secondary hdd ask to be formatted

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nv8r Blak
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Nv8r Blak

I have a big problem with my secondary hdd. I just recently upgraded to xp
on my main drive and everything is cool. I got a 40gig maxtor from a friend
who says he no longer needed it. I loaded up around 30 gigs worth of
programs and videos from ALL the cd backups of downloaded files and mp3's
from my previous system. My goal was to get all the warez and mp3s
organized and burn a few DVD data disk to back everything up on as few disk
as possible. So i would only have maybe 10 or so DVD disk that were organize
rather than the 50 or so disk i have now that i have to search through to
find documents and warez that i actually use and not the micellanious junk i
saved being the program packrat i am. ok heres where the problem starts.
Just as I was loading the last bit of data (some clip art i was planning to
use for some graphic design work) it kept giving me an error saying that it
couldn't load certain files from the disk. This message appered in the
bottom right corner in the system tray. the copy dialogue box was still
open and appeared to still be moving files despite the errors. after all
the files were moved and the diaalogue box disappeared, the error in the
system tray kept popping up saying it could not copy some file and when i
hit the little x to make it go away another one popped up with a different
file name. i clicked away for about a min or so and it looked like the
error would not stop comming. So me being the computer genious I am decided
to reboot to get rid of the yellow error boxes. Upon the reboot my
secondary D: drive still was present but there was no info on it and when i
tried to access it it said it needed to be formatted. Now i spent 3 days
sorting and copying files from all those disk. please tell me i didn't
loose everything. could there be something wrong with the drive. is there
some sort of recovery software that will allow me to retrieve the stuff that
was on it. The drive was only used to store stuff it had no OS on it or
executable software that ran from it. I have since turned that computer off
and on hopeing it would magically give me back my D: drive. The computer
fairy granted me no such wish. Any one know what could cause this or what i
can do to fix it. i don't want to format this drive unless all is lost, but
everything i have is backed up but scattered among 50 or so disk that I
don't want to go back through disk by disk again. Sorry for the long
message but i need help bad. Thanks in advance.

Nv8r
 
I have a big problem with my secondary hdd. I just recently upgraded to xp
on my main drive and everything is cool. I got a 40gig maxtor from a friend
who says he no longer needed it. I loaded up around 30 gigs worth of
programs and videos from ALL the cd backups of downloaded files and mp3's
from my previous system.
ok heres where the problem starts.
Just as I was loading the last bit of data (some clip art i was planning to
use for some graphic design work) it kept giving me an error saying that it
couldn't load certain files from the disk. This message appered in the
bottom right corner in the system tray. the copy dialogue box was still
open and appeared to still be moving files despite the errors.

You could try freezing the drive. Put in an airtight bag, and put it in the
freezer overnight. Then quickly plug in and try copying files before it
warms up. It could just be bad sectors, but it could also be the drive is
faulty.


Regards,
Chris
 
Skeleton Man said:
You could try freezing the drive. Put in an airtight bag, and put it in
the
freezer overnight. Then quickly plug in and try copying files before it
warms up. It could just be bad sectors, but it could also be the drive is
faulty.


Regards,
Chris

What does freezing it do? And wouldn't it cause condensation to form when
it warmed back up?
 
Nv8r said:
I have a big problem with my secondary hdd.
.... snip about 40 lines of monolythic words, with no paragraph
separation, and thus totally illegible. ...

Separate your thoughs into intelligible paragraphs, and make it
feasible for people to read them.
 
Nv8r Blak said:
I have a big problem with my secondary hdd. I just recently upgraded to xp
on my main drive and everything is cool. I got a 40gig maxtor from a friend
who says he no longer needed it. I loaded up around 30 gigs worth of
programs and videos from ALL the cd backups of downloaded files and mp3's
from my previous system. My goal was to get all the warez and mp3s
organized and burn a few DVD data disk to back everything up on as few disk
as possible. So i would only have maybe 10 or so DVD disk that were organize
rather than the 50 or so disk i have now that i have to search through to
find documents and warez that i actually use and not the micellanious junk i
saved being the program packrat i am. ok heres where the problem starts.
Just as I was loading the last bit of data (some clip art i was planning to
use for some graphic design work) it kept giving me an error saying that it
couldn't load certain files from the disk. This message appered in the
bottom right corner in the system tray. the copy dialogue box was still
open and appeared to still be moving files despite the errors. after all
the files were moved and the diaalogue box disappeared, the error in the
system tray kept popping up saying it could not copy some file and when i
hit the little x to make it go away another one popped up with a different
file name. i clicked away for about a min or so and it looked like the
error would not stop comming. So me being the computer genious I am decided
to reboot to get rid of the yellow error boxes. Upon the reboot my
secondary D: drive still was present but there was no info on it and when i
tried to access it it said it needed to be formatted. Now i spent 3 days
sorting and copying files from all those disk. please tell me i didn't
loose everything. could there be something wrong with the drive. is there
some sort of recovery software that will allow me to retrieve the stuff that
was on it. The drive was only used to store stuff it had no OS on it or
executable software that ran from it. I have since turned that computer off
and on hopeing it would magically give me back my D: drive. The computer
fairy granted me no such wish. Any one know what could cause this or what i
can do to fix it. i don't want to format this drive unless all is lost, but
everything i have is backed up but scattered among 50 or so disk that I
don't want to go back through disk by disk again. Sorry for the long
message but i need help bad. Thanks in advance.

Nv8r
looks like a faulty hdd to me - as skeleton says a cold drive can sometimes
work for a while and allow you to retrieve the data but if the drive reads
as empty then the FAT table is scrambled. this program
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23069,00.asp is free
and will recover data if the drive isnt too badly damaged. better programs
cost money and data retrieval is expensive so if this doesnt work you're
better off accepting the data is lost and next time someone gives you a hdd
run scandisk (with surface scan) on it. also run a hdd health check program
like http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22945,00.asp
 
What does freezing it do? And wouldn't it cause condensation to form when
it warmed back up?

Condensation is from exposure to air... leave the drive in
the air-tight bag it was frozen in and just open the back.
If condensation is forming try sealing the bag around the
cables with masking tape or (whatever)..
 
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