During Windows XP startup process, it keeps asking to press a key if I want to skip the disk check progress for the C drive. But if I let it check, it finds no errors at all. I do clean shutdown. Strange behaviour - how to restore normal one? [more inside]
posted by lion on Aug 29, 2009 - 2 answers

Do any retailers have the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 hard drive in stock? If not, should I just give up and buy a 5400.6? [more inside]
posted by alms on Apr 20, 2009 - 6 answers

How can I delete music files that are no longer used in iTunes, but are still present on disk? [more inside]
posted by fireoyster on Jan 10, 2009 - 8 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

I'm using Terminal (Ubuntu 8.04x64) right now to overwrite a 500g external hd with random information. There's been no action aside from a blinking cursor (by itself on a line, not in front of any prompt) since I entered the command yesterday afternoon:
[sudo dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sdc bs=8m]

I understand it's going to take a while to finish. In the meantime, is there any way to monitor the progress of the operation?
posted by carsonb on Nov 8, 2008 - 18 answers

How can I access my WD MyBook World Network Storage Drive from my new (Ubuntu 8.04) computer now that my old (WinXP) box is dead dead dead? [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Oct 21, 2008 - 18 answers

Dead hard disk on a G3 iMac. Seemingly healthy 2nd-hand G4 iMac. If I try to access data on the dead machine via target disk mode, is there a chance—any chance at all—that I could screw up the healthy machine? [more inside]
posted by neroli on Aug 3, 2008 - 7 answers

Inconsistent information about bad sectors on a hard drive -- what's going on, and what should I do? [more inside]
posted by puffin on May 20, 2008 - 14 answers

I have an external firewire hard disk sitting on top on a powered monitor speaker on my desk here. Is this a terrible idea? Will it shorten the life of the drive? What's a safe distance? [more inside]
posted by armoured-ant on May 9, 2008 - 8 answers

Highly technical hard drive filter: My hard drive failed. Came home, and PC was sitting at the "where's my hard drive" BIOS screen, to my great horror. [more inside]
posted by gjc on Apr 27, 2008 - 9 answers

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

How to recover from sync-ing a RAID 1 the wrong way? [more inside]
posted by notsnot on Feb 6, 2008 - 11 answers

I still have hope for my dead HDD. How do I bring it back to life? [more inside]
posted by popcassady on Feb 5, 2008 - 9 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

How can I recover a file from an accidentally quick-formated laptop? [more inside]
posted by springload on Jul 10, 2007 - 8 answers

One of the disks in my hardware RAID 0 system drive array is failing, but it's still booting for the moment. Is there any tool I can use to clone just the failing physical disk to another identical one? [more inside]
posted by nnovik on Jul 6, 2007 - 9 answers

Please help me save my master's thesis... [more inside]
posted by number9dream on May 17, 2007 - 7 answers

I want to install a bigger hard drive to my laptop. How do I clone the current hard drive to the new one so I don't have to reinstall windows on the new disk? [more inside]
posted by Mave_80 on May 9, 2007 - 10 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

So it's come to this - I see no other option than to ask a "help me fix my PC" question. After some troubleshooting the STOP errors seem to have been resolved, XP now boots successfully but is excruciating slow to the point of being unusable. Details and specs below the fold. [more inside]
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Mar 4, 2007 - 25 answers

Is it possible to use a USB hard disc enclosure with a CD-R/RW? [more inside]
posted by Bugbread on Feb 8, 2007 - 11 answers

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

I need a good 500GB backup device for a Mac - any recommendations? [more inside]
posted by adrianhon on Dec 10, 2006 - 14 answers

Could turning on hard drive compression actually speed up access on my laptop? [more inside]
posted by Ookseer on Nov 25, 2006 - 10 answers

Hello! I have a backup strategy, which I think is okay but I would like some advice on whether my use of the external hdd is sensible. A little [more inside]
posted by mooders on Oct 22, 2006 - 5 answers

How can I get my dad's computer's HDD to stop thinking constantly? [more inside]
posted by GleepGlop on Oct 8, 2006 - 14 answers

OK, let's say I'd like to download this thing, but it's a 56 GB thing (well, it's a bunch of things, let's say, for educational purposes only, .par and .rar files). My hard disk is only 30 GB (about 11 GB of currently free space). But: I have a 250GB external drive (firewire) that I sometimes use to store stuff. Can I download the big file (it'll take, I guess, an entire day) straight on the external drive? Or is my Mac (G4) going to blow up for some reason? thanks!!!
posted by PenguinBukkake on Sep 6, 2006 - 23 answers

When my hard drive started clicking, I backed it up. What now? [more inside]
posted by skryche on Sep 2, 2006 - 5 answers

How can I watch what is being written to my hard-drive? [more inside]
posted by MintSauce on May 31, 2006 - 4 answers

My USB2 hard drive will only stay mounted if I keep accessing it. If I don't, within 5 hours or fewer, I can't access files on the drive or even do a directory listing. I can then unmount the HD, power cycle it, and it will mount again as if nothing had happened. If I keep accessing the disk, say by continuously playing an MP3 mix on it, the disk acts completely normal: uptime now (with MP3s playing) is something like 20 hours without the shadow of a problem. [more inside]
posted by rwhe on Apr 18, 2006 - 12 answers

i lost a partition in a reformat, but the data is still on my harddrive. i want to get the data off. i have r-studio, but not enough disk space on the existing partition to put the other data on it, and i thought i shouldn't create a new partition to put the data on, as that could mess up remaining data. i don't have an external harddrive. is there any way i can safely get the data off? thanks! [more inside]
posted by willmillar on Apr 7, 2006 - 7 answers

I just got a new 250GB SATA hard drive and a SATA to USB 2.0 enclosure to put it in. When I plug everything in & hook it to my iBook, I get the following error: "You have inserted a disk containing no volumes that Mac OS X can read. To continue with the disk inserted, click Ignore" (3 options: "Initialize...", "Ignore" or "Eject"). How do I get it to work? [more inside]
posted by cg1 on Apr 7, 2006 - 8 answers

Can our Mac be killing any hard disk we put in it? [more inside]
posted by AmbroseChapel on Feb 21, 2006 - 10 answers

How do I best clone a hard disk with bad sectors, when the PC spontaneously reboots upon hitting said bad sectors? [more inside]
posted by kindall on Oct 4, 2005 - 7 answers

How can I set up my dual boot system with Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux? [more inside]
posted by lunkfish on Sep 29, 2005 - 6 answers

How to recover data from an initialized drive in Windows Server NT? [more inside]
posted by figment on Aug 11, 2005 - 10 answers

I have a P-3 Dell desktop with Win98 that is a few years old and has been buggy of late, even with all the virus and adware scans I can do on it. I also have a laptop with XP and the XP install disks (I have reinstalled XP on this one). I feel like it's time to start fresh with the desktop, so my question is two-pronged: 1. Would it be easier to just buy a new hard drive (since a 20 gig one is relatively cheap) than to reformat the existing one and reinstall everything? 2. Would you reinstall Win98 or go with XP (assuming that it WOULD install on this box and I don't know any reason why it would not)?
posted by Danf on May 23, 2005 - 15 answers

What should I do with my new hard drive? [more inside]
posted by jewishbuddha on Apr 21, 2005 - 11 answers

My new Powerbook's harddrive is full (93 GB) so I tossed many huge DVD files. Now I can't empty the trash. How do I force it to empty the trash?
posted by Toolshed on Mar 30, 2005 - 8 answers

I purchased a 160GB external LaCie USB 2.0 drive last month from CompUSA, and today it quit working. I have an iMac G5 running OS X 10.3.8, which told me the drive could not be recognized, and whenever I turn on the drive, it gives me a pulsating screeching sound as it tries to access itself. I called LaCie, who says its a hard drisk mechanism failure (read: "our shit crashed and lost your data") and will repair the drive, but everything on it is lost unless I recover it beforehand somehow. DriveSavers is going to cost me some $2,000 or so which is outrageous, considering I'm a college student, and the drive was investment enough itself. It has some 40GB of music, and almost 100GB of video -- I'm looking for a service that can recover my data cheaply, and without voiding LaCie's warranty would be a plus. Does anyone know of any alternate solutions, have you heard of this happening to someone else or has it happened to you? WTF?
posted by jruckman on Feb 28, 2005 - 11 answers

Does anyone know how to erase the master boot record from within Windows XP? [you're gonna love this...] [more inside]
posted by soplerfo on Jan 17, 2004 - 9 answers