Best hard drive repair software?...

[frank]

Having some errors on external hard drives and need a good software program
that can repair and get external drives in shape...any suggestions?

Frank
--
http://www.mediaartist.com/
"Media Artist Secrets"
The Blog for Creative Professionals

[Thingy]

"frank" > wrote in message
...
>
> Having some errors on external hard drives and need a good software
> program that can repair and get external drives in shape...any
> suggestions?

Most decent hard disk repair software[1] will gost you about the same price
as
a new hard disk, so if this is for a home PC, it's not really worth it. The
first thing you
have to do is get as much of the data as possible off the hard disk you're
having
problems with - put it onto a different hard disk, not just a partition on
the
disk that is playing up. If you can get all the data off the drive, then
open up a
command window, and type in:
chkdsk z: /f /r
(where z: is the drive letter of the disk)
If that's no good, *AND YOU HAVE ALL THE DATA COPIED OFF THE DRIVE*
format the disk, but don't use a quick format, copy (not move) the data back
to the drive and see if the problems happen again. If they do, then you
will
most likely need a new drive.

I'm guessing this external drive is using USB or firewire. If that's the
case there's
a 99% chance it is simply an EIDE hard disk, which you can remove from the
external case and simply replace the disk.
If the drive is a standard one, and you've managed to get the data off it
before it
starts throwing errors, you could take the drive out of the external case,
put it internally and use a drive diagnostic tool to see if that can detect
anything
unusual - most manufacturers have these tools available from their websites.

I've got to also point out that before you do anything with that disk, you
have got to
see if you can copy the data off first, as some recovery programs can be a
tad aggressive
when trying to recover data - if the recovery program fails, then you could
wind up
with a dead disk and no data at all[2]. If that happens, I suggest you find
a soft wall
to bang your head against, because brick ones hurt. :-)

[1] Thinking specifically Easy Recovery Pro, here.
[2] Unless you want to spent insane amounts of money.

--
Thingy.

[frank]

Thingy,

Good info thanks. I have two external Maxtor one touch 250GB firewire
drives. Both have been working great but it seems as they are filling up I
am getting more errors. The errors are fixed during XP boot up, but these
fixes are randomly deleting and repairing bad sectors, so I am losing data.

All the data on both drives I have duplicate copies on duplicate CDs (yes I
am good!) so no need for recovery. Really I just want to somehow fix the
drives, get software that can map out bad sectors so they are not used.
Again the drives have been working great but it seems as they are getting
more and more full I am having more errors pop up.

Any suggestions are great..thanks

Frank

--
http://www.mediaartist.com/
"Media Artist Secrets"
The Blog for Creative Professionals


"Thingy" > wrote in message
...
> "frank" > wrote in message
> ...
>>
>> Having some errors on external hard drives and need a good software
>> program that can repair and get external drives in shape...any
>> suggestions?
>
> Most decent hard disk repair software[1] will gost you about the same
> price as
> a new hard disk, so if this is for a home PC, it's not really worth it.
> The first thing you
> have to do is get as much of the data as possible off the hard disk you're
> having
> problems with - put it onto a different hard disk, not just a partition on
> the
> disk that is playing up. If you can get all the data off the drive, then
> open up a
> command window, and type in:
> chkdsk z: /f /r
> (where z: is the drive letter of the disk)
> If that's no good, *AND YOU HAVE ALL THE DATA COPIED OFF THE DRIVE*
> format the disk, but don't use a quick format, copy (not move) the data
> back
> to the drive and see if the problems happen again. If they do, then you
> will
> most likely need a new drive.
>
> I'm guessing this external drive is using USB or firewire. If that's the
> case there's
> a 99% chance it is simply an EIDE hard disk, which you can remove from the
> external case and simply replace the disk.
> If the drive is a standard one, and you've managed to get the data off it
> before it
> starts throwing errors, you could take the drive out of the external case,
> put it internally and use a drive diagnostic tool to see if that can
> detect anything
> unusual - most manufacturers have these tools available from their
> websites.
>
> I've got to also point out that before you do anything with that disk, you
> have got to
> see if you can copy the data off first, as some recovery programs can be a
> tad aggressive
> when trying to recover data - if the recovery program fails, then you
> could wind up
> with a dead disk and no data at all[2]. If that happens, I suggest you
> find a soft wall
> to bang your head against, because brick ones hurt. :-)
>
> [1] Thinking specifically Easy Recovery Pro, here.
> [2] Unless you want to spent insane amounts of money.
>
> --
> Thingy.
>

[Thingy]

"frank" > wrote in message
...
>
> Thingy,
>
> Good info thanks. I have two external Maxtor one touch 250GB firewire
> drives. Both have been working great but it seems as they are filling up I
> am getting more errors. The errors are fixed during XP boot up, but these
> fixes are randomly deleting and repairing bad sectors, so I am losing
> data.
>
> All the data on both drives I have duplicate copies on duplicate CDs (yes
> I am good!) so no need for recovery. Really I just want to somehow fix the
> drives, get software that can map out bad sectors so they are not used.
> Again the drives have been working great but it seems as they are getting
> more and more full I am having more errors pop up.
>
> Any suggestions are great..thanks

Just a quick question, in this newsgroup, is it usual to reply at the top
of a message, as this is quite unusual?

Anyway, well done on sorting out a backup - it's nice to see someone who
knows that their data is valuable *and* has done something to keep it safe!
I'd suggest having one last look around the disk to make sure you've
got *all* the files backed up[1] then format it. Next run chkdsk with the
/r
switch. This *should* mark any of the unusable areas on the drive so
data isn't written to it. However, bad sectors on IDE drives have a nasty
habit of spreading, so until you stop getting errors on the drive, it's only
worth using for data that wouldn't annoy you too much if you lost.

[1] It's amazing how you can be sure of having a full backup and then
remembering you changed a file just *after* wiping a drive.
No I've never done this. Honestly...no really, I haven't.......
.....
....
....Well, once. :-)

--
Thingy.

[Thingy]

<snip>
> Good info thanks. I have two external Maxtor one touch 250GB firewire
> drives.<snip>

Sorry - forgot to mention, if you can get the drives out and mount them
internally,
Maxtor have diagnostic programs:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.8db0c3d6932ced37294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads

--
Thingy.
(OE will break this link, if you can't copy and paste it into your browser,
you probably should use the software...or be let out unsupervised:-))

[Jerry]

SpinRite will check and fix drives - www.grc.com

"frank" > wrote in message
...
>
> Thingy,
>
> Good info thanks. I have two external Maxtor one touch 250GB firewire
> drives. Both have been working great but it seems as they are filling up I
> am getting more errors. The errors are fixed during XP boot up, but these
> fixes are randomly deleting and repairing bad sectors, so I am losing
> data.
>
> All the data on both drives I have duplicate copies on duplicate CDs (yes
> I am good!) so no need for recovery. Really I just want to somehow fix the
> drives, get software that can map out bad sectors so they are not used.
> Again the drives have been working great but it seems as they are getting
> more and more full I am having more errors pop up.
>
> Any suggestions are great..thanks
>
> Frank
>
> --
> http://www.mediaartist.com/
> "Media Artist Secrets"
> The Blog for Creative Professionals
>
>
> "Thingy" > wrote in message
> ...
>> "frank" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>
>>> Having some errors on external hard drives and need a good software
>>> program that can repair and get external drives in shape...any
>>> suggestions?
>>
>> Most decent hard disk repair software[1] will gost you about the same
>> price as
>> a new hard disk, so if this is for a home PC, it's not really worth it.
>> The first thing you
>> have to do is get as much of the data as possible off the hard disk
>> you're having
>> problems with - put it onto a different hard disk, not just a partition
>> on the
>> disk that is playing up. If you can get all the data off the drive, then
>> open up a
>> command window, and type in:
>> chkdsk z: /f /r
>> (where z: is the drive letter of the disk)
>> If that's no good, *AND YOU HAVE ALL THE DATA COPIED OFF THE DRIVE*
>> format the disk, but don't use a quick format, copy (not move) the data
>> back
>> to the drive and see if the problems happen again. If they do, then you
>> will
>> most likely need a new drive.
>>
>> I'm guessing this external drive is using USB or firewire. If that's
>> the case there's
>> a 99% chance it is simply an EIDE hard disk, which you can remove from
>> the
>> external case and simply replace the disk.
>> If the drive is a standard one, and you've managed to get the data off it
>> before it
>> starts throwing errors, you could take the drive out of the external
>> case,
>> put it internally and use a drive diagnostic tool to see if that can
>> detect anything
>> unusual - most manufacturers have these tools available from their
>> websites.
>>
>> I've got to also point out that before you do anything with that disk,
>> you have got to
>> see if you can copy the data off first, as some recovery programs can be
>> a tad aggressive
>> when trying to recover data - if the recovery program fails, then you
>> could wind up
>> with a dead disk and no data at all[2]. If that happens, I suggest you
>> find a soft wall
>> to bang your head against, because brick ones hurt. :-)
>>
>> [1] Thinking specifically Easy Recovery Pro, here.
>> [2] Unless you want to spent insane amounts of money.
>>
>> --
>> Thingy.
>>
>
>

[John Thomas Smith]

On Wed, 06 Apr 2005 18:15:02 GMT, "frank" > wrote:
>Having some errors on external hard drives and need a good software program
>that can repair and get external drives in shape...any suggestions?

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm


John Thomas Smith
http://www.direct2usales.com
http://www.pacifier.com/~jtsmith