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Thread: Repairing MBR on HD with bad clusters.

  1. #21
    Senior Member n01100110's Avatar
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    Thanks gore, nihil, Hybr|D and the rest of you for your in detail replies.. Yes gore, i'm trying to tell myself it's going to be ok .

    I must have done at least two dozen recovery jobs in the last few years where an overenthusiastic young person has screwed the MBR loading a Linux distro. Now, this is usually a 5 minute job, and the user should be able to do it themselves, but they cannot access the system and they have always mislaid the recovery CD
    Well Nihil, I pretty much fit the bill for that guy in this case what can I say

    Update:
    Seeing as though the HDD in question is in fact Seagate manufactured, I ran a boot diagnostic check called "Sea Tools" (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...ls/seatooldreg), and it failed the test horrifically with 73 different errors. My next move is to nuke the disk with killdisk, and see if I can get this device back to normal. All I got for now. Not trying to make this thread go to 2011 I swear
    "Serenity is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

  2. #22
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    I seem to remember a post a while back that said the drive was clicking. That indicates mechanical failure, at least in my mind. I would replace the drive, and call it a day. I saw a shell shocker at newegg.com today that was a 1.5TB WD HDD for $80. Time is money... you have probably spent enough.
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  3. #23
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Well, my first move would be to wipe the HDD then use Seatools to flash the firmware or reset the factory defaults. THEN scan with Seatools.............if it fails you need a new drive.

    Also, if you saw any problems reported by Seatools reading the SMARTDRIVE logs, then the drive is certainly defective.

  4. #24
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    I wouldn't trust a clicking drive to perform as anything more than a paperweight. Even if you can get an OS on there, it is on its way out.
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  5. #25
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    If it clicks regularly then I would replace it. BUT if this just happened during this problem, then it is possibly nothing to worry about.............rapid tracking for something it can't find will cause that in my experience.

    I must say, it does sound as if the HDD is on its last legs though.

    1.5TB?.....................I guess I only have a couple that would recognise one

  6. #26
    Senior Member n01100110's Avatar
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    *UPDATE*

    Burned a copy of Hirens boot CD (http://www.hirensbootcd.net), booted up in "Mini XP" mode, opened up a partition manager, and strangely found my NTFS partition completely intact, with no bad sectors on the drive at all ?? Still scratching my head over that one. Anyway, I toggled the partition as active, rebooted and *VOILA*, mbr restored, and it's alive.. Thank you all so much for the help, Nihil for the incoming snail mail, and HYBR|D for the Hiren's boot CD suggestion.
    "Serenity is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

  7. #27
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    Heh. Good thing you didn't listen to me, I would have cost you $80 ... Did the drive stop clicking?
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  8. #28
    Senior Member n01100110's Avatar
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    Heh. Good thing you didn't listen to me, I would have cost you $80 ... Did the drive stop clicking?
    Well, good thing I didn't listen to myself at one point either lol. The holes in the walls would have added up to alot more than $80 .

    As a matter of fact the drive did stop clicking, it's weird. But i'm gonna ride the horse till it dies for now.
    "Serenity is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

  9. #29
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    lol.

    Keep good backups!
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  10. #30
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Thanks gore, nihil, Hybr|D
    Hmmmm............"The good, the bad and the ugly", but maybe in reverse order?




    I cannot be the ugly one because I have the best photo on my senior citizen's bus pass of any of my friends.

    I would expect the small packet to arrive Monday, once US Customs have made as many clones as they want?..............I valued it at 40c, as that is about the price of two CDs?

    Once everything is up and normal I would try Seatools deep scan again.........

    Good luck,................and you are welcome, this is AO and we are a community.

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