Comments for How do I fix errors on my hard disk?

Comment from Kevin Lee on 2009-11-17

2009-11-17T17:35:45Z

Hi Leo,
I have a Windows Vista Basic SP1 computer that continualy has errors. I originally thought it was the software loaded on it and did a complete reimage of the hard drive. But, I still had problems on the C: drive...it's become apparent to me that it's the hard drive and have decided to replace it. Since the recovery files (D:) are also on the bad drive, how do I copy them from the D: drive so that I can image the new drive with the same information (so the new looks exactly like the old).

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Comment from Jimmie Vetor on 2009-08-18

2009-08-18T14:11:30Z

Hi Leo, I have two drives that all of a sudden stopped booting up when used in a USB External box. They just keep spinning but never open, Any idea why this happened? I'm wondering if I may have not shut them down properly and how can I remedy it? I enjoy your newsletters. Jim

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Comment from D K SHARMA on 2009-07-23

2009-07-24T00:25:46Z

how do i repair my master boot record on portable hard drive?

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Comment from Victor Du Solier on 2009-07-07

2009-07-07T18:16:37Z

hi Leo, i have an intel macbook and i have a 500 gb iomega external hard drive to make my security copies on time machine but suddenly, one day my macbook stopped showing me my disk on the desktop. I can not see my hard disk drive on any computer, no matter if the operating system is windows or mac and i plug another external hard disk to my mac and it works perfectly. It all begins when the time machine utility send me an error.
Thank you for your help.

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Comment from nikhil on 2009-06-15

2009-06-16T01:25:15Z

sir i fujistu semiens hard disk 250 gb hard disk.that hdd is running now.wherever i want to format that hdd they can't go further 1%.i m not ablt understand what d problem is and how can i solve it.

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Comment from luke on 2009-06-03

2009-06-03T11:36:12Z

hi leo

im having problems with my hard disc drive i had a guy take it to clean it up disc defrag making files easier to find and making it run faster while he was doing that some errors on the disc came up inbetween the system data and the data stored on the hard drive and now i can not access the data on the hard disc so is there anyway that i can get to those files?

ps great site

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Comment from Fahad on 2009-03-24

2009-03-24T16:21:54Z

Hi Leo,
Please I need your answer to my problem.

Usually I scan my drive in read-only mode every week just ti make sure my drive is in goo shape all the time and when I find errors I run chkdsk with /f /r.
However, I gave my notebook to a friend who return it to me after month and found there were lot off errors when running chkdsk, I've done it with /f /r several times and after each I run it in read-only to see if there are any errors and there were some errors showing. So I reformatted my notebook with normal format for the HD not "Quick" and did clean XP install. once the IS was running I did the chkdsk in read-only and there was no errors but after installing my applications and using the notebook for few hours I scanned the HD in read-only and again there were bunch of errors found in the HD and got that message which tells you chkdsk cannot continue and to use /f. Again, I did it with /r /f three times but when I scanned it in read-only after that I found errors!!
I dont need to recover any data but I don't feel right about my HD while it's giving errors like this that cannot be fixed.

What do you suggest, is there any software I can use to resolve this, can SpinRite fix it keeping in mind that I can get a brand new HD with the same price! or it's better to change the drive?

Thank in Advance

You'll have to make the call on price, but this sounds like a case that SpinRite would clear up.

- Leo
25-Mar-2009

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Comment from Barrie on 2008-12-06

2008-12-06T13:27:49Z

I notice you don't mention another possibility here which is a faulty hard-disk controller, located on the mother-board.
I had some boot problems recently and when I booted into safemode and looked in the event viewer I saw a whole bunch of disk errors.
I connected the disk to another computer to save the data and noticed that there were no errors in the event viewer on the second computer.
The problem was the IDE controller on the motherboard.

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Comment from Norm Maple on 2008-12-02

2008-12-02T20:02:48Z

Leo:
Re: my previous post...(and sorry about the typo's). I also tried to access the SpinRite url, but it to will not load. This window remained open, but seemingly just froze there. Any ideas as to the problem?

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Comment from Gerald Evans on 2008-08-19

2008-08-19T19:11:45Z

my Dell D600 says it doesn't recognize chkdsk in any way???? what gives?
Tks

We'd need the exact error message.

-Leo

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Comment from Certifiedtech on 2008-08-13

2008-08-13T09:06:29Z

I always thought Windows XP SP2 that keeps returning a G:|$mft corrupt error meant the master file table was corrupted and your run error check and that usually takes care of it...

Indeed. Which is why chkdsk was first on my list. However note also that it keeps wanting to check (chkdsk) at boot time as well, so it's likely not that simple.

-Leo

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Comment from Nick on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T22:01:10Z

I had a WD External drive go bad on me a few months ago and I took it into a computer fixing place I know ("User2" in Edinburgh) and they plugged it into a machine running on Linux and were able to read it OK and to copy all except a few files over from the bad drive onto a new one. I was very happy to pay the money for the new drive and the copying work.

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Comment from William on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T21:11:58Z

I have a HD that was dropped and is no longer seen by the computer. Is it possible to transfer the disk platters to an identical enclosure? Assuming dust is a problem, maybe a small dust free enclosure can be made? I really need access to this HD as it contains (old) confidential medical information and sending it out to a clean room is out of the question.
Thanks
Bill

No. That's not something you can do without specific, custom (and expensive) equipment, a cleanroom being only one part. If it's that important then "out of the question" or not, a data recovery service is really your only hope.

-Leo

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Comment from Paul Higgins on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T18:54:01Z

I think this problem is related to write (disc) caching. It could be a USB stick or similar improperly removed and windows still wanting to write to it. It can’t so it gets upset!
I seem to remember reading, a long time ago that there is a registry hack to help- something to do with the large write (disc) cache?
Basically what is happening is the drive is going off line (or was never online) before windows can finish writing the cache to the drive. And obvious solution would be to turn off write (disc) caching. A possible solution would be to reboot, turn write (disc) caching back on if you want or need it and the problem may resolve itself.
If however there is an underlying problem causing the write (disc) caching failure, this may not help.

To turn off write (disc) caching in XP, right click my computer, properties, hardware, device manager and expand the disc drives entry. Right click the disk and choose the policies tab. There you will be given the choice to optimize for performance (write (disc) caching enabled) or for quick removal (write (disc) caching disabled).

Of course, in this case it appears this may not be the problem because there is no mention of having a drive g:\ which leads me to suspect the problem is a removable drive of some kind.

Hope this helps.

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Comment from Bob Flynn on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T18:33:19Z

twice in the last 6 years i've seen corruption messages that do not let you boot into windows. both times i have brought up the pc on knoppix, backup the info for safety, then replaced the corrupt file (usually a .dll)from a working pc with same os and the computer runs fine for years.

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Comment from Dave on 2008-08-12

2008-08-12T17:43:55Z

As the problem is a possible failing hdd the first step should be to clone the hdd.

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A comment on: How do I fix errors on my hard disk?

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Comment from Ziggie on 2008-08-11

2008-08-11T16:11:29Z

Leo, does SpinRite make data recovery more difficult for the professional services if SpinRite itself is unable to recover the data? I've heard that you should stop using a dying drive immediately to prevent further data loss. SpinRite would increase disk activity, right?

(and yes, backups would have made this a moot point, but at the time I didn't know any better).

That's a good point. SpinRite's maintenance mode works by re-writing the data on the disk. I've referred to it as a "reformat without data loss" since it refreshes the data in every sector. The act of rewriting that data would, indeed, make forensic recovery more difficult.

-Leo

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