HDD problems...

mau92 · June 4, 2014

So the title might give you a hint, I'll explain with more detail.

I currently have 2 HDDs on my system, a 1TB drive where the OS and all software is (games, programs) and another 320GB drive where all my stuff is (photos, downloaded files... You get it). The latter is an old drive I had in my old PC and it's like 4 or 5 years old, which I think it's not that much.

Some time ago the 320GB started disappearing randomly of "My Computer", after a "Scan for HW changes" in device manager the HDD comes back to life. I can access it, read/write files and everything you'd expect to do with an HDD. It sometimes has slow loading times, but once its loaded the drive works at normal speeds.

But the new thing that has been happening since a couple of days is that scanning for HW changes doesn't work, even though in both, device manager and computer management->drives the drive is there as well as in the BIOS. In computer management, I can see the drive but it shows that its "Uninitialized"... I know that you have to initialize a drive when it's new, but this ain't no new drive. So I have 2 options so far, try to initialize it and loose all my files (photos and videos is what I'm most concerned of) or have a unusable disk 8with all my info in it) which I can try to recover in some way.

I made an HDtune test and shows few bad sectors, even windows chkdsk recover some of them afterwards. I think that my HDD is turning slow, that's why it always disappeared, but now all my files are corrupt... I'm planning on getting a bigger HDD to store all of my data maybe an ext drive I don't know.

I'd like to know if I can make an image of the HDD with, I don't know, a USB-Bootable Linux and then export it to a new drive.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Camel · June 4, 2014

If you do get a new HDD which I would recommend after reading this post. You should be able to recover most, if not all of your files using software like Recuva which is free and pretty good.

TDUZoqqer · June 4, 2014

I'm also for recovering. You can port your files on a different HDD. Wouldnt really recommend to keel the one in use though. Have a problem with my HDD too, and I definitly will recover all the files on a fresh HDD, even if that means reinstall some programms again.

Ryzza5 · June 4, 2014

Search Google for Hirens and download and make a CD of it. Boot your PC off that disc into MiniXP. There are a bunch of free tools bundled in there that may assist you in recovering the data. Once you've done that grab a hammer (and safety glasses) and have fun destroying the 320GB disc.

mau92 · June 5, 2014

Well thanks everybody for your help! It's a relief to know that I won't loose any files!

I'll have to start looking for a new HDD. Do you recommend something bigger than 1tb (2tb, for example) but with less speed or another 1tb drive with the same speed (have a Caviar Black now). I'm thinking more about something with more space just to put all the crap in it...

TDUZoqqer · June 5, 2014

I'm absolutely happy with my ~5OO GB intern and 1+2 TB extern disks. So cant really reccomend as I love all of my disks.

Ryzza5 · June 5, 2014

If you want the best of both worlds, get a SSD for C:\ (Windows, Program Files, and your newest games), then get a WD Red 2TB drive. Try and avoid going for lots of HDDs in your PC as you create excessive noise and heat.

mau92 · June 5, 2014

I thought about an SSD, but they are not cheap specially those with high space, besides in my country these kind of things are even more expensive (you know, lots of trouble for importing things). Of course I'll make a disk swap, and just leave 2 internal disks as I have now.

Another thing is that I don't want to re-install everything :P. Anyways, I'll keep researching to see what's better for me.

Regards!

PS: I'll try to give the old HDD another life by converting it to external or something :hmmm:

Ryzza5 · June 5, 2014

Your HDD has been giving you warnings for some time, you've already left it too long and will be lucky to recover everything off it, so dispose of it or have fun trying to pull it apart or something.

My gaming PC has a 240GB SSD for which I just have 2-3 games installed that can use all the performance I can throw at it (like pCARS). Everything else runs from my WD Black 2TB drives.