80GB Head Aches

[Ropy]

A few days ago my pops sys just started moving slow for some strange reason. Whenever we tried to access the C: drive it displayed that the once 29GB partition is now 0GB. Luckily I had a copy of Mepis (A Linux Destro which runs from cd), I used it to salvage whatever data I could before it passed on. I was able to format that partition but there is still a substantial amount of data still on it.

Here are my questions:

1. Does anyone know of any good data recovery software that I can use to recover some / all of the remaining data?

2. If I format the entire HD will it be safe to use again?

[Nastrodamus]

Man ropy... What is it with you and 80 gigs? Every one that I know you touch goes bad!

[tech_guru]

Hey Ropy You can Try Ontrack Data Recovery RProfessional
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

[Ropy]

Man ropy... What is it with you and 80 gigs? Every one that I know you touch goes bad!

It's not me this time nastro, my pop will as of today be on his 4th or 5th HD. You can say it runs in the family. :-X


Hey Ropy You can Try Ontrack Data Recovery RProfessional
http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/

Thinks for the link guru.

[Gillion]

have you or your father ever given thought to the fact that
a) Your houshold power supply may be electrically filthy
b) Your computer's power supply is not sufficient ?
c) Your using a cheap surge gaurd instead of a Jamaican one or one from BELKIN or APC ?

--regards
Gillion
Some people even mistake power strips for surge gaurds... WRONG

[Ropy]

have you or your father ever given thought to the fact that
a) Your houshold power supply may be electrically filthy
b) Your computer's power supply is not sufficient ?
c) Your using a cheap surge gaurd instead of a Jamaican one or one from BELKIN or APC ?

--regards
Gillion
Some people even mistake power strips for surge gaurds... WRONG


1. I know for a fact the household power supply is ok.
2. There is a brand new power supply in the case (recommended by a CEOS technician), hopefully we weren't suckered. :(
3. We must have gotten the bottom of the barrel as we have an APC Backup-UPS ES 500.

[wheelman]

Hey Ropy, gimme the brand hard drives that you and your pops went through and I'll use that a my guide for hard drives never to get, also you can state the sizes for me, thanks ;D

[Ropy]

MY POPS
1. Seagate Barracuda 80GB HD.
1. Western Digital 40GB HD.
1. Western Digital 60GB HD (This might be just a figment of my imagination).
There are other but my memory is a bit rusty at the moment.

ME
1. Fugitsu 40GB HD (don't rem correct spelling).
1. Western Digital 60GD HD.
1. Werstern Digital 80GB HD.
A possible Seagate / Western Digital 40GB HD or maybe more. But as I said before, my mem is a bit rusty.

[wheelman]

And people wonder why I dont like WD (Western Digital)
>:(
Have you noticed that you don't see a Maxtor hard drive in the list, the same can be said about Samsung.

Thats why I have 5 MAxtor Hard Drives and they're still going.

Maxtor Rules!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ropy]

Come to think of it I lost one 40GB Maxtor. The 80GB that was giving my pops problems was fixed by formatting I hope as it's now mine ;D. There was also another 40GB that he had which was supposedly fixed by formatting.

[MiTcHiE]

I have a 100gig Western Digital, and it has never failed me.

[Nastrodamus]

Some people even mistake power strips for surge gaurds...
WRONG



Although this is better discussed in another thread, this is so true.

I didn't know that so many people thought that Power strips and surge protectors (as they are more popularly called) as the same. THEY ARE NOT. This is very crutial in the protection of your equipment. If you have a "surge protector" at home and when lightning flashs you see a change in the appliances that you have pluged in it (whether the TV flutters or chips out, the monitor flashes, and fridge chips out and back again), this is not a surge protector and your equipment is still at serious risk.

A power strip is really nothing more than a stylish extention cord, that allow you to plug more in one socket.

[matronyx]

Come to think of it I lost one 40GB Maxtor.

Thats why you shouldn't put them down carelessly. People know that Maxtor drives are the best and will probably go to all lengths to get one ;D ;D

I have had WD drives in the past, I think about 5. They all ended up as junk metal >:( From then it was Maxtor, never had a problem where the drive just died. Once one was giving the warning message "imminent failure!" for onths and I ignored it (I know, I know...bad thing to do ::)). One day it started to boot randomly, thats when I got to backing up.
At work here I have used Ontrack's software to recover gigs of data from a IDE drive. I can testify that it works and I made sure to have a copy in my utility belt.