Hard Drive Crash - Please Don't Post Anything Important Yet

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

You can post now, but I'm trying to get the June data back. I had a hard drive crash on the data base server. On top of that, I was just about to implement mirrored drives! Wifey just came home with two matched drives for that project, now the db server drive crashes! SOB.

I had to build a new system yesterday, and implement it. I restored one backup but it was whacked. This backup is from a month ago. Please be patient, I will try my darnest to get the June data back before I give up. Give me another day.

For now, you can post, but the data you post today may be lost, as I'm trying to use a different backup that has the June 2005 data.

[632 Regal]

all data is bumped into pages gone by anyways Ed, dont sweat it. Just do what you have to do and dont bother doing extra work. I appreciate all you do.

[brodee]

If you don't have luck getting the drive back try freezing it. Put it inside a ziplock, use a small straw to suck out as much air as possible, then put it in another ziplock and do the same. Put it in the freezer over night and let it get good and cold. Take it out, hook it up and get the stuff off as fast as possible.

I've done this with a few bad drives and had it worked. Had one in the freezer for 4 days to get it good and cold. You usually only get one chance once the data starts coming off. Tried to re-freeze a couple and didn't work.

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

Nice advise. Now I have to rebuild yet another Linux system to hook up the drive to as a secondary drive to see if I can get at it's file system. The original drive will not boot anymore.

[brodee]

I also took the inards out of an external USB drive. That way I can take a drive and just plug it up to the cables and have it on a system wihtout a reboot.

[SharkmanBMW]

keep up the good work Ed, we are with you all the way.

if we lose it, we lose it!

Do your best!

[genphreak]

They weren't Fujitsu IDE drives were they? Some IBMs were like that too... if so the freeze and run needs to be done very carefully.... ie with a cold air conditioner blowing on the HDD controller chip... tho with the Fujitsu's most of the controllers are cactus 100%.

Also by way of the class action (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/31/fujitsu_faces_lawsuits_over_hdd/) you could recover up to $1100 USD for your troubles (I think)...

These days you can get all sorts of helpful things like USB-IDE cables and removable SATA drives, USB drives etc. If it were me I'd probably want to sit the drive into one such external box and connect it to a Linux Laptop with USB removable drive support enabled and tested- then its just a matter of mounting the drive and dumping data...

:) GP .... best of luck Ed! and good on ya for trying many wouldn't, but I'd guess there's a lot of effort in a few of those 'lost' posts... some of which would be mine... so thanks for caring about it liek I said, ur doing very, very good work.

[pundit]

They weren't Fujitsu IDE drives were they? Some IBMs were like that too...
Nearly all manufacturers have produced an absolute dog of a drive at one point or another. I too was a victim of the Hungarian manufactured IBM Deathstar 75GXP. (No offence meant to any Hungarians out there! :) ) These drives had a very high failure rate within 12 months... unless they were never taken out of the box and actually used in a computer!

They were famous for what became known as the "click, scrape, scrape, scrape" of death shortly before they developed massive read errors rapidly followed by total failure. What made it even worse was these drives were very highly regarded in nearly every review for their speed... too bad they were about the most unreliable drives ever manufactured. Several class action lawsuits (http://www.sheller.com/PDF/2004.01.09_Maximum_P1.pdf) followed. IBM simply denied there was even a problem claiming the failure rate was no higher than the 'norm'. (I say Norm was terminal).

Of interest is IBM no longer 'officially' manufacture hard drives anymore... well not under their own name. After the Deathstar debacle no PC manufacturer would touch an IBM hard drive. So then, anyone for a Hitachi Deskstar drive? Funny they look a lot like the IBM DeskStars don't they? ;)

[genphreak]

Of interest is IBM no longer 'officially' manufacture hard drives anymore... well not under their own name. After the Deathstar debacle no PC manufacturer would touch an IBM hard drive. So then, anyone for a Hitachi Deskstar drive? Funny they look a lot like the IBM DeskStars don't they? ;) Yep they sold to Hitachi what they messed up (after buying it from Quantum in the first place)... just like the way they sold the G4 and PowerPC proicessor division to Samsung, who now can't even sell these warez to Steve Jobs... :D

I guess IBM aren't dumb, they just go quiet- which is exactly what Fujitsu did re theirs... (their share price was hammered but it would have been worse otherwise, as it is they dumped their entire 3.5" HDD range and now only make SCSI and 2.5" drives, avoiding looking after current customers and hence any fallout by selling to different markets).

I had 10 of those drives and have never, ever had such a hard time with a company over a faulty product. They were deceptive to the extreme in their efforts to avoid covering them. Some of their customers almost went bust over it as they (Fujitsu) only helped OEM customers deal with end-user problems... I wonder what Ed uses?

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

I'll have to check what the crapped out one was. Right now I'm at work. I took an order for a new 5 Series. kewl

I want to at least get the new classified ads and repair shop boards back from prior to the crash.

[Brian C.]

....in my Department's Forensic Data Recovery Unit, so if you need any ideas about how to progress, let me know and I can give them a call. They do all sorts of cooking and freezing and so forth.

Me personally, I'm still trying to figure out how to format my 5 1/4" floppys. ;)

Brian C.

[632 Regal]

does this mean Winfred has to send his shirt back?

[Kalevera]

does this mean Winfred has to send his shirt back?
Hahaha!!!

[winfred]

i preferr the wax drum or wire recorder :D


Me personally, I'm still trying to figure out how to format my 5 1/4" floppys. ;)

Brian C.

[Gene in NC]

Thought '89 525, and all modern cars, was supposed to cut out AC compressor on low vacuum ie acceleration.

If that's not true, don't try to sell your M20 in AC season. That thing is a real power hog. Is there a simple module for control or is that an ecu function?

[Gene in NC]

Engine oil weight. 20w50 vs "dry" start up wear??? Advice to run lighter weights to minimize start up wear seems contrary to need to use lower weights in very cold conditions because of "drag" of heavier weight oil in the engine.

PO for 173k '89 5255s was running something that burned a quart per 750 miles. Switched to Shell 20/50 and got 29.4 mpg with 1/4 quart per 1000 mi in trips that included Raleigh, NC to Wilmington and Raleigh to eastern W Va - Harpers Ferry.

[billb]

i preferr the wax drum or wire recorder :D

I'm sitting here enjoying a Turbodog at the moment (#2 for the evening, #3 may be forthcoming) as I prepare for my personal vacation this weekend (Driver's school at VIR). The wife, kid, and dog are heading to the mountains, where I'll hopefully catch up to them Sunday evening if I don't bend anything at the track...and I'll be off the radar all next week if anyone's looking for me.

Abita's helpin' soothe my nerves...the local Super Target had it on sale for $5.99/6 pack...gotta like that.

[genphreak]

That's the way- if all else fails... Encase (http://www.guidancesoftware.com/products/ef_index.asp) a favourite forensic tool- can recover anything... but its not super simple.... :) GP

[Bimmer Nut Ed]

I give up, the data is gone. I wanted to at least get the "Swap meet" data and the "recommended shops" data back.

[DanH]

:( And 40 of my most brilliant posts ever... :p


I give up, the data is gone. I wanted to at least get the "Swap meet" data and the "recommended shops" data back.

[632 Regal]

make a new thread asking for the links again. I would but sometimes my posts dont go too far...lol

[genphreak]

I give up, the data is gone. I wanted to at least get the "Swap meet" data and the "recommended shops" data back. Hi Ed, if you want some help you can send me the drive (assuming its on a separate disk), tell me what files you use, I'll see what I can do- but those Forensic boys would be the best bet and they'd be closer to you. Brian C's forensic guys sound good- they usually know a lot about filesystems so even if it isn't over-written/deleted yet they have great ways to find old data... they do it all the time. More than happy to help :) GP