I have an internal hard drive that is failing with numerous control errors such as 'The driver detected a controller error on \...\DR24.'. Every time I try and copy the contents while booted in Windows 7, I get errors related to these controller errors. What should I do? Image the drive? What software do you recommend? Ideally, I would like to image the drive and then be able to mount the image so I can copy what I want to an existing partition on another internal hard drive that already has data on it that I don't want to erase. Thanks for any help.

"acribb" wrote in message news:efec7776-e098-419d-bcab-732c85b41065... I have an internal hard drive that is failing with numerous control errors such as 'The driver detected a controller error on \...\DR24.'. Every time I try and copy the contents while booted in Windows 7, I get errors related to these controller errors. What should I do? Image the drive? What software do you recommend? Ideally, I would like to image the drive and then be able to mount the image so I can copy what I want to an existing partition on another internal hard drive that already has data on it that I don't want to erase. Thanks for any help. This could also be a motherboard problem, or a software problem. Test the HD in another machine try the transfer there, and/or use the HD manufacturers test utility to check out the drive. Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

"acribb" wrote in message news:efec7776-e098-419d-bcab-732c85b41065... I have an internal hard drive that is failing with numerous control errors such as 'The driver detected a controller error on \...\DR24.'. Every time I try and copy the contents while booted in Windows 7, I get errors related to these controller errors. What should I do? Image the drive? What software do you recommend? Ideally, I would like to image the drive and then be able to mount the image so I can copy what I want to an existing partition on another internal hard drive that already has data on it that I don't want to erase. Thanks for any help. This could also be a motherboard problem, or a software problem. Test the HD in another machine – try the transfer there, and/or use the HD manufacturer’s test utility to check out the drive. Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth Assuming it's none of these issues, what other options are there? I have 7 internal hard drives in this machine. This is the oldest hard drive (about 8 years old), and the only drive with an issue.

update- I plugged the hard drive into a sata port directly off the mobo. HDD was previously plugged into a PCIE Rosewill 4 port SATA card. Issue is still present. It's definitely the hard drive failing. What now?

"acribb" wrote in message news:7c165f1a-320c-424e-8976-78a704a85aaa... update- I plugged the hard drive into a sata port directly off the mobo. HDD was previously plugged into a PCIE Rosewill 4 port SATA card. Issue is still present. It's definitely the hard drive failing. What now? I would advise against using cloning software a simple copy/paste may be the best approach, copying small groups of files at a time. Once you have all the data copied (and checked), run the HD manufacturers test utility and see what it has to say about the drive. The reason I say to test after copy, is that if the disk is in a fragile state, the test may tip it over the edge into total failure. Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

If the drive is failing, you may want to recover it offline so that regular OS I/O is not hitting the drive, http://mikemstech.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-rescue-files-from-damaged-system.html -- Mike Burr Technology

"acribb" wrote in message news:7c165f1a-320c-424e-8976-78a704a85aaa... update- I plugged the hard drive into a sata port directly off the mobo. HDD was previously plugged into a PCIE Rosewill 4 port SATA card. Issue is still present. It's definitely the hard drive failing. What now? I would advise against using cloning software – a simple copy/paste may be the best approach, copying small groups of files at a time. Once you have all the data copied (and checked), run the HD manufacturer’s test utility and see what it has to say about the drive. The reason I say to test after copy, is that if the disk is in a fragile state, the test may tip it over the edge into total failure. Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth The drive is now no longer working **at all**. At the machine power up in the post, it shows there is an error reading it's presence. Arghhh!!!!!!

"acribb" wrote in message news:f75eab13-b133-409d-bf70-b3329d751435... The drive is now no longer working **at all**. At the machine power up in the post, it shows there is an error reading it's presence. Arghhh!!!!!! Ouch! :( Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

See: How to Recover Data From a Dead Hard Drive Carey Frisch

"Noel D Paton" wrote in message news:0cf9cab4-4e1a-49ee-b551-c90ae8d73de2... "acribb" wrote in message news:f75eab13-b133-409d-bf70-b3329d751435... The drive is now no longer working **at all**. At the machine power up in the post, it shows there is an error reading it's presence. Arghhh!!!!!! Ouch! :( Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth If you happen to have an identical HD handy, you could try swapping the logic board over it worked for me once when I trashed a board by shorting it. Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

update - I shut my server off for about 5 hours and then booted it back up and now the drive appears (even though at post it shows the disk error). Attempting to copy files now, one folder at a time. The good news is that I already had a Windows 7 backup of our Pictures folder, THE most important folder on this drive. Whew. Restored that just fine. Wish me luck.

May the Goddess of Data Recovery smile fondly upon you this day....Carey Frisch

"acribb" wrote in message news:b7523c7f-3aa5-4052-8f3e-1bb25bbe6125... update - Wish me luck. I do, I do! Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

May the Goddess of Data Recovery smile fondly upon you this day....Carey Frisch