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Recently, one of my Western Digital Hard Drives crashed (i think it might be about 7 to 10 years old). I used it as my Primary Storage Drive- stored EVERYTHING on it. Checkdisk unsuccessfully tried to check the drive for errors. On reboot, neither S.M.A.R.T. nor Windows could find the drive. Both the BIOS and Windows have since found the drive. However, Windows now claims it is an "unformatted" drive. The data loss is probably the result of a Logical Corruption of the boot sectors, due to a Physical problem with the hard drive itself- i.e., a Head Crash or Actuator Failure, etc. Further investigation will have to be done to determine the exact cause....


Any tips are welcome. I believe i will have to take it to a data recovery estabilishment... $$$$$

Let me check some thing might be able fix the boot on it.

And when they DO restore the files, they will root through your drive trying to find your (non)imaginary stash of porn!

Procedure to remove Vista bootloader
You will need a Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional CD to be able to do this.

Check that the BIOS is set so you can boot off your CD\DVD-ROM drive and put in the Windows XP CD. Restart your computer so it will boot from it.

When it comes up with text: Boot from CD.... press ENTER or any other key to boot from your Windows XP CD. It should now start scanning your hardware.

When it comes up with the blue screen, press R for Recovery Console.

It will come up with a black screen with white writing. Give it a moment to load the default US keyboard. If you are using a different type press Enter and follow the instructions.

You may have to type your Administrator Password to be able to use the Recovery Console; if prompted please do or you will not be able to continue.

Now you should be at a prompt where you should be able to type. Type in the following commands:

1. type FIXMBR and press enter
2. Press Y if asked

(fixmbr means: fix masterboot record)

3. next type: FIXBOOT and press enter
4. Press Y if asked.
5. When you can continue, restart your computer
6. Remember to take the Windows XP CD out of your drive and it should be fixed.

If that fails you could try formating it and see if you can get it to boot IF it does try a undelete program to recover as much as possible.

I too have a failing Western Digital hard drive, a WDC WD1200BB-53CAA1 (120.0GB).

It's been rattling for more than a week. I disassembled and reassembled the whole system. Nothing identifiable as loose.

So I downloaded and ran SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

The online hard drive diagnostics in SpeedFan showed rapidly worsening spin-up time, offline seek performance, and now seek error rate with each passing day.

So I'm shutting this system down. I've ordered a new 320 GB Western Digital Caviar for a replacement.

I'll be offline for a while. If I am online, it'll be on Cormac's computer.

Of course the drive could not wait like 6 more month huh...

Rattling is a odd sound for a HDD now if you said clicking i would of said it's either failing it it's to hot.

You could call it clicking. The sound is similar to that of a drive with the head doing a lot of seeking, as if the drive were thrashing or a bearing was going bad. Only the sound is constant instead of intermittent.

SpeedFan reports hard drive temperatures, but this model of drive is too old to provide such reports. The data I do have lead me to conclude that the drive is about to fail. So no more starting up my gaming system until I have the new drive installed and ready to be cloned with the image from the old hard drive.

I'm typing on my wife's laptop at the moment. I intend to set up Cormac's computer with my settings and use it for the meantime. Cormac has been distracted with other things besides ArmA lately.

Well for future reference keep a HDD around 23c-43c MAX. As you know to high can course HDD issue or even fail but to low can too.

Been thinking of skipping Arma 2 just lately for a few weeks and respraying\rebuilding my system. A lots change since these 2 pics . Getting the twitch again..