Question One of my drives crashed. Can I recover any data? How to go about it?

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Beachhead1985

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SkyNetRising said:
Did you run Minitool Parition Wizard free?
Did you try Partition Recovery wizard it?
Did you manage to recover lost partition?

Not sure about latest version. But version 9.0 allows to recover partitions without paying anything.

All Versions of MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition - Filepuma.com

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition All-in-One Free Disk Partition Manager Tool for Windows PC
www.filepuma.com
Click to expand...
Partition Wizard is running now, been about 10-11 hours. At about 6 million of about 7 billion sectors checked.

So, have not tried partition recovery wizard yet, but when I started, it gave me a warning that I couldn't "Save" any data with the free version and needed to upgrade to pro. The website is pretty clear in the provision supports data and partition recovery. I'm fine with paying, presuming it works.
 
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Beachhead1985

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Ralston18 said:
1) There should only be one Paging File, on drive C:, and all configured to allow Windows to manage paging.

2) For now, turn off and otherwise disable all other energy and power saving functions/apps, etc.. Especially custom settings, etc. that Windows is complaining about.

3) Focus on recovering disks and partitions.

= = = =

What/how are you configuring "custom" power settings?

Once the drive issues are all resolved, the system running without errors and problems, and all data is fully and properly backed up then you can revisit power related concerns and requirements.
Click to expand...
Okay, I'll move the paging file when I clone the drive, but that will be after I get this done.

Power plan is changed to the stock high performance, because it's doing the partition thing and I don't want it going to sleep on that.
 
Ralston18

Ralston18

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Power plans are intended to save energy when the host system is idle. I.e., the system is doing nothing.

I would not consider or expect a system to view partitioning or re-partitioning as being idle.

If something like that should happen then that is why backups are mandatory at all times......
 
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Beachhead1985

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Ralston18 said:
Power plans are intended to save energy when the host system is idle. I.e., the system is doing nothing.

I would not consider or expect a system to view partitioning or re-partitioning as being idle.

If something like that should happen then that is why backups are mandatory at all times......
Click to expand...
So, right now, especially; it doesn't matter so much which one I pick, so long as it's not my custom plan?

...which mainly draws errors because it's not a standard power plan.
 
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Beachhead1985

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Ralston18 said:
Stop/disable all power plans: custom or otherwise.

Objective being to fully exclude any given power plan as a possible culprit.

Explain more about that custom power plan: what is it and how is the plan implemented?
Click to expand...
Well, it has to have some kind of a power plan to run; it's a "pick one" arrangement so far as I can see.

I can dig up the specifics later, but it's not relevant ATM because I set to the standard "High-performance" plan. But basically; don't shut the screen off unless I'm away for a while and don't go to sleep unless it's been several hours. Something like that.
 
Ralston18

Ralston18

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The system needs power to run - that is correct.

However, a power plan is something different in that power is reduced in some manner when a component is not in use.

= = = =

Open the Command prompt with admin rights.

Run "powercfg /list" (without quotes) and post (you can use Copy and Paste) the full results.

Here is what the results look like on my computer:

C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /list

Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
-----------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)
Power Scheme GUID: 49ef8fc0-bb7f-488e-b6a0-f1fc77ec649b (Dell)
Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c (High performance) *
Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a (Power saver)

C:\Windows\System32>


References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ice-experiences/powercfg-command-line-options

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/43698-delete-power-plan-windows-10-a.html

Not sure about what your custom power plan may entail. Just disable that plan and fall back on one of the default plans.

No customizations of any sort.
 
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Beachhead1985

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Ralston18 said:
The system needs power to run - that is correct.

However, a power plan is something different in that power is reduced in some manner when a component is not in use.

= = = =

Open the Command prompt with admin rights.

Run "powercfg /list" (without quotes) and post (you can use Copy and Paste) the full results.

Here is what the results look like on my computer:

C:\Windows\System32>powercfg /list

Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
-----------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)
Power Scheme GUID: 49ef8fc0-bb7f-488e-b6a0-f1fc77ec649b (Dell)
Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c (High performance) *
Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a (Power saver)

C:\Windows\System32>


References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...ice-experiences/powercfg-command-line-options

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/43698-delete-power-plan-windows-10-a.html

Not sure about what your custom power plan may entail. Just disable that plan and fall back on one of the default plans.

No customizations of any sort.
Click to expand...
Here is what I have now.

Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
-----------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced)
Power Scheme GUID: 39f55f41-bdb0-4e4f-b7c1-56efb49c41f4 (Normal Plan) *
Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c (High performance)
Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a (Power saver)

C:\WINDOWS\system32>
 
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Beachhead1985

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Additionally; in terms of hardware replacement; I am looking at replacing the problem HDD and my stressed F-Drive (Audio-Visual) with a pair of these:

N300 Pro 3.5in NAS HDD, SATA III, 10TB.

I'm new to "NAS" drives, but poking around, they seem to be nearly the standard; it's this or "gamer" drives, mainly. However, the specs for my Motherboard say it does JBOD and various forms of RAID 0, 1 and 10. So will that even work?

On track for SATA III though.

Are these okay drives? My research indicates that they are a pretty good buy, especially right now.

I'll put off a new external drive until boxing day, I think, just for financial reasons.
 
Ralston18

Ralston18

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With a normal power plan then Windows should be not be putting anything into sleep or hibernation while you are working to recover data.

As a follow-up check look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Any sort of error codes etc. should be investigated further.

= = = =

Forego RAID of any version.

Plenty of links in the Storage forum that address RAID and RAID issues.
 
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Beachhead1985

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Ralston18 said:
With a normal power plan then Windows should be not be putting anything into sleep or hibernation while you are working to recover data.

As a follow-up check look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Any sort of error codes etc. should be investigated further.

= = = =

Forego RAID of any version.

Plenty of links in the Storage forum that address RAID and RAID issues.
Click to expand...
So NAS is good then? But will my Motherboard support it? It supports SATA III
 
SkyNetRising

SkyNetRising

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Ralston18 - you seem to be focused on wrong things here.
Nothing indicated, there would be any problems with pagefile or power plans.
I don't understand, why you even brought this up.
This is clearly an issue with corrupted (possibly failing) hard drive -
a result of multiple consecutive restarts/resets.
 
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Ralston18

Ralston18

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@SkyNetRising

Per OP's post (#16):

"So I eventually got the report though and it doesn't seem too crazy, but it HATES that I have custom power settings and that some programs ask for time resolution higher than what it wants. Stunning how much memory some background windows programs and firefox use."

Seems natural that one would put some focus on or at least take a look at the power settings....

Not to mention the "time resolution" (?) and memory issues that could be raised.

I also want to know more about those "background windows programs".....

Along with various other postings that were made.

Just have not gotten there yet.

= = = =

Also regarding:

"This is clearly an issue with corrupted (possibly failing) hard drive -
a result of multiple consecutive restarts/resets."

And what caused those "multiple consecutive restarts/resets" and resulting file corruption?

Disk Management shows multiple disk related problems.

Power problems of any sort - hardware, software, configuration, can wreak all sorts of havoc and strange system behavior.

@Beachhead1985 could install a brand new drive and that drive could be corrupted for whatever reasons affected the original drive(s).

Then again, It may indeed simply be a matter of a single corrupted/failed drive. No disagreement there.

= = = =

That said, it may or may not be possible to recover data from the crashed drive.

Or be able to do so at great expense via a recovery service barring any backups or recovery disks.

And if some recovery tool "fixes" the disk and saves the data then that would be good. All in on that.

Only to have some lingering or root problem reoccur and back to corrupted disks again.

My next suggestion in mind is for the OP to look in Reliability History/Monitor and Event Viewer.

Either one or both tools may be capturing error codes, warnings, and even informational events related to the health of host computer and drives.

Increasing numbers of errors and varying errors are, to me, a sign of a faltering/failing PSU.

Overall, it just seems to me that there are more problems than just a simple drive failure.
 
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Beachhead1985

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SkyNetRising said:
I have no idea, what you're doing there.
Show some screenshots.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

Also - your HDD might be damaged.
Show screenshot from HDtune health also.
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/o1t5EPz
View: https://imgur.com/o1t5EPz
(uploaded the wrong drive accidentally, this is the failed one.


https://imgur.com/Hyavgna
View: https://imgur.com/Hyavgna---Still
running the current version, just found a copy of 9.0 Should I stop this and restart the process with 9.0?
 
Last edited:
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