300GB Drive not accessible - Need big help

[rickcorreo]

I'm running Windows XP. I had a few hard drives on my system. One of
them just went up in smoke. It made cranking noise yesterday. I run
Maxtor PowerMax to test the drive. It came back with an error code and
said it's failing. So I was about to do RMA and hoped the drive would
last a few days more. I was still able to use the drive and saw its
conttents upon rebooting. But after another shut down and reboot, the
drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

Could it be viruses? But my other hard disks are fine.

 

[Rod Speed]

I'm running Windows XP. I had a few hard drives on my system.
One of them just went up in smoke. It made cranking noise
yesterday. I run Maxtor PowerMax to test the drive. It came
back with an error code and said it's failing. So I was about
to do RMA and hoped the drive would last a few days more.

Smart move with no backup.

I was still able to use the drive and saw its conttents upon rebooting.
But after another shut down and reboot, the drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

You could try putting it in the freezer inside a plastic bag
and seeing if you can see the contents while its still very cold.

Copy off the most important files first, because
it likely wont be useable for long as it warms up.

Could it be viruses?

Nope, its just another dead maxtor.

But my other hard disks are fine.

Viruses dont behave like that anyway, they dont
make the hard drive look dead to PowerMax.

 

[Conor]

I'm running Windows XP. I had a few hard drives on my system. One of
them just went up in smoke. It made cranking noise yesterday. I run
Maxtor PowerMax to test the drive. It came back with an error code and
said it's failing. So I was about to do RMA and hoped the drive would
last a few days more. I was still able to use the drive and saw its
conttents upon rebooting. But after another shut down and reboot, the
drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

Could it be viruses? But my other hard disks are fine.

It's dead. Hope you backed your files up. With Dual Layer DVD writers
costing under £25, there's no excuse.

 

[JamesG]

conttents upon rebooting. But after another shut down and reboot, the
drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

Could it be viruses? But my other hard disks are fine.

My dad had a similar situation a couple weeks back. Unfortunately my
fix won't help you much. He had had a virus a while back and so at
that time I backed up all of his files (and then virus-scanned them).
I then reformatted his hard drive and did a clean install. So... when
his hard drive started acting like you say I just pulled it out and
installed a new 100GB drive that cost $50 since his files were backed
up.
I am not sure what you can do to get back your files, maybe you can
check around from your phonebook to see if there are any computer
magicians out there but I figure that it will be an expensive process.
Backing up files is very important since hard drives fail often, if
burning CDs or DVDs is too much of a hassle for you I would suggest
getting one of those external USB drives, they usually come with auto
backup software.

James

 

[Tweek]

I'm running Windows XP. I had a few hard drives on my system. One of
them just went up in smoke. It made cranking noise yesterday. I run
Maxtor PowerMax to test the drive. It came back with an error code and
said it's failing. So I was about to do RMA and hoped the drive would
last a few days more. I was still able to use the drive and saw its
conttents upon rebooting. But after another shut down and reboot, the
drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

Could it be viruses? But my other hard disks are fine.

Open up a command window and type chkdsk e: /r and let it run. It may take a
long time, but it should make it accessible long enough for you to get your
files off of it. I did this the other day and was able to retrieve 35 gigs
of pictures for a customer off of a failing HDD.

 

[Tweek]

I'm running Windows XP. I had a few hard drives on my system. One of
them just went up in smoke. It made cranking noise yesterday. I run
Maxtor PowerMax to test the drive. It came back with an error code and
said it's failing. So I was about to do RMA and hoped the drive would
last a few days more. I was still able to use the drive and saw its
conttents upon rebooting. But after another shut down and reboot, the
drive became inaccessable.

When I click on it in Windows Explorer, a pop-up says "E:\ is not
accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

This is a 300GB Maxtor drive full of my important files. I bought it
last year but obviously it doesn't last. Any way to get my files back?

Could it be viruses? But my other hard disks are fine.

One more thing, depending on how messed up the file system is, you may find
a lot of your data in hidden *.chk folders so make sure you have windows set
to show all files.

 

[Rod Speed]

Open up a command window and type chkdsk e: /r and let it run. It may
take a long time, but it should make it accessible long enough for
you to get your files off of it. I did this the other day and was
able to retrieve 35 gigs of pictures for a customer off of a failing
HDD.

Thats the LAST thing he should be doing in that situation.

 

[Tweek]

Why? I have done it countless times and it has worked every time. The one
with the 35 gigs of pictures was a maxtor with the same symptoms as his
drive. chkdsk /r recovered the file system and made it accessable. I was
even able to get a full image of the drive. I just did it on a drive with a
smart error and recovered the files.

 

[Rod Speed]

Why?

Because it comprehensively ****s the data
structures and prevents the use of a decent
recovery program like Easy Recovery Pro etc.

I have done it countless times and it has worked every time.

You've never had a hard drive failure that will produce an
obscene mess if you are stupid enough to do a chkdsk /r on it.

The one with the 35 gigs of pictures was a maxtor with the same symptoms as
his drive.

Dont believe it. You dont even know
what the problem actually is with his drive.

chkdsk /r recovered the file system and made it accessable. I was even able to
get a full image of the drive. I just did it on a drive with a smart error and
recovered the files.

Depends entirely on which SPECIFIC smart error the
drive has. There are some it will work fine with and
others where you will **** the data structures irretrievably.

 

[Tweek]

Because it comprehensively ****s the data
structures and prevents the use of a decent
recovery program like Easy Recovery Pro etc.


You've never had a hard drive failure that will produce an
obscene mess if you are stupid enough to do a chkdsk /r on it.

I have a stack of failed hard drives and many of them were inaccessable. I
was able to recover data from most of them using chkdsk. The only ones that
I couldn't were the ones with the click of death or ones that wouldn't spin
up/be recognized at all.

Dont believe it. You dont even know
what the problem actually is with his drive.

I don't, but the most likely failure is bad sectors, especially if the
windows recognizes the drive and assigns it a drive letter. I had a chkdsk
take nearly two days on a drive that wasn't accessible at all. I was able to
retrieve everything they needed off of the drive.

Depends entirely on which SPECIFIC smart error the
drive has. There are some it will work fine with and
others where you will **** the data structures irretrievably.

Never had that happen.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have a stack of failed hard drives and many of them were inaccessable.

Dont believe you.

I was able to recover data from most of them using chkdsk.

You're lying.

The only ones that I couldn't were the ones with the click of death or ones
that wouldn't spin up/be recognized at all.
Lying.

I don't, but the most likely failure is bad sectors, especially if the windows
recognizes the drive and assigns it a drive letter. I had a chkdsk take nearly
two days on a drive that wasn't accessible at all. I was able to retrieve
everything they needed off of the drive.

Pure fluke, and it wouldnt have taken anything like that long with ERP.

Never had that happen.

Then you're lying about how many you have done that with.

 

[Tweek]

Dont believe you.


You're lying.



Pure fluke, and it wouldnt have taken anything like that long with ERP.



Then you're lying about how many you have done that with.

Believe what you want. I get between 30 and 50 machines a week in my shop.
Lots of failing hard drives. I recover data all the time. Never had a
problem with chkdsk.

 

[Rod Speed]

Believe what you want. I get between 30 and 50 machines a week in my
shop. Lots of failing hard drives. I recover data all the time. Never
had a problem with chkdsk.

Dont believe you.