago
I currently have a drive in there now let you know how it turns out,

google freeze hard drive
bpgreen
16 years ago
Another option would be Spinrite. I think it costs about $100, but I've gotten stuff off of drives that were otherwise pretty well shot using it.
criticalmass048
Original Author
16 years ago
Ya know, I thought you were just giving me a wise answer, but I Googled it, and it looks like that might be an option. I don't think anything's physically wrong with it though. I think the data is just corrupted.

And bpgreen, yes, Spinrite was the one I used. As I said, it scanned for four hours, and then told me I need to upgrade my firmware.
owbist
16 years ago
If you are willing to tinker you could probably remove the hard drive from the external case then slave it inside the tower. No need for additional ribbon cable, for this you could simply use the ribbon and power cables from the CD/DVD. You would need to change the jumper from 'Master' to 'Slave' of course.

Might just work being directly connected instead of through the USB port
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
16 years ago
freezing definitely is an option it has worked for many people but you have to be fast.