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Hard Drive RATTLES!

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by wizardj

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I have a hard drive (in my old computer that is now in pieces) that is partitioned to C: and D: .... C: is ok, everything on it is accessible, but when I try to do anything with the D: portion of this drive, all I get is a rattling noise - like loose bearings, and I forget what error message that says basically, "no way, forget finding anything here, babe." What to do - or is everything on that partion totalled?

13 replies

by smltec

You say that it is an old computer. Boot to a dos prompt and type fdisk. This takes you to the dos partitioning utility. Choose display and see if the partition is still there. If it is and fdisk sees it try formatting it. (esc key back to dos prompt)At the dos prompt type format d:(or whatever drive letter the partition is labeled. When it is properly formatted you can use it just like c:drive. You didn't say how large the hdd was. Older bios' didnt support large disks(greater than 2gb)and had to be fooled into believing it was that size or less. If you have an old machine and a large hdd the system just wont see it.

hope this helps

by wizardj

Old computer is cyrix P150, HDD is partitioned to 1.5G each, and the problem with fdisk is that I want to be able to rescue the data on that partition. I had been using this drive for a year or two, so I knww the bios can handle it - it just pickeda lousy time to take a rest from reality

by dmiles

The drive may be going out,but the data could salavagable by transferring to the othe partition using drag and drop from windows explorer or backing up to tape,by far it is difficult to tell if the drive clusters clusters are to damaged for data recovery.Good Luck

by wizardj

Nope - like I said, the second partition is "not there" - gone, defunk, the late partition, deceased, well, you know .....
and now the entire drive is totalled, I put it in the new computer, all it did was cycle a "plink" sound while the computer was trying to see it. sigh, all my email addresses, accounting, word processing,,,,, gone.

by tocolote

Oh well. There aren't any utilities in DOS/Windows that'll fix this. Sounds like part of your hard drive is bad. Best you can hope for is to recover some of the data. It might be a bad spot on the hard drive that can be fixed with Nortons but ifthe FAT is damaged you could be out of luck unless you have the utilities and expertise to fix it. Or you can send it out to be repaired if the data is worth it.

To fis it you'll have to get a hard drive utility to. What kind of operating system are you talking about? What's the hard drive make/model number?

by geroxx

From what you have said... I think your drive is almost TOAST. It would be best for you to get what data you have on it off now.

I have found a pretty neat bit of software that you might want to get. Its called SPINRITE. You can get it from:

www.grc.com

I thinks it around $40 now. I have used it on drives and it works pretty well. But in the end I think you are looking at getting what data you can off and then tossing the drive.

Gary

by driordan

Reread BCB48's answer. He suggested using FDISK to gather partition information, not make any changes. His sugestion is very good. Go into FDISK and get current partition information. If the partition shows up there, then you have something to work with. If not, well.... But if you see D: in Windows, then you should see it in FDISK.

That rattling noise makes me think instantly of impending hardware doom, but the fact that you never get it on C: and always get it on D: makes me think that maybe something else is going on. Maybe the rattling is the hard drive thrashing while it searches for something missing?

Have you tried turning Norton Utilities or some other recover program loose on it? You can probably find a free demo somewhere.

by wizardj

Definitely not thrashing noise - this really sounds like ball bearings loose type noise, it just drives me nuts since it really is the same physical piece of machinery, but 1/2 worked and 1/2 didn't - since then I have a new computer, just haven't had time to install old drive in new computer to test out other theories. But thanks anyway.

by purple713

Understand that your drive is hosed. That rattling noise is the plates in the hard drive which are off set or the magnetic arm is offline. You can send the drive to a recovery center but that is alot of money. There is nothing you can do but send it in for repair.

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