Free IPhone App Shows Why Hard Drives Fail – DriveSaver
Jul 28, 2009
Quote: The folks at DriveSavers, who deal with what the company's name implies, have come up with a truly helpful iPhone application. Not only does DriveSaver simulate real-life scenarios of hard drives failing as the user interacts with their inner-workings, but it also provides helpful advice on how to stay out of harm's way. Needless to point out, another huge plus is the price – completely free!
DriveSavers touts itself as the worldwide leader in data-recovery services. The company was recently pleased to introduce the first application developed by a professional data-recovery company for iPhone and iPod touch – DriveSaver. The app is described as a hard drive simulator that “educates” you about hard drives, the technologies surrounding them, the best ways to protect against crashing them, or to recover lost data.
I have an eSATA drive that has stopped functioning properly. I was trying unsuccessfully to install some completely unrelated software when I noticed that my eSATA drive was presenting differently. Under My Computer it now said that the drive was empty and there were four drives that appeared that said "Removable Disk (G)", "Removable Disk (H)", "Removable Disk (I)", and "Removable Disk (J)". When I select my eSATA drive, it says 'folder empty'. When I select one of the removable disk drives it says "Please insert a disk into removable disk (?). Whenever I reboot the computer with the eSATA drive disconnected, all five disk drives go away. I don't remember changing any settings or anything like that. One thing is odd that in device manager, the eSATA drive comes up as a SCSI drive. The device manager shows it as "WDC WD10EADS-65M2B1 SCSI Disk Device", but it is actually a "WDC WD500F032".
[System Summary] Item Value OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 Other OS Description Not Available OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name HOME
When I started my toshiba laptop this morning, it started up normally, but then it shut down. When I tried to start it up, the screen was blank, but the power light was on. After about an hour, it just shut down. I tried to start it again, and it worked fine. I then ran a diagnostic test and it said "HARDDISK DRIVE TEST FAIL" What can I do to fix this?
I've exprienced random numerous shutdowns on this laptop over the past two days.I ran a check disk and it still randomly shuts off on me.I think my hdd may be failing me now after all these years.I have no backup solutions such as an external right now, so I really can't backup my hdd and replace it.
I recently installed a game application which I believe may have contained viruses/malware.Later on I got a hard disk S.M.A.R.T. 301 error, and had to replace my disk... Just asking, but can applications cause the error I described above, and the hard drive to fail? Do they have anything to do with 301 error I got?
my friends laptop (which has different specs from that one, a 2,4ghz dual core, a 9M series GPU and 4gb RAM) started getting this SMART event ocurred thing like 3 years ago. So, being a dumba** back then, I thought formatting/reinstalling OS would solve the problem. So I did. Installed Windows 7 HP x86, used Driver Genius to install all drivers and SURPRISE the error was still there. So he kept the computer as it was, and surprisingly it survived all these years. Nothing happened really, he just used his laptop for his usual stuff with no problems whatsoever...weird.
But just recently he asked me to install Windows 7 HP x64, so he could use Sony Vegas Pro 12 (for some reason, Vegas 12 only exists for x64...and if there is a x86 I can't find it). So I did, and installed it...and then the problems started. The laptop is now crashing frequently, recovering from it in like 20 seconds every time. It works I guess, and you can copy around and mess with stuff on the computer, but after awhile it eventually crashes for 15-20 seconds. I have no idea why this is happening, and only then I thought of his SMART event error so I downloaded WD diagnostic tool, clicked the "view SMART data" button and everythin was right except for "re-allocated sector count" which was 117 at value, 117 at worst and 140 at threshold...could this last formatting fried his hard drive for good?
His warranty was gone even before he ever had the SMART event, he has the laptop for like 5 years now. Is it because of the x64 windows. Is there a logical reason for it not work properly on this laptop? Or was the excessive formatting that damaged the hard drive for good?
I have a Lenovo T500 laptop running Win 7 Pro x64. The hard drive started to fail (chkdsk showed bad sectors, S.M.A.R.T. test failed, etc.) so I got a replacement drive on warranty from Lenovo, put it in, reinstalled Win 7 and about 150 updates, restored my backed-up data, and reinstalled several applications.At some point in that tedious process, chkdsk started running on almost every reboot. I have run chkdsk /r both normally and from the Restore Environment.
make a dualboot comp by adding windows XP to a new partition. I created the new partition with 20gb. (From the 500 of my actual harddrive)But before I actually installed on that, I got distracted with a second harddrive that my dad got(for no reason). It had a full copy of Windows XP backed up on it from another computer, so I figured I would just use that for the dualboot. I plugged it in (wired the same way as my old harddrive, but different data slot), restarted, checked the harddrive in explorer - all the data was there / reading correctly / etc, and I used 'easyBCD' to add the new harddrive to the boot list.(Which, of course, crashes if I try to start it. I just wanted to see what it would do). For a reason I can't remember, I unplugged the second harddrive for a bit, started the computer on accident (I don't know if anything loaded before I shut it off), and then when I plugged it back in.Windows 7 would not launch. It goes to a DOS-like window, except it's just a flashing _ and it never does anything even after a few minutes. XP didn't work still.. so I decided to reinstall XP (as I couldn't tell which harddrive was which on the list, I unplugged the main harddrive while installing onto the new).. and when I did this.. it formatted and installed fully... then restarted.. then restarted.. and restarted.. and just kept restarting, never showing any thing past the manufacturer logo/BIOS load-button-message-thing. So, I then try to use my 3-disk Windows7Recovery disk(burned myself with a program apparently included by the manufacturer.) It installed fully, appearing to work.. but when I launched it, it said "Invalid Partition Table" and wouldn't boot past that. When I insert my driver installer disk, it gives me a basic DOS window thing. dir A: shows the files in the disk. dir B: for some reason shows the same. C: says "Error reading from drive C: DOS area: general failure". All other letter:'s just say "invalid drive". (I'm doing this with both harddrives in.) I attempted connecting the harddrives to an old computer, but it gave an error for both. (It detected the harddrives, but said it had an error reading from it. Windows Explorer asked me to format it... {i'm willing to format one of the drives if anybody thinks it will help, but the old harddrive has data I'd prefer not to lose.} ) Looking on google, I saw several problems that all have similar problems (less overdescripptive than I am though) but none of the fixes suggested worked for me. Also - as I have two different with different errors, I only need to make one of them work.)Also - my other available computer has a CD burner / floppy drive if either are required. I also have several USB's. The computer can boot from USB's and CD's (tested), and I could easily take the floppy thingy and connect it to the computer.also - this computer is probably still under warranty unless unscrewing the hard drive voids it. .. does that count as modification of the computer?
looking for alternative for itunes for a while.I have an ipod touch 8gb.Now been looking at this piece of software and wondering will it recognise my ipod touch or will I have to stick to itunes,I have music photos & video clips on it now. This is what I've been looking at but will it recognise the ipotouch?? Link..... Free iTunes alternative - Manage iPod iPhone without iTunes
I have this WD My Passport external portable harddrive which I have used for a couple of years. I was writing something to the drive one day when the USB connection seems to be somewhat loose and the drive disconnected momentarily and reconnected itself but the file I was trying to write ended prematurely...Now when I try to use the Seagate Harddrive test tool for windows and do a Short Generic test and the result failed.. I am fear it might have been caused by the disconnection and might eventually corrupt the entire drive... I try to run chkdsk but there aren't any errors detected it seems and files seems to be accessible as normal... Is there a way to fix the harddrive without losing data in the drive or confirm the drive is indeed failing?
Because windows gave me the blue screen of death yesterday, I had to reinstall, now it won't show my second laptop HD. During the install, I partitioned both drives, and it detected them, now it only shows my 1 HD with the windows directory in it. How do I solve this issue?
I recently built a new rig and I had a problem with one stick of memory. The other stick worked alright, but I've been getting random failures. Can bad memory be inconsistent? Right now, I can't start my OS up at all. It goes straight to the Windows Repair Launcher, which fails. When it gets there, I can either find a restore point or let it 'attempt to fix' for as long as I can endure. The restore point option results in 'instruction xxx failed. memory reference xxx failed.'This leads me to believe there is a problem with the memory. But, could it be the motherboard? I played a video game for hours last night, as well as surfed the web and ran other applications. Everything was fine, until I shut down. This isn't the first time this happened. Last time, I 'fixed' it by switching the 'good' memory stick with the bad. The bad resulted in getting the OS up, but lots of BSOD's
I am a salesman in a tech department of an office supply store, and I had a customer issue stump me today. She had an external drive with lots of files on it she wanted to access. I took the drive, plugged it into a Windows 7 machine (HP quad), and all of the files appeared, no problem. But, then I plugged the seagate drive into her new Toshiba laptop (also Win 7), and only some of the files appeared. Missing were all photo files, and many other types. I could not figure out why some were missing and some showing. I took the drive to a third computer with Win 7, an MSI all-in-one, and behold: files were missing. Now it seemed almost arbitrary. Could it be a matter of some Windows updates not yet installed? Why would the exact same drive work differently on three different computers in regard which files were seen and accessible? None were "hidden" files.
Since early August all my Security updates have been failing. It adds time to each boot up period as it goes through the updates and then at the end will say it's failed and is reverting all the changes. I have already done some research on this issue and ran "sfc/scannow" as well as "chkdsk/f/r." Both seemed to go through with no problems. After that I did a Windows update and 12 updates seemed to go through with no problem until the required reboot where we're back to the same issue of failing and reverting.
There is a unknown 'portable' device (F:/) on my computer which I dont recognize. I saw it when I was about to scan my computer with Norton and was about to select which drive I wanted to scan, if I show hidden files it also shows up under My Computer, but I cant access it.... What could cause this?
When I click into my IE8 Favorites, my HD folders are appearing there. I did some tests and if I try to delete them, my original HD files are deleted.
Maybe it happened when I tried do bring back my favorites from my backup files (ex Win XP), and I think that IE8 added all folders of my c: hard drive instead of only my favorites bookmarks.
I have a Western Digital 1TB Hard Drive (External).I use it 99.9% of the time on my Windows 7 64bit computer to store pictures/videos and backup important files.It was working fine until I plugged it into a MACINTRASH to backup files from that computer.It was a simple copy and paste from the MACINTRASH to the External HDD.After copying the files from the MACINTRASH, I plugged it back into my PC.My PC no longer recognizes my external HDD. I unplugged the power, plugged it back in.Same with the USB cable. Rebooted. Then my computer wouldn't reboot and windows did its automatic self repair. Nothing.I unplugged EVERYTHING and left it that way for about 30 minutes. I plugged EVERYTHING back to my computer and turned it on.
Windows booted up fine. I plugged in the external HDD and windows had that little icon telling me it was installing drivers. I was excited to think that it finally would recognize my external HDD.Of course, it didn't work. The HDD does not show up in my computer. It does show up in Device Manager and Disk ManagementDevice MangerUnder Disk Drives it lists it only as "WD" My other drives it has a nice long name like "WD 7500AAK External USB Device" Under properties it tells me Volume information for the disk cannot be found. (The very first time I did that prior to the reboot it said there was 0MB of space on it). It claims the device is working properly Disk ManagementAt first this said that I must initialize my disk. Now it doesn't even show up anymore. I have no idea what to do anymore.
I've spent most of the night searching and cannot seem to find an answer to my problem.I have a NAS set up with two 2TB Samsung Spinpoint hard drives. The hard drives in the NAS were partitioned to have 300GB in a RAID 1 and the remainder in a RAID 0. One seemed to be failing so I removed it hoping I could connect it externally to my laptop and recover the data. When I hooked it up to the laptop, it seemed to connect fine but did not show in My Computer. When I went to Computer Management - Disk Management, it shows the partitions as healthy (see image - Disk 1). However, when I right click on the partitions to assign a drive letter, the only options available are Delete Volume and Help. Same when right clicking the Disk 1, all that is available is Convert to Dynamic Disk, Properties,
in windows 7 it indicates the hard disk is full while there is no any doubtful data or other data in pc. hdd capacity is 250gb. which dosent contain any bulky data?.But why it shows harddisk is full
Is there a way that I can sync my Outlook contacts with my Iphone 4s so that the contact appears as displayed by outlook. Example: Mr. Richard Jones FILE AS: Rich Jones
This is the option to display in outlook and I would prefer to display on phone the same.
My portable hard drive is showing all the hidden files and folders on it (the ones prefixed with ".", but not the System Information folder, interestingly). I don't have this trouble with any other drives, or elsewhere on my computer, so it seems somehow to be associated with this specific drive.Of course I check to make sure that "Show hidden files and folders" is turned off.
I got a problem, my external hard drive (westen digital 1.0TB) isn't popping up my computer. I can see it in devices (USB to ATA/ATAPI bridge) but i can't acces it.What i've done already:Computer Management-> Disk Management. Than ive to initialize the disk, i can choose between MBR and GPT. In both cases i got the error: Data error (cyclic redundancy check). I can't chance any letter Downloaded different programs but non of them worked
I'm running Windows 7 64bit on a notebook. One 500GB drive partitioned to an OS drive and a data drive.I run AVAST (paid version), Malware Bytes and unhackme and no viruses/trojans/rootkits discovered - I'm a stickler for security.I noticed in Windows Exploring that both drives were getting low on available storage (both <8GB). I copied 30GB from the data drive and 10GB from the OS drive to an external drive and deleted the files from the notebook, using shift key/delete. I cleared the Recycle Bin; ran Disk error check (Scandisk) and defragged both drives.Folder Size & Treesize Pro both tell me I have 180GB & 100Gb respectively free; versus Windows Explorer 5Gb & 6GB.My available storage only increased by 800MB and 600MB respectively after deleting the files, so for a file removal of 40Gig I get back 1.4gig of HD space.I've checked pagefile.sys and hiberfil.sys [8GB between them] and they haven't altered recently.Ran CCleaner's Registry cleaner - no difference.I rang the OS support for my Notebook Manufacturer and spent 1/2 a day trying different things including HD tune. They couldn't figure it out but suggested Utorrent may be grabbing HDD space so I uninstalled it.... no difference.
i tried to used pc disk clone x to clone my win7 to a smaller hard drive.now for some reason My Computer shows as 381 gig size instead of 682 gighere is a pic tried to make the partition a couple megs smaller to make it realize the actual size and its not working.
I have a 500gb seagate external hard drive, and already used 240gb space. It worked fine until yesterday suddenly i could not access the files at all. I checked disk management, and it showed that my external drive became RAW drive. I tried to do chkdsk that I learned from one of the forum, and then it somehow has fixed the RAW drive back to FAT32. However I still cannot see any of my files. I opened command prompt, and typed in dir /a and it said 0 files 0 bytes, 4 DIR 288,714, 293, 248 bytes free. How can I bring my files back?? I don't want to lose my files.
My laptop is Acer with Windows 7 home premium 64 bit OS. It contain only 1 single partition disk that is c drive only.Recently, i accidentally convert the c drive which contain OS into dynamic disk.After i restart the laptop, it shows the following: BootMgr is missing Please press Alt, Ctrl +del to restart Now, i not able to enter the window. I am so worry because my important data is kept inside the hard disk, and i still not yet do any back up copy on it.I searching on this forum and learnt that i need a window 7 installation disk to repair it, but my problem is the computer dealer not give me any windows 7 installation disk when i baught this laptop as their said all the driver and windows program already kept in side the harddisk.I tried to remove the laptop hardisk which is a 500GB toshiba SATA hardisk. Then, i use the other laptop with Windows XP professional with the intention to copy yhe file inside the toshiba hard disk.However, after plugged in the hard disk to the other laptop, under the disk management, it shows that the toshiba disk as : dynamic disk, unreadable.i having problem to backup the data inside the toshiba hard disk.....
i built me a gaming computer with windows 7, its up and running. I have a old Dell with Windows Xp that i have had for 5 years. I want to put that hard drive in my new computer. is this possible? will there be any conflicts? I want to make it so maybe in bios i can select witch OS to boot up. Or maybe it defaults to Win7 and i can switch to WinXp whenever i wanted.
I've recently purchased a PC with 1 64GB SSD and 1TB HD. Contrary to instructions the seller uploaded everything onto the SSD at C: and not just the OS. He now says I should use a disk partitioner to transfer the files. Also to reset my BIOS.
I currently have a dual boot of Windows Vista Ultimate on one hard drive and Windows 7 RC1 on the other and was planning on
upgrading to Windows 7 ultimate. I have could either upgrade my Vista hard drive which would be easy or I could upgrade the release candidate Windows 7 which is a fresh install on a new drive. Which should I put Windows 7 on?
