Everything on my hard drive got destroyed

May 28 2004

[dennisw]

60 gigabytes. Never had problems with it. Yesterday Windows XP froze a few times. Then the computer refused to boot up again. Boot sector wiped out? I can deal with that! I then installed this drive as a slave and it wasn't recognized... was invisible.

With Partition Magic this hard drive shows up as 60 gig of (exact words) unallocated space. It had 3 partitions which are now all gone.

I used the Western Digital Utilities and the hard drive checks out as being in good shape. No errors.

I was using Norton Anti Virus. Using a firewall on a cable connection.

I don't see any references on internet to hard drives being killed all at once.

The hard drive was 50% backed up.I will consider a data recovery company if the price is reasonable.

[TSgt]

OnTrack is going to be your best bet...

I'm running IDE RAID1 (Mirrored) drives. Drives are cheap and it is worth the few extra dollars for the peace of mind.

Many system boards support IDE RAID out of the box.

I also have a personal practice of backing my wife's and my documents to a CD every 6 months.

[LibKill]

BTW. Once you have your data back, consider using a hard drive to back up your hard drive. I do this and once you get past the initial expense of a second hard drive, removable drive bay or USB case, there is nothing better. You set it to back up before you go to bed. No disk flipping, no fuss. I back up a lot more frequently now that I have this in place.

[Peter J. Huss]

"Hello.... my name is Steven Thrasher...."

http://stretta.com/~matthew/other/angry/mp3/helpdesk.mp3

(Warning: naughty language)

[Proud_texan]

If it's a NTFS drive you might try the File Scavenger product from this company:

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

No relationship to the company or anything, just a user. I've used it with great success but I suspect there are some situations that it can't handle but you never know....

[steplock]

it could have been simply a defective surface area probably somewhere in the FAT area.

The hard drives are so low cost they are NOT providing any QC - people cost money!

We have our choices - cheap or good - good being defined as tested through a good QC program and backed with PRIDE by the manufacturer.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

I hate when that happens.

[r9etb]

LOL! Utterly classic....

[dennisw]

THanks... I will try file scavenger.

[El Gran Salseron]

Ontrack has a program named Easy Recovery Professional.....you have to buy it but if it doesn't recover the data for you then the price of the program is subtracted from the data recovery costs if you send it to them.

Also, a local tech may be able to recover the data for you for $50 if he knows what he is doing.

[Cicero]

I had the same experience with an old Gateway computer running Windows 3.11. Every once in a while it would say it couldn't find the C drive. I would give it a sharp slap or two on the right side of the case, reboot, and it would come up fine.

I assume it was a mechanical problem, something loose somewhere, but I couldn't find where the problem was, and the computer at that point was too old to be worth upgrading.

[boris]

"The hard drive was 50% backed up."

I bet your next one will be 100% backed up.

--Boris

[iconoclast]

Try OnTrack Data, I have had good luck with them

Me too.

[Porterville]

back up and save, back up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and saveback up and save

[e_castillo]

When you try to restart do you see any message at all?

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

sorry to hear that, Dennis. Good luck.

[Trust but Verify]

Steven Thrasher (a.k.a. Al Gore)

[txguy426]

OhhHHhh the computer Guru used the 'ol calibrated SMACK ..! Do not try this at home. You have to be a trained professional to use the Smack or the Calibrated DROP technique!! *ducking*

[LanPB01]

I bought a Western Digital hard drive last June. I mainly use it to store files and pictures, but don't put many programs on it. A few weeks ago, while trying to open a file, I received an error message. When I rebooted my computer, it showed the drive was completely blank and unformatted. I think it's a physical problem with the drive, and not virus or software related.

[centurion316]

Very timely thread - next time, backup - you moron

[CyberCowboy777]

Banging works great for a stuck spindle.

I have rescued data with that approach, though I generally will knock it with the butt of the screw driver.