Dear friends,
I need some serious help here.
My PC had 2 Hard Disks one of them getting bad sector and finally it got conked off today morning.In that HD only as my OS was loaded I had to boot the machine through CD Rom and reinstall XP in the other HD as this bad sector HD is no more detectable by the PC nor the BIOS.
Can anyone please suggest me as how I can retrieve that HD as i have some important data stored there which i wish to take a backup.Is there any way by which the bad sector HD can get detected so that I can copy my files from there?Please suggest.

Recommended Answers

All 9 Replies

Hi Jayants, as far as i know if the HD cannot be detected by the BIOS anymore then it would be the end of the way..if the HD has started to get some bad sectors then much better to make it a habit to back-up your data using other storage devices such as CD-Rom..

Hi cguan,
Yes I also feel so but still looking for any option if available by which the HARD DISK data can get retrieved if possible.Should I try linking that HD to some other PC and check whether the same gets detected or not?

Hi cguan,
Yes I also feel so but still looking for any option if available by which the HARD DISK data can get retrieved if possible.Should I try linking that HD to some other PC and check whether the same gets detected or not?

Hello,yes you could try hooking it to another machine,only way to find out if it will see you drive is to troubleshoot and put it in the other computer .having said that ,its been my experience that if your computer will not see it neither will the other computer .

The first thing I would do is to put the disk into an enclosure and connect it to another PC via USB.

It's 50/50 but definitely worth a try.

u can use the HDD in the same machine with a utillity program that can repair bad sector. scandisk can do this or norton utilities. if u can repair the BOOT sector (head sector) the bios will read it. then you can attach to another computer and get your files.

u can use the HDD in the same machine with a utillity program that can repair bad sector. scandisk can do this or norton utilities. if u can repair the BOOT sector (head sector) the bios will read it. then you can attach to another computer and get your files.

i have trown away quite a few harddrive that computers would no longer see,nothing showes in mycomputer when connected via usb device,win98 fdisk detected no harddrive winxp cd detected no harddrive to run scandis/chkdsk , ,so are you saying i could have still use some type of utility to fix them

yes you can, it can be a very long process but if your dat is workth it you will do it, and it teach a very valuable lesson.....ALWAYS BACK UP norton disk doctor can reset bad sectors

yes you can, it can be a very long process but if your dat is workth it you will do it, and it teach a very valuable lesson.....ALWAYS BACK UP norton disk doctor can reset bad sectors

Thank you ,so eventhow nothing else i have used can detect the drive, norton disk doctor will .great to know ,i must acquire this program.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.