Hardware Hard Drive failure??

[Genius]

My 80 GB hard drive recently behave very strange. All the sudden Windows and Vista want to check it for consistancy. After the check (which take ages) it report failures. "Can not read sector" I think.
I try to reformat it again with the Disk Managment util. But it say CRC errors found. And all the sudden it is dumbed in the device manager.
Is there any hope for it?
I must add that it is rather old. About 6 years now.

 

[TSPenguin]

No hope, it is gone.
Sadly enough, I work on an even older more failing 80GB drive here.
It is a *****. Almost every time I try to start the OS something critical is gone, so I have to boot from USB, rename that file, copy over a good version of it and try again.
And don't even get me started on timeouts when accessing a bad block!

 

[Tommy]

A little trick that sometimes helps file recovery from failed hard drives is to freeze the drive. Stick it in a ziplock bag with a couple of those silicon packs they put in with electronics stuff, and stick it in the freezer over night. Then stick it in a working computer and try to move the files onto a working drive.

This doesn't always work, it depends on where exactly the problem is. If it's the platter itself that's damaged, or the magnetic surface, it won't help. However, it's more common for the problem to be caused by a chip which has overheated and now is damaged. In that case, freezing can revive the chip long enough to get the files off. Do this only after all else fails - it will be the last ditch effort, and isn't good for the bearings, so the drive will probably be fully dead after that.

On the otherhand, I had the same problem with my 8 year old 40Gb drive about 5 years ago. After re-formatting and reinstalling Windows several times, Windows finally "took" correctly and I haven't had a problem with it since then. The drive always worked fine under Linux, it was Windows that was causing the problem, not the drive.

Good luck!

 

[Genius]

I'll try that Tommy. Thanks.
Lucky for me I have 2 other drives. A 250 and 320. So that is not a catastropic event
I check the drive temp several times this month and it went as high as 55 degrees celsius. What is the ideal temp for hard drives? My system is properly cooled with a large side fan and top vent fan. BUT...it is summer and the ambient temp is sometimes very high. And to put on the air conn consume too much electricity. Carbon footprint

 

[TSPenguin]

I'd advise against freezing the drive! And especialy against using it in that state!
Your drive should also have it's storage and usage temperatures written on it.

 

[Tommy]

As I said, freezing is a last ditch recovery technique. I've done it several times successfully. Been doing it since the days when you had to "park" your drive before you shut down the pc. It's a lot cheaper than sending it out for a forensic recovery with am electron microscope.

It's best if you can leave an empty slot between your drives if you have enough slots, 50 degrees C is a bit warm, but not outrageous. Over time, though, it could have an effect. The usual cause of drive overheating is when the airflow to them gets blocked by the ribbon cables, use plastic ties to manage them and keep it out of the way.

 

[Woo482]

50 Degrees C ? holy **** that's hot you should get some fans I have 2 fans and my Hard Drives never go over 40

 

[Tachyon]

Tommy is totally right .. freezing is a "old trick", "last ditch" method to recover data from a dead or dying HDD. And he is also correct in that it's only going to work with a failure on the controller board (PCB on the bottom of the HDD) I've personally used this method successfully numerous times. If it's a media failure (bad platters or heads) it's on to media recovery if it's worth $800-$5000 to you.

 

[Talon1]

My 80 GB hard drive recently behave very strange. All the sudden Windows and Vista want to check it for consistancy. After the check (which take ages) it report failures. "Can not read sector" I think.
I try to reformat it again with the Disk Managment util. But it say CRC errors found. And all the sudden it is dumbed in the device manager.
Is there any hope for it?
I must add that it is rather old. About 6 years now.

There is one last hope for your hard drive; you can "low-level wipe" it. In case you don't know, low-level wiping your hard drive means it will write one's and zero's randomly over and over again causing any bad sectors to collapse and make your hard drive work like new again. I've acctually done it myself; 2 years ago I crashed two of my hard drives, and now after low-level wiping both of them, their work like new again. So give it a shot.:speakcool:

Oh, one last thing, low-level wiping completely erases your hard drives with no hope of retriving information, so backup your files. (PM me if you can't find a low-level wiping program)