A question about hard drives.

[Furryfuncups]

Hello there

 

I had a look through the threads but couldn't see anything like this so my apologies if I missed it.

 

My old PC finally gave up the ghost just after christmas due to being interupted whilst installing updates to windows (XP home ed). I could switch it on and it would begin to start up but always ended up going to the blue screen of death, something about missing or faulty ntsc or ntfs files or something?? After several fruitless days of trawling through tinterweb and a couple of half days spent with techies on the phone trying this that and the other, including starting up from the windows disc, I finally had to cave a buy a new PC. Now a friend of mine told me of caddies, one of which I went out and bought and connected up to my new PC. I even prefroze the old hard drive. Now when I plugged the old hard drive in and turned the caddy on BOOM it appeared to completely subjugate my new PC and sent it into the old familiar blue screen of death. When I shut the caddy down my new PC started fine and everything went back to normal. I must admit I did try it again and again the same thing happened. I guess what I'm trying to find out is 1: Is it possible to set up my new PC so that it keeps the old hard drive seperate, and 2: If my old hard drive is faulty because of some missing operating system info can the data stored on it be accessed without having to do a complete re-install which, if I understand correctly, would wipe any stored data?

 

As a foot note I must say I have completely learned my lesson about backing up data. It is just that it would be nice to be able to get my old data back. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

ps: Also if it isn't possible to save the data on it can the old hard drive be scrubbed so that I can use it as an external hard drive?

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

Now when I plugged the old hard drive in and turned the caddy on BOOM it appeared to completely subjugate my new PC and sent it into the old familiar blue screen of death.

I don't like the sound of this.

Either

1.There is a problem with the caddy .................. do you have another hard drive to try in it ?

Also - does the caddy have a mains power supply or does it use the USB ports ?

2. There is a problem with the drive itself.

3. There is a problem with the USB port. Can you use other devices in the same USB port ?

Is it possible to set up my new PC so that it keeps the old hard drive seperate,

Not sure what you are asking here - the old hard drive will, if it is able to be connected to the second computer, always become part of the second system i.e. drive F: for instance.

 

If my old hard drive is faulty because of some missing operating system info can the data stored on it be accessed without having to do a complete re-install which, if I understand correctly, would wipe any stored data?

You are correct - a complete re-install would wipe all data.

The data MAY be able to be accessed if the drive can be connected to another system without crashing it.

 

Let us know the answers to the questions above.

[Furryfuncups]

Hi KenB

 

Thanks for the quick response.

The caddy does have it's own power supply.

I don't have another hard drive to try in it.

The USB port works fine with other things, my printer for example.

What originally happened was that my old PC lost power whilst updating windows and when I got the power back and tried re-starting it I got the blue screen.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, this does indeed sound like that hard drive is a dud now.

When the power failed, the read head may have crashed, this can happen in sudden power failures and is the reason why just turning the power off with the computer running should be avoided.

If the system is reading or writing data off or on the disk at the time of power failure, the read head will be in the wrong place which can cause it to crash onto the disk, that can both damage the disk and the head, and in some cases which may be yours, actually jam up the entire drive. Considering that it was installing updates when the power failed, the drive would most certainly have been in use.

 

a shame there isn't another known to be OK hard drive available to be able to check the caddy isn't at fault. You could of course go and buy a new drive which would check the caddy out, and also then give you an external drive for storage, but may be an unwanted cost to you.

 

Nev.

[Furryfuncups]

Hi guys

 

Thankyou for all the info, guess I'll have to chalk this one up to experience.

 

Furry

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, data can be recovered to some extent from a damaged drive by specialist companies, however they are expensive, very expensive.

So as you say, chalk it up to experience.

 

If there is any personal stuff on the drive, banking stuff etc, and bear it in mind that for future use, the system will store some details even though they seem hidden.

 

Do not just throw the old drive if that is suspected, destroy it completely first, as the thieves after personal details such as that will spend the money.

 

A big hammer works well.

 

Nev.