Data Recovery Services??...

So, I experienced a problem with my HD not booting up and after going through some troubleshooting via the Western Digital Tech Support, their opinion is that my 150GB Raptor drive has failed...They'll replace it but I need to recover as much of the data that is on there as possible (Excel, Word, Pics, Music, Video etc.).

I've tried figuring out what the problem might be or how to get it working but no luck so far.

I've googled around for these services that offer data recovery and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with any of them or can make any recommendations.

Thanks

 

I bet you could recover the data yourself. What is the problem right now? Does it click, not spin up?

 

Oddest thing, really...Sold my HDTV recently and decided to connect my Digital Cable through my Video Card on my PC and watch through the LCD display until the new TV arrived.

This worked for several days (Although it didn't occur to me that I could've just as easily connected an S-Video cable directly from my Cable box to my Dell 2007WFP) but then came home to see my PC off (Usually DLing or something, but on).

I tried to boot up and I got the dreaded “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt. Windows\System32\Hal.dll”

So, I tried Repair Console with the XP CD, learned that part of the problem stems from the PC not recognizing or 'seeing' the primary HD (My 150 GB Raptor drive) which has the OS on it...So, can't copy and load a hal.dll file onto it or use Repair Console to repair it.

Talked to Microsoft support...I know, I know...Waste of time...Guy really seemed to be an idiot as he sounded as if he was simply trying to read about possible solutions while we were on the phone together...Had no confidence in what he was going to do...Truth is, I was already trying things I had already googled possible solutions to (bootcfg /rebuild, etc)...Unfortunately, none of them worked....'Milt' did, however, suggest trying something else and shutting down the PC, disconnect my Secondary and Tertiary HDs (SATA connections) and seeing if it will boot up that way...Tried that, no dice.

I also tried reseating the SATA connections of the 3 HDs and checking if it would get recognized if swapped around...Same 2 HDs (Backup 320GB Seagates) were getting recognized and the WD Raptor was not.

Made me wonder if the HD had really failed or if there is M/B or other error that is causing the Primary HD not to be recognized.

I have 3 HDs...Primary HD with the Windows XP Pro is a 150 GB Raptor drive (Roughly 60% free HD) and (2) 320 GB Seagate HDs.

Running 3 GB RAM with Windows XP Professional SP2.

Talked to WD support via India and again, not the most supreme confidence in their suggestions but not sure what else to do...They basically had me re-do what I had already done...No dice.

I don't hear the drive spin but perhaps I do hear a clicking, not sure...Haven't tried booting up with just the Primary Raptor Drive hooked up and disconnecting the other 2 HDs...I will try that today.

Any suggestions?

Obviously, of utmost importance is the data on the Raptor drive but I am curious why it happened and if it can be corrected and avoided (?) in the future.

Good thing is WD is replacing the HD but worrisome and costly (?) is trying to recover the data.

Cheers

 

I had the same problem with my dads pc last week, so i toke the hard drive out and put it in my pc and used a progarsm called Active@ File Recovery wicked pice of softwere got all my dads files back
so if u have a spaire pc put it in and try it on install windows on to another drive and try

 

The 150GB Raptors are forever going wrong unfortunately, they're really unreliable drives. The smaller Raptors are fine, but the 150s? nah.
As for data recovery if the drive can be recognised to some degree, you can try recovering data off it, but if it's gone you'll probably have to cut your losses, because data recovery centres charge an absolute fortune.

 

first try doing a checkdisk/f on the drive in question. What you describe sounds like the hard drive was incorrectly shutdown and some files got corrupted. Sometimes just doing a checkdisk can fix that.

If checkdisk doesn't work, theres a free utility "testdisk" that can fix partitions and recover data.

I think your hard drive is probably ok, I've had a couple incidents of data corruption where I blamed the hard drive. But once you recover the data use the cd that came with your hard drive to check it's condition.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

Many thanks for all the suggestions, I will try them all.

Thanks!

 

So you suggest no going Raptor 150GB for my Master/Primary HD?...I really thought that going Raptor would be the 'smart' thing to do with it as master (Bigger drives as slaves (2)), with the OS and all...And 150GB seemed stable and well reviewed...Would seem awkward to go smaller but I suppose if that's more stable, then that's what needs to be done.

 

I think more than the drive being unreliable, its that the drive overheats. I don't think its a bad idea to get another 150GB Raptor under warranty as the reviews are very good
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136012
but I also suggest that you invest in a hard drive cooler for your drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150085

 

Tom's hardware stopped using them because they're not compatible with the 8800GTX, and they weren't working right with most benchmarks. That and you'll be the fifth person I know to have one go wrong out of the six people I know with 150GB Raptors.

 

Dual 74GB Raptors or Dual 36GB Raptors in a RAID 0 array does sound good too...

 

Please tell me you're joking!
RAID0 offers a boost in transfer rate, but raptors don't really exceed the transfer rate for good 500GB drives any more. The advantage for raptors is in the seek time. Using RAID increases the seek time, so it's all for nothing!
Use a 37GB or 74GB Raptor (singular) for your OS and a normal large hard drive for your storage. Keeps your data isolated in case of reformats, and it's nice and quick.

 

Yes I was. I would never do RAID on dual Raptors since they are only SATA 150 but RAID on dual 7200 RPM drive is good as I have benchmarked on a single 320 and RAID dual 320s and the RAID was better. Windows Vista installed about 10 mins quicker.

 

Undoubtely, for large files RAID kicks ass, but the combined redundancy issues and the acces time means it's not for everyone.

 

So I tried utilizing a USB connected Thermaltake enclosure to try and see if the HD would spin, click or anything...Basically, it did not seem to spin and there was a type of low level click that would be audible every 4 seconds...The drive would never appear through the USB connection.

Looks like I am going to go to some data recovery service as a result.

In the future, I am thinking about backing up my data to an online service like jungledisk or something...Beginning to have little faith in HDs as even in scouring reviews on externals etc, there are a lot of reports of failures

 

external drives do seem more prone to it than internals, even if they're never moved.

 

Fortunatly, I have never had a major hard drive failure in my system. I always run a scandisk, defrag, and monitor my SMART values which prolong the life of my primary master HDD. I did have a failure on it once but thankfully I was able to pop it into another system, run a 8 hour checkdisk and backup the entire drive and RMA it. Since then I have not had a failure. I think part of it also has to do with keeping the drive cool with my hard drive cooler. It stresses out the motors less. I don't know if a dusty case may cause a problem, but my case is always dust free. Hopefully you can recover all the data from it. Let us know how it goes. Best of luck!

 

I think that may have to do with the heat they produce and the fact that they use a external power supply which may be sending unstable voltage to the drives.

 

Believe it or not, actually unless a hard disk is very close to its maximum operating temperature (50C plus) it's actually better for a hard drive to run relatively warm. It's the old "the machinery works better when it's warmed up" scenario, still applies! I believe hard drives kept at 40C outlasted those kept at 30-32C by 20% or something ridiculous like that, in this study they conducted.

 

o.o
speedfan reports my hard drive with the cooler at 32C where as the other at 41C. I wonder if that has anything to do with the primary drive failing earlier or if it was to do with my crappy XION psu. I'll just keep the drive in the cooler b/c without it it'd hit 50C easily without it. Now that I think about it, the one at 41C also has a 120mm cooling it down.