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Hard Drive corrupt

Mav
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Hard Drive corrupt

I have a 320GB HDD (used externally in a caddy) which, since connecting to W7 is showing as unformatted although I know for sure it was in use within XP. I had an idea there was a problem with this drive when the PC (under XP) often failed to boot unless I turned this drive off first.
I have also tried the drive in a second caddy with the same problem.
The error I get is
Quote
M:\ is not accessible.
The file or directory is corrupt and unreadable.

Occasionally I get an error indicating that it is not formatted.
Is there a way that the file structure can be repaired so that I can attempt to read any data left on it?
Thanks.

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10 REPLIES 10
dvorak
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

Spinrite might be able to help you, though is a reasonable out lay unless you know somebody with a copy.
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paulh
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

always worth trying to see if you can boot up a Llinux live cd and access the drive that way, sometimes Linux will read a drive when Window$ won't ... or use one of the Linux rescue and repair discs like http://www.sysresccd.org/, there's a quite a few of them about
Mav
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

I don't really know much about Linux except for a few snippets here & there as I've never had an urge to try it.
I understand, maybe wrongly, that you can boot Linux from CD or even USB drive without having to install it to a hard drive.
If this is possible could you point me to a decent tutorial, please.

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pierre_pierre
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

have you got a year to learn it?
Mav
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

Thanks for the pointers...
I downloaded an Ubuntu Live CD iso and burned with Nero.
Booted from that (didn't even have to change the boot priority) and found how to view the drives - quite intuitive really.
Plugged in the offending drive and was able to recover just over 64GB and lost all of around 500MB.
Very happy with this.
Also, Ubuntu reported a potential problem with another drive. Although it didn't indicate which drive in particular within its message I did notice one of the drive icons was displayed lighter than the rest so am assuming that could be the culprit. Will investugate a little later.
Anyway, for now - all's well - fingers crossed  Cheesy

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w23
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

Always keep a live Linix CD for such occasions.
So glad that you found it intuitive, MS Windows is not the answer to everything.
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paulh
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

and you didn't "need a year to learn it" ... which is the myth that so often gets propagated
7up
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

For basic stuff I agree its pretty straight forward. For more complex stuff like trying to get wireless drivers working which need you to compile wrappers and things from the prompt its a nightmare. I remember years ago trying to install an open office RPM. After 3 days I finally gave up and yes I was using YAST which is supposed to make it all easy.
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VileReynard
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

Things have moved on.
It's plug 'n' go, not plug 'n' pray. Grin

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Mav
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Re: Hard Drive corrupt

Bad news is this drive along with my other 80GB are both out of warranty  Cry

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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