Computer/hard drive problem

[toodles]

The family computer downstairs is really old (approaching a decade now ) and I think it's died and I need a little help with a couple of issues. Let me explain what has happened to the computer first of all.

Although it's as slow as a dead snail, the family PC has always been reliable but recently (in the last 3 weeks) it started restarting alot by itself at random times. This wasn't too much of a problem because my family only use the computer sparingly, to check the odd e-mail/facebook/ebay auction so a crash here and there wasn't much of a problem.

However, yesterday when my dad tried to turn the PC on it got to the part of the loading up process where you see the Windows XP logo screen with the scrolling bar below it, stayed on that for about a minute and then it just restarted itself, started booting up and got to the same part of the load up process before restarting. It does this everytime, and trying to load the computer up in safe mode makes no difference.

The biggest concern of my parents is that there are ALOT of photos on the computer they really don't want to lose so I am doing my best to recover the pictures somehow.

I figured a good way to do this would be to take the hard drive from the family computer and put it in to my computer so I could move all the pictures from that hard drive to mine. However, I'm having some problems. When the hard drive from the family computer is connected to my computer it takes ages to boot up in to windows, and all the time it's doing this the hard drive from my family computer is grinding and churning away. When I've finally got in to Windows (I'm booting in to windows from my hard drive, not the family hard drive obviously) if I try clicking 'My Computer' the computer hangs, I get the hour glass icon and it takes a good few minutes before 'My Computer' section opens and I can continue. My PC detects that the family computer hard drive is connected but when I double click it I get the old churning, hour glass and hang syndrome for a few minutes until it finally tells me that the (D: ) drive is not formatted and asks me if I would like to.

I'm really confused, what is going on? What is with all the hanging and loading while the hard drive is connected to my PC, and when I double click it to try and browse the hard drive why does it tell me the hard drive is not formatted?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Cromewell]

I would probably avoid using the drive until you can get some kind of recovery software to try and get everything back.

You can try something like this to recover the data: http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/recoveryexpert/

I've not used it myself and there are many other tools you can use. Any good one should be fairly easy to use.

 

[gamerman4]

Pretty much that drive is nearing death. I would recommend trying different orientation for the drive, stand it on end, upside-down, etc.. to try and get the disk spinning correctly and reading correctly. I would try a disk check but if your drive it really dying then it might make it die faster but its better than just leaving it there. Almost any method of file recovery from a damaged drive will result in some more wear on the drive.


There are many weird offbeat ways of reviving a hard drive long enough to make a backup but the only one I have ever tried that had some merit was to put it in a ziploc bag and throw it in a freezer (yes, seriously). The cold temperatures make the metal contract and it somehow helps the needle read the disk, it worked for me before an old hard drive of mine died so you could give it a try but I don't recommend it until you have exhausted other options.