Access to a failing HDD: Possible?

[88JeepXJ]

So for the last month my 6 month old 150gb WD SATA HDD has appearantly been the cause of my slow computer. I finally was unable to boot into XP last week and had to reformat the boot partition (I have 40gb for this and 110gb for storage). Well that was great for a couple days but XP went currupt again. This time it is fatal. I could not reload XP or any other OS for that matter. I was just hoping to get something working so I could get all my files off the storage partition. I have a crazy amount of music and personal photos that aren't well backed up and I really don't want to lose them all.

I got out an old PATA drive and installed XP. I was hoping to gain access to the SATA drive through windows. I can get XP to access and recognise the drive, but it is painfully slow (like 5 minutes before it will even show a drive), and when I try to get into it...no dice.

So I'm hoping someone can help me get all my files before the drive is thrown out. Is there a software that can read and copy from a dying SATA drive? Do you have any other suggestions?

Any help is apprieciated. Thank you!

 

[RebateMonger]

Try GetDataBack.
It's got lots of supporters and will work around disk errors and recover stuff the best it can. It may take a while. I suggest buying the $80 full recovery license to start with, so that you don't have to scan the failing drive twice. The drive may not last that long.

As you now realize, at the first sign of drive problems, GET THE DATA COPIED SOMEWHERE ELSE. Don't try to "fix" anything. Don't run any drive tests. Just stream the data to another drive where it'll be safe.

 

[bmwme]

Thank you, I'll look into that, but I have good news. I was able to grab the most important files last night by just being patient. I don't have enough space on the PATA drive to get all my music, and I might lose that but at least I have my digi pics, emails, etc. that are important to me.

I was incorrect, it is a Samsung drive. Does anyone know how they are with warrantying OEM drives?

 

[montag451]

Contact Samsung and find out.