So my friend's hard drive is not working correctly. When he turns on his comp it says Disc Read Error and tells us to Ctrl+Alt+Del. Ive used a Windows XP CD and gone into the Recovery Console to run chkdsk but it exits out after 32% with the message "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems." What options do I have to get this thing running again? Can format fix this? I'd like to try something less destructive if possible, but he said it would be OK to format if nothing else will work.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Anonymous2006-10-28 18:52
hard drive's likely borked. don't expect to get anything useful off of it anymore. buy a new harddrive, and hope buddy didn't lose anything important.
you might be able to recover stuff if you install a fresh copy of windows to the new drive and slave the old drive to it. might. and you'll probably need to either format or trash the old drive in the end anyway.
backups are friend.
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Anonymous2006-10-28 18:56
Your best bet is to just re-format/re-install.
Since your friend does not care about the loss of data. other option would be to take his hdd and hook it up to another machine (as secondary) then just back up the files he needs. bookmarks,daved files..ect, then take it back and do the fresh install.
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Anonymous2006-10-28 19:10
thanks for the responses. we'll try a format and if that doesn't work then he will have to get a new hard drive.
Format didn't work and Spin Rite goes too slow. He will have to get another hard drive. Thanks for the help though.
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Anonymous2006-10-30 21:52
key: comp1-the computer in qwestion comp2-another p.c.
well you need another (a new or a friends computer) open the case of comp 1 remove the screws secureing the HD to the case and remove the cables and remove the HD
remove the cover from comp 2 and there should be a slot for another HD put the move the jumper from the "master" pins to the "slave" pins hookup the hd acording to comp2 instruction manualonce the hd is installed on comp2 you can save the files (probibly best to get a removeable hd to save files to) you then now have all your files backed up postmordem.
now you reinstall the HD to comp1 (remember to set the jumpers back to master otherwise it your computer wont work) so it can be reformatedd by someone who knows how (you might need to call your computer manufacturer they will walk you thrugh it or do it for you for a small fee) once your computer is reformatted and windows is installed hook the outside hd up and send the files back to your computer valla its like nothing ever happened