Re: Data Recovery Question

[doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com]

On Thursday 26 January 2006 10:48, Martin Bosworth wrote:

> Later on his drive got fried (I don't know how, though I've been
> trying to find out), and won't boot up.

Here are a few ideas that I always try on my equipment when a drive goes 
astray. Neither of these techniques has ever made things worse when I use 
them, and both can produce a satisfactory recovery, but of course, the usual 
caveats and stamdard disclaimers etc. Try them in order--#1 first, ...  

BTW Martin, your IT department (assuming an IT dept) may want to do these, and 
the Windows Recovery Console things (assuming Windows), instead of having you 
prowling around in the equipment. I dunno about you, but I've had IT people 
get pretty territorial (and even scary) when I open a company owned machine 
or mess with configurations.  

1.  Disconnect the drive and boot the machine, go into the BIOS and check that 
everything looks OK as far as drives are concerned.  

    BTW, not all BIOSes manage hard drives the same way, so check around for a 
screen that shows installed drives, a screen that sets drive priority, a 
screen that sets the boot drive...

    Save the BIOS settings (they should all show no references to the missing 
drive), then shut down, reconnect the drive, and boot again, look at the BIOS 
settings for evidence that the drive is detected and set up to boot (or not, 
whatever you need), and then proceed to boot up into the OS. Back it up 
immediately if you get results!  

2.  Note the manufacturer and model of the drive, and go to the manufacturer's 
web site and download the utilities they provide for your drive.  
    The useful utility you're looking for will be a free download--get the 
latest version, read the instructions, make the diskette or cd as directed, 
and then boot the utility disk (with the fried drive in the machine).  
    Spend the time needed to test the drive media and perform all of the 
diagnostics.  DON'T do any format things or boot sector or master boot record  
writes unless you understand what you're doing (and/or your IT says it is OK, 
OK?).  Just do the media tests and diagnostics.  
    Note any error codes emitted by the diagnostics and tests, you might find 
something to explain what went wrong with the drive. 
    As with the other procedure, back up immediately if you get results.

Good luck, hope this helps.

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com




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