You can watch this jackass show you how to make it work with your laptop.
http://www.sataadapter.com/
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
12Yeah I know about those, but why spend money on devices like that when I can just find a Windows PC equipped with SATA buses?
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
13Nina wrote:madlee wrote:You plugged an SATA drive into a PATA interface? did you use some kind of adapter? or did I misread something?
madlee, I think you may have just solved a problem for me that has been driving me crazy! I will check it out a bit later and shower praise upon you if that's what I overlooked. Sometimes it's the simplest thing.madlee wrote:Noises from the hard drive...if I was mistaken above, don't keep trying to access the drive. sounds like there is a mechanical problem and you are likely damaging the cylinders!
There is a huge difference if the noise is a grinding noise vs. spinning in terms of the cylinders, isn't there?
If it's a newer HD, they are much quieter these days. If it is a newer drive and it is making audible noises (unless it is some super duper performance drive) that probably isn't a good thing.
panic, I still don't understand how you connected the sata drive to your linux machine. did you use an adaptor?
nina, what problem are you having? the sata connector won't fit your pata bus at all.
a laptop at work recently stopped booting. the drive was still accessible when I booted using windows repair console or a linux boot disc. however, it just wouldn't boot. I copied everything off of it, reformatted the drive. did the fixmbr and fixboot commands and still wouldn't boot. works well as an external drive via usb. couldn't find a freeware write ones and zeros for the brand of drive (toshiba).
so, installed a new drive and laptop is as good as new.
I just ordered one of those new "green" sata drives from western digital. I'll let you all know how it goes. however, the drive gets raves on silentpcreview.com which is a great place for computer hardware reviews.
supposedly the next new cool thing is external sata drives. hot swappable!
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
14What? My Linux machine is a brand-new 64-bit Core2Duo Extreme on an ASUS motherboard with SATA hard drives. Linux is just the OS I happen to be running.
The drive is a SATA 3.5" 250GB (or similar size) hard drive.
It doesn't make a lot of loud noise. It just runs and you can hear the head mechanism repeatedly moving back and forth. You have to listen close to hear it, but it's pretty recognizable as a hard drive trying to access a damaged block or something.
Madlee, regarding your hard drive at work, do you have an operating system installed on the drive? Cause if you don't it's not going to boot
.
Also, are the jumpers set to make it the slave on the IDE channel, or the master? Or does it automatically "cable-select"? What plug on the ribbon cable is it connected to, the one on the end or the one in the middle? Is it plugged into the primary IDE channel or the secondary? These are all important questions because the OS hard drive is always supposed to be the primary master drive. Booting from a CD or DVD is a different story, but for hard drives the boot drive is always the primary master.
The drive is a SATA 3.5" 250GB (or similar size) hard drive.
It doesn't make a lot of loud noise. It just runs and you can hear the head mechanism repeatedly moving back and forth. You have to listen close to hear it, but it's pretty recognizable as a hard drive trying to access a damaged block or something.
Madlee, regarding your hard drive at work, do you have an operating system installed on the drive? Cause if you don't it's not going to boot
.
Also, are the jumpers set to make it the slave on the IDE channel, or the master? Or does it automatically "cable-select"? What plug on the ribbon cable is it connected to, the one on the end or the one in the middle? Is it plugged into the primary IDE channel or the secondary? These are all important questions because the OS hard drive is always supposed to be the primary master drive. Booting from a CD or DVD is a different story, but for hard drives the boot drive is always the primary master.
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
15Going back to this finickity drive and asking a stupid question:
have you tried the 'drop' trick to rid it of a sticking drive needle thing?
Probably not that but you never know.
If I were you and I had a PC with SATA ports that were hotswappable I would boot the machine with the drive powered up but not connected then connect it when windows was booted.
If you can get into windows and have the drive 'visible', even if this is just in the disk management snap-in then more than likely (in fact very likely) the data can be saved with cool recovery software.
I have some of this somewhere which saved everything from a drive that did not appear to be formatted according to windows. It was Easy Recovery Professional, I think.
If you'd like a copy of this recovery software I'd be happy to try and dig it out or else you can look for a torrent for it.
Also if you can't get anywhere with it and want another pair of eyes to have a go, you could ship it to me across the sea but that's prolly a last resort.
have you tried the 'drop' trick to rid it of a sticking drive needle thing?
Probably not that but you never know.
If I were you and I had a PC with SATA ports that were hotswappable I would boot the machine with the drive powered up but not connected then connect it when windows was booted.
If you can get into windows and have the drive 'visible', even if this is just in the disk management snap-in then more than likely (in fact very likely) the data can be saved with cool recovery software.
I have some of this somewhere which saved everything from a drive that did not appear to be formatted according to windows. It was Easy Recovery Professional, I think.
If you'd like a copy of this recovery software I'd be happy to try and dig it out or else you can look for a torrent for it.
Also if you can't get anywhere with it and want another pair of eyes to have a go, you could ship it to me across the sea but that's prolly a last resort.
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
16Well I'd do that but my main desktop machine runs Linux, not Windows.
My other machines have PATA buses. But yeah, I'll try that. I'll boot the machine then plug in the drive.
If it still won't read, then I'll try it on a Windows box.
My other machines have PATA buses. But yeah, I'll try that. I'll boot the machine then plug in the drive.
If it still won't read, then I'll try it on a Windows box.
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
17Colonel Panic wrote:What? My Linux machine is a brand-new Core2Duo Extreme on an ASUS motherboard with SATA hard drives. Linux is just the OS I happen to be running.
The drive is a SATA 3.5" 250GB (or similar size) hard drive.
It doesn't make a lot of loud noise. It just runs and you can hear the head mechanism repeatedly moving back and forth. You have to listen close to hear it, but it's pretty recognizable as a hard drive trying to access a damaged block or something.
Madlee, regarding your hard drive at work, do you have an operating system installed on the drive? Cause if you don't it's not going to boot
Also, are the jumpers set to make it the slave on the IDE channel, or the master? Or does it automatically "cable-select"? What plug on the ribbon cable is it connected to, the one on the end or the one in the middle? Is it plugged into the primary IDE channel or the secondary? These are all important questions because the OS hard drive is always supposed to be the primary master drive. Booting from a CD or DVD is a different story, but for hard drives the boot drive is always the primary master.
when you wrote IDE channel, I assumed you were talking about the ATA interface and not the AHCI interface. That was the original question I posted.
yes, the laptop hd had an OS installed. I tried installing ubuntu about 5 times and xp about 5 times. deleted all partitions and reformatted each time. I was under the impression that both installers would automatically rewrite the mbr and the boot command. there are no jumpers on the drive so it shouldn't matter. the laptop only has one accessible ide/ata interface. I believe the jumpers are only an issue if there are more than one drive on the cable. otherwise, I thought the bios determines the boot device.
Okay, so we cleared up the interface thing with marsup's drive.
I'm now wondering why the bios balked at booting the OS.
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
18Okay, here's one for you guys...
I have this Western Digital 80 gb drive that I purchased here in the states. Took it with me to England, filled it up with photos I had taken of well over a hundred different bands that played at the pub and business related files such as VAT info and the like. Returned to US without the power adapter.
My ex rigged one up for me. I trusted him to do that, after all, he installs and repairs escalators and elevators for a living, has for over 20 years. One would think basic electricity knowledge would be second nature for him.
Plugged it in, pop, followed by the smell of electrical burn. Once I realized that he had REVERSED THE DAMN WIRES, an impressive display of hysteria capped of the evening.
Break open the enclosure to find a fucked rectifier (burned and chipped) Take the board with me into Fry's to get the part, but left the enclosure at home. Was not able to find said tiny part on shelf so walked over to the repair place in Fry's to ask someone if they could help me find it. The guy managing the repair department looked at it and asked me what kind of air-conditioner it come from. I left Fry's...quickly.
Returned a couple of months later in hopes of obtaining rectifier or advice because I needed the VAT info off of it in a critical way.
Talked to this employee who seemed to know what he was talking about, no freaky air conditioning crap this time. He told me to get a new enclosure, which for some reason had never occurred to me. I showed him my drive, questioned the voltage, he assured me that it would be no problem.
Brought it home, hooked it up and it fried. I thought the first time was bad, but no, this was much worse.
I think I know the answer but I have to ask, what are the odds of any of the data still being intact and recoverable? I have been quoted between $500-1000, with no guarantees of recovery. I would gladly shell out the cash if I thought the data was still there, but I really have my doubts.
I would have much rather lost all of my vinyl than the data on that disk.
Hey Panic, here's a copy of PC Smart Recovery software that I uploaded to sendspace for you if you get to the point of the disk mounting.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/p3p7mb
I have this Western Digital 80 gb drive that I purchased here in the states. Took it with me to England, filled it up with photos I had taken of well over a hundred different bands that played at the pub and business related files such as VAT info and the like. Returned to US without the power adapter.
My ex rigged one up for me. I trusted him to do that, after all, he installs and repairs escalators and elevators for a living, has for over 20 years. One would think basic electricity knowledge would be second nature for him.
Plugged it in, pop, followed by the smell of electrical burn. Once I realized that he had REVERSED THE DAMN WIRES, an impressive display of hysteria capped of the evening.
Break open the enclosure to find a fucked rectifier (burned and chipped) Take the board with me into Fry's to get the part, but left the enclosure at home. Was not able to find said tiny part on shelf so walked over to the repair place in Fry's to ask someone if they could help me find it. The guy managing the repair department looked at it and asked me what kind of air-conditioner it come from. I left Fry's...quickly.
Returned a couple of months later in hopes of obtaining rectifier or advice because I needed the VAT info off of it in a critical way.
Talked to this employee who seemed to know what he was talking about, no freaky air conditioning crap this time. He told me to get a new enclosure, which for some reason had never occurred to me. I showed him my drive, questioned the voltage, he assured me that it would be no problem.
Brought it home, hooked it up and it fried. I thought the first time was bad, but no, this was much worse.
I think I know the answer but I have to ask, what are the odds of any of the data still being intact and recoverable? I have been quoted between $500-1000, with no guarantees of recovery. I would gladly shell out the cash if I thought the data was still there, but I really have my doubts.
I would have much rather lost all of my vinyl than the data on that disk.
Hey Panic, here's a copy of PC Smart Recovery software that I uploaded to sendspace for you if you get to the point of the disk mounting.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/p3p7mb
Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced. T. Mckenna
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
19Sounds to me like the logic circuitry on the hard drive itself is fried.
If that's the case, then what probably needs to be done is to crack open the hard drive, remove the platters and reinstall them into a new hard drive case of the same manufacture, or else pull out the circuitry and replace it with a board from the same model.
This kind of procedure is well beyond the scope of home repairs. You'd need an industrial clean room, one of those space suits like the guys from Intel wear, and a very thorough knowledge of hard drive construction and functionality, not to mention some very special tools and very good motor skills. Another option would be for an electronics technician to test all the parts on the hard drive circuitry and replace any damaged parts, most of which are probably tiny surface-mount components mere millimeters in size.
This is one of those cases where you send the damn thing out to a recovery firm and pay an arm and a leg (I believe they generally charge per megabyte recovered, plus a flat labor charge). The good news is that I think that most if not all of your data will be recoverable if you can afford to pay the price. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but you may take some consolation in the fact that I might be entirely wrong about this.
Over the past 15 years or so I have lost 3 hard drives (2 Maxtors and an IBM). The last time it happened, the drive contained my entire portfolio of 3D modeling and animation work over the prior year and a half, of which only a small fraction had been burned to DVDs. Each time I lost a HDD it was a new kind of agonizing experience, debating whether to send it off and pay the fee or to just say "fuck it" and move on.
Those experiences have taught me to get into the habit of backing up every single file that I wouldn't mind losing, and why I am currently in the process of piecing together an $800 RAID array to store all my most important data. Another warning, if your hard drive suddenly starts clicking, making strange noises out of the blue or suddenly becomes very slow to access, then go out and buy a new one and back that fucker up IMMEDIATELY (I usually keep a spare 250GB one on hand JIC).
If that's the case, then what probably needs to be done is to crack open the hard drive, remove the platters and reinstall them into a new hard drive case of the same manufacture, or else pull out the circuitry and replace it with a board from the same model.
This kind of procedure is well beyond the scope of home repairs. You'd need an industrial clean room, one of those space suits like the guys from Intel wear, and a very thorough knowledge of hard drive construction and functionality, not to mention some very special tools and very good motor skills. Another option would be for an electronics technician to test all the parts on the hard drive circuitry and replace any damaged parts, most of which are probably tiny surface-mount components mere millimeters in size.
This is one of those cases where you send the damn thing out to a recovery firm and pay an arm and a leg (I believe they generally charge per megabyte recovered, plus a flat labor charge). The good news is that I think that most if not all of your data will be recoverable if you can afford to pay the price. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but you may take some consolation in the fact that I might be entirely wrong about this.
Over the past 15 years or so I have lost 3 hard drives (2 Maxtors and an IBM). The last time it happened, the drive contained my entire portfolio of 3D modeling and animation work over the prior year and a half, of which only a small fraction had been burned to DVDs. Each time I lost a HDD it was a new kind of agonizing experience, debating whether to send it off and pay the fee or to just say "fuck it" and move on.
Those experiences have taught me to get into the habit of backing up every single file that I wouldn't mind losing, and why I am currently in the process of piecing together an $800 RAID array to store all my most important data. Another warning, if your hard drive suddenly starts clicking, making strange noises out of the blue or suddenly becomes very slow to access, then go out and buy a new one and back that fucker up IMMEDIATELY (I usually keep a spare 250GB one on hand JIC).
Last edited by Colonel Panic_Archive on Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Hard Drive problem: won t mount
20Nina wrote:Brought it home, hooked it up and it fried. I thought the first time was bad, but no, this was much worse.
I think I know the answer but I have to ask, what are the odds of any of the data still being intact and recoverable? I have been quoted between $500-1000, with no guarantees of recovery. I would gladly shell out the cash if I thought the data was still there, but I really have my doubts.
so you got a new enclosure, installed the hd, and it fried the hd? wow.
I would suggest that you should at least try installing the drive directly to a desktop via PATA or SATA (depending on the interface). I know that some usb devices are not that great.
sounds like you know the drill with hd recovery. I think the concept is that as long as the cylinders/discs aren't physically damaged, they will remove them and build a new hard drive around them. I would think that a reputable drive repair company would be able to give you a prognosis if you run through what happened, and the symptoms. If they act like it's not worth their time to allow you to talk to a tech for 5 minutes top, well, then fuck them. Considering the service, (high end repair) they should be very attentive.