Maxtor One Touch drive died - need help

weeslip

Hello!!! I have a problem. My maxtor 250Gb external one-touch drive
doesn't work anymore. I have tried everything with no result so now I
just want to get back the files on it. I checked with a recovery
program and it seems that all my files on the drive are intact. The
question is: All the various recovery-programs talk about recovering
damaged files but since the files aren't damaged (the problem seems to
be with the MBR or something else) is there any other ways of getting
them "out"? I'm not interested in creating an image-file of the whole
disc since most of it is just a back-up. However, there are about 20
Gb of files that I don't have anywhere else that I really want to get
back. Is there some program you guys can recommend? Sorry if this
question seems a bit stupid or unclear, I'm really new with
computers... PS Does maxtor have some sort of diagnostic program to
determine the error for their external hard-drives? I checked their
homepage but I only saw the Powermax program which only seems to work
for non-external harddrives.

This is my backup of my now wiped clean harddriv. Sucks big time

cheers

jjmax

If you connect the drive to your PC does windows detect it?
Is the drive giving any indication of life? (Power light, activity, noise...)

Lump

Not sure about recovering the files, but contact Maxtor, they're based in bray, they might have some suggestions. Also you can return the drive there for a new one, assuming it's in warrenty. I had one die on me recently. Luckily I got all the data off it before it packed in totally, had some warning signs though, Over heating (Drive spinning all the time), Slow access times, slow read/write/copy times etc.

John

weeslip

I start it up and it appears as e:. However, when i go to access it i get the 'do you want to format' popup.

Real bummer. I have tried all the maxtor diagnostics to no avail and i had retrospect running but it does not recognise the drive.

I'll give maxtor a shout and see what they can do.

Cheers

zuma

Could you upload a pic of your Computer Management=>Disk Management screen to imageshack.us so I can have a look.

Give me a PM for more intence help as Ive saved many...many...many drives from disaster!!!

The_Conductor

Sounds like a possible problem with the partition table.
Do not, under any circumstances, click on the box to format the disk.

Most datarecovery software will have problems attempting to address the drive with a damaged partition table- but your files are intact- you should not have to worry about that.

Were you doing anything in particular immediately prior to the 'failure'? E.g. backing up with software, using partition magic etc? What was happening when you first noticed this problem- or immediately prior to it?

Maxtor should be able to advise re data recovery and do have a datarecovery specialist inhouse, who may be able to assist you.

S.

weeslip

hi zuma, i have uploaded a piccie here

any help at all would be appreciated.


smccarrick - i used retrospect express to back up and dup my laptop drive before reinstalling, XP sp2 really screwed it up and it has take a battering of the years. I went to mount the drive after a fresh windows install and nothing. Tried it on a 2000 machines and no joy, tried it on a suse 9.3 box and nothing. In each case it seems to be recognised by the machine/os and all the lights flash away but no chance of mounting it without formatting, which i am VERY reluctant do to :-).

zuma

Read the PM I sent you.

weeslip

no joy zuma bud.

Thanks a lot for trying to help out its much appreciated. I'm going to give maxtor in bray a shout.

weeslip

the frustrating thing is i can see some of my data using a disk editor. F*&^

Morkin

GetDataBack from runtime.org is a saviour.

It has NTFS and DOS versions. Trial shows you disk contents and it will do entire drive image or individual file recovery in the full version.

I'd recomment a full drive image if you have the sapce then park the OneTouch and do recovery on image drive just in case the HDD deteriorates further.

BTW when you get the data back try reformatting the HDD or fixing the MBR, the drive may be physically fine (assuming it's not spinning mad or clicking etc.)

Good luck,

M.

deckie27

At the end of the day its only an ide hdd in a box
did u try taking it out of case, to rule out case as problem
Also try chkdsk even to this day its amazing what it can do.

Dec