Best way to salvage files from dying drive?

Chittle

My external hard drive is on its last legs these days. It only boots up half the time and when it does it takes an age to move from folder to folder (also getting a few I/O errors in certain folders).

So what would be the best way to grab a few files before it gives out completely? I recently purchased a laptop so have ample space to just copy everything over, but I'm not sure whether the drive will be up to copying ~200 gigs from it. The other option is to burn the files onto DVDs (might take a while!).

So I guess I'm asking which method would be easiest on the drive, or is there even any difference at all?

youcancallmeal

This could be a problem with memory? Have you ran manufacturers diagnostics on your hard drive? Anyway if it was me I would start with the most important files and do it in small batches, preferably onto a USB stick which may speed things up. Burning data to DVD's seems like a bad idea, it will probably just keep failing and you will end up with a load of coasters.

Chittle

youcancallme>al wrote: »

This could be a problem with memory? Have you ran manufacturers diagnostics on your hard drive? Anyway if it was me I would start with the most important files and do it in small batches, preferably onto a USB stick which may speed things up. Burning data to DVD's seems like a bad idea, it will probably just keep failing and you will end up with a load of coasters.

I ran Western Digital's diagnostic tool on it and was met with a cable error message. I have an identical HDD (that works fine) so I also tried the diagnostic tool on that and received the same message (I tried each set of cables too).

Yea, I think I'll go the USB route. I don't have anything vital on it so it would be more of an annoyance to lose everything more than anything.

Cheers for the reply.

Viper_JB

Try this, http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html to get a bit of extra read time, bit extreme but won't make things any worse

ricman

COPY the most important files first,eg family photos, mp3s .SEE www.pcinspector.de for a free recovery program.Leave the larger files ie 300meg plus files til last. WRITE A LIST OF ALL files after copying them.so you dont waste time copying twice.

ricman

I found on an old hd, i could only copy certain files thru dos prompt window, eg copy song.mp3 ,google dos copy command.Epecially files with long filenames.or use a dos graphical shell program like total commander .I dont think theres any point in testing the hd ,after copyings finished format the drive in ntfs format slow format mode.DO NOT use it for backing up important files.AT SOME point every hd dies ,probably after 4 years if you are lucky.

Cuddlesworth

Use a program like Teracopy as well. It will Crc check the files and let you queue up files without trashing the hard-drive from 20 different locations.