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OT: More on hard drive failure
Several posts below you will see the original problem.
My external Maxtor 200GB HD started to fail. Luckily I was not in the middle of a project as it is my capture drive. But it did have numerous music and graphics files stored on it that I use in projects. Reconstructing them would have taken weeks.By placing the drive in the freezer and then reattaching it I was able to recover most of the data in but it took several sessions.
I then bought “SPINRITE” to see if I could recover the rest of the data and maybe even recover the drive. It wasn’t all that old or used.
Well I quickly got in WAY over my head. Spinright could not recognize the external firewire drive. Support from the manufacturer was that I needed to find DOS drivers for the drive and use them and in DOS. I have trouble with Windows, I haven’t got a chance with DOS. I don’t even know how to boot the computer up in DOS. Found out how to make a DOS boot floppy but that booted it as A: drive. Could not figure out how to change to C: drive. I remember doing that YEARS ago when I was using A Crystal Graphics Topas program. But I have never worked in DOS since going XP – I don’t remember!!!Anybody used this SPINRITE program that can give me a few pointers?
Terry Esslinger
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9 Replies
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Unfortunately your question is beyond my technical expertise. I wish I would have know about putting the drives in the freezer! I have had no less than 4 Maxtor external firewire drives fail on me. Two or threee were replaced under waranty and the other failures were the replacement units. Although I have some Maxtor internal drives in some of my machines that have performed fine, quite frankly I could never trust another Maxtor drive again, especially their external drives. I just built a new machine and used Western Digital (Raptor and Caviar) as well as a Seagate from an old machine.
Good luck!
mrbb, PA
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You are probably SOL when it comes to finding a firewire driver for DOS. If your PC is a desktop, your Firewire drive is actually an ATA drive in an enclosure. You should be able to remove the HD from it’s enclosure and install it as an internal harddrive.
This requires you open the HD enclosure and the PC it self. It may also require you purchase an ATA cable if there are no available internal cables.
If you are uncomfortable with gutting your HD and your PC, you may want to leave this to an expert.
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Terje A. Bergesen -
Steve Gibson, author of Spinrite, writes everything in assembler language and bypasses everything Windows. His programs are tiny and WOW! fast. However, avoiding everything Windows means no Windows drivers, no Firewire and no USB. The program talks directly to the hardware ports and even bypasses the BIOS in most cases.
The only way that you will be able to Spinrite your disc is for it to be installed in a PC and connected to the IDE bus.
Steve Mann
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Sorry to hear about your problems.
It’s interesting to read about people’s hard drive preferences and about their success with various brands. I don’t want to get off-topic by discussing the merits of various brands, but I will say a word about my own experiences with various types. I suspect that problems are often related more to manufacturing and quality control during the production of certain batches than to the particular brand.
My experience over several years (including managing 40 CAD workstations at a college) was that the Western Digital Caviar drives were problematic. Within a year, we had close to a 50% failure rate in those models (in the early part of this new century). WD replaced them all, and things were marginally better. I’m guessing that those problems have been resolved, and I know people who love their WD drives.
I’ve had good luck with Maxtor, but all are internal. I don’t rely on firewire or USB drives for anything but backup.
Hit it with a hammer?
Someone mentioned dropping the drive. At the college with the bad WD drives, we often made them boot up by slamming the front of the computer with our fist. That usually “unstuck” them. So maybe there’s something to that trick. I’d use it only as a last resort.Spinrite has been around for a long time, and has always had a great reputation. I suggest (as someone else said) that you install the drive as an internal device and eliminate one additional variable–the firewire or USB connection.
I wish I could offer more suggestions, but hard drive failures are a real mystery. I have several internal drives, and I use one to simply dump my avi and veg files for backups. It’s saved me a few times. I also network to another computer, and from time to time send valuable data to the other computer for backup. And as I said, I use the external drives only for backup.
Best of luck.
James (seatlanta) -
To help hard drives last longer under windows XP, I set: Start > settings > control panel> power options > turn off Hard Drives after…
If you let the HD run constantly it does not last as long.normal
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Yes, I had come to the conclusion that installing it internally was abouty the only way I had a chance. The problem is that I am niot afraid to try this. I am not computer tech oriented (and am 62 years old) but I have learned alot by attempting things that I probably should not have in the past. Also had some disasters. But have amnaged to change out video cards in my current PC (going to a dual monitor card for editing) and placing a sound card in my grandsons PC when the onboard sound went out (had to turn off the onboard sound in the BIOS). So I’m not completely inept – just dangerous!
I have already had the Maxtor drive out of its enclosure (and found a loose screw rolling around in there! Could not find where it went, may have been an extra from the manu.:)Now RSQ (really stupid question) Is the ATA cable the ‘ribbon’ cable inside the desktop and I assume that I can attach the extra hard drive to any open connection?
Thnaks guys and gals. -
[Terry Esslinger] “Now RSQ (really stupid question) Is the ATA cable the ‘ribbon’ cable inside the desktop and I assume that I can attach the extra hard drive to any open connection?”
Yes, the header (attachment thingy) is probably keyed so as to fit in only one orientation. Also you have to be careful about the jumper setting on the drive, as they can be set to master, slave, or cable select (probably your best best).
Gary Kleiner
Learn Vegas and DVD Architect
http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com
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Are you really sure about this? I have always read that drives last longer if they run constantly, that it is the spinning up and down that wears the motor the hardest. I have several drives that have been performing well in excess of 5 years. I know they are on borrowed time so there is nothing on them that can’t be retrieved, but they run continuously except for 2 or 3 times a year when I shut down (+ power failures!).
mrbb, PA
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There’s some validity to the theory of powering down hard disks when not in use.
The only drives which should never be turned off are server-rated – and probably more expensive than you would like to pay.
The drives that most of us use are rated for an 8-hour duty cycle.
Steve Mann
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