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SATA Hard Drive crash, fixed

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jwinslow

jwinslow

A MAN OF BETRAYED JUSTICE
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A friend's work computer has crashed. The HD will not pass the 'windows did not start properly' prompt, all of the options result in a freeze/restart. It does the same when plopped into another PC.

1. Can I insert that hard drive as an extra HD in my current SATA HD vista-64 pc? I tried plugging it in to one of the later slots, and it just hung at bootup.

2. Would I have more luck trying to run it as a backup drive for my IDE xp pc?

3. Is there anything I need to do to make it a "slave" drive?

4. If I cannot get it to work as a backup, should I re-install XP on top of it, hopefully maintaining the info by installing to windows2/ ?

5. Or should I take it to a data recovery place?

Note, the computer is an ancient gateway, and they cannot find the OS re-install discs. They either lost them or were stolen. The computer is past its warranty, so Gateway will not help.
 
They don't have the backup/OS disc. Can I repair and install XP over itself with my own XP disc, without erasing the data? Just making sure I don't have to have their XP disc (I wouldn't think so, but have no experience dealing with 'recovery disc' brand machines).
 
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I'm a bit hazy as to what exactly you are wanting to do.

Your friend's primary HDD fails during Windows start up.

Is your primary goal to get windows reinstalled for them? To just recover the data & replace the drive? Did they just give you the drive and you're looking at using it as extra storage? I'm a bit confused.


If you wnt to use it as a secondary drive on an IDE box you're going to need to make sure it has a SATA controller or install a card based one.


BrutusMaximus;1232873; said:
yep it will work fine, as long as it's the same make of windows, like home, pro, etc.
Click to expand...

OEM vs retail makes a difference as well.
 
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They don't have their copy of XP ('recovery disc'), so we're merely looking to recover the data to take to a new (or old) PC.

They are clueless and seeking out my help. We priced out local places, and they are outrageous for HD recovery.
If you wnt to use it as a secondary drive on an IDE box you're going to need to make sure it has a SATA controller or install a card based one.
Click to expand...
It does.
OEM vs retail makes a difference as well.
Click to expand...
how so?
 
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jwinslow;1232920; said:
They don't have their copy of XP ('recovery disc'), so we're merely looking to recover the data to take to a new (or old) PC.
Click to expand...

Got it.

Recover data priority A.

Get Windows reinstalled priority B.

:biggrin:


It does.
Click to expand...


SATA drives don't have a master/slave jumper like PATA/IDE drives so you don't need to worry about that.

Attach the SATA drive to oen of the ports normally.

Go into the bios and make sure it is set up to boot off of your IDE drive first.

The SATA drive should appear normally as an additional drive on your system.

You may need to mount the drive in Disk Management.


how so?
Click to expand...

They use different keys so you can't install off of a retail disk using an OEM key.



Once you've recovered the data from the drive, wipe it (You can just reformat since it's going back to the same folks) and run third party disk diagnostic software on it to make sure the drive itself is OK.

Download XP Ultimate (it's a torrent) & burn it to DVD.

Boot off the DVD and follow the directions. :)
 
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If the drive isn't recognized as a secondary drive in another system, or causes that system to hang on boot when hooked up as a secondary drive, you're looking at a hardware problem vs. software. If the hard drive is physically going bad, you may want to try the freezer trick as a last resort. I've had that work a couple times.
 
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It hangs on boot up with the SATA drive as a backup to the IDE. It is booting off of the IDE (I checked in the bios... order). It boots just fine by IDE with my functional SATA drive as a backup, but when I include their faulty SATA, it hangs.

When running safe mode line by line, it does:

Mup.sys

then hang on 'a347bus.sys'... I've tried pressing escape to skip that, no dice.




What is the freezer trick? Stickign it in the freezer? :lol:
 
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If I can't fix it myself, any recommendations on who to use to professionally recover the files? This is a work pc.

We'd rather not pay outrageous prices, esp since they'll surely be investing in a new pc soon.
 
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They use different keys so you can't install off of a retail disk using an OEM key.
Click to expand...

No but you can still do a repair and just use the key from the current installation of windows (usually on the side of the case somewhere). This would be the easiest method. Unless the HD is actually shot, then it gets more complicated :wink:
 
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I ended up hooking it up by external hard drive, and it was accessible that way (vs locking up every boot-up as an internal). Otherwise, we were looking at $500-1800 with the dust-free rooms and crazy suits (which would not have been done)
Yep. Don't laugh. It's worked for me a few times on drives that absolutely couldn't even get recognized in the BIOS. Just gotta keep it cold long enough to get the data off. Google has plenty of stuff about it.
Click to expand...
Do you just cross your fingers that it's not too long? Or are HDs pretty safe being frozen?
 
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I'm going to try this (freezer trick) with my external HD that I have that clicks and hope for the best. I have put off trying to get data off of it for a while.
 
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jwinslow;1235959; said:
Do you just cross your fingers that it's not too long? Or are HDs pretty safe being frozen?
Click to expand...

Wrap the drive in a paper towel and place it in a zip lock bag to protect it from condensation. Other than that there's little chance of harm to the drive.

Keep in mind it's mainly used to get drives that are frozen to spin up. If the drive you're working with is already spinning normally it's probably not going to do much.

Either way if it does work be sure to pull the data off ASAP.

Throw it in your IDE box instead of the SATA one. One less thing to worry about.
 
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