[Picky]

I have a hard drive that I can read with my easy IDE conector on another PC but when I try to copy the contents it will copy olny so much and and start a grinding noice and give me a "invalid MS-Dos function. It is running XP Home. I figure if I can see everything I should be able to copy it. Does anyone have any ideas. I need to recover allot of pictures. Bruce

[Advertisements]

Disks and grinding noise are a not a good sign. Typically that means something is seriously wrong. If you need to get the data off, you might need to use a data recovery service, which is expensive. There is also programs which might help, such as I think Spinrite, but your problem sounds like it could be a head crash. Some data will be readable, but there most likely is a bad spot on the disk where the heads touched down.

[Kemasa]

Disks and grinding noise are a not a good sign. Typically that means something is seriously wrong. If you need to get the data off, you might need to use a data recovery service, which is expensive. There is also programs which might help, such as I think Spinrite, but your problem sounds like it could be a head crash. Some data will be readable, but there most likely is a bad spot on the disk where the heads touched down.

[Picky]

I agree with you. Does a data recovery outfit take th platters out to read one that is having a spin problem?

[Kemasa]

That is one of the ways to read the data.

[Picky]

I have managed to save 75 % of the pictures but some files are in the area that is bad and that is where the drive will stall and make a noise like the arm is going back and forth. I don't think any data recovery software will work if the mechanism is not working right at different sectors.

[Kemasa]

There is a lot that a service can do, but it comes at a price. It all depends on how much the data is worth to you. A program might be able to make it past that point and get more data, but it might not get anymore.

[Picky]

I have cooled the drive down in the freezer for a bit and at intervals I was able to retrieve 90% of the data. I believe the rest is in a section that is beyond repair. e can live with the 9o% recovery. This is a friends drive and as much as I preach backup your data it falls upon deaf ears. Thanks For the help. Bruce