Hard Drive Crashed :-(

[PitbullMidwest]

Just 2 months out of warrenty my Maxtor hard drive crashed. I was running defrag when I got the blue screen with the message "Unmountable_boot_volume" with recommendations for possible fixes. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the associated codes before proceding to the "fix". The computor will no longer boot from the hard drive (hence the message)and the WinXP disk doesn't recognize that there is even a hard drive installed when I try to run the recovery panel.

The disk diagnostic fails on the read and varify tests with the error message 0F00:0244 unrecoverable data or write protected. All other tests, Seek, SMART self-condition, etc all pass.

Am I screwed or is there some super-secret-techie-work-around that will allow me to recover the info in the good sectors of the drive? When I install a new drive I've been told that I can copy the info from the old drive to the new. Should I do this or am I introducing the problems from the old HD to the new HD?

Dell Demension 8400, WinXP Home
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 9 SATA

 

[DaveNay]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( When I install a new drive I've been told that I can copy the info from the old drive to the new. Should I do this or am I introducing the problems from the old HD to the new HD?)</font>

Normally, this is the case. About 99.999% of the time, you can install the new hard drive in place of the old one, and then plug the old drive into a different SATA port on the MOBO. This will then allow you to install the operating system to the new drive, and then access the second drive (usually as the D: drive) and copy your data.

HOWEVER /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

If the reason your hard drive crashed was due to a failure of the on-board controller circuitry, you will not be able to recover your data, as basically you only have a chunk of aluminum, silicon and plastic in your hands. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

If the controller is really borked, and you very important data on there (really, really important), there are companies that can recover the data for you by opening the disk in a clean room and installing the platters into a new enclosure. You probably need to be a CIA or NSA agent though, because you are going to need to reach deep into the wallet and hand over large quantities of the flat green stuff to them.

Good luck!

Dave

 

[kevincook]

Curt,

This surely won't be any fun to correct but there is one program that I would recommend even though I haven't personally tried it. The cost is $89 but they have a satisfaction guarantee so depending on what data you lost it may be worth purchasing.

Spin-Rite

The guys that write this software are definitely computer geeks.....in the best sense of the term. Look around the rest of their site. They have several cool programs their.

BTW, thanks for reminding me. I think I'll go back up all my data right now.

Good Luck,
Kevin

 

[CTyler]

Yep...Spin-Rite.

 

[frank_f15]

i fear my HD IS going down hill so i purchased a Western Digital HD and used the progarm included to clone my drive., it is just like haveing a 2nd Hd i switched the cables and the computer boots up perfectly, the only thing is, anything you add or update is not on the new Drive, but it will get me up and running in 2 min. There is a program called Casper xp that i hear is nice, have not tried it yet but from reading about it it seems like a good program.

 

[anojones]

I agree with Spin-Rite if you need your data. If your data is backed up or you don't need it (can reproduce it)- then buying a new drive is probably cheaper.

 

[Soundguy]

This doesn't help you any.. but I experienced a similar failure on a similar computer that belonged to my inlaws. It actually took about a day to die.. had a few boot failures.. disck recovery actually worked.. or seemed to work once.. but when i tried to start archiving data.. unit permanently died... A box store 40 gig got dropped in fresh.. inlaws weren't too happy with Dell about a computer that dies a few days after the very short warranty fails..

Soundguy

 

[PitbullMidwest]

Thanks everybody for the input. I'll definately checkout the programs mentioned. I priced HDs this weekend and found a Seagate 250GB for about $110 and it comes with a 5 year warranty. I'll order it up today and post my results.

Thanks again.

 

[MossRoad]

Here is a link to the same problem that someone else was having. Some suggestions in there may be helpful. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

This seems to be a well documented problem, as a google search for error 0F00:0244 returns many hits regarding Dell computers.

 

[PitbullMidwest]

My new drive is in and it's been a learning experience. I ordered an OEM version (no setup disk etc.) Seagate Barracuda SATA HD and thought it would be a no brainer since the controller is on the motherboard. Well, I was wrong. The biggest problem was that WinXP couldn't detect the drive. Since the old drive failed 2 months out of warranty DELL was little help and Seagate said that it was a BIOS problem, not HD related. In the end I changed the BIOS autodetect setting from SATA to ATA (even though its not a parallel drive) and it worked.

My next question to you tech guys is about partitioning. I was told that I should format the entire drive without any partitions during the initial setup of WinXP and that I would be given the option to partition it later. I was never given that option "later". So what is your advice? It's a 250GB drive, can I partition it now that the OS is already installed? Do I even need to partition it? Why do I need to partition it? How big/small should it be partioned into?

Thanks in advance.