tonight's troubleshooting

[juldea]

So through various configurations of hard drives and RAM this evening, I have determined both that I have a bad stick of RAM (the computer refused to boot when this was the only stick of RAM, instead beeping at me insistently!) and a bad hard drive (when it was the only HD installed, even with all good RAM attached, I got a "BOOT DRIVE NOT FOUND" error.)

It is even possible that one of the two IDE cables I've been using is bad, but it is no longer relevant as the new drive is SATA and I can ditch the old suspect cable.

So, good news: the new drive wasn't a waste of money. Bad news: I still want the data from the old drive. Sadface!

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Important data should always be kept in at least three places. Ideally with at least one of them outside your physical location.

I use a backup drive for normal stuff, but if I want extra insurance, I email it to myself in gmail.

[If this is redundant advice, and you already know all this, my apologies.]

[crimson5.livejournal.com]

The question is can you see the old drive at all? Slave it to the new drive, swapping cables between boots if needed. If the old drive is visible, try to grab as much data as you can.

If you can't see the drive at all, it's possible to recover your data at a professional lab. But it is EXPENSIVE. Something around 200-300$ an hour most likely.

There is one more trick you could attempt, but it typically does not work. I've heard that depending on how the drive is failing, placing it in the freezer for a few hours, and then immeadiately booting it may give you enough time to grab your data before it thaws. But this works so rarely that it's almost in the area of folk legend.

[juldea.livejournal.com]

So where we're at now is I can see the drive, but any attempts to access it, rather directly or with a file recovery program, causes a spontaneous reboot 10-15 seconds in. The theory is there's an electrical short somewhere. I'm looking for an external USB enclosure to try it on to see if it really is electrical or not. I'm assuming your freezer trick won't work with that kind of problem. ;)