sata hd crash and file recovery

[yipster]

first time i crash a hd, pc got slow and after a few reboots stopped
200.- the shop asks without guarantee to find my autobackups back

can any of you confirm my vista x64 sata hd recovery method ?
bought a new similar 7200rpm 16mb 600gig disk for 55.- and hung my old one in too
should show in the explorer rite ? why not ? any advice ?

anyone installed a raid backup system? lesson is back up your files !

[wardd]

i have 2 drives and use this, it works for me

http://eau.v-com.com/product/AutoSave_Home.html

[CDK]

What you can or cannot recover depends on the cause of the drive failure.
A write error on track 0 will seem to the system as a catastrophic failure, but if you reinstall it as a 2nd drive you may be able to recover everything except files that were open at the moment of failure.
A real (hard) failure like rpm runaway or a damaged head means you can unscrew the cover and nail it to the wall as a warning.

[yipster]

thanks for the support and yah, nailing a new disk to the wall would be a good reminder we are only building card houses

my pc appeared still under 3 year guaranty and pc service guy that came by offered to to trade hd in for a new one
since i wanted to keep the old hd to see if some data retrival was possible a new 55.- hd from him was 150.-
yes strange but comp policy, wonder what they'll do with it. now he comes back this week to trade the hd in
giving me time to see if there is anything to recover, real nice service!

now sata drives dont have master slave settings or jumpers and run parralel i belive
and in the bios the old disk does sign up and now set to second
starting on the new drive vista x64 dont even start having the old as second and having vista run on new hd
hanging the old in its not in the explorer maybe the data retrival shops do earn their money but wonder how they do it

[Joakim]

Originally Posted by yipster

first time i crash a hd, pc got slow and after a few reboots stopped
200.- the shop asks without guarantee to find my autobackups back

can any of you confirm my vista x64 sata hd recovery method ?
bought a new similar 7200rpm 16mb 600gig disk for 55.- and hung my old one in too
should show in the explorer rite ? why not ? any advice ?

anyone installed a raid backup system? lesson is back up your files !

The first thing to do when suspecting a hd failure is to stop using it! Do not try to reboot etc. many times. Connect it as a second drive as read only and inspect it.

There are many types of failures that can happen and there are special programs that may get something back from a hd deemed hopeless.

Last time I had a hd failure our IT specialist was not able to get anything back in XP. I had rather good success using Linux, which was able to read most of the files, but there were physical read failures at some files.

There really wasn't anything that important, since all important was on daily backup. But you never know, if you have saved a file mistakenly to file system not included in the backup.

There are also programs that checks a hd for number different types of failure and thus can predict a total failure before it happens.

[Tug]

i know this might seem wierd...but it works occasionally....it has for me..
Stick the HD into the freezer overnight....
Plug the HD in as a slave and quickly move any files of it..
It will only work until it heats up again..
Doesnt always work...but it s worth a try..
Cheers
Tug

[CDK]

Originally Posted by yipster

and in the bios the old disk does sign up and now set to second
starting on the new drive vista x64 dont even start having the old as second and having vista run on new hd

Which means the bad drive doesn't release the SATA bus when powered up, so it is a hardware malfunction.
I'm very interested to know if the shop could recover any data. Don't bet on it.

[Herman]

About RAID systems: Highly recommended. I use a raid-1 system, which means you will need to invest in another harddisk, from which you will not get any Gb extra storage, but you will get the reassurance that your data is safe(r).
I have also used a raid5 system, which also protects your data, and has a gain in speed. I had 8 disks in a tower, of which 7 were in raid 5, and 1 was a hot spare. Lot of energy consumption, lot of noise though...

You could do the following:
-install a raid 1 or raid 5 system. This is your first defense.
-backup on a removable USB harddisk (automatically). Your second defense.
-regularly swap the USB drive with another, and store your drive away from home. (fire destroys everything). Your third defense.

[wardd]

Originally Posted by Herman

About RAID systems: Highly recommended. I use a raid-1 system, which means you will need to invest in another harddisk, from which you will not get any Gb extra storage, but you will get the reassurance that your data is safe(r).
I have also used a raid5 system, which also protects your data, and has a gain in speed. I had 8 disks in a tower, of which 7 were in raid 5, and 1 was a hot spare. Lot of energy consumption, lot of noise though...

You could do the following:
-install a raid 1 or raid 5 system. This is your first defense.
-backup on a removable USB harddisk (automatically). Your second defense.
-regularly swap the USB drive with another, and store your drive away from home. (fire destroys everything). Your third defense.

may be safe from system malfunctions but not viruses

[Herman]

Originally Posted by wardd

may be safe from system malfunctions but not viruses

we are talking about mechanical breakdown, and i include fire among that as well.

protection against malware like viri is a software issue. you need at least a working system for that.

i feel with yipster. losing data is a nightmare.

oh, and my shift key has been eaten by a virus...

[liki]

As a professional in this virtue, my first advice is:

RAID is not a backup.

And neither is an another hard disk. For a backup, consider CF/SD-cards, good old tapes, or CD-r depending on your storage needs. RW or DVD disks do not last that long, and CD-r lasts reliably about 5 years.

Then the case of the broken disk. More often the fault is in the controller board rather than in the mechanical parts or disk surfaces, the controller board can be replaced by a skilled person if you can find a similar disk. In case of severe problems there are companies like Norman Ibas who specialise in restoring broken storage systems. They are quite expensive but also very effective.

[Herman]

I have had several CD-rs fail after only a year or so. I definately do not like them as backup.

Although tapes are more reliable, I also have seen tremendous problems with them.

Storing both CD-r and tape in a dark, dry and cool place, with little temperature variations, is a good idea.

Still, RAID works very well for redundancy, and storing on multiple harddisks is not a bad thing.

[CDK]

Originally Posted by liki

Then the case of the broken disk. More often the fault is in the controller board rather than in the mechanical parts or disk surfaces, the controller board can be replaced by a skilled person if you can find a similar disk.

Unfortunately not true Liki.
The drive will run again with another board, but is has to be formatted, so you end up with only empty sectors. The chance that the new board has the exact same timing is virtually zero.
In yipster's case the solution might be to replace the SATA bus interface chip, but I couldn't name any guy who does that for him.

[wardd]

plus the factory maps the disk on the board the new board wont have a map of the disks bad sectors etc

[Redtick]

There's not a perfect solution for backup. I work at a hospital in the IT dept.
I have split raid setups on the OS and data. I run Rsync from data servers to NAS servers. Then run tape backups, if you don't test the backup's before you have a problem, you can find out it was all a waste of time.
Raid is nice, if a drive dies, add a replacement then rebuid the raid. Time down is the short. But if data is corrupt or deleted it's gone.
Rsync, if data is "pure" just overwrite the corrupt or missing data. But never delete, someone is always looking for a missing file they deleted 9 months ago.

Tape backup, highest cost and takes the most time. If the write was "good" you have your data no matter if a virus or hardware problem happens. Raid and Rsync are great for fast recovery but someone can delete everything so easy, never use just one backup system.

If you use a off site backup company, think of who has your data and what type of data they have. Send the data encrypted before it hits their system. Store a copy of the keys for the encryption in a safe place, or you may not be able to unlock your data when something happens. What happens to the data if the bill is not paid? Do they delete it or keep it? Some claim they become the owner. /rant-off