Computer program for fixing damaged hard drives - tech support wanted

HDD Regenerator is done.

Here are the results.

It found 3 delays.

I don't know if I ran the program correctly, so I don't know if the delays got fixed or not.

I am now copying data that is on the bad hard drive to a good hard drive.

I tried SpinRite, but it doesn't recognize drives attached via USB, so I couldn't run it.

I'll run HDD Regenerator again later (the right way), and then I think I'll put my mom's hard drive back in her laptop and hope I don't run into more trouble.

Okay, I did things out of order.

I should have copied the data first, then run HDD Regenerator.

I didn't have any negative consequences, but maybe I'll remember for next time.

Alright then, I don’t mean to sound like an a**hole but, if you already planned on doing what you were going to do. Why ask for help? It’s a rhetorical question really. Hope you can get what you need from you drive.

¯\

Re-read the OP and you'll see that I was asking for a specific type of help.

Robin Dobbie was helpful, and I am still open to help, especially that type of help.

I re-ran HDD Regenerator.

I guess I ran it correctly the first time.

This time it found 1 delay instead of 3.

When you get warnings about driver failure in BIOS etc. and / or critical SMART values. Then take copy of the driver asap, to save the files that can be saved, and replace it with a new one. Re-formating and reinstall the system could possible help, though I would never take that chance with a HDD that had this kind of problem. An external backup HDD using good backup routines is absolute essential.

One of old but still under active development is HDAT2. It can scan, repair and isolate bad sectors of HDD.
Also one time ago one of my HDD fail with SMART failure error but still working without problem for months. Yes I backup my files.

HDAT2 looks promising.

Do you know if it will work on a hard drive attached via USB?

Clone the drive. Then leave it alone.
Always work from the copy.
After you have saved your data you might try to revive the HD.
It is often a damaged bootsector, or the index sectors.

I don't know what's wrong with the hard drive, but I just ordered a solid state drive to replace it.

I'm still having problems with it, and SSDs are, of course, awesome.

My mom's laptop is kinda old, but I know it'll be good enough for her with a very nice SSD.

...

By the way, my mom's laptop has worked great for years until just recently.

Sure the hard drive was slow as molasses, but I'll be fixing that with a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD.

(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0781Z7Y3S)

So this hard drive failure may be a blessing in disguise.

My mom didn't want me opening up her laptop for the longest time, but since I thought I had to get the defective drive out, I might as well do the one simple upgrade that everyone (in my opinion) should do.

Don’t forget that at least with spinny-disks, you’ll know when they start circling the drain. They’ll act funny, slow down from retrying over’n’over, make ugly noises, throw errors, etc.

With SSDs, they just up’n’die with zero notice, like someone pulled the plug.

Don’t laff.

When the ’puter center at school would toss old terminals when “upgrading”, I’d grab 1 or 2 nice ones, like ADM-11s. Problem is, they were filthy, inside and out.

I’d literally disassemble them down to the boards, harnesses, cases, etc., and soak’n’scrub them like doing the dishes.

Ever see a CRT bobbing up’n’down in a utility sink filled with sudsy water? And yeah, I’d take a brush (well, stiff paintbrush, actually) to boards exactly like in the pic. Keyboards, disassembled down to the keycaps, springs, you name it.

All of it thoroughly dried and reassembled, they worked perfectly!

I read the OP and I comprehend fairly well for my age. sp5it came back to you almost immediately with a warning and a first step.

Hope it all works out and you can get your moms computer back up and running. I know the feeling of wanting to get things done for family. I get computers and electronics dropped off at my house weekly from family wanting free work. :slight_smile: And we do it because we love them.

Just for the anecdote, yes, putting a HDD in the freezer (in a plastic ziplock bag) can work in some special cases (when the HDD is overheating too quickly and starts being unresponsive). I had an HDD do that and managed to backup the data.

Now, in case of damaged sectors, not sure it would help!

A great tool to recover files is PhotoRec (and it’s Free Software)

You can also try these free tools:

http://www.pcinspector.de/CloneMaxx/info.htm?language=1

Tap water is actually pretty “clean” once left to air-dry. Ain’t like washing it in seawater or anything…

Even if some got trapped in little nooks’n’crannies, heat from the beastie in operation would help evaporate what’s left.

I never worried about it, not even soaking the yoke (big open coils) from around the CRT’s neck. Washed thoroughly, rinsed thoroughly, then left to air-dry a coupla days before reassembly, there’d be very little water left to cause any mischief.

And even electrolytics were end-sealed with rubber caps, so ain’t like anything would get ruined by water.

I did so many terminals and things, that all worked without any problems after cleaning, so I was confident that it was safe.

Or just take ’em to a bafroom which has one of those Xhilarators or Xhalers or whatever.

You know, the mini jet-turbine aimed down into the garbage-pail right below. :laughing:

But we actually have, like, clean water here.

NYC tap water is better than bottled.

Off topic buuuuttttt…… here in NC we had a family owned pizza place that made NY style pizza. Ridiculously good! However ’“ Turk” swore the ones they sold in NYC were better. Said it was the water that made the difference.