for techies only

[roach3]

I know your thread title is 'for techies only' but that sounds like you need @aguero93:20 s patented advice more than anyone elses. It sounds like it's physically knackered and no amount of clever software can get around that.

I'm guessing it wasn't working before you got your hands on it?

correct, it just looped on safemode menu but at that point I thought it was just a corrupt mbr
and I agree there will be no software to repair a drive as knackered as this one

 

[TCIB]

correct, it just looped on safemode menu but at that point I thought it was just a corrupt mbr
and I agree there will be no software to repair a drive as knackered as this one

The click of death it is then. Unless he wants to spend silly money the drive is dead zed :-(

R.I.P hdd, you will not be forgotten.

 

[lancs blue]

i remember back in the nineties msdos used to have the ability to mark bad sectors as unusable
so it would skip rather than stick at those points, not sure if it would work on this drive though as its
in a bad state

I think the dos command was

chkdsk /r

It attempts to move bad sectors or bad data to a different address and renders the original address unusable.

Also, you've probably looked at this but is it possible that the problems are connected to extreme levels of fragmentation as this can cause all sorts of odd behaviour, especially on older hdds.

 

[roach3]

Gave the poor women the bad news
And gave her a little tutorial about making backups

9 years of photos gone
she couldn't afford professional retrieval

A lesson for all methinks

Thanks for the replies guys

 

[TCIB]

Gave the poor women the bad news
And gave her a little tutorial about making backups

9 years of photos gone
she couldn't afford professional retrieval

A lesson for all methinks

Thanks for the replies guys

That sucks. Don't bin the drive, keep it in a ziplock with a sachet of silica gel. That is a lot of pics for most people, and if they take em they usually enjoy that stuff so i feel very bad for her. What you can do is get a replacement circuit board. Is it the rhythmic and evenly timed click of death? if so a fresh circuit board can fix it.

It is usa based but for 9yrs of pics the wait is worth it... http://onepcbsolution.com/

 

[roach3]

sorry mate been away for weeks
I shall investigate
cheerz

 

[Kinappy]

Maybe a little late but for future reference.

Download Linux live cd, ubuntu maybe.

Copy the image to a usb thumb drive and boot from it.

Insert an external usb drive and copy and valuable files to the usb drive.

Even with damaged disks this has saved me a lot of head aches in the past.

Often the first attempt might fail if the disk gives up while copying but I just kept trying until I got everything I needed.

 

[TCIB]

Good bump and good idea.

 

[Pep's3rdEye]

Maybe a little late but for future reference.

Download Linux live cd, ubuntu maybe.

Copy the image to a usb thumb drive and boot from it.

Insert an external usb drive and copy and valuable files to the usb drive.

Even with damaged disks this has saved me a lot of head aches in the past.

Often the first attempt might fail if the disk gives up while copying but I just kept trying until I got everything I needed.

This ^^^^^^^

command: lsblk (this will list attached drives) locate which drive is the problem
command: mount /dev/sd* /mnt (* meaning drive letter)
Then navigate to the mounted drive using the command: cd /mnt
Then list directories in mnt by typing the command: ls
Now navigate to the directory containing images for example: cd users/name/pictures.
ls will list the contents

Hope this helps

If you still struggle i could always help out a fellow blue on the cheap ;)

 

[roach3]

you know i still have this drive somewhere amongst the tonnes of drives from customers old pcs
ill dig the fucker out and give this a go
whats the betting it reads just fine after being stored away for months

again thnx guys for suggestions