D Drive suddenly need formatting !!!

[Slickcondo]

I am using Sony Vaio laptop whta came with a C drive and a D drive installed. It is running on Windows XP SP2 with Internet Explorer. The C drive is where all the application software are installed and I use the D drive for storage. I've never had any problem with it for years, but suddenly last week when I tried to assess the D drive, it says the drive is unformatted and all my files in it are lost !! I reinstalled the complet Windiws XP then, and after running it for about a couple of days without any problem, the same problem happen again today !!

Can anyone advise why this is happening or my greatest fear is to be realised - that my hard drive is coming to its useful life ? Any advise, help or suggestion how to fix this is greatly welcome and appreciated. I am an average user, not an expert.

Many thanks.

[PeckerWood]

When you right click on my computer and choose 'manage',then choose 'disk management' does your D partition show up there ?

[Slickcondo]

Hi PeckerWood,

Thanks for responding. Yes, C and D partition is shown there NTSF file system. Hope to hear more from you.

[PeckerWood]

Originally Posted by PeckerWood

When you right click on my computer and choose 'manage',then choose 'disk management' does your D partition show up there ?

If you do the above again and left click to highlight the (D) partition
then, right click and choose explore.....what happens ?

[Slickcondo]

It goes into a windows similar to Windows Esplorer and shows D under C folder, D indented under C Drive. C Drive has a + box next to it, but D does not have this + which is to be expected as there are no longer any folders in it.
- My Computer
+ Local Drive (C)
Local Drive (D)
+ DVD/CD-RW Drive (E)

Hope the layout above to show you what I mena comes out as I arranged them when I submit this page. Thanks

[Slickcondo]

Oooops ! Looks like the layout did not show as I laid it out. The text Local Drive (D) should line up below Local Drive (C) and not as it appear now. Sorry . But hope you know what I mean.

[PeckerWood]

Did you partition this drive,or was D your original restore, set aside by the manufacturer of your computer for restore ?

In disk Management where you went earlier when you right clicked D did D give you the option to change drive letter?

[Slickcondo]

Both C and D drive were set by the manufacturer. I don't have the Windows XP disk with the laptop when I bought it and I had to make my own Vaio Recovery Media kit and use this for "reinstallation". It has never given me any problem in the past after using them. The Recover Diisk also allows me to change the size of the partitions of both C and D when I use it to reinstall these drives to its factory state. But I have not chaged the partition sizes from its original.

Yes, D gave me the option to change the drive letter, Remove it or Add it. What will happen if I remove D from here ? Will all the 40 + GB memory that's allocated to D goes to drive C or I will just lost it ?

I am very tempted to reinstall/Recover C and D using the Recovery Media Kit again and pray this problem won't happen again. Thrid time lucky and all that or do you have some idea what causes it and are we well on the way to resolve the problem ? Perhaps I should just change the partition to just one partition and allocate all the memory to C drive ? I'd prefer not to do this and maintain the 2 partitions if I can help it. But if by making it into one drive or use majority of the memory for C will prevent the problem from happening again, it may be worth it ( ? ). What's your view on this ?

Hope to hear from you soon and thanks

[PeckerWood]

Originally Posted by Slickcondo

Both C and D drive were set by the manufacturer. I don't have the Windows XP disk with the laptop when I bought it and I had to make my own Vaio Recovery Media kit and use this for "reinstallation". It has never given me any problem in the past after using them. The Recover Diisk also allows me to change the size of the partitions of both C and D when I use it to reinstall these drives to its factory state. But I have not chaged the partition sizes from its original.

Yes, D gave me the option to change the drive letter, Remove it or Add it. What will happen if I remove D from here ? Will all the 40 + GB memory that's allocated to D goes to drive C or I will just lost it ?

I am very tempted to reinstall/Recover C and D using the Recovery Media Kit again and pray this problem won't happen again. Thrid time lucky and all that or do you have some idea what causes it and are we well on the way to resolve the problem ? Perhaps I should just change the partition to just one partition and allocate all the memory to C drive ? I'd prefer not to do this and maintain the 2 partitions if I can help it. But if by making it into one drive or use majority of the memory for C will prevent the problem from happening again, it may be worth it ( ? ). What's your view on this ?

Hope to hear from you soon and thanks

I thought you had files you needed on D. Why not change the drive letter to another letter perhaps F. then see what happens.You can always change it back to D the same way. Don't remove the D drive yet.

You can usually find restore disks here-->http://www.restoredisks.com/

[Slickcondo]

Yes, I have files in D. But luckily I made hard copies of most of them before this problem started as it's my habit to do hard copy backup every 3 months. So I only lost about half month's work and I think with the exception of a few, I'll be able to get most of the work back from memory and recreate them.

I am more interested in knowing what cause this problem and how to prevent it happening in future. Most importantly, I was wondering if this is a actual physical hard disk failure due to excessive use over the years. Any idea or educated guess ? This time I am lucky in that it happens soon after I had taken hard copy backups on CD-RW.

Let me know if you have any further thoughts on this. Failing that, I will try changing i tto F drive and see. But how would this make any difference if it's just only a letter change ?

Thanks for your help and time on this so far.

[PeckerWood]

You are probably at a point you should download Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities.

This link will help.-->http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

Have you considered a USB external drive for the future?

[Slickcondo]

Thanks for the link to the Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools and Utilities. I'll certainly check it out.

External USB drive is very troublesome, especially if you need you have the laptop with you when travelling. If my hdd is dying, then the next alternative for me is to get a new laptop. I'll have to be certain that this is the case first before investing $$$ in a new one. But thanks of the suggestion and all your help. Pity we didn't get to the bottom of the cause though.

All the best.

[PeckerWood]

Originally Posted by Slickcondo

Thanks for the link to the Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools and Utilities. I'll certainly check it out.

External USB drive is very troublesome, especially if you need you have the laptop with you when travelling. If my hdd is dying, then the next alternative for me is to get a new laptop. I'll have to be certain that this is the case first before investing $$$ in a new one. But thanks of the suggestion and all your help. Pity we didn't get to the bottom of the cause though.

All the best.

You may be able to run TestDisk a freeware that runs in Windows.
Perhaps, that will get you to the D partition.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk-6.10.win.zip

[Ant]

Such errors are indicative of a dying HDD mate.

Nothing lasts forever (you did say years), and I'd back up what I could (if you can still access it), while I could.

A new HDD isn't too expensive, so there's no need to buy a new com, unless its spec is also considerably aged.

[Slickcondo]

Hi PeckerWood,

Thanks for the link. I'll look into it as I am sure it will be very useful.

Have a good weekend.

All the best