Exterior Hard Drive Crash

My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I had
all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior hard
drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running Windows XP
Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important info from the
exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to open up the
exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The Disk in Drive F
is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long story short, took the
exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who ran it all weekend trying
to recover the data . He had no luck - could not recover anything. Short of
spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any ideas about what I could possibly do
next - or is this a dead issue? And would anyone have a possible reason as
to why this exterior hard drive crashed in the first place. Thanks for any
and all input.

A hd drive can be DOA or fail at anytime, theres nothing you can do to
prevent failure, other than not dropping one.
There are Companies that will recover data, if it is recoverable - no
recovery no fee.
About the only thing a user can do is to keep multiple backups on differeing
media & in differing locations

"bobbymike" <ejnbln@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:u89W$WKEJHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I had
> all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior hard
> drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running Windows XP
> Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important info from the
> exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to open up the
> exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The Disk in Drive F
> is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long story short, took
> the exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who ran it all weekend
> trying to recover the data . He had no luck - could not recover anything.
> Short of spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any ideas about what I could
> possibly do next - or is this a dead issue? And would anyone have a
> possible reason as to why this exterior hard drive crashed in the first
> place. Thanks for any and all input.
>

DL wrote:
> A hd drive can be DOA or fail at anytime, theres nothing you can do to
> prevent failure, other than not dropping one.
> There are Companies that will recover data, if it is recoverable - no
> recovery no fee.
> About the only thing a user can do is to keep multiple backups on differeing
> media & in differing locations
>
> "bobbymike" <ejnbln@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:u89W$WKEJHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I had
>> all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior hard
>> drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running Windows XP
>> Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important info from the
>> exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to open up the
>> exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The Disk in Drive F
>> is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long story short, took
>> the exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who ran it all weekend
>> trying to recover the data . He had no luck - could not recover anything.
>> Short of spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any ideas about what I could
>> possibly do next - or is this a dead issue? And would anyone have a
>> possible reason as to why this exterior hard drive crashed in the first
>> place. Thanks for any and all input.
>>
>
>
Don't know if this will help, but, I had a USB drive suddenly go
bonkers.... one day I plugged it in and it wouldn't show up. I checked
with Disk Management and it was there, but, listed as 'hidden'. Don't
have a clue how or why it became 'hidden'. I 'unhid' the disk and
BINGO, all my files were back. Just an experience I had..... you never
know with computers.....

--
Semper Fi

"Ed Mc" <namvtn@comcast.invalid> wrote in message
news:b_OdnTDbkr6yT17VnZ2dnUVZ_qTinZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> DL wrote:
>> A hd drive can be DOA or fail at anytime, theres nothing you can do to
>> prevent failure, other than not dropping one.
>> There are Companies that will recover data, if it is recoverable - no
>> recovery no fee.
>> About the only thing a user can do is to keep multiple backups on
>> differeing media & in differing locations
>>
>> "bobbymike" <ejnbln@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:u89W$WKEJHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I
>>> had all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior
>>> hard drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running
>>> Windows XP Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important
>>> info from the exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to
>>> open up the exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The
>>> Disk in Drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long
>>> story short, took the exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who
>>> ran it all weekend trying to recover the data . He had no luck - could
>>> not recover anything. Short of spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any
>>> ideas about what I could possibly do next - or is this a dead issue? And
>>> would anyone have a possible reason as to why this exterior hard drive
>>> crashed in the first place. Thanks for any and all input.
>>>
>>
>>
> Don't know if this will help, but, I had a USB drive suddenly go
> bonkers.... one day I plugged it in and it wouldn't show up. I checked
> with Disk Management and it was there, but, listed as 'hidden'. Don't have
> a clue how or why it became 'hidden'. I 'unhid' the disk and BINGO, all my
> files were back. Just an experience I had..... you never know with
> computers.....
>
> --
> Semper Fi

Good Morning Marine Corps - SemperFi - I don't currently have the drive -
it's at the computer repair shop = when I get it
Back I will check it out per your instructions - When you say you Unhid the
disk ... What exactly does this mean? Thanks Much

bobbymike wrote:
> "Ed Mc" <namvtn@comcast.invalid> wrote in message
> news:b_OdnTDbkr6yT17VnZ2dnUVZ_qTinZ2d@comcast.com. ..
>> DL wrote:
>>> A hd drive can be DOA or fail at anytime, theres nothing you can do to
>>> prevent failure, other than not dropping one.
>>> There are Companies that will recover data, if it is recoverable - no
>>> recovery no fee.
>>> About the only thing a user can do is to keep multiple backups on
>>> differeing media & in differing locations
>>>
>>> "bobbymike" <ejnbln@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>> news:u89W$WKEJHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>>>> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I
>>>> had all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior
>>>> hard drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running
>>>> Windows XP Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important
>>>> info from the exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to
>>>> open up the exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The
>>>> Disk in Drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long
>>>> story short, took the exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who
>>>> ran it all weekend trying to recover the data . He had no luck - could
>>>> not recover anything. Short of spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any
>>>> ideas about what I could possibly do next - or is this a dead issue? And
>>>> would anyone have a possible reason as to why this exterior hard drive
>>>> crashed in the first place. Thanks for any and all input.
>>>>
>>>
>> Don't know if this will help, but, I had a USB drive suddenly go
>> bonkers.... one day I plugged it in and it wouldn't show up. I checked
>> with Disk Management and it was there, but, listed as 'hidden'. Don't have
>> a clue how or why it became 'hidden'. I 'unhid' the disk and BINGO, all my
>> files were back. Just an experience I had..... you never know with
>> computers.....
>>
>> --
>> Semper Fi
>
> Good Morning Marine Corps - SemperFi - I don't currently have the drive -
> it's at the computer repair shop = when I get it
> Back I will check it out per your instructions - When you say you Unhid the
> disk ... What exactly does this mean? Thanks Much
>
>
I have a program called Partition Magic 8.0 which has an option
for 'unhiding' hidden partitions. It's basically a hard disk
management program. I haven't looked too closely at winXP's disk
management feature, so I don't know if the procedure can be done from
there. Maybe someone else....? In the meantime, a "Scroogle" search (I
don't use Google) for 'free partition manager program' returned
numerous results. Good luck, bro.

--
Semper Fi

"DL" <address@invalid> wrote in message
news:urWoY3MEJHA.1460@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>A hd drive can be DOA or fail at anytime, theres nothing you can do to
>prevent failure, other than not dropping one.
> There are Companies that will recover data, if it is recoverable - no
> recovery no fee.

You'd want to establish this before contracting with the company. You may
wind up with a charge even if recovery is not successful.

Most companies will provide estimates of both cost and recovery
possibilities, but as producing the estimate can require opening the drive
and mounting the platters on their hardware, estimates aren't always free.

You are correct, relying on one single backup is not prudent.

HTH
-pk


> About the only thing a user can do is to keep multiple backups on
> differeing media & in differing locations
>
> "bobbymike" <ejnbln@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:u89W$WKEJHA.3476@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I
>> had all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior
>> hard drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running
>> Windows XP Professional. Unfortunately I did not copy all the important
>> info from the exterior hard drive to this new Dell. Last week, I went to
>> open up the exterior hard drive and this message came on screen - 'The
>> Disk in Drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now'- Long
>> story short, took the exterior hard drive to my trusted computer guy who
>> ran it all weekend trying to recover the data . He had no luck - could
>> not recover anything. Short of spending $$$$$$$ does anyone have any
>> ideas about what I could possibly do next - or is this a dead issue? And
>> would anyone have a possible reason as to why this exterior hard drive
>> crashed in the first place. Thanks for any and all input.
>>
>
>

bobbymike wrote:
>
> My Sony Windows XP Media Edition crashed a few months ago .. luckily I had
> all my important documents, photos, etc backed up on a WD exterior hard
> drive. In August I got a new Dell Inspiron 530 Desktop running Windows XP

Also back up to CDs

--
http://www.bootdisk.com/