Musings on dead HDDs

[Kevin M]

So, as I sit here reformatting my old laptop drive, because the zero sector or whatever it's called failed, I had a thought. Why don't computers just backup the important sector in 2 or 3 other places on a given drive? It would take a totally insignificant percentage of the available storage size on current massive hard drives, and it sure would be handy if instead of the dreaded lost hard drive, your computer would jsut tell you "hey, your boot sector went dead. I'm running on the backup one now, but in the meantime you should back this crap up and get another drive in here."

Am I really the first one to think of this, or is there some obvious reason that I missed as to why it wouldn't work? Obviously it wouldn't help you if your drive physically crashes, but it eliminates one major source of isues with data, right?

[Nick Koan]

I think you should patent the idea, then call Maxtor, Western Digital, Hitachi and Seagate, tell them to fire all their engineers and ask for a job.

[100_Percent_Juice]

I recently received an email talking about a virus going around in an email called "invitation" or something like that, which destroys the zero sector. You didnt get that virus did you? I dont know if you can save it once the virus destroys it.

[Kevin M]

I did get the warning email. I imagine that the email warning about the virus is the method of transmission for it. I could be wrong though, because the person who sent it to my grandparents (who know nothing about the dangers of forwarding emails for the 7th time) didn't forward it, but created a fresh email to his address book with nothing but some plain text.

Anyway, my laptop is nearly 4 years old and if it was a car, it'd have about 450,000 miles on it. I'm certainly not complaining about the longevity of the drive.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by BAN SUVS

So, as I sit here reformatting my old laptop drive, because the zero sector or whatever it's called failed, I had a thought. Why don't computers just backup the important sector in 2 or 3 other places on a given drive? It would take a totally insignificant percentage of the available storage size on current massive hard drives, and it sure would be handy if instead of the dreaded lost hard drive, your computer would jsut tell you "hey, your boot sector went dead. I'm running on the backup one now, but in the meantime you should back this crap up and get another drive in here."

Am I really the first one to think of this, or is there some obvious reason that I missed as to why it wouldn't work? Obviously it wouldn't help you if your drive physically crashes, but it eliminates one major source of isues with data, right?

Answer me this: if the zero sector (aka the MBR "master boot record") is moved or backed up, how does the computer know where it is when it's starting? I guess you could write that info in the 0th sector and look it up during boot... oh wait, now you have the same problem.

I know, you could have a floppy disk or something that you back up the MBR on and if the drive takes an MBR dump, restore it off the bootable floppy. Oh wait, that was a feature on the original Norton Utilities, circa DOS 3.1.

[Dean]

It's not the MBR that was borked, that can usually be fixed fairly easily. You had problems with your Master File Table which there are two of and when a disk starts going bad, often it can take out both at the same time. The tool I used actually scans the disk for file records, and it should have pulled up some usable single block files if not a whole lot more. from what I spot checked, there was no usable data recovered.

IMHO, this means one of two things...

1. The drive is dying and even if you do get it reformatted, I wouldn't trust it as far as I can move it with my telekenetic powers... or

2. Something borked your drive but good, overwriting MBR, MFT, etc. so one of the best pieces of recovery SW couldn't find anything useful...

Ultimately, all HDs fail and IMHO, anyone that relies on a single spindle for their data with no other form of backup storage and a scheduled / planned backup strategy is playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun.

[Kevin M]

It's amusing that you guys are using info to explain why I don't know what I'm talking about that's more complicated than what I obviously didn't understand in the first place.

[Dean]

OK... You HD is a shop manual for a car. MBR = the cover that tells you what brand/year/model it is. MFT is the table of contents, and index wrapped into one.

Now drill a hole through the spot where the page numbers are, cut the binding off, throw away the cover, table of contents, and index, shuffle the remaining pages into a big loose pile, light them on fire and then put them out by soaking them in bleach. Oh, and put on some inch thick carnival glasses that turn things upside down, backwards and blurred, have both your arms and hands broken and then reversed on your body and then try finding what you are looking for and reading it...

That's what it's like...

Anybody that trusts a mechanical device spinning at thousands of RPMs for months/years on end with tiny electromagnets on the end of featherlight arms to reliably store many billions of ones and zeros in the space of an index card with no maintenance and without failure over time is just plain silly.

[Double Phister]

Originally Posted by Dean

The drive is dying and even if you do get it reformatted, I wouldn't trust it as far as I can move it with my telekenetic powers.

Troof. I used to have my PCs packed with whatever used HDs I could get my hands on. It's never worth it.

[cody]

What are the best data recovery programs (for future reference)?

[Dean]

Originally Posted by cody

What are the best data recovery programs (for future reference)?

R-Studio has historically been one of the best, and what I own/use.

[cody]

That's actually the one I've used before, when I accidentally deleted a RAID array at work. Worked great.

[sperry]

Usually if you accidentally delete a RAID array at work, the only utility you're looking for is www.careerbuilder.com.

[cody]

Yah, unless noone finds out.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by cody

Yah, unless noone finds out.

OOOOOOOOOO!!! (I'm telling!)

[cody]

Actually, I always tell my boss when I F up...I'm honest to a fault. But it's always nice to premise the "I totally F'd up" with "Everything is cool now, I fixed it".

[Double Phister]

spinrite