ZX-TT

Hi All i really need some help I have a Maxtor 1TB external HDD with major problems!

Firstly it became very slow and windows struggled to identify it, after a few days and a good AV scan and defrag all was good then the file with all my movies vids pics docs etc would not open after doing the windows checks it seemed to move the file as it stopped showing in the directory?? but the info must have still been there as the HDD was still nearly full.

After a few weeks of trying to figure out the problem, now Windows will open the drive and keeps saying I need to reformat HELP!!!!!

anyone know anyway i can recover the hard drive? I dont care if it destroys the drive as ill never buy a Maxtor again there crap this is the 2nd drive ive had fail.

PLEASE anyone with any ideas to recover my data will be rewarded with a shed load of beer!!!!

Thanks Craig

riiidaa

iTrader: (2)

Do you know anyone who runs linux / ubuntu? Have them try and read the disk.

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Do you know what the hard drive was formatted in? NTFS?
Have you tried connecting the drive to a different PC?
Removing the drive from the external caddy and connecting this up via a spare IDE or SATA connection on the computers motherboard just in case it's a board fault on the external caddy.
Worth having a look on the Seagate website for their diagnostic tools as well.

Hope this helps?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

As above.

Rule out the caddy
Download seatools.

Normally a failing hard drive makes a very distinctive/rhymic noise when its starting to die and suffering from bad/damaged sectors. On small/quiet hard drives though you may actually have to put your ear right next to it to hear it...generally random noise is normal, rhythmic noise is not normal.

If seatools say its ok, then it could just be a corrupt file table...a common issue on USB drives, especially if unplugged without dismounting it first and write caching is still enabled.

Try running CHKDSK (eg: ( chksdk z: /r where z is the drive letter ) from the command prompt, you may have to run command prompt "as adminstator" (right click).

I've recovered file tables using a pragram called "testdisk" google it and there is some in depth guide on how to use it.

Sometimes after running testdisk you may have to run CHKDSK again.

Edit: Of course. If the data on that drive is very important to you, and teh drive is classed as failed or failing by Seatools, then you may want to look at sending it to a professional data recover firm, they are expensive, but it the data is taht important to you, its money well spent.

Oh and of course...its too late now...but you should always keep at least three copies of your most important data on at least three seperate devices, there's plenty of software out there that will do this automatically for you (and built into windows too).

Smiddie

If the drive has any life in it, I've got recovery software I can send you to try to recover it. If any of it asks to format the drive, don't worry too much, it doesn't 'delete' anything as long as you don't try to put data back onto the drive.

Carlh

once youve got to your data, back it up and back it up again then dump the old drive or flog it on ebay as a door-stopper.

ZX-TT

Cheer for all the replies, The drive is not making any funny noises at all, I download the seatools last night and it failed the basic test but passed the advanced ones??

Im getting the impression the drive is fine it might be the caddy?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Only way to find out is to remove the Hard Disk from the Caddy and place it inside of your current PC.

By the way is this a USB or Firewire external connection? I know my old 2.5" IDE 140GB WD Hard Drive can timeout if attempting to copy a large amount of files over time via Firewire and the PC can then no longer see the Hard Drive unless you unplugged and re-plugged in the drive.

Also there have been issues with Hard Drives in the past with Firmware problems. I take it there is no firmware updates available? But also take into account some Manufacturers advise to backup the Hard Drive first before upgrading the firmware. So catch 22

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

You should run seatools with the drive removed from the caddy/drive enclosure. As you aren't ruling out anything nor narrowing down the fault..

Any error with the caddy will cause an error in Seatools

ZX-TT

Cheers All

So I have removed the drive from the caddy and and using HDD USB Docking station to plug this in to my laptop and still the same issue so its not the caddy The drive recognises in my computer as Local Disk (E) Not WD Elements as is used to and now all it says after double clicking the drive and waiting for it to read is "Error the Parameter is incorrect" ??

any suggestions?

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Not a USB issue is it?

Can you try using a spare SATA or IDE connection directly from the motherboard?

That way you can be sure then its an actual board on the actual Drive.

ZX-TT

no after some reading up online it looks like these hard drives are prone to corrupt partition tables so ive been advised to use the Ultimate Boot CD tool to try and restore the partition table.

Ill have a go of teh weekend and see what happens.

Thanks everyone for your replies so far its been a great help