HDD dying...

[Bad boy Warrior]

Ok one of our SATA HD is coming close to becoming faulty (or is faulty). The error i had: STOP error 0x00000077 Kernal_Stack_inapge_Error

Tried to do a chkdsk /f /r rebooted and got to stage 4 of 5 when it took about 30 minutes and i couldnt hear any disk activity so decided to power it off :whistle: done this twice

Now i recieve 2 errors which im looking into:

1. Hardware iniated failed, please check device!!!! The BIOS does not be installed, press <g> to continue. (ASUS A8V Deluxe motherboard if you need to know)

2. NTLDR Not found press CTRL, ALT + DELETE to restart.

so im in a loop. I know how to fix the 2nd error by copying the file from the disk but the first error suggests faulty cable/ HDD, which im looking into.....

Although i backup everyday and have most of the data backed up im still losing 1.5 days worth of data as the backup crashed the night before (Server switched itself off). Im wondering of anyone know of any other techniques to recovering this data? ill still be trying everything i can to recover as much as possible but since the drive is partitoned im hoping someone may know how to get some data from it if not all?

Thanks

[jaclaz]

Generally speaking there are TWO kinds of drive faults (once you are positive it is NOT the cable or motherboard):

1) Hardware ones, that comprise both electronics (the controller board) and mechanics (the innards of the drive, spinning motor, head displacement motor, defective heads)

2) Software ones

Data recovery in case of faults of first kind CANNOT usually be performaed by End User, as, apart deep knowledge and experience in the field, specific hardware, spare parts and tools are needed.

Data recovery in case of faults of second kind CAN usually be performed by the End User, provided that he has a little more than average knowledge, and that he is willing to spend some time on it.

See this thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/Data-recovery-tool-t84345.html

for a number of tools you may try to use.

MAIN thing in Data Recovery is to make a "dd like" image of the disk on a new, healthy one (ideally you should make TWO copies) and attempt a recovery on the copy ONLY.

This way, depending on the value you give to your data, the original, untouched, filesystem in the faulty drive can be given to professionals for another attempt.

jaclaz

[DonDamm]

So, listen to this man!

What you need to do is remove that drive from the box and hook it up as a secondary drive to another one. You could attempt this by using a SATA to USB cable (I carry one with me when I go to a client) so you can connect it to another computer. If the drive is spining and you still can't manage to "see" it, try another OS like the live CD from Linspire which seems to have the uncanny ability to "see" disks other OSs fail to. You can boot from the CD and then try to access the disk. If you can, then transfer any data to another disk right away. or if it is too big, then make a disk image and suggested and work on that.

Good luck.