Re: Missing Kernel or corrupted
Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:38 pm
Okay cae2100,
I will agree that Spinrite isn't much good when there is actual physical damage to the hard drive.
Though it can be hard to tell the state of a hard drive.
I've not used BartPE, but I've used linux based startup disks like Noppix,
That had some simple tools for Hard Drive testing.
By booting off the Noppix CD I could then run testing on the hard drive to see
how bad it was.
In most cases if the files were intact, I'd back them up to an external Hard Drive.
Then try re-formating the damaged Hard Drive.
If the re-formating went fairly smoothly,
I'd reinstall the Operating System, and reload the files from the backup Hard Drive.
And it would operate without any problems.
This was the best case scenario.
But more often then not, this was only a temporary fix.
On bad Hard Drives that I had run Spinrite several times.
Spinrite keeps a log of the Hard Drives condition with each scan.
Thus, I could see how the bad area's on the hard drive's disk platters were, and if they were only getting worse over time.
Then went to the customer with the bad news.
If they were lucky, the Hard Drive was still under warranty,
and could be replaced at little to no charge.
Otherwise, plunking down a few hundred dollars for a new Hard Drive.
I would of given up on the Hard Drive by the 3rd day.
Spinrite is good....
But mainly for checking and repairing minor hard drive problems.
If I had the drive to work on.
(1st) Back off the contents to a backup Hard Drive.
(2nd) Then I'd of tried to reformat it first, just to see if it would take the reformating, if it could...
(3rd) Reinstall the OS, and do several boot ups.
Just to see if the boot sector was alright.
If it passed this test, then there's a good chance it will be okay.
(4th) Reload the backed up files.
Signed: Janitor Tzap
I will agree that Spinrite isn't much good when there is actual physical damage to the hard drive.
Though it can be hard to tell the state of a hard drive.
I've not used BartPE, but I've used linux based startup disks like Noppix,
That had some simple tools for Hard Drive testing.
By booting off the Noppix CD I could then run testing on the hard drive to see
how bad it was.
In most cases if the files were intact, I'd back them up to an external Hard Drive.
Then try re-formating the damaged Hard Drive.
If the re-formating went fairly smoothly,
I'd reinstall the Operating System, and reload the files from the backup Hard Drive.
And it would operate without any problems.
This was the best case scenario.
But more often then not, this was only a temporary fix.
On bad Hard Drives that I had run Spinrite several times.
Spinrite keeps a log of the Hard Drives condition with each scan.
Thus, I could see how the bad area's on the hard drive's disk platters were, and if they were only getting worse over time.
Then went to the customer with the bad news.
If they were lucky, the Hard Drive was still under warranty,
and could be replaced at little to no charge.
Otherwise, plunking down a few hundred dollars for a new Hard Drive.
3 months! Seriously?CeaSaR wrote:That's why I asked if "he" dropped the computer - son #1 did just that and he ran SpinRite 6.0
for almost 3 months on the laptop and got to 2% before someone accidentally popped the plug
out of the machine, shutting it off. In this case, something happened to the boot sector when
the compy literally crashed. BartPE would have been the better option as the files could be accessed
via "slaving" or "mounting" the drive.
CeaSaR
I would of given up on the Hard Drive by the 3rd day.
Spinrite is good....
But mainly for checking and repairing minor hard drive problems.
If I had the drive to work on.
(1st) Back off the contents to a backup Hard Drive.
(2nd) Then I'd of tried to reformat it first, just to see if it would take the reformating, if it could...
(3rd) Reinstall the OS, and do several boot ups.
Just to see if the boot sector was alright.
If it passed this test, then there's a good chance it will be okay.
(4th) Reload the backed up files.
Signed: Janitor Tzap