Hard Drive, Partition, data recovery and diagnostic tools [hard drive partition] [partition data]
Re:I am having a hard time saving this a document with active hyperlinks. Why cant this go into Anandtech's Howtos section – so that we have online access
Re:Originally posted by: guy
You might edit to use the direct link to Penguin Blog – Why you should partition (http://penguinblog.com/partitioning.shtml) …
Any other suggested links on partitioning strategy? Something between just having 2 partitions and having 13?
theEldergeek (http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_01.htm) – lots of good info
… Also wondering if a small separate partition for the pagefile makes sense.
Thank you for calling the link to my attention. I thought I had taken care of that but it seems I missed it. This has been changed now.
I used to create a separate partition for only the page file. I created a 4GB partition, which is the maximum Pagefile size created by Windows XP, and then transferred the pagefile over to that partition. I left the setting for windows to manage its own pagefile because I wanted to see if it would take over the partition but it did not. Through normal use, the pagefile never exceeded its default size of less than 1GB, which seemed to make it a useless endeavor to create a separate partition for this. I think if I was going to do this again, I would create the 4GB partition, then explicitly create a 3-4GB pagefile. But there is no way, that I know of, to know if Windows would even take advantage of this large pagefile or if the size of the pagefile would only serve slow down page memory seeking.
Re:Thanks for the info.
You might edit to use the direct link to Penguin Blog – Why you should partition (http://penguinblog.com/partitioning.shtml)
Lots of other good practical info on computer issues at that site – Penguin Blog (http://penguinblog.com/)
Though after a couple hours looking I have yet to find a really good article on partition strategy. The Penguins one has some good info, and doesn't have lots of old or wrong info (like the Radified article and the one at Microsoft.com) – but as you say it's not really typical … includes some stuff some wouldn't, leaves out some stuff.
Any other suggested links on partitioning strategy? Something between just having 2 partitions and having 13?
theEldergeek (http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_01.htm) – lots of good info
I definitely plan to use a partition for temp files … as much of the internet files, cookies, windows tmp, etc. as I can manage to move. Also wondering if a small separate partition for the pagefile makes sense.
Re:STICKY!!!!!!!!! nice post buddy
Re:I suggest a data recovery software.
DataRecoveryWizard is a complete range of data recovery software
for all Windows operating system platforms and supports various file
systems including FAT, FAT16, VFAT, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 on
various storage media. DataRecoveryWizard ensures safe and precise
file recovery against numerous threats like accidental file deletion and
disk formatting and so on.
http://www.easeus.com/
Re:Thanks again guy!
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Thanks for the reply. However, after more internet research I am even more confused. A post from ActionFront Forums here (http://forums.actionfront.com/showthread.php?t=635) seems to indicate even if I find the same drive model (which is proving to be rather difficult) the firmware may or may not be compatible and might not allow data to be recovered. Any truth to this?
This is possible. I do not have experience in this area to say for certain. If you find a possible drive on Ebay, for example, you could try asking the seller for the numbers on his circuit card and see if they match the numbers on your circuit card.
Re:Thanks for the reply. However, after more internet research I am even more confused. A post from ActionFront Forums here (http://forums.actionfront.com/showthread.php?t=635) seems to indicate even if I find the same drive model (which is proving to be rather difficult) the firmware may or may not be compatible and might not allow data to be recovered. Any truth to this?
Originally posted by: guy
Originally posted by: guy
… They indicated it was a bad circuit board, but they did not have a match and supposedly could not find a match (my drive is a 120GB Western Digital 8MB cache which they claimed was a "first generation" drive instead of the more current "third gen" drive).
Anyway, any suggestion(s) on my situation and how to do a board swap (means, methods, techniques, tricks, places to find replacements, etc.) would be much appreciated.
I would suggest following the tech store's recommendation and finding another 120GB WD to swap the circuit board with. You should be able to find something from ebay with a search for:
western digital 120 gb
and possibly add a search for your drive's model number.
Then just switch the circuit boards and the drive will hopefully work.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
… They indicated it was a bad circuit board, but they did not have a match and supposedly could not find a match (my drive is a 120GB Western Digital 8MB cache which they claimed was a "first generation" drive instead of the more current "third gen" drive).
Anyway, any suggestion(s) on my situation and how to do a board swap (means, methods, techniques, tricks, places to find replacements, etc.) would be much appreciated.
I would suggest following the tech store's recommendation and finding another 120GB WD to swap the circuit board with. You should be able to find something from ebay with a search for:
western digital 120 gb
and possibly add a search for your drive's model number.
Then just switch the circuit boards and the drive will hopefully work.
Re:Thanks for such an extensive and comprehensive post!
I am currently battling a hard drive failure and have tried several of the methods and steps you have mentioned. However, I could not get the drive to be recognized by any BIOS so I decided to take it to a local tech repair store. They indicated it was a bad circuit board, but they did not have a match and supposedly could not find a match (my drive is a 120GB Western Digital 8MB cache which they claimed was a "first generation" drive instead of the more current "third gen" drive).
Anyway, any suggestion(s) on my situation and how to do a board swap (means, methods, techniques, tricks, places to find replacements, etc.) would be much appreciated.
Re:I have one issue here. It is the freezer method: Condensation from a rapidly warming hard drive will kill it. Why not just wait untill winter, turn off the heat, let the ambiant temperature hit 10° F, install a HDD Cooler/Heatsink, and then fire it up in the frigid air? You wont need to worry about mosture this way.
If you are running a prescott then dont worry about freezing your butt off, the TDP of that processor will keep you nice and toasty down in your basement.
Re:A major formatting overhaul took place that provides for easier viewing.
Thanks to mechBgon for showing me the potential of this forum's HTML formatting.
It is interesting to note that the quantity of hard drive failures and subsequent requests for data retrieval has greatly reduced these last two weeks. Considering the current end-of-summer and beginning-of-autumn season, this may show the importance of cooling hard drives during operation.
Re:Originally posted by: guy
Birdpup:
Thanks for the help before on the hard drive issue. This deserves a sticky.
:thumbsup:
Re:Birdpup:
Thanks for the help before on the hard drive issue. This deserves a sticky.
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Tags: hard drive partition, partition data