Ok this is sounding more and more like a terminal failure which means you are into data recovery big time so here are a couple of suggestions which might help. If the drive gets worse over time then I would suggest a thermal fault within the drive. Early TB drives have very poor thermal performance and I have had several fail on me over the years. Have you tried the old freezer trick? Make sure the drive is at ambient temperature first then pop it into a zip-lock bag with a couple of desiccant packs and leave it in the freezer for a few hours. This will not fix the problem but it will keep the drive running for a while longer when you do power it up which should be enough t= o recover your data. I have used this trick a few times and one drive took so long to process I had it running while perched on top of some freezer packs wrapped in a towel. Even if you do not freeze the drive, I would recommend imaging the drive using DD or a forensic tool rather than trying to fix a damaged file system= .. You can then process the image to retrieve your data.=20 My job is as a forensic investigator so I have all the tools but there are = a number of free tools which will recover the data for you and if you mount the image onto your Ubuntu or Win7 systems you can use trial versions of data recovery apps to get your stuff back. (look for "forensic data carving= " on Google) Ultimately a damaged MFT ($INDX) is not fun to rebuild by hand but it can b= e done so long as there is enough data left behind. Failing that your only option is to use a data recovery company. Good luck. Alan Melia w: www.melmac.co.uk -----Original Message----- From: John Ferrell [mailto:jferrell13@triad.rr.com]=20 Sent: 04 May 2011 18:34 To: piclist@mit.edu Subject: Re: [OT] Seagate failures. On 4/25/2011 12:09 AM, jferrell13@triad.rr.com wrote: > {snip!} > My problem is in cascade at this point. The system will no longer boot. I THINK I got here due to a memory upgrade that is marginal. The drive has a data problem at this point which may not be recoverable. That problem has been superseded by the system drive will no longer boot. I have de-tuned th= e operating speed in hopes it will fix with the Repair Option on from the XP Pro install disk. If I get that up to the point I can recover what is on that disk then I will set both of these drives aside for further recovery attempts but regenerate the system on a new HDD. > > BTW, BIOS would not recognize the data drive on the other system until I pulled the PC board and cleaned the board to mechanics contacts with DeOxit= .. I am not impressed with the how these things are constructed. The PC board is a delicate piece of art but I doubt the contact design will be reliable. They hope to sell a lot of replacements! > > The unfortunate part of this to me seems that other than getting slower I was not aware that there was anything wrong with the system. OTH, timely backups would have reduced this to an nuiscence. I knew better... > > John Ferrell via Web Mail... > Are your backups in place? Reporting back: Thanks to all who offered suggestions. My operation is unusual in=20 several ways. I have an array of 4 systems at my desk. I am an Old, Retired (IBM)=20 Computer guy with too many interests to go into and there is no profit=20 motive here. I also collect information and media that I may be=20 interested in later. Two systems are XPPRO machines, one a WIN 7 and the=20 other UBUNTU. First, I attempted to reload a fresh XP Pro OS to a hard drive that=20 previously had Linux SUSE 10 installed & working. Whatever I tried, the HDD would not boot after the initial part of the=20 install. Even Partition Magic did not like it but did not offer an error=20 code that was usable. The same thing happened when I moved it to the=20 non-failing system. I set that aside for a later date and moved on. Second, I set up email and such to the Win 7 machine. Until that time It=20 had been used mostly for Amateur Radio stuff. Third, I moved the failing HDD-XP Pro to the unfailing system with no=20 improvement. Intending to use the repair function in the install CD I=20 found it would not get that far. I chose to run the chkdisk from the CD=20 on the failing OS-HDD. It did its thing as I accepted I was now in a=20 salvage scenario. After the Chkdisk completed, the OS did boot up among=20 many complaints from mismatching configurations and and a demand to re=20 register XP. When it appeared stable, I gathered whatever there was on=20 that drive to a backup with a plain copy from windows. Fourth, I took a look at the data drive is failing. No matter where I=20 put it, it says the NTSF Index is damaged and windows will have nothing=20 to do with it. There is a Microsoft Utility named Diskprobe that is a=20 low level sector editor that will permit further examination. It will be=20 a time consuming and tedious project so I added that to the array of=20 things for later. Fifth, I added a second HDD equal to the first (both 500G) on the Win 7=20 system. For the moment I am manually copying folders for back up. Sixth, I have about a TB of music, publications and media that I have=20 collected for an extremely long time. I know it is a bizarre obsession,=20 but I like it this way. I am paranoid about the government and=20 intellectual powers rationing my access to information again. I am=20 currently syncing all the data to an external 2 TB drive with SyncToy=20 from Microsoft. I plan to understand the details of the operation before=20 I pass judgement as to whether it is trust worthy in my application. I=20 do understand the risk of the working file being compromised and=20 propagated into the backup. I had considered the need to write my own (not nearly as hard as it=20 sounds for a low level hacker) but until I fully investigate SyncToy,=20 Robocopy and Xcopy I will continue using my time pursuing my dreams! I have learned a lot and I will learn more having benefited by personal=20 experience with this demon! I think there is a PIC application in this mess as well. My ASUS MB's in=20 the XP PRO systems have nice warnings built in as to power, temperature,=20 fans etc, but I think an independently powered Support Processor could=20 provide more insight in the health of the hardware. All comments, criticisms, warnings, advice and even ridicule are=20 invited, on list or direct... --=20 John Ferrell W8CCW An injured friend is the bitterest of foes. Thomas Jefferson --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .