Heartland

Hi all,

My hard drive with ALL of my MP3s (including my beloved Sisters collection) is rapidly dying (error messages, cyclic errors and telling me that parts are unformatted ).

Can anyone let me know a program that will help? Either to move the files to another drive (I have nabbed some, but my Sisters directory won't move and I am starting to panic ) or maybe to rebuild the drive structure.

Otherwise I'll have to save what I can and re-format.
My OS is XP (for my sins)

Any help gratefully received.....

Do something worthwhile today, help me to save my Sisters collection!

the only help i can give is to tell people NOT to tell you to get a mac, it won't help!

emilystrange wrote:the only help i can give is to tell people NOT to tell you to get a mac, it won't help!

but they'll tell me anyway! They always do....

i may have to deal with them then. stand behind me..

herr blast is very good with this type of thing

http://www.downloadjunction.com/product ... index.html

any use?

I know this sounds daft, but one geek tip I've heard for a dying HD (assuming you've got another hard drive to copy everything across to)

Put the dying drive in the fridge for a couple of hours. It might make it stable enough, long enough, for you to get the data off before it's f*cked.

Didn't Izzy offer a bunch of advise a while back?

Rule #1: Always make backups
Rule #2: See Rule #1

hallucienate wrote:Didn't Izzy offer a bunch of advise a while back?

Rule #1: Always make backups
Rule #2: See Rule #1

Aye, but most people don't until it's too late.

(I've just finished backing up a load of work-related stuff onto a DVD-R)

Don't forget Rule 3:
"All backup software is a heap of walking gank, so you're screwed anyway".

markfiend wrote:Put the dying drive in the fridge for a couple of hours. It might make it stable enough, long enough, for you to get the data off before it's f*cked.

I'd add, make sure you wrap the drive in a towel or something so it's not in direct contact with anything icy while in the freezer as that won't do it much good.
Add it as a slave drive (not a good idea if the failing drive has your operating system on it!), then quickly copy everything off it, hopefully before the drive fails.

do not under any circumstances let scotty near it.

Dan wrote:I'd add, make sure you wrap the drive in a towel or something so it's not in direct contact with anything icy while in the freezer as that won't do it much good.
Add it as a slave drive (not a good idea if the failing drive has your operating system on it!), then quickly copy everything off it, hopefully before the drive fails.

Oh, yeah, good point. Don't get the thing wet!

Well, I've been playing around with a few things and I've managed to get all of my un-backed up Sisters stuff off OK

I may well survive this! Thanks for all of your suggestions, especially with Ems' Scotty warning (He will be so thrilled!)

If the disk is irrepairable, can it be used after a proper format?

Cheers all!

emilystrange wrote:do not under any circumstances let scotty near it.

But, but, but, he is.........all knowing!

streamline wrote:If the disk is irrepairable, can it be used after a proper format?

Maybe, but if it's got all sorts of errors at the moment, it might be a physical fault -- scratches, dust, what have you. And if that's the case it could fail again without warning.

markfiend wrote:

streamline wrote:If the disk is irrepairable, can it be used after a proper format?

Maybe, but if it's got all sorts of errors at the moment, it might be a physical fault -- scratches, dust, what have you. And if that's the case it could fail again without warning.

Bollocks! I'll probably buy a new one then.

this happened to me few times, just get external hard disk.

markfiend wrote:

Dan wrote:I'd add, make sure you wrap the drive in a towel or something so it's not in direct contact with anything icy while in the freezer as that won't do it much good.
Add it as a slave drive (not a good idea if the failing drive has your operating system on it!), then quickly copy everything off it, hopefully before the drive fails.

Oh, yeah, good point. Don't get the thing wet!

A zip-lock bag does the trick as well, and is even better for the moisture-issues

Here is that linky I gave a couple of times before, thanks HAL for remembering my efforts!

Although these tips are always for a DEAD drive, not for a DYING one. Maybe freezing its arse off kills it right away...

The 200 ways to revive a HD, in a handy saveable PDF file!

IZ.

emilystrange wrote:do not under any circumstances let scotty near it.

giggles.

emilystrange wrote:do not under any circumstances let scotty near it.

Izzy wrote:A zip-lock bag does the trick as well, and is even better for the moisture-issues

IZ.