Err dead hdd help??

Alrighty, I think my linux hdd bit the dust... So anyway, is there anyway of trying to salvage any of my files? I don't really care so much about the drive cause I was seriously considering a new compy anyway, but some of my files I would really really really like to not lose. Pluis for now I'm stuck on fucking windows me So anyway, once I get a new computer, is there anyway to like just hook up the new hard drive and pull the entire thing onto a new drive so I can try to save some of my shit? And err... How would one go about doing that?

 

The bad news:

It is extremely likely that, if your HDD bit the dust, you won't be able to get your files back in any way, shape, or form, unless you want to spend
$500 (or whatever it costs) to hire a data recovery firm to TRY (chance of success is pretty low and depends on the type of HDD failure).

The good news:

Your HDD might not have bit the dust. Run some diagnostics. Sometimes cables come loose and computers act up. I can't tell you how many times I've thought HDDs have failed and they haven't.

The consolation:

*pats you on the back* It happens to all of us. Two days before Christmas, I had TWO of my hard drives fry, and lost every ounce of my data, including the work I had done for an online RPG I was making. That sucked, and I cried and was all sad, but ... here I am now, no worse for the wear, and I'm almost glad it happened because I restructured my file system and it's more organized now.

 

I'm pretty sure it's gone for good then, shit I was hoping maybe I could just dump everything on a new hdd and sort by hand.. Oh well, but I was starting up and when I tried to start the x server it couldn't find it and shit but not like it normally does when out of space, then there were a bunch of crazy errors saying something about bad sectors and fstab or someshit and hdb2 (the hdd it was on) and a bunch of other shit, then when I rebooted it wouldn't even start because of hdd errors and then I did fsck manually but to no avail.

 

can you see the other drive at all?

 

Well when I start up linux which is on that hard drive it gets to where it checks if the drive is okay, then it's all fucked up but I can get into a sort of emergency mode to try and fix the drive..

 

http://www.hddrecovery.com.au/downloads/200ways.pdf

 

can you see the drive if you boot from windows?

 

Windows can't read a linux hdd unless you install a driver like ext2fsd on the windows box to read the linux file system. Can you get access to another working linux box that you could plug your hdd into to take a look.

 

Well the parts for my new computer should be here next week, and it'll run linux, so will I be able to just copy everything over? I won't be able to mount the file system, it seems to be pretty fucked... I want more of just a dump-everything-here-and-hopefully-I-can-manage-to-sort-through-this and-find-useful-data type of thing.. But not counting music, there's only maybe 500mb that I really am worried about losing, out of the whole drive.. Maybe I might have a chance?

Thanks, I'll check that out when I get on a compy that doesn't suck and can do more than one thing at a time.

 

Boot from a live cd like knoppix and see if your drive becomes accessible (it could be a busted lilo/mbr only)