Hard Drive "Corrupt" but files still work

KSchrief · 05 Jan 2011

Hey guys.

So this morning I went to turn on the computer, everything booted up normal, but one of my drives (My external drive) is being read as having some bad sectors. Windows explorer won't open the drive, and asks to reformat it, losing over 800GB of data in the process.

I'd REALLY rather this not happen. I downloaded the demo of GetDataBack for NTFS file systems. It read the drive, and not only can it see the files, it can access them and read them no problem. As far as I can tell, everything is there, yet Windows reads it as corrupt.

I've tried this on two machines with the same result, both running Win7.

Is there any hope for it, or do I have to copy the files with GetDataBack, and reformat the drive?

Golden · 05 Jan 2011

Hi,

If you can use GetDataBack to copy your files off this drive, I would do that straight away.

There is a chance we can restore the disk, but right now we have no idea if it is about to fail - be safe first, get your data off it before we try anything else.

Once you have done that, post back here and we will see what we can do about that drive.

Regards,
Golden

TonyTiger2004 · 05 Jan 2011

Golden said:

Hi,

If you can use GetDataBack to copy your files off this drive, I would do that straight away.

There is a chance we can restore the disk, but right now we have no idea if it is about to fail - be safe first, get your data off it before we try anything else.

Once you have done that, post back here and we will see what we can do about that drive.

Regards,
Golden

+1

Agree, your hard drive could completely FAIL At any moment, get anything off the drive you can ASAP then we can go further after that is complete.

KSchrief · 05 Jan 2011

Okay, GetDataBack wants $70 to copy the files. All of my important stuff (Pictures, music, etc) are on at least 3 other machines around my house, so they're safe.

It would stink to re-download everything again, but I'd rather spend a day or so getting my stuff back when I get back to campus then pay $70 to do it now. So yes, I'm willing to risk the loss of my files.

I've also contacted Western Digital, and they can and will replace my HDD free of charge, as it's only a year old.

So I guess my question is what can I do to hopefully spare myself the need of dealing with getting a new drive?

Golden · 05 Jan 2011

KSchrief said:

So yes, I'm willing to risk the loss of my files.

Ok. In that case, are you able to find the diagnostic tools from the external hard drive manufacturer? Probably located on the WD website?

Lets use that first to look at the drive's health status.

TonyTiger2004 · 05 Jan 2011

Have you ran chkdsk? It will scan the bad sectors and hopefully remove your files to good sectors, however if it has too many bad sectors the drive will have to be replaced immediately. Bad sectors can not be repaired they're always going to be there (to some degree)

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?wdc_lang=en
Enter model number to find the diagnostic tool

KSchrief · 05 Jan 2011

WD Support / Downloads / My Book / My Book Essential

This is mine, but it looks like there's no Diagnostic Software. It came with the SmartWare Utilities CD on a partition, which appears to work fine. On the toolbar it's telling me it's fine with 100% free space, but when I open the program, it's not reading the drive at all.

I started to run chkdsk, but at the rate it was going, it would have taken at least 24 hours to complete. If that's what I need to do, I'll do it.

TonyTiger2004 · 05 Jan 2011

KSchrief said:

WD Support / Downloads / My Book / My Book Essential

This is mine, but it looks like there's no Diagnostic Software. It came with the SmartWare Utilities CD on a partition, which appears to work fine. On the toolbar it's telling me it's fine with 100% free space, but when I open the program, it's not reading the drive at all.

I started to run chkdsk, but at the rate it was going, it would have taken at least 24 hours to complete. If that's what I need to do, I'll do it.

I would Recommend running chkdsk, as it can repair and move files accordingly

KSchrief · 05 Jan 2011

Got it. I'll do that.

Thanks for your help guys!

TonyTiger2004 · 05 Jan 2011

KSchrief said:

Got it. I'll do that.

Thanks for your help guys!

Get back with us on the progress while we think about other options.

- Tony