Not able to access the hardrive

congo_90

Ok so I've been having some problems with the laptop lately including it slowing down a lot. To give you some history its been through a rough time and brought back from the dead a few times (water damage, severe over heating etc). Anyways I've tried running an anti virus only for it to crash the system completly.
event viewer shows

The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I tried running a disk checker but when windows attempts to after a reboot it's saying "windows cannot get direct access to the disk" or something to that.. What could be causing this?

I'm using windows xp sp2
fujitsu siemans amilo M laptop.
I would greatly appreciate any help on this and if needs be have it moved.
Thanks

It's a hard one to call.

If it was me, I would maybe try a Linux Live CD like Ubuntu, and boot from that, if that can mount your internal drive, ie, access it, I would copy all essential files, basically back it all up, to an external drive.

Have you got any recovery CD's with it? Or is there a recovery partition on it?

Cause I would Nuke the drive with DBAN Darik's Boot and Nuke, which would wipe your HD completley clean and then re-install the Operating System, providing the Nuke did the job on your HD.

Again, it is hard one to call, Maybe someone else here could offer a better solution to your problem.

I do hope you get it sorted.

Regards.
ND

Overheal

upgrade to SP3 anyway. I dont have any answers for you but the upgrade is both worthwhile and a great way to kill time until a better option presents itself.

congo_90

NoDrama wrote: »

It's a hard one to call.

If it was me, I would maybe try a Linux Live CD like Ubuntu, and boot from that, if that can mount your internal drive, ie, access it, I would copy all essential files, basically back it all up, to an external drive.

Have you got any recovery CD's with it? Or is there a recovery partition on it?

Cause I would Nuke the drive with DBAN Darik's Boot and Nuke, which would wipe your HD completley clean and then re-install the Operating System, providing the Nuke did the job on your HD.

Again, it is hard one to call, Maybe someone else here could offer a better solution to your problem.

I do hope you get it sorted.

Regards.
ND

Hi ND thanks for replying. Why would I use a linux cd? Wouldn't that get rid of windows? Is there any other risk of wiping the drive? I'll just back up important files to disk. It has me baffled to be honest.

@overheal, my bad. turns out i'm running xp sp3 already. Sorry I forgot about that!

Alanstrainor

congo_90 wrote: »

Hi ND thanks for replying. Why would I use a linux cd? Wouldn't that get rid of windows? Is there any other risk of wiping the drive? I'll just back up important files to disk. It has me baffled to be honest.

@overheal, my bad. turns out i'm running xp sp3 already. Sorry I forgot about that!

Booting from an ubuntu or similar "live" cd doesn't involve installing the OS, it boots straight from the CD. This should then give you access to all the files on your HD, making it possible to get essentials off the HD. Making a bootable usb stick is also very easy with ubuntu, there are plenty of wikis online showing you how to do it.

congo_90

When i water damaged the laptop before Iused the windows Cd for booting. Is this the cd?
So the corruption was caused by windows or is this just a precaution?

R3al

congo_90 wrote: »

I tried running a disk checker but when windows attempts to after a reboot it's saying "windows cannot get direct access to the disk" or something to that..
Thanks

Your checkdisk is probably being prevented by a service or utility such as an anti virus program locking the partition before chkdsk can run:

You can try opening the command prompt and running the follwoing command:

chkdsk /x /r

It will probably ask if you want to scan at the next reboot, enter Y

this will force the disk to dismount before scanning takes place

If this does not work and you have your original install disk you can run chkdsk from the recovery console, to do this put in your disk, reboot, ensure your boot sequence puts the dvd-rom drive before the hdd(click f2 during boot and change order in BIOS) install disk will boot to the installation/repair menu select R to enter the repair console, if it asks for an administrator password this is generally blank then you can run the chkdsk command

I wouldnt upgrade to SP3 until you have repaired the issue and even then I would think hard about it as SP3 has a lot of issues and can cause as many problems as it can fix

Tom Dunne

congo_90 wrote: »

When i water damaged the laptop before Iused the windows Cd for booting. Is this the cd?
So the corruption was caused by windows or is this just a precaution?

No.

What others are suggesting is to either download a Linux CD (try Ubuntu) or get one from the cover of a Linux magazine. Boot from this CD (it won't install Linux, so won't change/delete anything on your hard drive).

Once you are in Linux, you should be able to recover files from your hard drive.

Then I would suggest you get a new hard drive and re-install Windows on it.

congo_90

Tom Dunne wrote: »

No.

What others are suggesting is to either download a Linux CD (try Ubuntu) or get one from the cover of a Linux magazine. Boot from this CD (it won't install Linux, so won't change/delete anything on your hard drive).

Once you are in Linux, you should be able to recover files from your hard drive.

Then I would suggest you get a new hard drive and re-install Windows on it.

Oh ok but is it economical to just replace the hd? or get a new laptop?

Alanstrainor

congo_90 wrote: »

Oh ok but is it economical to just replace the hd? or get a new laptop?

New hd can cost as little as €60~ depending on the size, new laptop costs at least 400.

silversurfer

If the hard drive says it has a bad block or bad sectors then it's prob dying.

I seen this a few times lately, what you can do is take the drive out and do a disk check on another PC.
The easiest way is to use an external harddrive case
connect it to another PC
right click on properties --> tools and do disk checking.
This will usually fix the immediate problem and allow the hard drive to be used in the original laptop.
I'd do a defrag afterwards also

I'd get a new Hard drive though as the drive could go in a week or a year (you never know), €40 + shipping (komplett) approx.

congo_90

silversurfer wrote: »

If the hard drive says it has a bad block or bad sectors then it's prob dying.

I seen this a few times lately, what you can do is take the drive out and do a disk check on another PC.
The easiest way is to use an external harddrive case
connect it to another PC
right click on properties --> tools and do disk checking.
This will usually fix the immediate problem and allow the hard drive to be used in the original laptop.
I'd do a defrag afterwards also

I'd get a new Hard drive though as the drive could go in a week or a year (you never know), €40 + shipping (komplett) approx.

Isn't komplett some sorta dodgey company? I've seen some nasty threads here.. anyways back on topic, I sadly don't have access/permission to another PC. Oh god not a dead HD! last thing I need is that about now!
*edit*
I've actually got a thread going on at the moment trying to rescue the HD. This thread here is an older oneHere

Now the question is which is more economical considering that it could be hard to find a HD to fit my laptop??

silversurfer

I've bought many things from komplett.ie, never had a problem
I've bought laptop harddrives (2.5" sata), standard 3.5inch drives, and motherboards.
I've never personally heard they were doggy

You could always try dabs.ie or svp.co.uk, but i've always found komplett to be reasonable pricewise.

congo_90

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=320709
saw the above online. Would that fit my laptop? if so its just a matter of installing windows yea?

silversurfer

Laptops use a 2.5inch drive.

You need to see if you need a SATA or IDE type internal 2.5" drive.
Best way is to check the actual Hard drive.
IDE has loads of Pins to connect to the PC
SATA has flat gold colored connections

IDE example: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338761
SATA example: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=355710


Once the drive is replaced, boot up with WIndows CD in cd drive.
Make sure you have your Microsoft key (usually on bottom of PC)

s

congo_90

silversurfer wrote: »

Laptops use a 2.5inch drive.

You need to see if you need a SATA or IDE type internal 2.5" drive.
Best way is to check the actual Hard drive.
IDE has loads of Pins to connect to the PC
SATA has flat gold colored connections

IDE example: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338761
SATA example: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=355710


Once the drive is replaced, boot up with WIndows CD in cd drive.
Make sure you have your Microsoft key (usually on bottom of PC)

s

Ah I see. I finally got chkdsk to run there but to be honest, the results were dire after an hour (from boot) it ran a blue screen of death. Windows is now warning me several programs on my disk are corrupt. I'm backing up like crazy here onto discs!!!!

I think silversurfer is right. It's on its way out. Is this normal? I've never had this problem before with computers...

silversurfer

I've seen two of these in the last two weeks, after chkdsk I managed to get them going, but they had minor problems. They'll die sometime, but don't know when, could be next week or in a year or so.

I've, over the years, had 2 or 3 hard drives of my own die, with symptoms as you desribe. I do a load of pc work and currently have 3 computers (with about 12 harddrives between them) . I expect to lose a drive every few years.

A company I do work for, repairs customers computers, one of the fails they see each week, are corrupt harddrives.

So it does happen. however not too often.

Once you do backups, it's easy to replace a drive.

Even if a drive is faulty, you can usually get the data from it, or most of it anyway.

congo_90

As I type, I'm backing up from fujitsu siemans website all the drivers. I'm also backing up to disc all program installs (I lost all my cds) and currently have another thread going on about recovery discs on this forum.
Seems most important files are being saved fine