Okay so i lost my secondary hard disk (an IBM Deskstar 60GB) full to the brim with data. Now, i'd partioned the disk into two parts - why, well, i mentions in a couple of threads that i lost my hard disk. I figured it to be the leads but this was wrong. It started with strange noises, then random locks ups (rebooting sorted the problem out). Then on Sunday i turned on the machine and tried to run a program from within windows. Now the Icon for the program was there so this was all well and good but when windows tried to run the program (or rather when i double clicked on the icon) it froze completely. Another reboot and Win98 got to the splash screen (with the moving blue line at the bottom) and it froze again (moving blue line stopped). Repeated attempts at rebooting resulted in the same. I removed my IDE lead from my Hard Disk (Suspecting a problem) and low and behold, Windows booted fine (with blank icons representing those that were associated with programs on my E and F drives (my faulty drive fragmentations). Now E: had all my music, mixes, 10 gb of wavs and samples and around 70 odd music programs, synths, etc, etc, etc. Now i managed to retreive SOME of my important data... and heres how.... 1). Booted into Windows and pressed F8 2). Choose command prompt only 3). Ran Scandisk on E: drive (which can still be accessed from a DOS PROMPT) and no problems. Ran scandisk on F: drive and.... LOCKUP. Yep, Both the scandisk and format commands caused lock-ups.My F: drive was shagged and Windows needed to access the partition as some of my desktop icons were located there. 4) Now, if my disk was NOT partitioned, i'd have been ruined, as it is i've only lost my sound samples (i can replace those). 5). Now - a theres no helpfile on Windows98 for DOS Commands - this is how you copy directories should the same thing happen to you.. 6) MD D:\TRACKS (makes a directory called TRACKS, replace this with whatevers relevent) 7). XCOPY /s E:\CUBASE\TRACKS D:\TRACKS (copies the directorys and ALL their subdirectories in my okay E: drive, to the newly created directory on my other hard drive. Data Saved, but only if you have at least two partitions, so bear this in mind. Anyway there you go, another lock-up solution explained. Mods, feel free to truncate this and make this a sticky if you think its worth it. Remeber the hard disk will still need replacing as FDISK will lock up as soon as it access that bad sector/cluster or whatever caused the problem. Replace or return the hard disk. You cannot lock out the bad drive in windows, you have to remove the drive from the IDE buss (IE remove the lead) Remember, if you have 2 Hard Disks and boot-up problems, remove the second (not the first as this will contain your system!) drive (well, the IDE lead) and see if it boots, if so, its your hard disk. Okay, lesson over.
Good tip..sticky worthy.... I think we need a tips thread...full o tips from our gracious members..... Thread will be closed as well, to prevent the tip from being burried...
