Hard Drive TLC needed

**HikeforTurns** · 03-29-2007, 10:39 AM

Ok, so I have a 400GB WD external hard drive. On it contains about 80GB of music, and 20-30GB of photos, so its pretty important. A week ago while I was adding more photos too it, something happened

Some folders that used to contain items such as excel spreadsheets and video, are now blank. I checked the music folder and it all seems to be in tact, However, when I go to open the photos folder, it runs really slow, really slow. I have the view set to list (not thumbnail) so I know thats not it. Some of the folders may be corrupt? I tried running the disk defragmenter on it, but it said unable to accomplich to do an error in folder E\Photos\Uncompahgre Pk. So I try and open that folder, then it tells me the disk in drive E is not formatted, format now? Of course I decline. Where as some of the newer photo folders come up a lot faster, and all seem to be present.

So this is a very delicate operation. How can I retrieve the lost data, and not risk losing any photos, which havent been backed up since about february of last year

.

Would restarting my computer with the hard drive attached and on help?

Telling me to buy a Mac wont help, thanks though.

Ive thought about taking the hard drive into a used computer store so they can do a recovery on it.

Suggestions?

**Danno** · 03-29-2007, 10:41 AM

Telling you that you should have backed up that HD won't help either. But you should have.

**Odin** · 03-29-2007, 10:45 AM

trying running chkdsk on the drive in question.

If chkdsk shows errors, then run chkdsk /f.

**doublediamond223** · 03-29-2007, 10:57 AM

Either mount the drive to a machine and copy the whole thing over, or just skip that step and do a recovery. You can either DL the software to do it yourself off of bittorrent or something or pay the pros. Beware, it will be expensive if you pay them to do it.

Edit: After doing what Odin said.

**fez** · 03-29-2007, 11:14 AM

put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer for a while. connect it and copy off as much as you can. for some reason freezing failing hard drives makes them run better. hopefully long enough to get what you need off of it.

**HikeforTurns** · 03-29-2007, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by Odin

trying running chkdsk on the drive in question.

If chkdsk shows errors, then run chkdsk /f.

Did that. Photos folder still runs super slow. Question, running chkdsk, will it be run on my laptops drive (C) or on my external (D) do I have to specify. It seems like it would run it on C no? The folders that were blank are back, now its just the photo folder.

As far as mapping the drive, I have a laptop with only 15GB free space. I have another external drive that I can back stuff up on, if I can get the photos to come back first.. What kind of software would you recommend for a DIY reovery if I have to do that option?

Thanks for the help.

**Odin** · 03-29-2007, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by HikeforTurns

It seems like it would run it on C no?

Whichever drive you are having the problem with...... run it on that one.

For example.

Your removable drive gets loaded onto your computer as E:

Switch to E: in your command line

(run, then cmd, hit enter, type drive letter)

Then run chkdsk /f and sit back.

EDIT - Also try to browse to the hard drive in question via the command line and see if you can see the files on the removable drive. IF SO. You can xcopy the files from the removable drive to your hard drive and then back them up to your other drive.

**HikeforTurns** · 03-29-2007, 11:33 AM

Thanks Odin I apparently suck at computers

**HikeforTurns** · 03-29-2007, 12:01 PM

Problem fixed! Runs smooth as a babys ass now ThankS!

Since your in the giving mood.........

Those folders were removed (luckily they were old, and I had them backed up) so how do I prevent this in the future? and can i expect errors again if I copy them back from my older hard drive?

If your ever in Denver, Ill buy you a beer.

**Odin** · 03-29-2007, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by HikeforTurns

Problem fixed! Runs smooth as a babys ass now ThankS!

Those folders were removed (luckily they were old, and I had them backed up) so how do I prevent this in the future? and can i expect errors again if I copy them back from my older hard drive?

If your ever in Denver, Ill buy you a beer.

Considering that they were old and that you probably use that drive quite a bit, I expect that some fragmentation and or overusage of the drive without maintenance happened.

People tend to forget that since the drive is removable and mobile that they still need to defrag their remote drives. Files get out of order and read write errors start happening.

Defrag defrag defrag.

And considering that I do pop into dever from time to time I will take you up on that beer offer.

Glad I could be of help.

Now defrag your drive.

**HikeforTurns** · 03-29-2007, 12:24 PM

Thanks man

**Anxious Mo-Fo** · 08-16-2009, 09:38 AM

I have a similar problem to Hike for Turns, 80 GB of music files and 30 GB of photos... except I'm getting the external hard drive "click of death" (about ten seconds of clicks and then nothing) -- i.e. my laptop doesn't even recognize that it's connected and turned on. So, I can't do Odin's fix:

-- Switch to E: in your command line (run, then cmd, hit enter, type drive letter)
-- Then run chkdsk and sit back.

I last backed up four weeks ago, and during that time, I downloaded a huge pile of MP3s and FLACs, and would love to get them back. And yes, I fucked up and didn't defrag the hard drive (I just found this thread). Before I start calling in the professionals, does anyone have a suggestion?

I'll only put it in the freezer as a last resort.

**legallyillegal** · 08-16-2009, 12:06 PM

Recover what you can and dump Western Digifuck as far away as possible.

**Dirty Hoar** · 08-17-2009, 03:49 PM

Originally Posted by Anxious Mo-Fo

I have a similar problem to Hike for Turns, 80 GB of music files and 30 GB of photos... except I'm getting the external hard drive "click of death" (about ten seconds of clicks and then nothing) -- i.e. my laptop doesn't even recognize that it's connected and turned on. So, I can't do Odin's fix:

-- Switch to E: in your command line (run, then cmd, hit enter, type drive letter)
-- Then run chkdsk and sit back.

I last backed up four weeks ago, and during that time, I downloaded a huge pile of MP3s and FLACs, and would love to get them back. And yes, I fucked up and didn't defrag the hard drive (I just found this thread). Before I start calling in the professionals, does anyone have a suggestion?

I'll only put it in the freezer as a last resort.

I had this same problem with a 1yr old piece of shit Western Digital network drive. I could be wrong but it sounds like your controller board bit the dust. The data is most likely still there but you have no way to read it as the read/write head won't engage to read the platter.

So I think you're screwed but I'm interested to know if any mags know of a fix that doesn't involve sending it in to a lab.