iMac drives failing - first external, then internal. Seems to be hardware in both cases. Questions about troubleshooting or replacement inside. [more inside]
posted by tkolstee on Oct 29, 2009 - 5 answers

Any suggestions on an emergency boot tool that can see my hard drive? [more inside]
posted by Wong Fei-hung on Oct 8, 2009 - 7 answers

My Maxtor Basics 1 terabyte external USB 2.0 drive no longer mounts. I have been through all the usual stuff with tech support (including disk management and device management) and I've tried it on multiple computers. Although the green light comes on when it's plugged into USB, apart from that it's not talking to the computer. There has been no strange noise, clicking, smoke or smell. Maxtor tech support say it's a failed drive. A data recovery company I phoned said it's probably damaged firmware but the data on the disk is probably safe. I'm nervous about sending it to a data recovery company because I seem to be looking at about GBP £179 minimum or maybe many, many hundreds more. Is it likely to be a matter of simply soldering something here or replacing something there, ie a job that I could take to a local geek? Or should I be looking to take this to a major data recovery centre? I'm in London, UK.
posted by skylar on Aug 26, 2009 - 7 answers

I just pulled an older computer out of the closet to donate, and yesterday it booted up fine. Today, I get an error stating "A disk read error occured, press CTL ALT DEL to reboot." I used UBCD for Windows and I cannot see the hard drive when I boot from there either. What other avenues should I explore to try and fix the disk, or is it toast and the files unrecoverable? I am willing to open it up. Thanks in advance. [more inside]
posted by jules1651 on Jun 26, 2009 - 7 answers

Computer has "disk read error press ctrl + alt + delete" problem. I would like to get the data off it, and put it on a new computer. Is this something I can get fixed and then get the data off of it? Or do I need to pay out the nose for a data recovery person? [more inside]
posted by dios on Jun 9, 2009 - 20 answers

In OS X on my iMac, Disk Utility asserts that my main, internal hard drive is "about to fail" and has been asserting this for several months. But my computer is running just fine... should I worry? [more inside]
posted by so_necessary on May 2, 2009 - 17 answers

There are currently 4 File Browsers open on my desktop, all displaying either the contents of my external hard drive or the folder where it's mounted (/media/). I didn't open them—they just showed up. This morning when I woke up there was 40+ File Browser windows open of the same. Another window just opened; it seems to occur at random intervals. I'm running Ubuntu Linux 8.10, wtf is causing this? [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Apr 2, 2009 - 11 answers

What's a good, preferably free, diagnostics program for Windows? [more inside]
posted by Grinder on Mar 31, 2009 - 6 answers

Our Kia Sedona has one of those built in DVD players, An Audiovox PROV710. For the life of me I can't get DVDs to play in it. [more inside]
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Mar 27, 2009 - 5 answers

Is CHKDSK actually any good? [more inside]
posted by edbyford on Mar 4, 2009 - 17 answers

Is there an "extra disk space" analogue to the projects to which one can volunteer their extra bandwidth or computing power? Like, instead of Folding@Home using my processor, is there something that will use my disk space (for a good cause)?
posted by philomathoholic on Feb 7, 2009 - 10 answers

Is my Macbook's HD broken? Unable to boot, more details inside. [more inside]
posted by djgh on Jan 31, 2009 - 11 answers

Is there a free and/or clever way to find out if the SD card plugged into my laptop is faster or slower than the laptop hard drive regarding read/write operations? I am running Windows Vista Home Premium. I'm wondering, for example, if the SD card would be a better scratch disk for Photoshop, and other apps that require non-RAM swap/scratch space. (I'm not intending to use ReadyBoost.)
posted by sidereal on Dec 27, 2008 - 3 answers

Does it exist for consumer use? A storage device made by two (or more) twin synched separate hard disks, one for normal use and the other one for backup just in case something goes wrong? Or a software doing the same thing with two (or more) external hard disks? [more inside]
posted by lion on Dec 15, 2008 - 11 answers

Can a drive that is encrypted with software-based full disk encryption be cloned? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Dec 9, 2008 - 5 answers

Windows Illiteracy Filter. Help me help my mother via long-distance to understand the difference between memory and hard disk storage, and how to access information on her Windows XP machine that will tell her how much memory she has, if there are any empty slots, what type of memory her computer requires, and how large her hard drive is, including used/available space stats. [more inside]
posted by Devils Rancher on Nov 29, 2008 - 14 answers

Is there any good, free UNIX/Linux software you can suggest for keeping a searchable index of removable media? [more inside]
posted by tommorris on Nov 25, 2008 - 7 answers

Is my Macbook hard drive dead? [more inside]
posted by salmacis on Nov 5, 2008 - 9 answers

Mac, Leopard, La Cie external hard disk drive spins but does not mount. What's my best option for getting data off this drive? [more inside]
posted by gen on Nov 2, 2008 - 21 answers

I want to develop BD-J / Xlet / GEM menus suitable for Blu-Ray disks but it's confusing... [more inside]
posted by ostranenie on Sep 19, 2008 - 0 answers

I've got about 200 GB of files on my old Mac that I need to put on my shiny new Vista-running laptop. I've got a 300 GB USB drive. This should be easy... [more inside]
posted by Plug Dub In on Sep 15, 2008 - 7 answers

Is there such a thing as a 3.5" IDE drive enclosure with an eSATA interface? [more inside]
posted by kenliu on Sep 14, 2008 - 4 answers

MacFilter: Upgraded my hard drive using SuperDuper to clone, but Time Machine backed up the entire drive after the swap. How to prevent this? [more inside]
posted by kenliu on Aug 30, 2008 - 5 answers

Replacing my laptop's hard drive. I think I've almost got it but have some questions about the cloning process. [more inside]
posted by nomad73 on Aug 29, 2008 - 8 answers

Is my thinkpad hard disk controller dead? [more inside]
posted by theyexpectresults on Aug 23, 2008 - 5 answers

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. [more inside]
posted by loquacious on Aug 10, 2008 - 13 answers

Where has all the free space on my hard-drive disappeared to??? It does not correspond to TOTAL CAPACITY minus TOTAL FILE SIZE [more inside]
posted by randomstriker on Jun 6, 2008 - 21 answers

What is the ideal size for a browser's disk cache? [more inside]
posted by wastelands on May 10, 2008 - 11 answers

SATA Hard disk , suddendly not spinning up. No click of death, no sign of expected failure. [more inside]
posted by elpapacito on Apr 29, 2008 - 12 answers

Are there any repositories of historical prices for hard drives? [more inside]
posted by jaimev on Apr 13, 2008 - 5 answers

The disk in my MBP was upgraded from 100GB to 250GB. They used a hardware disk to disk copier that just cloned the drive, bit for bit. Now, I want to grow my 100GB partition to fill up the new space, however Disk Utility only sees the drive as 100GB. I know there are some $100 utilities out there, but I am a geek and want to do it for free. [more inside]
posted by dhammala on Jan 15, 2008 - 17 answers

Every night at 12:10AM, the brand new primary hard drive in my computer begins grinding away for a duration of 10-60 seconds. Why? [more inside]
posted by Danelope on Jan 14, 2008 - 12 answers

My Computer detects a floppy drive when there isnt one installed ......... [more inside]
posted by sgt.serenity on Jan 4, 2008 - 8 answers

MacBook Pro: Disk is caught in the drive and _will not eject_. Please Help have tried everything. [more inside]
posted by cascando on Nov 12, 2007 - 18 answers

Are there any particularly awesome external firewire hard drive enclosures that I should be aware about? [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Oct 29, 2007 - 7 answers

Mirroring external drives on a mac... [more inside]
posted by tomble on Oct 5, 2007 - 8 answers

Disk cleanup/management tool, with flagging, a la Tivo/MCE. [more inside]
posted by mphuie on Oct 3, 2007 - 0 answers

What is the easiest way to make a bit-perfect copy of a potentially failing laptop hard drive? The copy target would be a new 2.5" drive that I'd then install in the same laptop. [more inside]
posted by killdevil on Aug 11, 2007 - 37 answers

I have a strong memory that there's an OS X command-line tool that can dump to the terminal a running log of all disk accesses, including which executable is reading or writing. It was very handy in figuring out what the Mac was doing when the disk was busy but the load was low. Does anyone remember what this was?
posted by nicwolff on Jul 30, 2007 - 9 answers

I'm not sure I have the terms right, but how do I make a "hardware-independent deployable disk image"? [more inside]
posted by penciltopper on Jul 11, 2007 - 13 answers

What can I do with all these old ZIP disks? [more inside]
posted by bartleby on Jul 5, 2007 - 18 answers

My G3/700mhz (DualUSB) iBook is not booting in a strange way: I definitely need a hint on this one. Lots and lots [more inside]
posted by Orb2069 on May 25, 2007 - 4 answers

Windows Server 2003: My 40GB disk partition shows up as being less than 5GB in Windows Explorer, but appears as 40GB in Disk Management. What's going on? [more inside]
posted by blue mustard on May 25, 2007 - 7 answers

Are there any utilities for windows that continuously read/write to a hard disk? [more inside]
posted by seanyboy on Mar 28, 2007 - 15 answers

I want to put a new HDD in an old PC and would like to know how. (But please teach me to fish...) [more inside]
posted by Busy Old Fool on Jan 13, 2007 - 17 answers

How many times should I zero the hard drive of a laptop I am going to sell? [more inside]
posted by bad grammar on Jan 8, 2007 - 18 answers

Does Apple use poor quality disks? Does Apple's filesystem suck? How do you get a bad drive to give a smart error sooner? [more inside]
posted by jeffburdges on Dec 29, 2006 - 29 answers

How can I get my crippled computer to communicate with the outside world? [more inside]
posted by stam_broker on Dec 15, 2006 - 12 answers

How does Windows XP label hard disks? [more inside]
posted by Symeon on Dec 14, 2006 - 4 answers

Is there any way to "break" a mirrored disk set in Mac OS X (that was created with Disk Utility) back into two separate -- but identical -- drives? [more inside]
posted by teradome on Dec 2, 2006 - 3 answers