re: 1720 Hard Drive Failure, Can't Boot
Saturday, December 6, 2003 at 9:46 am
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by Dan Sarandrea, MCSE
(4310 messages posted)
Seems as though the disk is too far gone for any of XP's tools to help.
Find out the manufacturer of the disk and download from their website the disk diagnostic
and file repair tools package. For example, Western Digiatl call theirs Data Lifeguard
Tools, Maxtor call theirs PowerMax, etc.
The tool disks usually boot into someone's DOS and run to examine the disk much like
chkdsk does, but one would hope only better since you would expect the tool to be
tailored to the disk. The tool will also be able to read any info coming from the
SMART circuitry, which is probably the process that generated the "this disk is about
to die" notice.
I have read this in many different places and have had people tell me it works but
I have yet to have occasion to do it myself, but....
If your disk has really, really crashed to where the disk manufacturer tool cannot
get it to work enough to even run the diagnostics, try tightly packaging the disk
in an airtight Ziplock-type bag and putting it in the freezer overnight.
The next day, prepare the computer and your work area to have the disk reinstalled
quickly (as you are in a battle against the disk thawing out), and then fire up the
computer and attempt to start into XP. If by some semi-miracle it starts, act quickly
and extract your important docs and data over a network, or to CD-R, or whatever.
There is absolutley no telling if this will work, and if it does, how long will it
work. If you get some docs off the drive and it crashes again, you have nothing
to lose by doing the process all over again.
And if you try it, you have to promise us here at annoyances.org that you post
back and tell us how it went!
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