Hard Disk Drive fails what do i do?

If the HDD fails how can I get my files back and place them on a new HDD?

Normally when the hard drive fails all of the files are gone with it. Sometimes-if there is any life left in it- you can connect it via USB Adapter or Enclosure to another machine and copy files off to the hard drive of host machine.
Examples:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554&csid=_61
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7664381&CatId=2781
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My hard disk drive failed. How do I deactivate that copy?

My hard disk drive failed. The genius at The Apple Store checked it out and said it was dead. Apple sold me another drive with just the operating system on it. Now when I installed Photoshop CS6, I am told that this is my second copy. How do I deactivate the copy on the failed disk drive. I was able to copy most of my data files from the drive. I do not know if the copy of Photoshop on that drive still works or not. What should I do?

Call Adobe support to reset activations. Have your papers handy...
Mylenium

Hard disk drive failed

My Hp probook 4430 series is telling me the hard disk drive failed but everything else passed. I have tried using the recovery disk that came with the laptop to no avail. please help . I am on windows 7 . The serial number is cnu2220jpq. product number h2c39us#aba

You can't install Windows to a bad drive. If the diagnostic is saying the disk has failed then you have to believe it. The hard drive needs to be replaced. Here is a link to the Service Manual:
Manual
See Page 53. Post back if you need help with software migration/reinstallation or selecting/buying a replacement drive. It will be between $50 and 100 US depending on size and speed.

Hard disk drive fail

Hello everyone,
I recently sold my Creative Zen Touch to someone on Ebay. It was in perfect working order when I dropped it off to him locally. Two days after selling it to him, I got a call saying the player was broken. The player froze on him, and all the options in recovery mode resulted in a "hard disk problem" error message. He also said he could hear a faint clicking sound coming from the player. The problem arose from when he deleted my 5gb of songs on it, then downloaded about 5gb of his songs.
Q: Is it possible to have a corrupt hard disk dri've that will work unless you use to almost full capacity?
Q2: The clicking sound means there must be some mechanical fault with the player. Is it possible for this to happen without dropping it's
I ask these questions because im trying to determine whether the player has always been faulty, or if he broke it himself and now is trying to get his money back...
any advice will be appreciated!

. It's possible, but you wouldn't get this type of hard disk problem I don't think. You would just have trouble when copying data over.
2. Yes, but dropping it can also cause the problem. There's no way to be sure.
Unfortunately it's bad luck all round as it sounds like the player has developed a fault during the sale.

I am not able to delete or write my files to my external hard disk drive what shall i do?

i am teja i brought a new mac book air here i am not able to write or delete the files that are present in a external hard disk drive what shall i do now to enable required permisions................plz reply me i am new to mac

I guess your external drive is Windows (NTFS) formattet.
By default you were only able to read from that drive, as Mac doesent support NTFS write.
If you want to have read/write access to a NTFS volume you have to use add-in tools like MacFuse or Paragon on your Mac.
Not having write or delete permissions on the external drive may also preventyou from changing existing files on that drive.
Right click on the drive in Finder and choose "Information" from the menu will give you more information about the reasons of your problem.
Lupunus

What hard disk drive should I have to buy and maximum what gb I can upgrade to mid 2011 21.5 inc mac?

what hard disk drive should I have to buy and maximum what gb I can upgrade to mid 2011 21.5 inc mac? Also do you think I can replace myself at home or I need to take specialist?

Hi, I take it you mean the Optical drive?
If so, here's a few...
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optical-drives/superdrives/

Hard disk test failed on HP Pavillion dv6-1100eo notebook

I have a HP Pavilion dv6-1100eo Entertainment Notebook PC (P/N: NR597EA) with Vista 32-bit. Unfortunately no warranty left in and general I have been very happy with this notebook.
However suddenly Wondows would not start up - and it did not even find Startup Recovery partition on the harddisk. As I wasn't sure if this Startup Recovery was on hard disk or not - I ordered System Recovery DVDs for this Scandinavian language version.
These disks did not work - so I figured I have probably not done my homework before ordering those disks.
Then I ran system Diagnostics (even if I have a old BIOS version F.03). On the diagnositics - both Quick and Full Hard disk test failed during the first 1% of the scan.
Is there anything that can be done - or is the only option new hard disk? In case - what hard disk is recommended that is not too expensive - as I don't want to invest too much into a soon 3 year old notebook.
I recently bougth an external harddisk (1 TB) based on USB connection. Can that be used bypassing internal HD. In this way I would increase HD capacity and not invest anymore into this notebook - since I already have the recovery DVDs
It is probably only a time question before I will buy a new HP notebook - that is why I don't want any long permanent fix of this problem.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi,
Sorry to say, but you won't be able to install or boot Vista from the external HDD, so if you need to get the notebook working, you're going to have to replace the internal drive.
The drive on the link below is an example of one that would be fine for your notebook.
500Gb Hard Drive
The procedure to replace the Hard Drive starts on Page 57 of your Maintenance & Service Guide.
Once done, simply use your Recovery DVDs to reinstall the Operating System on the new drive.
Regards,
DP-K
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Qosmio X500/00X System Recovery (Factory Reset) From Hard Disk Drive or Separate Disk

Hey Guys,
Looking for your advice and any links if any...cheers in advance
My Situation
In December 2009 I purchased a Toshiba Qosmio X500 - Model No. PQX33A-00X00J
At the time I upgraded my purchase from Toshiba Reseller BD4U, going from the standard 1x 500GB Sata drive + 1x 64GB SSD... to instead having 2x 500GB sata drives. I purchased with 3 year onsite next business day warranty, that is is now expired.
It came loaded with MS Win 7 Premium Home Edition - but no disks provided.
My Needs
I need/want to factory reset my PC - its starting to run slow
I need to re-partition from my existing 4x partitions to just having 2
The Issues
Possibly as a result of upgrading the disk drives at time of purchase, I don't believe I have a hidden Recovery partition in order to do a System Recovery from the Hard Disk Drive - see image of my current partitions attached
I don't have Win 7 OS installation disks or Toshiba Driver disks as they should have been installed by Toshiba
My Questions
Do You agree that I DONT have a Recovery Partition - when looking at the partition image? I'm confused on this point coz people say its hidden!?
Given I have no Toshiba Drivers Disk or Windows 7 OS disks - what should I do? I'm thinking of downloading Win 7 (use my product key from sticker under PC) and making a disk/USB (but need to learn how)
Is this where I get ALL necessary Toshiba drivers for my PC from?
Does Toshiba provide a link on its site and instructions on where to get Win 7 from so I can make a recover disk??
Notes
Tried to email Toshiba support but at step 1 of their email process validation failed due to my PC being out of warranty so will call them on Monday instead
THANK YOU THANK YOU, for any help you can give big ro small
Cheers
Rick

WOW, thanks Macius for that great, full and thorough reply...cheers mate
I suspected I didn't have a recovery partition - so thanks for confirming it as I planned to risk it and try! I guess it doesn't really matter why, and it would be futile to go and blame the re-seller or Toshiba at this late stage in the game in hopes they would help...
Yeah, I just went to Microsoft Software Recovery hoping to download Win 7 OS and create a recovery disk but of course Microsoft would NOT allow it due to it being software that was pre-installed on the device blah blah blah (see error image)
And I didn't bother back then in 2009 to create recovery media as you wisely descibed, mostly due to laziness and mentally putting it in the 'too hard basket'...I didn't really understand it - or much about computers at the time.
Re - your Option #2 - thanks for confirming Toshiba drivers. I could/can do this - but don't really want to buy something I already have, perhaps I'll check out ebay or see if a friend has a disk
Re - your Option #1 - I'm currently based in Vietnam and wont be back in Oz till late in the year, so will see if I can find a reliable Toshiba service provider here - but wont hold me breath on this one
I'm thinking that IF Option #1 is a No-Go then - maybe Plan B or Option #3 could be:
Do an Audit of Programs to identify those I don't need and can safely remove - then remove using Control Panel/ Remove Programs tool
Reformat all other drives (not C:// where OS is)
Then use some re-partition software e.g. Disk-Partiton.com
Any final thoughts???
Anyhow - thanks very much again
Rick

Hard disk drive replaicement

I have a Hard Disk 1 (301) error message, when turning on my laptop. It says something along the lines of "the hard disk has detected an imminent failure".
My laptop is a HP Pavilion G7-1033cl (windows 7), purchased in 2011, so it's out of warranty.
As far as a noticed in some other answers, I shoul replace the hard-disk for sure.
Ok, my question is: What kind of hard disk shoul I buy for replacing it? What's the best recommended?
Thank you for your help!
GStoicu

Whenever the Hard Disk fails with an error Hard Disk 1 [301] that indicates that the Hard Disk Drive has failed and that requires a replacement to resolve the issue
This issue could be due to Application or driver conflicts, virus issues, file corruptions due to incompatible applications, improper shutdowns, update failures due to conflicts, sudden power surges, if notebook is dropped etc..
HP will provide a replacement Hard Disk Drive if the Notebook warranty is Active, If not you need buy a SATA Hard Disk Drive from a retail shop nearby
Please make sure you are getting at least equal capacity as the original one in order to use Recovery Disks. If you need you can buy a larger, but not smaller capacity Hard Disk Drive. For example if you have a 500GB Hard Disk Drive you can upgrade it to 750GB Hard Disk Drive but not 320GB Hard Disk Drive
Please try the below shown troubleshooting steps once:
Step 01. Remove the battery and unplug the AC/Power Adapter
Step 02. Press and hold the Power button for more than 30 Seconds
Step 03. Plug in the AC/Power Adapter (leave the Battery out for now)
Step 04. Press the Power button and check if the Unit works normal
If the above mentioned steps does not help, then you can try reseating the Hard Drive on your Notebook
If the issue persists again please Contact HP if your HP Notebook is under warranty, HP would replace the Hard Disk Drive and provide you a Recovery media to restore factory operating system after replacement (if you've not yet created Recovery Discs/USB Media)
Note: Back up all the personal data to an external drive if it's possible. Otherwise you could connect the failed HDD via SATA to USB adapter with another PC or same PC after replacement of HDD & re-installation of OS and try copying /recovering the files. You can also refer to the below shown link for further support
http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-Data-from-the-Hard-Drive-of-a-Dead-Laptop
Please click on the link In order to Identify, Prevent, Diagnose & Recover from Drive Failures on HP Notebook Hard Drives & Solid State Drives :
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02876562.pdf
You can Check your warranty Here to verify the status and Click Here to order a new Hard Drive
Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again
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DV9925nr - How to Backup Hard Disk Drive After S.M.A.R.T. Drive Failure Message

I purchased a DV9925nr laptop from Bestbuy about 13 months ago. Six months ago it started having the sporadic and randomly abrubt shutdown problem that so many others seem to be having.
Two days ago it developed a new problem:
I left my laptop on for a few minutes and when I returned, it was to a black screen with this message: "SMART Drive failure predicted on Hard Disk 4. WDC WD2500BEVS - 60UST0-(S1); warning: Immediately backup your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent. Press F1 to continue."
My question:
We have a network with two laptops and a desktop computer. There is plenty of hard drive space on the desktop system. My father has the same exact laptop model as mine. Can I put my hard disk drive into his second disk drive bay so that I can backup my files over the network to my desktop system? How would the laptop know which hard drive to boot from since they both have the same operating system on them (I am not familiar with SATA drives)?
I hope I didn't buy a lemon. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Are you trying to do this while booted from the OS or from the install Disk? If your booted into the OS then the repair option shouldn't be click-able. Beyond that, there might be some 3rd party software that could force a reformat and/or erase. I did try to find you something but didn't come across anything specific to what your trying to do. You probably already know this, but the purpose of S.M.A.R.T. is it acts as an early warning indicator. This means the drive is no longer dependable and may fail without warning in the near future, resulting in losing all data. With that being said, I've used a hard drive that S.M.A.R.T. indicated was failing for 3+ years without a hick-up. I don't use it for anything imported though. When I have more time and if I come across anything that might get the job down, I will add to this posting. The worst case scenario is that there is no way to reformat and/or erase the drive due to the state it's in. At that point, the only thing left to do is recycling the drive.

Comparison of SSD with hard disk drives

Attribute or characteristic
Solid-state drive
Hard disk drive
Spin-up time
Instantaneous.
May take several seconds. With a large number of drives, spin-up may need to be staggered to limit total power drawn.
Random access time[45]
About 0.1 ms - many times faster than HDDs because data is accessed directly from the flash memory
Ranges from 5–10 ms due to the need to move the heads and wait for the data to rotate under the read/write head
Read latency time[46]
Generally low because the data can be read directly from any location; In applications where hard disk seeks are the limiting factor, this results in faster boot and application launch times (see Amdahl's law).[47]
Generally high since the mechanical components require additional time to get aligned
Consistent read performance[48]
Read performance does not change based on where data is stored on an SSD
If data is written in a fragmented way, reading back the data will have varying response times
Defragmentation
SSDs do not benefit from defragmentation because there is little benefit to reading data sequentially and any defragmentation process adds additional writes on the NAND flash that already have a limited cycle life.[49][50]
HDDs may require defragmentation after continued operations or erasing and writing data, especially involving large files or where the disk space becomes low. [51]
Acoustic levels
SSDs have no moving parts and make no sound
HDDs have moving parts (heads, spindle motor) and have varying levels of sound depending upon model
Mechanical reliability
A lack of moving parts virtually eliminates mechanical breakdowns
HDDs have many moving parts that are all subject to failure over time
Susceptibility toenvironmental factors[47][52][53]
No flying heads or rotating platters to fail as a result of shock, altitude, or vibration
The flying heads and rotating platters are generally susceptible to shock, altitude, and vibration
Magneticsusceptibility[citation needed]
No impact on flash memory
Magnets or magnetic surges can alter data on the media
Weight and size[52]
The weight of flash memory and the circuit board material are very light compared to HDDs
Higher performing HDDs require heavier components than laptop HDDs that are light, but not as light as SSDs
Parallel operation[citation needed]
Some flash controllers can have multiple flash chips reading and writing different data simultaneously
HDDs have multiple heads (one per platter) but they are connected, and share one positioning motor.
Write longevity
Solid state drives that use flash memory have a limited number of writes over the life of the drive.[54][55][56][57] SSDs based on DRAM do not have a limited number of writes.
Magnetic media do not have a limited number of writes.
Software encryption limitations
NAND flash memory cannot be overwritten, but has to be rewritten to previously erased blocks. If a software encryption program encrypts data already on the SSD, the overwritten data is still unsecured, unencrypted, and accessible (drive-based hardware encryption does not have this problem). Also data cannot be securely erased by overwriting the original file without special "Secure Erase" procedures built into the drive.[58]
HDDs can overwrite data directly on the drive in any particular sector.
Cost
As of October 2010, NAND flash SSDs cost about (US)$1.40–2.00 per GB
As of October 2010, HDDs cost about (US)$0.10/GB for 3.5 in and $0.20/GB for 2.5 in drives
Storage capacity
As of October 2010, SSDs come in different sizes up to 2TB but are typically 512GB or less[59]
As of October 2010, HDDs are typically 2-3TB or less
Read/write performance symmetry
Less expensive SSDs typically have write speeds significantly lower than their read speeds. Higher performing SSDs and those from particular manufacturers have a balanced read and write speed.[citation needed]
HDDs generally have symmetrical read and write speeds
Free block availability andTRIM
SSD write performance is significantly impacted by the availability of free, programmable blocks. Previously written data blocks that are no longer in use can be reclaimed by TRIM; however, even with TRIM, fewer free, programmable blocks translates into reduced performance.[25][60][61]
HDDs are not affected by free blocks or the operation (or lack) of the TRIM command
Power consumption
High performance flash-based SSDs generally require 1/2 to 1/3 the power of HDDs; High performance DRAM SSDs generally require as much power as HDDs and consume power when the rest of the system is shut down.[62][63]
High performance HDDs generally require between 12-18 watts; drives designed for notebook computers are typically 2 watts.

I wish I could get my head round the SSD vs HDD with a NLE rig. My builder is trying to persuade me to use a Toshiba 256Gb THNSNC256GBSJ for OS and programs, and it is only NZ$20 more expensive than the 450Gb 10k rpm VelociRaptor I was originally planing to use for the OS. That sounds suspiciously cheap to me, and I am concerned about the finite writes to SSD - mainly because I don't really understand it.
The rest of the new build is
3930K
Gigabyte X79-UD5
8 x DDR3 1600
Coolermaster with 750W PSU
Geforce GTX570
I plan to transfer the drives from my current system as a starting point, and reassess after giving it some use. That means
Either the above SSD or 450Gb 10k Raptor for OS (new drives)
300Gb 10k rpm Raptor (currently used for OS in old box)
150Gb 7k4 rpm Raptor (reserved for Photoshop Scratch in old box)
2 x 1Tb WD Blacks (data drives)
2 x 1Tb WD USB3 externals
I don't know how I would configure the drives in the new box, but have seen Harm's table and will try to follow his advice. It's a dreadful thing to admit, but I don't have a backup strategy, and the above drives are well over half full. Well over! And I am only just getting serious about video, (the rest is mainly CR2 files from my Canon 1Ds3 and 1D4)
I know it must be like banging your head against the wall, but should I avoid that SSD and go with the 450G Raptor? I have read a comment that the WD Blacks don't work well as Raid0. Is that BS or true?
I am about to give the go-ahead so need to confirm the spec.

Pavilion G6-1203ey: Hard Disk Test FAILED, but can still boot into Windows

Hello
I have HP Pavilion G6-1203ey laptop. After installing Windows (7 ultimate, 64 bit) and some drivers on it and after several restarts, it hanged at Windows logo and I had to turn it off with power button. Then after turning it on, it gave me the option to repair problems which are preventing it from starting up, from there I let it to restore the computer to an earlier restore point and after a restart the Windows was working again. After that I decided to do a hard disk check just in case.
The Hard Disk Self Test ended up with a message: Hard Disk 1 Full (305). Then I installed HP Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Support Environment and did hard disk from there. I chose the comprehensive test from the options, but it finished fairly quickly (in ~1 minute) with the following output:
Testing Drive: 1
Hard Disk SMART Check : PASSED
Hard Disk Short DST : FAILED
FAILURE ID : PTTU22-5T774L-MFPV4K-60S003
PRODUCT ID : A5Q15EA#B1R
Hard Disk 1
Hard Disk Test : FAILED
A bit more background:
The previous owner told me that the original HDD was faulty which is why he replaced it with this one last year. He said that other than that there has been no problems with the laptop. The Windows is working right now and this HDD is quite new so I would not have expected any problems with it, but the results from the previously mentioned tests seem troubling. Is there a reason to worry?
Thanks
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Hi Alnuir,
Welcome to the HP Support Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I read your post and looked into the failure ID that you posted regarding the failed Short DST test. That error is indicating a hard disk failure meaning that if it hasn't failed it might soon. If everything is working I would considering backing up your data on a regular basis just to be safe. You could have a local technician take a look at the hard drive to see how close it is to full failure.
Thank you,
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I can't copy my itunes library to an external hard disk drive!!

this is my first time at the forum and i dont find a better way to ask, i want to copy my itunes library to an external hard disk drive for have a back up, but when i try to copy it it appears this message "the item "itunes music" has 1 or more items that are in use and cannot be modified", i dont know why, then i search for help in apple support and this article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751, but i do what it says and i still having my problem, i can't copy my music, that message keep's appearing and it dont let me copy my music.

forget it i discover my problem, this message gives u 2 option stop or continue i just click continue and it get copied, i think this is normal but like this is my fisrt time i dot this i get confused, i think i still used to windows, i cant believe because i have a ear with this computer. well anything is a good experience.

Can I upgrade MacBook Pro hard disk drive next year?

Hi there! I'm new to the Apple Support Communities!
I am going to buy a new 13" MacBook Pro, 2.5GHz. I am going to buy the base model, with a 500GB 5400 RPM hard disk drive. Right now, I can't afford a 256GB solid-state drive, but I'll have enough for one by later next year. So, I will have done some stuff on my Mac by the time I can upgrade it. I know how to install the drive itself, but how do I transfer my information?
Here are the issues:
1) I don't know how I would make it so I could boot from an external USB.
2) And I don't know how to get all my personal information from one drive to the other.
For "2", I think I could back up my Mac to a hard drive with Time Machine, and then restore from a backup. But Time Machine couldn't back up the whole OS, right? And what would the procedure be anyway? Just turn it on when I'm done the upgrade?
If someone who has done this before could provide step-by-step instructions, I would really appreciate it!
Thanks,
Solid-State Me 

Yes you can replace the hard drive at any time. Purchase a replacement drive from any store you like - newegg or mcetech are good stores (among many others) - and when you purchase the new drive, also purchase a drive enclosure. Then download a program called "super duper" and follow the instructions to use that software. When your drive arrives, put the new drive in the enclosure, plug it in to your computer and run "super duper" with the option to "make the drive bootable" and let it finish. What it's doing is copying your drive onto the new drive. Once the copy is finished, you can shut down your computer, remove the drive, install the new one, and put the original drive into the enclosure. Now you have an external hard drive that is repurposed instead of throwing it away. Keep that drive intact for a few weeks without erasing or adding data to be sure you are happy with the new drive and how it performs. After that, use the drive to store files, backup the internal, transfer stuff, whatever.

Dismount multiple external hard disk drives

I have multiple external hard disk drives and was wondering what the command line is that will dismount all of these at once? Note that there is also one external DVD unit as well which I would not want to dismount.
Thanks,
Lyman

diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk";diskutil unmount "/path/to/disk"
Just replace replace "/path/to/disk" with the path to the mount point, leaving the quotes.
Good luck!

Hard Disk Drive fails what do i do?

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