Will defragmentation kill HDD ?

i dont think so..
isn't defragment is to maintain the hdd??

Hi all! I need help regarding my 500gb external hard drive. Yesterday i did two things that made it corrupted and unreadable. First, I turn it on and off in a short period of time. Second, I remove its USB cable from my PC without clicking Safely Remove Hardware. It's all because my PC keep hanging. I only did it one day and the whole HD is corrupted and it's now in RAW format.

My question is, how to repair it? I haven't format it because I really need all the data in it. How much would I have to pay a shop would you think if I want to recover back all the data? Where is the shop that have such services to recover data from HD? I know there are some softwares that might able to retrieve back the data. I've tried some but fail. Any software that would absolutely repair the HD? I have also tried chkdsk the HD but no response.

Any help and info would absolutely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

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Added on June 29, 2008, 8:42 amWhich one of these software is the bestest?

Stellar Phoenix
GetDataBack
Zero Assumption Recovery
R-Studio
Restorer2000 Pro
Activ@
Recuva
Nukleus Kernel
Virtual Lab

Or are there any other big names that I missed?

This post has been edited by adammale: Jun 29 2008, 08:42 AM

Newer flat ATA cables had extra ground lines in between each signal lines to reduce the interfences from one signal to another signal line. This was one of the improvement over older flat ATA cables.
Rounded cables had all those signal lines bunched together hence will have bad interference unless they had ground shielding similar to co-axial cable (which I'm highly doubtful of because they are much more costly)



I really don't think this is valid since high-level format just creates the MBR, file allocation tables and other stuffs which only depends on logical block addressing --> nothing mechanical.

It would be valid for very old HDD and only for low-level formatting which setups the drive's mechanical parameters i.e. track positions relative to head movement. If you low-level format the HDD in horizontal position, and then try to use it in vertical position, the drive configuration might be off due to gravitational pull.
Nowadays HDD are all factory low-level formatted btw.

Is there any software that can read files directly from RAW hard disk? Am curious here

By RAW hard disk, do you mean there's no filesystem on it? Coz there has to be a filesystem for files to exists on it. If you are trying to recover files from HDD that has crashed/corrupted, you can use RAW sector read/write tools to try to recover the files but you need to know about filesystem very well.

Try googling for HxD if you are interested to just read/write sectors BUT becareful of what you do with it or you might corrupt your HDD.

thanks for sharing ts..
it is a very usefull information..

Oh, so there is a RAW sector read/write tools... Can I use it to retrieve data from the corrupted hard disk next time? Anyway, I have restored all data from my external hard disk safely by using R-Studio. Thanks all for helping me out on this one! Luckily I didn;t resort to send it to shop. If not sure cost a lot.

not all corrupted hdd can be backed to retrieve data...but some can...sometimes it depend on the software...use r studio...or hook ur hdd at a frens n use DOS...kinda tricky using DOS

This post has been edited by asusfreak: Jul 2 2008, 08:17 AM

me too,thanks

it supposed to maintain a hdd..

Wont kill, but corrupt if u defrag half way power shut down in a sudden.Im a victim of it.
and formating ur pc as well

what about to many times format?

cheh...now hard disk so cheap.. rm260 --640GB spoil liao change lar... important data dont store on ur local disk ... use replication data mah ok liao lor...

Anyway to recover a crashed hd? I think the header has crashed, it has the "ticking" sound now, and now able to open anymore. Any solutions? Lots of valuable data in there....

any gud cooler for hdd?

Did you try using windows checkdisk? Once my hard drive also had a similar problem. I used it and it was fine.

1. Go to run
2. Type cmd
3. Type chkdsk /F (Drive letter)
Eg. chkdsk /F C:

4 unit 320GB harddisk, 2 Unit 80GB harddisk, 1 Unit 160GB harddisk. various brand all spoil. why?
1. its all internal harddsk but i treat t like external harddisk. sometimes i change to another pc
2. most of the time they are full with video files as i use it for video editing
3. theres a time when i run 8 internal harddisk at once i had to put it sideways for 3mths

i think because the way treat my harddsk thats y they all die or some make weird noise tll in d end die

hdd death is da most heartbreaking moments to suffer.. all ur movies.. pictures.. memories.. porns.. haha

I think is better to have backup. Buy an external HDD and we won't have problem if HDD dead.