How To Access Data From A Failing Os (c) Hdd?

Hi all

I had a recent problem with my XP OS HDD. Left up and running it worked fine for weeks and months on end. And if the PC was restarted it was fine too. But if the PC was switched off and on again it would not boot and always reached a screen which said: "MBR Error 1. Press any key to boot from floppy".

To begin with (over a year ago now), a few restarts would get passed this and back onto Windows. The last time but one took several hundred hits of restart to get Windows back. And then yesterday we had a power cut. I tried quite a few restarts with no joy. Maybe after lots it would have loaded, but I thought enough was enough. I gave up, put a spare HDD in, and am now typing this on a fresh install of Windows 7.

I keep all my data on separate HDDs; so that's all safe. But there were one or two docs I had on the desktop of that XP drive. Plus, I have most of my program settings saved, but not all of them. So it would be really handy if I could access the data on that drive. I've put it in a USB/eSATA caddy I've got and plugged it in. Windows recognised the device (as in "This device is ready to use"), but it doesn't show in My Computer. Is that because it has problems, or because it is a bootable drive with an OS intalled on it?

It's not the worse loss in the world, but it would make life a lot easier if I could get those settings and few files. So any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

 

Can't help you on the retrieving data but I have a suggestion if you have enough data that needs recovering that you can't remember what's there and would have to search to make sure you got everything, assuming that you gain access to the drive...

I use a little, very portable, program called 'Cathy' which you can get here at Major Geeks: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/cathy_5aef.html , and it's very quick at cataloguing a drive. If you manage to get access to the drive, then I suggest immediately running Cathy and then search the resulting catalogue to see what you need to recover and make a list; that way, you aren't pushing the failing drive unnecessarily.

You don't have to catalogue the entire drive if you know there are only certain areas that need searching, just point Cathy at those folders you need.

There are three tabs at the top of a Cathy window:
- Catalog (right tab): add and manage catalogues,
- Directory (middle tab): a tree representation of the currently selected catalogue,
- Search (left tab): a search window, believe it or not. ;-D
There's a checkbox to allow you to only search the selected catalogue(s) and you can shift-select consecutive catalogues or select catalogues that aren't next to each other by holding down the control key and clicking on them, same as selecting in Windows.

You can right-click on an entry and choose to copy information about the entry to the clipboard, in any of those tabs.

It's pretty straight forward and I wish I'd known about it a few years back when I was trying to rescue data off a friend's sister's hard drive. Every action seemed to render more and more of the drive unusable. Using a catalogue programme first and then going straight for the wanted data would probably have helped me get more back. (Of course, if she hadn't had her drink in the wrong place to begin with...!)

 

Odd the drive isn't showing up in My Computer if the O.S. sees the external hookup. Have you checked for it in Disk Management? It's possible you might need to assign it a drive letter.

If no joy there, you might try mounting it directly to the motherboard, like a secondary drive. When booting, the computer should default to the Windows 7 drive, and then you can check to see if the XP drive shows up in My computer in this configuration.

 

Why did you go to all the trouble of an enclosure, when you could have just disconnected the drive, installed the new drive/OS, and left it in the machine?

The machine is going to see the ATAPI bridge (enclosure), but if the drive is not accessible there's not much else you can do except send it out for recovery.

 

Good. I am glad you backed up your data. Your symptoms clearly indicate a failing drive. What often happens is the bearing lubricants in drive motors break down over time and thicken. This gets worse when the computer is turned off and allowed to cool.

What you might try is putting this drive in a warm place (not hot) for awhile. Like under the dog. Then quickly install it as a secondary (not boot) drive in another computer and boot that computer up. Hopefully the drive will spin up and you can copy off what you need.

I only saw that freeze trick work once about 25 years ago. But with that drive, the bearings had seized because they were so worn, they caused a log jam and would not roll. Freezing causes the bearings to contract in size and hopefully become loose enough to roll again.

A big problem with freezing is condensation will quickly form on the controller board as the drive warms back up. That moisture can zap the board and destroy any chances of data recovery.

If the warm dog trick does not work, then you might try the freezing - last ditch effort - trick. But as noted, you have to be really quick. Because as soon as those bearings start to roll, friction will cause them to heat up and expand again - and possibly jam up before you have a chance to retrieve any data.

 

When I saw it work, it gave us just enough time to retrieve just one file before it seized again. But that one file (a huge, very important spreadsheet) was all that really mattered to the users. I became an instant hero - until I got in their faces about backups - again!