Hard Drive Failed - Lost EVERYTHING!
 

For the last 4 years or so, my computer has been a laptop. I pretty much used it for everything - homework, games, LAN parties, etc.

Just last night/this morning (2am), the hard drive failed. I lost everything on it. I am going to contact a Data Recovery Firm tomorrow for a quote. If it isn't too extreme, then my Dad said we will have them do it. The drive had all my homework assignments, music, personal files, and a large amount of family pictures (whenever the Digital Camera needed room to be made, I was always the one to download the pictures and clear the memory stick, and thus, many of the pictures were on my computer, and my computer only).

This was most unfortunate, because I had just bought a new computer and was in the process of building it (a desktop). I am using it right now as a matter of fact. However, had the computer been done, I would have transferred all my files over and none would have been lost (I was planning to format and reload everything on the laptop anyway). However, the drive failed not even a day before the computer was done.

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed.

Anyone else ever had a hard drive failure?

I have, a few times. I'm surprised that your laptop hard drive lasted as long as it did. I use mine A LOT, so I replace the hard drive once a year or so. I know that's kind of extreme, but it's cheaper than the down time. Besides, hard drives are pretty inexpensive now. I also do regular backups of my important files, but you still have to re-install everything when the drive goes belly up, so avoiding it is worth it.

I had 2, but they were our own faults, on laptop drive faild when my wife slammed the screen shut with a bit too much force, one desktop drive failled when I accidently stuck my finger to the pcb when power was on. I was installing a fan with power on, not a very smat idea, lol

In total we've probably have at least 8 hard drive failures. But that's not bad considering we've had 30+ hard drives in the past 15 or so years. I myself have had one or two go bad.

My dad has had some luck recovering files himself with some "professional" software he has "downloaded." I can ask him tomorrow for the details.

Do yourself a favor and get an external (USB or Firewire) harddrive. Then, periodically make disk images of everything. Most disk imaging software has the ability to boot off the CD and read the data from the backup to completely restore everything to a brand new drive.

Or, use the external drive to make backups of whatever you think is important. This can be done using MSBackup (assuming you use XP) via a batch file so it's just a one-click maintenance thing.

I build custom computers and my take on hard drives isn't if they will fail, but when. Not only that, but if you have anything of value on the drive then you need to factor in murphies law. This is why I recommend RAID drives. Get yourself a network drive with built in mirror RAID or RAID 5. It's just not worth losing your data. Almost all of us will go threw this at least once in our life. Only noobs let it happen again. Get yourself a RAID.

You said you just bought a new computer. Make sure that sucker has a least 2 hard drives and that they are mirrored. People can talk big all day long about keeping backups. Thats all great, but in the real world very few have the time or energy to remember to back everything up every time they get new data. Having some redundancy will at least prevent loss from an inevitable drive failure.

On you're laptop that failed, is it just not booting anymore, have you tried putting the drive into another computer to see if you can recover the data? What brand is the drive? Some companies are cooler about helping you recover your data.

I had one fail as well. It was quite odd though. I think the motherboard and/or processor failed, causing the hard drive to fail. The hard drive was so hot it started to melt the plastic on the bottom of it.

That sounds like a power supply failure to me. Those buggers can take the whole pc with them. Power supply is the most under estimated component in your computer.

I have been fortunate to have never had a failure in the two years i have had this computer

It sucks.

i used to run a stripe raid on my computer (raid 0) and 1 disk crashed so all the data was gone..(maxtor disk) i invested in 4 disks and got a raid 10 system. Stupid enough two discs failed right after eachother. Again maxtor discs.

Now i run a WD raptor 10k sata disc, they seem to be more reliable. they come with a 60month warrantee as well.

There are several software providers that make recovery software. As long as the disk is seeking, spinning and the heads aren't crashed, you have got a good change the data is still there.

Good choice! I also use the Raptors, but in RAID0. I know if one goes, all data is lost, but that's why I make frequent backups to an internal IDE drive and also to a couple of USB external drives.

Yeah, the raptors are the best sata/ide disks available. too bad the access time gets a twist from raid 0.

speed of a raid system depends pretty much on the controller used. however; the onboard intel ICHxR seem to preform pretty good for desktop use/applications.

In most cases the hdd is the reason why computers are feeling slow.. Can't have enough speed in the disks IMO.. (nor stability) what are you using for backup? I'm pretty keen on Acronis.

I'm still using a really old AMD64 (socket 754) chipset right now, but not sure on the SATA chipset - IIRC, it's on of the older VIA chipsets. I'm planning on upgrading soon, but really, it is still fast enough for what I use it for.

I can't wait until flash memory gets low enogh for solid state drives. Access time will really be improved. And no moving parts and no magnetic media will be nice.

I don't back up to a disk image; the last time I did, the software I was using had trouble restoring to my SATA RAID0 set. Besides, I like to reformat every year or so to clean out the cobwebs anyway. So, I made some backup scripts to use with MSBackup that will back up all my important files at one click and saves it to another drive with a dated filename. Works well. :)

Thats what I thought as well, but it seemed to check out ok...

Brian, you might want to consider the AMD Athon64 X2 4200+. Its a AM2 socket, so it will require a new motherboard. I would recommend the
nFORCE4M-A HT2000. That, in combination with a nVidia GeForce 6600 OC. I have that in the computer I'm using right now, and its probably the fasted computer I've ever used. Of course, I have it slightly over clocked, but it still runs under 30* C. I could probably go up alot more, but don't want to push it.

Yeah, I will definitely go with an AMD CPU, but was thinking of an ATI GPU since AMD now owns ATI (figure they would work well together). When it gets closer to purchase time, I'll be doing a lot of research. Thanks for the tip though.

guys guys. Be wise and stay away from AMD for now. I'm a fan of AMD just because I like competition, but right now Intels are much better systems. Not only are AMD CPU's slower, but they run hotter and don't overclock as well as current Intel's. If that's not enough, the real reason to buy in Intel is for the ICH*R onboard raid controller that Serum mentioned. Theres something about the Intel Raid that even most guys who think they know Raid don't know. It's called the Intel Matrix RAID. Basically it allows you to have more then one Raid array on the same drives. Take my computer for instance. I have 4 500GB hard drives in my system right now. On the same drives I have a 20GB RAID 0 across 4 drives. This I use for my operating system and programs. The rest of the hard drive space left over goes on a second RAID 10. This gives me a VERY fast 20gb partition for windows and my programs. Then I move my documents folder over to the RAID 10 for safe storage. Best of both worlds. If 1 or even 2 of my drives die, I lose my operating system. I'll have to replace the faulty drive, then re install windows. But all my data is still safe and sound on the RAID 10. Not only does this allow you to have your fast RAID 0, but Matrix RAID uses the fastest part of you're hard drive to build the RIAD 0. Your hard drive is MUCH faster on the outer part of it's platter. At the same RPM, the outer part of the platter has much more information passing under the head then the inner part of the platter. So in my case I'm using 5gb of each drive for a total of 20gb RAID 0, then I use the remaining 495gb of each drive to use towards a RAID 10 for safe storage. What does all this equal? Raptor slaying performance for less money, + you get a bunch of storage. My 7200rpm Matrix raid is faster then you're raptors. I know this because I went from 4 raptors on RAID 0 to what I have now. Hope I didn't make that sound to complicated.

I am running RAID - just not the one I really wanted. My brother messed up when setting up my computer. My plan is to redo it this weekend to get it right.

I have 4 160GB 7200RPM SATA WD Caviar SE Hard Drives. Currently, one pair is striped (RAID 0) the other pair mirrored (RAID 1). This gives me a 320GB drive with high performance, and a 160GB with good data security (hard drives are just copies of eachother, so if one fails, the other has all the information still).

What I wanted to do is run RAID 1+0, where there are two pairs of striped drives mirrored together, so I get an effective 320GB of storage, all with the security of mirroring. So long as two of the same striped drives dont fail, I'm fine. For example, 1A and 1B are striped, and 2A and 2B are striped, and pair 1 and 2 are mirrored. As long as 1A and 2A don't fail at the same time (or 1B and 2B), then I'm ok.

The old drive that failed is a Hitachi.

My new computer kicks ass though.

I got a 22" LCD (huge upgrade from my laptops 15.4"), a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz overclocked to 2.997GHz. Foxconn overclocked GeForce 8800GTX 768MB handles video duties. I also have 2GB of Dual Channel Ram.

hyperasus, you are on the same page as I am. I'm not a big raptor fan - its a waste of money IMO. My friend bought a Raptor and keeps talking about it (its the one single part on his computer thats actually better than mine). He just won't admit RAID owns.

Wow....I thought my 250GB hard drive was big...Personally, my AMD is the fastest thing I think I've ever used. I over clocked mine a good bit, and its still under 30* C. If I remember correctly, under 50 is ok, so I think its taking the over clocking pretty well. I honestly don't like Intel...AMD all the way...

Come on now......don't turn this in too a war LOL. JK, Someones gotta buy those AMD chips. Otherwise who's going to make sure Intel keeps it real with their prices.

What motherboard are you running. If it has Intel Raid then I'll show you how to shut you're friend up forever about the raptor.

I have an ASUS P5N32-E. It supports RAID 1, 0, 1+0, and 5.

I currently have on pair in RAID 1, the other in RAID 0. I want to set it up so its RAID 1+0.

Bummer, P5N32 uses the Nvidia chipset which doesn't support matrix RAID. If you're still in the middle of building you're computer I'd take this opportunity to sell that motherboard and get an ASUS P5B Deluxe. Not only will it out perform the P5N32, but it has built in Matrix RAID. Only thing you would be giving up is support for the Nvidia SLI, and I doubt you plan on using that anyways.