Harddrive packed up

W

Winga

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My HDD in my work PC has just packed up. The drive is still spinning OK but the system just won't pick up the drive. I noticed that just before it crashed it took about 15 minutes for the PC to boot up to the desktop and load all the apps.

I suspect it's the PC board on the HDD as the drive itself sounds quite healthy. It's an 80 Gig Seagate Barracuda 7200. What I want to know is in order to test it, am I able to use a PC board from a 160 drive of the same make or does it have to be the exact match to the 80Gig?

I'm also open to suggestions as to what else I can try to resurrect the drive. Theres a lot of valuable info on it I would hate to lose.
 
Nope, the PCB have to be the exact same make and model.

I don't know what will happen if you put an 160's PCB into an 80, but does not want to try.

Once you've got the data back, do yourself a favour and ask the work to buy an external USB HDD for backup purposes.
 
I wouldnt be surprised if WKJ?:beanie popped in and recommended SpinRite. :) Know anyone who has a copy?

Have you tried booting from a linux live cd such as Ubuntu to see if it detects the drive?
 
bwana said:
I wouldnt be surprised if WKJ?:beanie popped in and recommended SpinRite. :) Know anyone who has a copy?

Have you tried booting from a linux live cd such as Ubuntu to see if it detects the drive?
Click to expand...

I know this sounds stupid, but you may also want to leave the drive alone for a few hours unplugged.

"Sometimes They Come Back"

At least long enough to recover critical info.
 
bwana said:
Have you tried booting from a linux live cd such as Ubuntu to see if it detects the drive?
Click to expand...

Remember that if you've got files and folder compression enabled, you won't be able to read it from any Linux distro. (happened twice to myself).
 
The_Librarian said:
Remember that if you've got files and folder compression enabled, you won't be able to read it from any Linux distro. (happened twice to myself).
Click to expand...
Considering the ever decreasing cost of hdds and their ever increasing size do many ppl still use compression?

I always thought it was begging for problems.
 
bwana said:
Considering the ever decreasing cost of hdds and their ever increasing size do many ppl still use compression?

I always thought it was begging for problems.
Click to expand...

Some of us who still got 40Gb HDD's on laptops (with dual-booting between SuSE and Winders) have this problem.

I'll be looking at a larger hard drive ASAP...
 
Guys thank you for your answers and help regarding my HDD problem. I must admit these are some of the most intelligent and helpful answers I have seen. There are some real boffins in this place. My main concern was whether it is OK to use a PCB from a larger HDD. That has been answered, so i am happy I did not try that option.

Otherwise I have tried everything else....different rigs, different OS's external HDD's the works. I even tried the 'ol stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes routine as a last resort.
Nothing has recognised the drive.

The sad thing is we have backup facilities and the last backup I did was July 07 so i only have myself to blame :sick:

The Spinrite software seems like a good option. Thanks for that linky bwana I'm going to give that a go!
 
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