Hardware experts desperately needed

[Pekka]

So as some of you know, my HDD broke and is pretty much fubar. I actually have 4 HDDs, but only one was attached during that first incident. It was my main HDD so I was pretty pissed off because all my current work vanished.

Then I took my second HDD, attached it, but I didn't have any OS in it so I installed XP, everything went fine, until the HDD started booting itself few times. Well, everything OK, except it did it once while the XP was checking the disk because of earlier booting. I thought well I hope nothing can come out of this if this happens during the checking.. well,... it said 'HIMEM.SYS missing'. Pretty much couldn't get the OS loading, and but I got to the command line and I could list my files, so suupposedly they are still there. I do not know how I could get them out of there, because it refuses to function when it's secondary HDD. And if I try to install XP from CD, it says that I have to format it, because the current file system is something that it doesn't support/recognize. Weird.

I thought this is not my luck day. Well, today I put on my 3rd HDD which is only 10 gigs, and installed XP on it. Everything went fine. I attached my 4th and last HDD with it, to get some more space, plus it had my early work on it. Well well.. out of the blue, suddenly, the 4th HDD 'vanished' too, live while computing. I was like WTF... where did it go... I turned off my computer, checked that everything was fine, which it was, and started again.. now it sees my 4th HDD again, except it says the filesystem is ****ed up (not again!), and is RAW, and can't access it.

What can I do? I REALLY do not want to format this 4th HDD, because this would mean I lose ALLLLLLL my files and work, even if it's early work. And how cna I work the HDD number 2, and WHAT THE HELL can be causing this? I think virus is pretty much not an option anymore.

-Pekka. Still online with the last functioning HDD.

[Pekka]

And if your comment will be 'Well you installed XP that explains it!11' then leave it to yourself. This is a very serious matter to me. I don't care if my HDDs are gone for good, I need some files off from them and I need to know what is causing this. I checked the IDE cables and they were fine.

[Pekka]

no one?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Hey Pekka,

Exact same thing happened to me about 3 weeks ago. I mean, exactly... HDD died, and I needed some files from it.

And like you, most of my files were still intact on the HDD, just no way to access them.

What I did was install XP on another drive and use this awesome program (you have to pay for it, but I ended up downloading the warez version) and was able to extract all my work from the dead drive. And yeah yeah, warez is teh evil but I don't feel bad since the work was so important... and since I do it all the time anyways

Pekka, I'd recommend getting the drive recognized somehow in some computer or with some configuration of your system now. But DON'T TOUCH IT UNTIL YOU RETRIEVE THE FILES!

I'll find the link to the prog for you in the meantime.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Here's the program I used:

http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

Look for the full version on e-mule or kazaa or something. Thats where I got it.

Then once XP sees that you have a hard drive, even if it can't read files from it, this program will be able to retrieve them.

[Pekka]

The irony.. ohh the irony.. I have this program, on the HDD that I can't access

You know, if I can just save my 2 HDD's with this, I don't care if I have to buy a new HDD just to have those files on it. The files are invaluable to me and there's lots of my works in there, soem of which I can not reproduce just like that. Hundreds of thousands of lines of code must be SAVED! And of course some music and few videos But most importantly, my files.

However, I did not know the easyrecoverypro can do that too, I got it because I wanted to get some files I deleted earlier and they said this MIGHT be of help, well it turned out it was unable to fetch what I wanted, but this should be no problem... Thanks bro, I'll get this sorted HOPEFULLY soon.

PS. does anyone know what can cause things like these? I reckon it can happen sometimes, but this is like 3 strikes already in very short amount of time, where one HDD absolutely dies, and 2 are in coma but possibly I can get the files back from them.. ?

I know.. it's the commie electricity..

[VetLegion]

It could very well be your power supply acting up. When cheap power supplies misbehave, they tend to wreck havoc on the other components. I had one such incident.

Anyway, let it comfort you that your files CAN be saved. This is certain. Only matter is the price , cause there are professionals who can extract files after multiple formatings and even physically damaged discs (which yours are probably not).


I suggest you take the disks to a friend's place and try to plug them in as secondary discs there. If windows can't recognize the filesystem, try under some linux distribution.

[VetLegion]

Two days ago I had two power supplies (cheap ones ) blow up on my home computers. There was fire in one and white smoke from the other. In one computer the processor and the mainboard have died, and in the other nothing, thankfully. I had data issues too, because NTFS filesystem is not easy to read from in another XP (security and permissions issues).

Now I am in Total Paranoia mode. I have three computers in the home LAN and I am looking for a way to synchronise important data folders between them in 12 hours intervals. I want each of them to have data from the other two. Synched every half day or so. Chances all three go to hell (virus, hardware...) are miniscule. But I haven't found a good synching tool yet. Won't be sleeping tonight it seems

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Good luck Pekka.

But as far as easyrecoverypro, I'm confident it will find you data. Since presumably its been dead for a while, and hasn't been used, all the data should be intact. If so, the program will find it.

You just have to use the right mode. If I recall, there's about 4 or 5 modes. I'd recommend trying them all and seeing what works. For me Format Recovery worked... even though I didn't format it. But you get the idea.

I know how it feels though. I almost lost 3 months worth of work on my thesis and my transcription job, but thankfully this program found it all.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by VetLegion
It could very well be your power supply acting up. When cheap power supplies misbehave, they tend to wreck havoc on the other components. I had one such incident.

Yes. Most n00bs don't realise how important the power supply is. A good one filters the electricity to give other parts a longer life. A rotten one kills your computer.

Never ever skimp on a power supply - get the best like Enermax or Antec.

[Pekka]

UR, I am aware of this, hence the 'commie electricity' remark. I have bought and replaced the dewault power supply with enermax. BUt who knows, it still might be the cause to it.

[sprucemoose3311]

i just went through computer problems two days ago.

did you check the microsoft knowledge base

also: http://www.motherboards.org/forums/ has lots of threads to help with computer problems, and you can ask for help too, ive used them before and theyre pretty good


My current problem killed my main hard drive (hdd smart warned my hard disk failure imminant). I lost 3 documents total. However, the problem would have been worse had i not had everything that is important backed up on a second drive and an external drive. its worth it to invest in both.

Also, when you format, make sure your second hard drive is unplugged. I once formatted and my computer decided both hard drives needed to be erased... thankfully my friends helped me recover my missing files (they were all music and videos)

[Urban Ranger]

Maybe you have too many HDDs and other devices, causing the power supply to go crazy. If you are using a modem, high voltage electricity could come down the phone line.

[Sikander]

Vetlegion, if you are really worried about losing your data, keep one of your machines disconnected from the power grid except when you use it to back up the others. Physically unplug it (and phone line too if you use one) so that you avoid any power surges and don't have to rely on surge protectors etc. (they don't always work).

[aneeshm]

You have a CD drive , right ? Then try booting Knoppix and mounting the bad HDD , and copy data to the good one . Should work .

In case you don't know , Knoppix is a linux distro that boots totally from the CD , with no installation on the HD required .