GetDataBack rocks!

Another drive decided to turn itself into a blender and become a
potential doorstop.

There were a few files I wanted to recover, so out came GetDataBack.

It managed to recover stuff I'd deleted ages ago.

FWIW, I recommend it.

Now to see if I can do anything with the drive...

Anyone know of a utility I can use to access the drive - the bloody
thing starts "doing stuff" constantly, whenever it's prodded.

It shows up in the bios and in "my computer", if that helps.

I just want to see if I can salvage it, rather than use it as a
paperweight.

 

If the drive has shown signs of going belly up, why would you want to
use it? Every time you turn the computer on it'll be pot luck if your
stuff's still there.

Only use it might have would be a scratch drive for virtual memory, but
I don't think you use any paint/rendering programs. Even then, if it
went titsup while you were working you'd probably lose everthing, so
there's still no point.

 

If it's a Maxtor, junk it. Indeed, if it's playing up, junk it anyway;
not worth hanging on to.

 

Dismantle it. Platters make nice deeply shiny coasters, and make a
lovely crunching noise if you bend them.

 

But 'ware the glass ones!

BTW, "we" have recently had a lot of disk failures at a certain
Tier 1 LHC Grid centre in the UK -- turned out to be a firmware problem,
due to usage patterns the manufacturer never tested for. Unfortunately,
I'm not closely enough involved with that bit of it to know the brand. :-(

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Get the rare earth magnets out of it as well, great fun. Could also
try a freeware SMART status program to see what the problem is.

 

I agree - excellent data recovery software. Recovered a load of stuff for
me a while back when everything else I tried didn't work.

 

If it's a Maxtor then; (a) download the test utility and then (b) see if
it's still under warranty and get it exchanged.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Tim

No, really, just throw the fucking thing away.

I'll never own another Maxtor drive.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

It's like the Marmite question isn't it? I've used loads of them and
only ever had one "sulk". I got all the data off it and they replaced it
free of charge.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Tim

Exactly so, Marmite is the food of the gods, and anyone who says
different is just plain wrong.

Maxtors are the oozings of the devil's piles and anyone who says
different is just plain wrong.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Bollocks. I can remember when the same was said of another manufacturer
in the late 80s / early 90s. Can't remember off hand if it was WD or
Seagate, but one of them had a reputation at the time.

 

I went through a period of dying IBM drives, then a period of dying
Seagatate's. I've used an external Maxtor for the last 2 years and it's been
faultless and it's lasted twice as long as my last IBM or Seagate.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

<Nods>

Brand reliability seems to be cyclical. After a couple of years of being
shit, somebody decides to address the QA issues and they get better.
Meanwhile, the current dogs bollocks brand gets complacent and their drives
all go to shit.

Whenever I'm considering replacing a drive, I ask my mate who works in a
data centre where they are currently ordering from, and go there!

 

All they do is fire out some piece of old shit that's been refurbed and
will probably fail again within 6 months.

Best place for a Maxtor is in the bin and save the grief.

 

Oooer, you sound just like a Statistician.

Kill yourself now - you'll be doing yourself a favour.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

The replacement IBM's I received were all marked as "rebuilt from used
parts". or some such shite. I swore I'd never buy another IBM product after
I saw that.


After a couple of years of being

But even now, the longevity of computers and hard drives is nothing like I
expected years ago when I bought a Winchester for an Atari ST. That never
failed and I passed the puter to a pal for him to use as a word processor
and run his accounts. He still uses it to this day for his word processing,
but he kept on using a fucking Atari 800 for his accounts, with a plug in
program. That thing must be 25 years old now and it's still working.

Sounds like a reasonable approach.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Just like IBM then.

I'll hang on to mine, It's been the most reliable HD I've owned for 10
years.

My current "C" drive is a Seagate and it's just begun to make scratchy
noises on boot up, so it's not long for this world. A-fucking-gain.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

My recent experience leads me to the same conclusion.

Trouble is, didn't Seagate just buy them?

Could lead to confusion.

--

Paul.
CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird (Buen mueble de patio)
BOTAFOT #4
BOTAFOF #30
MRO #24
OMF #15
UKRMMA #30

 

My replacement was new. Not nos and not newly refurbished, just plain
new new.

That's your opinion and I am happy for you.