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Michael Horowitz

Defensive Computing

Linux rescues a failing hard drive

15 comments

TAGS:hard drives, Linux, SpinRite, Windows
IT TOPICS:Laptops & Netbooks, Storage Hardware

Over Thanksgiving, I had to deal with a Windows XP laptop, belonging to a relative, that blue screened during startup. Normal startup failed, as did safe mode, safe mode with command prompt and Last Known Good.

The first question that always needs to be answered in these situations is whether the problem is hardware or software. To that end, I booted the computer using my favorite rescue disc, the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4WIN).

The CD started, from the main menu, I chose to run UBCD4WIN, but it eventually hung on a totally blank screen.

Among the other utilities on the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is the Rescue Console. This too failed to boot. It got to the point of examining the hard drive and hung.

Clearly this was a hardware problem. The next step should be Steve Gibson's SpinRite, but I wasn't home and I'm not in the habit of traveling with my SpinRite CD.

I do travel with a copy of Linux on a USB flash drive, but the computer was too old to boot off a USB connected device.

So I removed the hard drive from the laptop and took it home. That the hard drive rattled when shaken did not make me optimistic.

A full diagnosis with SpinRite requires the hard drive to be internally connected to the computer. But I didn't need a full diagnosis, or a repair, I just needed to copy some files off the drive.

So, rather than open one of my computers and install the failing drive internally, I connected it to a USB port using a special cable that I keep around for just this purpose.

At first I connected it to an XP machine and ran disk manager (Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management). It saw the hard disk and that it contained two partitions. Unfortunately, it thought the big partition, the C disk partition, was unformatted. Partition Magic saw that the C disk partition contained the NTFS file system, but its file browser saw no files at all.

Next, I connected the hard drive to the USB port on an Asus Eee netbook running Eeebuntu and booted the system. Lo and behold, Eeebuntu was able to see all the files on the drive. I plugged an external hard drive into another USB port on the netbook and commenced copying files.

If at first you don't succeed ...

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I use a Live Linux CD called

Submitted by The Compyter Guy on December 1, 2009 - 10:47 A.M.

I use a Live Linux CD called Parted Magic to do the same. It works great! I wish I did not have to use Windows but that I what we use at my job.

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Just did this!

Submitted by emk on December 1, 2009 - 10:41 A.M.

Just did this over last weekend. I visited a friend who wanted me to help him move a bunch of files off their old WinXP laptop with 256MB RAM to an external drive. Unfortunately the before we could start, the laptop's hard drive went into a death rattle and the computer blue screened. All attempts at booting it up failed with OS not detected messages.

So I pulled out an Ubuntu 8.04 CD I had in my laptop bag and tried to run the LiveCD. The laptop took forever just to get to a desktop and the hang when I attempted to do anything. I have Ubuntu 8.10 on a uSB be stick, so I tried that, no luck, it would not even boot.

Long story, short: I downloaded DSL Linux from http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/, burnt a CD on my laptop and booted the Windows laptop off the DSL CD. It worked like a charm and I was soon copying files off the "dead" drive to an external drive.

emk

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DSL to the rescue

Submitted by Michael Horowitz on December 1, 2009 - 4:42 P.M.

Very interesting.

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I've had friends,

Submitted by Anonymous on December 1, 2009 - 10:25 A.M.

I've had friends, colleagues, clients come to me too when their Windows machines' hard drives fail. If they return a third time, I've earned enough from their first 2 visits that I decline to fix it and tell them to get a Mac.

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A real witch doctor

Submitted by Anonymous on December 1, 2009 - 11:24 A.M.

"... come to me too when their Windows machines' hard drives fail. If they return a third time, I've earned enough from their first 2 visits that I decline to fix it and tell them to get a Mac.

"Hard Drive Failure
http://www.appledefects.com/wiki/index.php?title=Hard_Drive_Failure&redirect=no

It's not the operating system mawamba.

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Windows pros know it

Submitted by Cat fancier on December 1, 2009 - 8:57 A.M.

The Windows support team here (~300 desk/laptops) have carried Linux live CDs in their toolboxes for years. (In three weeks I retire and won't have to use Windows anymore - yay!)

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Without Linux Windows would be in big trouble...

Submitted by Matias on December 1, 2009 - 6:05 A.M.

...some times. I had some very important files in Xp-partition but couldn't logged in. That's why i installed Ubuntu to that machine. Since that day i have used Linux. And i'm not gonna go back to Windows. Why should i?

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Same story here

Submitted by Will Daniels on December 1, 2009 - 5:44 A.M.

I've done the same thing at least five times in the last 12 months for friends, relatives, girlfriend's work colleagues etc...usually just by booting a Ubuntu Live CD on the machine then copying the files off over the network.

Linux always seems to be able to handle hardware failures better than Windows. Sometimes it's not even hardware failures, just that Windows has got itself so screwed up one way or another that it can't even boot, in any shape or form, and the attitude of all the owners has just been "get my photos and music off it and dump the rest".

Windows users seem so used to just reinstalling or replacing that they don't think too much of it :S So glad I made the effort to switch over to Linux 100% a few years ago - all that hassle with Windows is just a distant memory now. Don't quite understand why so many people persist in struggling on with their Windows machines.

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Handling hardware failure

Submitted by Michael Horowitz on December 1, 2009 - 4:37 P.M.

In this case I didn't have a Linux CD, but, yes, Linux certainly handled the hardware failure better.

This particular failing drive could not be read by five different Windows based programs (originally installed OS, CD based OS on UBCD4WIN, Rescue Console on UBCD4WIN, another Windows PC and Partition Magic on the 2nd PC), but the first time Linux saw it, all was well.

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Ubuntu has saved the data from XP

Submitted by skflyfish on November 30, 2009 - 9:35 P.M.

I don't use Windows anymore, but a few times lately friends have brought over dead XP machines hoping I can fix them. Each time booting to Ubuntu Live CD I was able to view, mount and save off the data on the Windows HD.

One of the many reasons I don't use Windows anymore.

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