Drive Contents gone! Recover?

Good Morning All:

Late yesterday, all running normal, get error message, pop up on desktop, says:

"Drive I, recycle bin corrupt, do you want to empty it? "

Drive "I" not open at the time. Drive not in use for at least a couple of days.

I click: "yes" Don't remember exactly what machine was doing at the time.

Go to "My Computer, open drive "I ", Maxtor 80GB 7500 RPM Primarily used to store temp video files as they are rendered and some redundant back ups.

It is blank.

This drive is a slave drive on channel 2 of onboard RAID controller, but not set up as RAID array, used as ATAPI IDE drive.

Drive is listed in Device Manager, See screen shots below.

Go to "Computer Management ", "Drive Management" Drive is not there.

Close management console, get yellow triangle with exclamation mark in system tray. Click that ICON, it disappears.

Reboot, drive recognized in BIOS. Open "I" in "My Computer ", Still blank.
Still missing in "Drive Management "

Anybody got a clue as to what happened and how to recover? My concern is not so much for the data on the drive, as it is expendable, but thinking it could happen to other drives on the machine and cause really serious problems is scary.

Any and all help will be appreciated.

Martin

Edit: The more I poke around, the more it looks like a hard drive failure. Event viewer posts dozens of time out errors/write failures on the drive, on last reboot, drive reappeared in "Disc Management ", in tools, attempt to scan for errors failed. Next, I will shut down, disconnect drive, boot, shut down, reconnect drive, if no help, does this confirm drive is hosed?

 

Most likely the drive but possibly a connector issue.

If possible try the drive in another PC. Otherwise, disconnecting and reconnecting as you intend is about the best bet.

 

Hi Newt, Thanks for the response. The disconnect, re-connect did no good. Went to Maxtor site, downloaded their floppy DOS based test tool, ran short test, passed all.

Went for long test, ran 2-3 minutes and generated an RMA code with notation, drive is failing. Says copy data ASAP.

Closed out of DOS, machine would not boot into Windows with this drive connected.

Too late to copy data, not retrievable through normal means.

Notation should have been: "Drive has failed "

So, another one bites the dust. This is the 4th HDD failure I have experienced. (One was my fault, I hot plugged it.)

I have the S.M.A.R.T drive technology installed and supposedly working, but got no warning. Must not have it set up correctly, got to look at that closer, see what I need to do to monitor all drives.

At least it wasn't "C" and not crucial data. Sorry to loose the drive though.

Thanks again for the response.

Take Care,

Martin

 

Martin,

You stated you 'lost' 4 hard drives to failures... were these also Maxtor drives? I've lost 3 in the last two years (all 80GB Maxtor's) and I've got another dead one waiting to go back. Maxtor has always been good about replacing them, but this is getting to be a real pain. Maybe it is time to switch brands. Any comments about Maxtor (or other brands)... good, bad or indifferent?

B

 

Are either of you using a UPS? I've used Maxtor hard drives for years and have never had a problem. A couple of years ago a friend of mine called me because his computer wouldn't boot. To make a long story short, it turned out the drive was headed south. It was a Gateway computer and still under warrenty so I gave them a call and they promptly sent a new one. Well, to make an even longer story short, then new one went bad and he ended up going through 3 drives in 4 months time. When I was there trying to fix the third one, I noticed the lights in the house flickering. Didn't think much about it the first time but after the third time in about 20 minutes I asked him how long that had been going on. Well, apparently it had been for quite some time. He said he had called the electric company but there was some reason given for it (don't recall what it was) and they said their was nothing that could be done. I left the computer as it was and went and bought a UPS for them. They've never had a problem since (the lights flicker in the house to this day). I don't know if this would be your problem or not but it's possible that there's some sort of power problem involved. To have that many drives go bad doesn't seem normal to me. I've been using computers for a long time and I've never had even one go bad. Just something for you to think about.

 

First off. I worked for a Power Company for 22 years. Both on the Generation side and the Distribution side

If that excuse did come from the Power company it is surely the dumbest, lamest, poorest excuse I ever heard.

I have heard of this problem being caused by a bad meter.

If that were me I would be doing some VERY LOUD screaming.

I would also be checking with the neighbors. If theirs' are flickering also I would be screaming even louder.

If it is in the house wiring it could be causing more problems also. How about TVs and other appliances ? Have they been going bad more frequently than they should ?

Have they had a qualified Electriction check the house ?

BillyBob

 

No, they haven't had any problems with anything else. From what he told me the problem was due something outside of the house. I told him pretty much the same thing you just said in your last post. I don't know a heck of a lot about electricity but I do know that lights in the house shouldn't flicker. I told him that I doubted that something couldn't be done to fix it and he should insist that they fix it, but apparently he never did because they're still doing it to this day.

 

Hi Mr. B, The drive I fried by hot plugging shouldn't count, but it was an IBM/Mitsubishi Desk Star. (I RMAed it and they replaced it) Other hard drive failure was also an IBM, 13GB came with first computer, it was 5 years old and had seen lots of use and was out of warranty. Now this Maxtor 80, and a previous Maxtor 40. RAMed, they are good about that, but like you said, this is getting to be a pain. So far though, price has been the major factor in drive purchases. The most GB for the buck.

As far as my preferences, the Seagate 200GB drive is the fastest on this machine. PC Pitstop rates it's uncached speed at 151% of like drives at 57MB/s. Hard Drive Speed Test confirms the 57MB/s, other drives running anywhere from 34 to 54MB/s with Western Digital 160GB at 54MB/s, the slowest are the two IBMs 80GB at 34 and 37MB/s. I think, if I buy another drive someday, it will be a Seagate when I go SATA. Just based on the speed I see now. As soon as I can afford an Athalon 64 FX and build a new box. (likely to be be a long time.) I'm not a gamer, and other than rendering video, this machine is a fast as I'll likely ever need.

That Maxtor was almost as fast as the Seagate, so I used it for Video conversion, The Seagate is my main backup drive, dedicated to that use, nothing else on it. I have all backups on it, and if it fails, it sure will make a lot of work for me.

I learned the hard way, back up, back up, back up. These HDDs do fail.

Take care,

Martin

 

Zander,

I've used Maxtor drives for several years and just been having trouble the past two years. I don't know if it's a dip in quality or just bad luck on my part. Anyway as far as UPSs are concerned... I wouldn't be without one. (two actually) We get a lot of thunderstorms in the spring and summer, and we'll get power fluctuations (or an occasional outage) even before or after the storm is right overhead. I prefer APC's battery units, I tried one unit made by Belkin and it just died after 2 years. One of my APC's is going on 7 years old (on its second battery), the other is only about a year old (it replaced the Belkin). I'm amazed at how many people don't even know what they are, and it's like pulling teeth to even get someone to purchase a (good) surge suppressor. Well I guess you can offer the advice... but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to take it. I vaguely remember something about "a thirsty horse ".

B

 

martinr121

I like your idea about backing up. And I do agree. I have most of my real important stuff backed on CDs.

But in the case that Zander and I were speaking of I don't think even backups would do any good. Unless they were stored somewhere other than on the HD.

Even if the backups were on a 2nd HD I think in the case in question the possibility exits that both HDS may be destoryed.

I may be guessing but. I think flickering power is WORSE than if it goes out completely. I suspect that it would BOUNCE the heads and do physical damage to the drive. Due to the fact that the drives may not have time to come to a stop and park the heads.

If the power does go out completely hopefully it stays long enough to allow the drive(s) to come to a stop.

BillyBob

 

LOL MR. B (I really did). There's so much truth in that statement. In this case I really had to coax him to give me the go ahead to purchase the UPC. I wasn't even going to make a buck on it but he was still quite skeptical. Don't think he is anymore though. I probably should have left it as it was though. Maybe he'd have gotten the electricity problem fixed if he went through a few more hard drives.

FWIW, I use APCs too. Nothing against the others but I started with one and it never let me down. I have a few of them but I've never had to purchase a new one because the old went bad. Rather, higher power requirements necessitated it. I've purchase a few for others and they are all still running so.....

 

Hey Zander & BillyBob: Boy, I got to agree with BB, flickering lights in the house can only be bad news. They will be lucky if a HDD is all they loose. If it is the house wiring, fire becomes a real hazard. If I was your friend, I'd surely get to the bottom of it, tell him to hire an electrician (licensed of course) and get whatever is wrong fixed.

I have UPS on all three machines here, ever since my modem and sound card got fried by a lightning bolt. Also put in extra ground rods as well as having the power co. install a lightning arrestor on the house meter.

But Zander's post got me to thinking. Monday, we had a lightning storm, I was online and on the 'phone when it hit, ordering a new camera from the web site. I could hear the lightning crackling in the phone, (same line as the DSL) but had to stay on to finish the transaction. As soon as I could, I shut down the machine and pulled the phone and electric from it. (SOP here during lightning storms)

Everything else on machine OK, so I don't understand how 1 drive out of 6 could have gotten fried, but I guess it is one possibility.

BillyBob said:

I agree with that too. I also have an 80GB USB HDD, do weekly backups on it and store it in my detached garage in between updating the images. The data on this machine is too valuable to me to take any chance of loosing it.

I've tried to cover all the bases, but who knows, I bet I missed something that I'll learn about the hard way. The way I have learned most things.

Take care,

Martin

 

martinr121

We have been in Atlanta, GA during a BAD house rattling, floor shaking, tree bending thunderstorm.

That is one time I was sorry that I was there.

A Granddaugher was on the Computer. Her Mother told her to shut down. She said " In a minute. " She did not realize I was right behind her when I said just one word NOW!!. She shut it down.

She got no sympathy at all when she went crying to Mom & Grandma about Grandpa yelling at her. We had another storm the next day. She did not wait to be told. She shutdown.

But her and I had had a nice little chat where I just expalined to her that if she did not shut down she might not even have the PC.

BillyBob

 

Yeah BillyBob, we get the window rattling, foundation shaking, eye dazzling storms here. And when that thunder bounces off of and echoes off the surrounding mountains, a thunder clap goes on and on and on. The dog shakes and trembles, jumps in my lap, the cat hides under the bed.

When I first moved into this house, the first lightning storm, when lightning struck nearby I was getting intense blue electrical arcing out of the household receptacles. I couldn't believe my eyes! Scared the bejabbers out of me. Also fried every electrical component in the house that had a chip in it. And that was a lot. That was before I owned a computer, 1996, or it would have been goodbye computer.

That's the why of the extra ground rods and lightning arrestor on the electrical meter. Also, when power co. came to install the lightning arrestor, they discovered the neutral leg on the main service was loose in its connector, the Allen ***** hold down apparently had worked loose. They said that's why the arcing.

They also told me that the earth here has a large percentage of silicon and that it did not conduct very well. They advised the extra ground rods. Regardless, when there is lightning nearby we disconnect everything, phone lines and power, with maybe the exception of the toaster.

Take care,

Martin