Hard drive damage....

[Solaris17]

ok so i got the girl friends laptop. her hard drive is fucked ok?....so i can do a low level format using xp (ntfs (quick)) however ntfs long or normal format hangs at 49%.....same w/ windows 2000 (same format system only long format is avalible) so i do a quicjk low level format ntrfs(quick) and i proceed to install the install gets about half way through than an error happens saying something bout broken cylinders...at this point i knew it was the HDD you see she gave it to me because it would hang at the boot screen the bar would keep going until it restarted.......so iv been running diagnostics currently its on a level 5 run of spinrite6 (amazing program) but if the recovery doesnt work and its been a tad successful...is their any way i can partition around the bad spot? so i can aleast get an OS on her?...i mean ill buy my GF a new HDD but i want the comp to work for her for now till i can buy one any ideas?

 

[joinmeindeath417]

ok so i got the girl friends laptop. her hard drive is fucked ok?....so i can do a low level format using xp (ntfs (quick)) however ntfs long or normal format hangs at 49%.....same w/ windows 2000 (same format system only long format is avalible) so i do a quicjk low level format ntrfs(quick) and i proceed to install the install gets about half way through than an error happens saying something bout broken cylinders...at this point i knew it was the HDD you see she gave it to me because it would hang at the boot screen the bar would keep going until it restarted.......so iv been running diagnostics currently its on a level 5 run of spinrite6 (amazing program) but if the recovery doesnt work and its been a tad successful...is their any way i can partition around the bad spot? so i can aleast get an OS on her?...i mean ill buy my GF a new HDD but i want the comp to work for her for now till i can buy one any ideas?

no you cant partition the bad spot because either way when you use a hard drive the cylinders aren't actually seperated like you think its only a file on the hard drive telling it to split the space in 2. your best bet (and safest) is to get a new hard drive and stop messing around with that one, so that maybe just maybe you can recover some of her important data off of it before you completely destroy it.

 

[Solaris17]

already one step ahead of you haow dare you doubt my ability i have already recovered all of her data it sits on a dvd-r right next to me. hmmm well that blows..thnx for the advice but i shall continue to see what i can do w/ this.

 

[von kain]

wild shot try to install linux then you can make a scandisk it might work
or you can use the win 98 scandisk which have the option of corrects the bad cluster or areas

 

[Solaris17]

wild shot try to install linux then you can make a scandisk it might work
or you can use the win 98 scandisk which have the option of corrects the bad cluster or areas

did that but i think ill try again it hung at like 56% and held for hours so i gavbe up and just shut her down....but i think i might im just going to let spinrite run down then maybe ill plop suse on shit i love suse its wicked easy maybe if linux will install ill just give that to her after i set it all up..she doesnt game at all so it would be good.

 

[joinmeindeath417]

buy her an 8 gb pen drive for now...and install xp onto that or 2000 so its smaller and have her use it as an operating system until she can get a h.d.d (if her lappy allows boot from usb device)

 

[Solaris17]

iv tried making bootable drives but i never succeded any ideas whanna give me a quick run through....

 

[joinmeindeath417]

iv tried making bootable drives but i never succeded any ideas whanna give me a quick run through....

depending on the actual laptop or desk top is if you can make a external device or pen drive a primary OS drive..usually you have to go into the bios and have the boot up config set to. "usb legacy device...than floppy...than cd rom as long as it picks up the usb device first it will see it in the windows setup but make sure you pull out the h.d.d first.

 

[kha1i1]

ntfs quick is not a low level format, it just deletes the table with the pointer to the files, making the spots rewritable. everything you've described points to this drive being completely fucked. however, here are some things to try.

boot from the xp cd
go into the recovery console (i think it's r from 1st screen NOT repair windows.)
type fixmbr
type fixboot
type format X:/ where X is drive letter

that will attempt to overwrite the mbr in cse that's where the prblm is ; u can throw a scandisk in there but i find it's useless.

going to linux, while it may work, is not a valid t.s step. find the cause of the problem.

 

[Solaris17]

ok new question....so its an averatec laptop and their site and customer service blows hard core...so i went on newegg...and im checking out..laptop hdds their cheap seagates WD hetachies etc...anything i should look for in particular..for example does it need to be..5400rpm etc? will their be computability issues?

 

[Solaris17]

ntfs quick is not a low level format, it just deletes the table with the pointer to the files, making the spots rewritable. everything you've described points to this drive being completely fucked. however, here are some things to try.

boot from the xp cd
go into the recovery console (i think it's r from 1st screen NOT repair windows.)
type fixmbr
type fixboot
type format X:/ where X is drive letter

that will attempt to overwrite the mbr in cse that's where the prblm is ; u can throw a scandisk in there but i find it's useless.

going to linux, while it may work, is not a valid t.s step. find the cause of the problem.

well yes you see i kinda understand that...however you miss were im looking for a temp fix for a week or 2 until i can buy her a new harddrive... and i know it seems to be completely fucked...i mean everything im getting all the errors and the diagnostic data from spinrite and boot and nuke tell my its physical damage however im buying time not really trying to repair though that would be nice i knew the second i booted the comp their was a thin chance.



sorry for my questions i know like everything bout desktops but laptops are not my cup of tea.

 

[kha1i1]

ok new question....so its an averatec laptop and their site and customer service blows hard core...so i went on newegg...and im checking out..laptop hdds their cheap seagates WD hetachies etc...anything i should look for in particular..for example does it need to be..5400rpm etc? will their be computability issues?

all laptops (including teh averatec's ive seen) take 2.5" hd's. speed isn't usually an issue because a) 90% of 2.5's are 5400 RPM ; b) 7200RMP for 2.5 is ungodly expensive.

edit 2: i almost forgot. be sure to check ide/sata. im sure you're using ide but some drives for sale (especially oem/online) don't specify.

edit: post above. i understand your issue now.

 

[Solaris17]

kk thnx...so i can use 5400 i just looked and it uses some mad slow ass 4200rpm drive ewww...so an upgrade to 5400 wouldnt hurt cause those are cheaper than the 4200 mainly cause their are more sized (GB wise) available.



EDIT::: damn ok so newegg has sata and sata 3gb/s and ata6...wtf is ata6?...so i did a little more researching...and the hdd is ide ata-100 are ata-6 and 100 intercompatable?

 

[Darknova]

Temporary solution? You've done it, the data is on a dvd-r...that's it really. Unless you are really lucky and install XP temporarily and it doesn't touch any bad spots, then you'll be able to run it, but don't install anything.

You could always get a live CD/DVD of a linux distro just so she can browse the net/emails etc.

 

[Solaris17]

ya but what hard drive..will i be able to use ata-6 on a comp that has an ata-100 drive in it?...i mean wtf speed and interface diff.....i hate laptops..

 

[Darknova]

I can run any laptop HDD with my adapter.

It's a normal IDE to USB adapter, and I have another adapter which turns the IDE into laptop compatible.

I hate laptops too....PITA.

 

[Solaris17]

but i dont know what to buy...i mean newegg has ata-6 sata and sata 2 laptop HDD's and this laptop has an ide interface only thing is its speed is ata-100...so....im pretty sure it will work as long as i get an ide drive but is ata-6 slower or a diff name for ata-100?...and i dont want to buy an adapter this is the GF werew talking bout that shit would get BROKEN

 

[kwchang007]

but i dont know what to buy...i mean newegg has ata-6 sata and sata 2 laptop HDD's and this laptop has an ide interface only thing is its speed is ata-100...so....im pretty sure it will work as long as i get an ide drive but is ata-6 slower or a diff name for ata-100?...and i dont want to buy an adapter this is the GF werew talking bout that shit would get BROKEN

Uhh I think ata-6 and ata-100 are the same. Just googled it and one sight tells me that.

 

[Solaris17]

lol yup just googled it myself..same damn thing ok thnx sooo much for the help guys time to hook the GF uop with 100 as apposed to 80gb..woot..gettin laid.

 

[Darknova]

ATA-6 is ATA-100. ATA-7 is ATA-133 or...SATA I lol

 

[Solaris17]

lol wtf im sooo dumb dude...i look underspecifications..at newegg and its like seagatye 100bg notebook drive ata-6 then under harddrive specs rated speeed ata-100...lol man...

 

[Darknova]

lol wtf im sooo dumb dude...i look underspecifications..at newegg and its like seagatye 100bg notebook drive ata-6 then under harddrive specs rated speeed ata-100...lol man...

YEY for skim reading

 

[kha1i1]

lol glad u got it worked out. post the linky of the thing you're buying if u like. darknova is spot on with the ata6 explanation. then there's ide , lol. its such a retarded set of naming schema for standards/connectors/etc i dont know how ppl are supposed to figure it out.

e.g. i, in the know, did the same thing u did (skim read) and ended up with a mobo that doesn't support sataII. when i spec'd it, i saw sata and was expecting sataii (for my sataII hd, lol). i was wrong. mobo is k8n neo4-f <---another great FAILED naming schema.