question Freezing your hard drive. Anyone done it?

[fv1609]

Ok Mark, well the ebay kit is packed up ready for return. I explained the problem to the vendor & what I had tried.The seller says it was fully tested before it was dispatched, which sounds surprising considering the high turnover of this seller. I was told to re-read the instructions which is rather difficult as the instructions refer to a unit based in a 'bux' & not appropriate to my unit. It is in very bad English & the instructions do not mention XP mainly 'Win9g'. I was advised to go through everything again as they can't see why it no longer works.

 

The trouble is with 45,800 transactions a bad feedback from me will mean nothing yet a retaliatory bad feedback on me with few transactions will have a significant blot on my character. So I'll see what happens.

 

Looking at posts for people with similar format pronblems threw up some hope. In that the folders may not be readable but the individual files may be readable. A number of people had good results with this:

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

 

So I'll see what happens.

 

What I didn't know was whether the ancillary circuitary on the HD was at fault or the discs themselves. My transplant would only stand a chance if it was the former. I realise if there are bad sectors then I've had it.

 

Many thanks

[Mark Collins]

Ok Mark, well the ebay kit is packed up ready for return. I explained the problem to the vendor & what I had tried.The seller says it was fully tested before it was dispatched, which sounds surprising considering the high turnover of this seller. I was told to re-read the instructions which is rather difficult as the instructions refer to a unit based in a 'bux' & not appropriate to my unit. It is in very bad English & the instructions do not mention XP mainly 'Win9g'. I was advised to go through everything again as they can't see why it no longer works.

 

The trouble is with 45,800 transactions a bad feedback from me will mean nothing yet a retaliatory bad feedback on me with few transactions will have a significant blot on my character. So I'll see what happens.

 

Looking at posts for people with similar format pronblems threw up some hope. In that the folders may not be readable but the individual files may be readable. A number of people had good results with this:

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

 

So I'll see what happens.

 

What I didn't know was whether the ancillary circuitary on the HD was at fault or the discs themselves. My transplant would only stand a chance if it was the former. I realise if there are bad sectors then I've had it.

 

Many thanks

 

Clive

 

I can understand with the ebay item as we sell ebay items all the time as one solution if you want to i can PM you with my address as i would be happy to try just the USB device for you as i have the rest of the leads and return it to you once tested just to eliminate if it is the device or not as i have 3 diffrent machines i can try it on. that way you can then get a second opinon.

 

Bear in mind you might have to by this software

[fv1609]

Mark, oh no don't worry doing that, its not worth taking up your time. Besides I would have three lots of postage to pay, to you & back to me then back to the ebay seller. I'm sure it is defective given that it won't work on my wife's PC either & yet the PCworld one works with no trouble.

 

The seller has come back & thinks there was a 'collision' in transit. Obviuosly realising it would cost me to pay to return it, they have offered me to pay £2.50 for a complete new one & I can keep the old one.

 

On principle I would like to return it. Looking at the -ve feedbacks most returned goods apparently don't arrive. So I would have to pay for recorded delivery & I know even then they would say they tested it & it was now working.

 

So I think I will weaken & cough up the £2.50 in the hope there is not some generic problem. But some of the leads in the kit cost £5 in the shops.

 

If it works it would be tempting to return the PCworld one & say theirs didn't work. But that is fundamentally dishonest & if people treat traders like this it is just not fair. Having made that decision I see that it comes with software to do instant backups using a button on the front panel. The files drive in IDE is 60 Gb & not had much use. So another back up mechanism seems sensible.

 

Just a quicky. This PC has a partioned drive separating programmes & files. Can I drag & drop say my email programme into the more spacious files part or does it have to live with the OS & other programmes?

 

Many thanks

[Mark Collins]

Mark, oh no don't worry doing that, its not worth taking up your time. Besides I would have three lots of postage to pay, to you & back to me then back to the ebay seller. I'm sure it is defective given that it won't work on my wife's PC either & yet the PCworld one works with no trouble.

 

The seller has come back & thinks there was a 'collision' in transit. Obviuosly realising it would cost me to pay to return it, they have offered me to pay £2.50 for a complete new one & I can keep the old one.

 

On principle I would like to return it. Looking at the -ve feedbacks most returned goods apparently don't arrive. So I would have to pay for recorded delivery & I know even then they would say they tested it & it was now working.

 

So I think I will weaken & cough up the £2.50 in the hope there is not some generic problem. But some of the leads in the kit cost £5 in the shops.

 

If it works it would be tempting to return the PCworld one & say theirs didn't work. But that is fundamentally dishonest & if people treat traders like this it is just not fair. Having made that decision I see that it comes with software to do instant backups using a button on the front panel. The files drive in IDE is 60 Gb & not had much use. So another back up mechanism seems sensible.

 

Just a quicky. This PC has a partioned drive separating programmes & files. Can I drag & drop say my email programme into the more spacious files part or does it have to live with the OS & other programmes?

 

Many thanks

 

Clive

 

Thanks about the lead, the email programme has to stay where it is as the registery and other files are all links and if you drag and drop it will cease working (if its outlook express you can backup your emails and address book seperatly) and then put them onto the partition section of the hard drive. other that that when you install any software if you want it on the partition it will ask you where you want to install the software choose the partition drivve letter (d:\ etc) and then the software will install to that partition and then the rgister entries and that will work properly.

 

Mark

[fv1609]

Mark ok thanks. I think I'll install Thunderbird afresh on the bigger bit of drive & there is a very nice programme that transfers everything over within minimum of brain ache.

 

I have installed the recovery programme from that link. It is split into two seperate programmes one it seems for programmes & the other for files. I got a bit scared in the first programme as I didn't know where to click & what to select. I'm now in the other programme which had more obvious options & as we speak it has recovered over 2,000 files:-):-):-)

 

It has another 2 hours to run before I can see the fruits of my labours. I won't relax until I have seen those files, but it looks promising, many thanks.

[Mark Collins]

Mark ok thanks. I think I'll install Thunderbird afresh on the bigger bit of drive & there is a very nice programme that transfers everything over within minimum of brain ache.

 

I have installed the recovery programme from that link. It is split into two seperate programmes one it seems for programmes & the other for files. I got a bit scared in the first programme as I didn't know where to click & what to select. I'm now in the other programme which had more obvious options & as we speak it has recovered over 2,000 files:-):-):-)

 

It has another 2 hours to run before I can see the fruits of my labours. I won't relax until I have seen those files, but it looks promising, many thanks.

 

Clive

 

best of luck with that, if i can be any more help please let me know.

 

Mark

[fv1609]

Mark well it took 3.5 hours & I now have 35,000 files to trawl through. So far I have recovered 20 images I had forgotten about.

 

The problem these are all mixed up with silly little images that range from avatars on forums, windows images & various software icons & images. There are a lot of non image files I can't open & not too bothered about.

 

As the drive is partioned between programmes & files, I don't whether all the drive has been recovered or whether it is the programme bit I am poking around in. I'm not sure whether these images I have are hanging around in Thunderird as attachments or whether I am recovering them from My Documents where I try to save stuff. I can think of one batch of pictures that would still only be in Thunderbird so if do/don't find them it will give a clue.

 

I wanted to recover 2 months of emails sent & received. I'll identify the sort of title these type of files would have then do a search. But quite a lot of manual retrieval ahead tonight!

 

But who would have thought at the start of this thread that a PC nitwit with a dead drive could have recovered much of it, maybe all, I don't know yet. Many thanks to all for advice as I have progressed.

[Mark Collins]

Mark well it took 3.5 hours & I now have 35,000 files to trawl through. So far I have recovered 20 images I had forgotten about.

 

The problem these are all mixed up with silly little images that range from avatars on forums, windows images & various software icons & images. There are a lot of non image files I can't open & not too bothered about.

 

As the drive is partioned between programmes & files, I don't whether all the drive has been recovered or whether it is the programme bit I am poking around in. I'm not sure whether these images I have are hanging around in Thunderird as attachments or whether I am recovering them from My Documents where I try to save stuff. I can think of one batch of pictures that would still only be in Thunderbird so if do/don't find them it will give a clue.

 

I wanted to recover 2 months of emails sent & received. I'll identify the sort of title these type of files would have then do a search. But quite a lot of manual retrieval ahead tonight!

 

But who would have thought at the start of this thread that a PC nitwit with a dead drive could have recovered much of it, maybe all, I don't know yet. Many thanks to all for advice as I have progressed.

 

Clive

 

if it any help click on this link http://dotwhat.net/msf/227/ to help you find the files for you emails through thunderbird. and it will tell you where to look

[fv1609]

Mark I retrieved about 50 proper pictures from all that lot. But there are some pictures someone emailed me I cannot find so I think not all of the drive has been scanned.

 

I followed that link & installed it. It found 91 file type errors, I had to register then I found I had been led to a checkout. So I've withdrawn. But now it has but a red shield, like a Microsoft one, down on the lower RHS. It regularly makes a pop noise & a balloon warns me of the dire consequences of having unreadable file types in my system. So is there any of it that was free other than the download or have I downloaded the wrong thing? But I think probably uninstall it.

 

Tomorrow, I use the other file recovery mechanism to see what that can unearth.

[Mark Collins]

Mark I retrieved about 50 proper pictures from all that lot. But there are some pictures someone emailed me I cannot find so I think not all of the drive has been scanned.

 

I followed that link & installed it. It found 91 file type errors, I had to register then I found I had been led to a checkout. So I've withdrawn. But now it has but a red shield, like a Microsoft one, down on the lower RHS. It regularly makes a pop noise & a balloon warns me of the dire consequences of having unreadable file types in my system. So is there any of it that was free other than the download or have I downloaded the wrong thing? But I think probably uninstall it.

 

Tomorrow, I use the other file recovery mechanism to see what that can unearth.

 

Clive

 

I apologise i didn't know you would have to pay for it i would just uninstall the software unfortunatley like anything with pcs with out me being actually sitting in front of the machine and see whats appearing its arkward to say what else to do as you can possibly imagine. i would give the other one a go and see what happens.

 

Sorry i can't help you further at the moment.

 

Mark

[fv1609]

Mark, well I have now got the replacement ebay bits & they work! I slightly resent having to send the £2.50 for postage for another one to be sent. But they say I can keep the defective one. If I returned the original it would have cost me that in postage as I would have sent it recorded delivery, as looking at their -ve feedback they don't seem to receive the faulty goods returned by customers!

 

Now the two IDE drives work, I always thought one had died. So I have found the old PC that they came out of gathering cobwebs in a stable. I have fitted in the RAM & some connectors I had pinched & intend to power this up. The good thing is that the W98 on this has a disc & licensed for this machine. When it died 5 years ago I wasn't so "adventurous" fiddling inside them so nothing to lose having a go.

 

Is the identity of a PC provided by the motherboard or is it in the windows that is installed?

 

So I now have 3 PCs in here with bits hanging out - even more chaotic than usual. I still need to retrieve more from my defective SATA drive. In the meantime on this machine I have installed Acronis True Image as back up. Last night I thought I created a back up in an external drive & it flashed & buzzed for 2 hours, only to find all it has done was to create a back up folder that is completely empty!

[Mark Collins]

Mark, well I have now got the replacement ebay bits & they work! I slightly resent having to send the £2.50 for postage for another one to be sent. But they say I can keep the defective one. If I returned the original it would have cost me that in postage as I would have sent it recorded delivery, as looking at their -ve feedback they don't seem to receive the faulty goods returned by customers!

 

Now the two IDE drives work, I always thought one had died. So I have found the old PC that they came out of gathering cobwebs in a stable. I have fitted in the RAM & some connectors I had pinched & intend to power this up. The good thing is that the W98 on this has a disc & licensed for this machine. When it died 5 years ago I wasn't so "adventurous" fiddling inside them so nothing to lose having a go.

 

Is the identity of a PC provided by the motherboard or is it in the windows that is installed?

 

So I now have 3 PCs in here with bits hanging out - even more chaotic than usual. I still need to retrieve more from my defective SATA drive. In the meantime on this machine I have installed Acronis True Image as back up. Last night I thought I created a back up in an external drive & it flashed & buzzed for 2 hours, only to find all it has done was to create a back up folder that is completely empty!

 

Clive

 

I am pleased you got a replacement and it works the identity of the pc is on the motherboard because if for instance you reinstall some software after a period of time on the machine you should not have to don't have to activate it as the machine remembers the product code from the last time it was installed (in theory) unless its a operating system then you need to type in the product key. Good luck with the back up (what you might want to do is in some of this software you actually have to tell it what folders (my Documents, Pictures etc) that you want to back up and not just by the drive.

 

Hope this helps

 

Mark