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stev32k
Premium Member
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL

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stev32k

Premium Member

[Review] Disaster recovery - software that really works

I went to turn on my desktop yesterday and got the dreaded "error reading disk drive" message. I retried booting several times then tried the recovery CD I made using Acronis - no luck, the machine would not boot up.

I remembered using a program several years ago that repaired hard disks it was called "HDD Regenerator". I googled it up and bought a copy ($39.95). I made the bootable CD and stuck it in the broken computer. In total it took 11.5 hours to check and repair the 80 gig hard drive. It reported it found and repaired 1,546 bad sectors. With that many bad sectors I'm surprised the drive didn't die sooner.

When it finished I booted up with no problem and the drive sounds really good. It was making a funky clack-clack sound and that's gone. The drive is completely silent and works like new. All my programs and data are there and I haven't found any errors so far.

It's a real relief to get all my data and programs back. I have the data backed up and could have recovered it, but some of the programs are older and it would be hard or impossible to find some of them again.

It's very nice to find software that really works. The process took a long time, but it was worth the wait.

lilhurricane
Crunchin' For Cures
Numquam oblita
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone

lilhurricane

Numquam oblita

Re: Disaster recovery - software that really works

That's good to hear

Losing data is never fun

Bobkd4dii
Premium Member
join:2004-12-31
Hollywood, FL

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With that many bad sectors, it sounds like the drive may be on it's last legs. You should back up anything important on the drive and consider getting a new drive. It can be a pain reinstalling everything but if the drive dies completely you may not have any other choice. Back up any pictures and other files to cds or dvds just to be sure.

Bob

stev32k
Premium Member
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL

stev32k

Premium Member

I believe the drive is 7 or 8 years old so yeah, it's time to replace it with something larger. But it sounds so good now I might get another 5 or 10 years use.

It there's anything I have plenty of it's backups. Learned that lesson the hard way. I have two external hard drives that backup data every day. I also have Acronis software that does a system backup to both external HDD once a week.
stev32k

stev32k

Premium Member

Well, I may have spoken too soon. Tried to back up the drive and Acronis reported that it could not complete because of bad sectors. I loaded the HDD software again just about an hour ago and so far it reports 35 bad sectors. So maybe it takes more than one pass to fix everything.

ironwalker
World Renowned
MVM
join:2001-08-31
Keansburg, NJ

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After running HDDRegenerator, are you useing windows check disk as well?

stev32k
Premium Member
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL

stev32k

Premium Member

said by ironwalker:

After running HDDRegenerator, are you useing windows check disk as well?
I just ran chkdsk and it found and corrected several problems. The second pass with HDD regenerator found 44 bad sectors and took about 50 minutes to complete. I'm now running my third pass and so far no more bad sectors.

ironwalker
World Renowned
MVM
join:2001-08-31
Keansburg, NJ

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Yeah, I was asking because I have a an older laptop I ran HDD regenerator on and it worked fine, but, never went back to re-check or even use checkdisk from windows which I know I should have done.

I like HDD Regenerator, been useing it for a few years now, when it was needed.

stev32k
Premium Member
join:2000-04-27
Mobile, AL

stev32k

Premium Member

The third pass with HDD regenerator did not find any bad sectors and took about 30 minutes. I did a complete computer backup on Acronis without any error messages and it is now verifying the backup which usually takes about an hour.

PeteC2
Got Mouse?
MVM
join:2002-01-20
Bristol, CT

1 recommendation

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Great that it worked for you, but absolutely, positively, get whatever data that is worth anything to you, backed up on another medium. That drive will not likely stay problem-free for long at all...there is always a slim chance that it will, but most likely not.

jabarnut
Light Years Away
Premium Member
join:2005-01-22
Galaxy M31

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Re: [Review] Disaster recovery - software that really works

said by PeteC2:

Great that it worked for you, but absolutely, positively, get whatever data that is worth anything to you, backed up on another medium. That drive will not likely stay problem-free for long at all...there is always a slim chance that it will, but most likely not.
I agree completely with PeteC2 See Profile.
I would consider myself lucky if I successfully retrieved all of my data from a drive like that.

The very next thing I would do is backup that data, and replace my drive....in a heartbeat.

Bad sectors are generally bad news, and I really don't believe they magically go away for very long....before more appear.
It's a pretty sure sign the drive is headed for that great (irretrievable), data bank in the sky.

Locutus65
Why bother?
Premium Member
join:2001-05-24
Houston, TX

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Instead of simply backing up why not make a ghost of it? That way you won't loose any of those favorite old programs

**DOH! Just seen your second post about cloning**

lilhurricane
Crunchin' For Cures
Numquam oblita
join:2003-01-11
Purple Zone

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(topic move) [Review] Disaster recovery - software that really w

Moderator Action
The post that was here, has been moved to a new topic .. »[Need Help] HDD Regenerator

ironwalker
World Renowned
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join:2001-08-31
Keansburg, NJ

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Re: Disaster recovery - software that really works

said by PeteC2:

Great that it worked for you, but absolutely, positively, get whatever data that is worth anything to you, backed up on another medium. That drive will not likely stay problem-free for long at all...there is always a slim chance that it will, but most likely not.
Agreed and forgot to mention I did purchase another HDD.
The steps I did were to get access again as to backup everything.

Great point PeteC2!
ironwalker

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Re: [Review] Disaster recovery - software that really works

Question;

Is it possible for the controller or driver errors to cause bad blocks or what would be read by HDDregenerator or check disk as bad blocks?