[Valfar]

My friend has an HP Pavilion Elite m9350f which as of right now has a failing harddrive, with RAID enabled. We are able to boot Vista, but it freezes shortly after, so there is no way to back the files up from that approach. (As of right now, we are just trying to back up his files)

We have tried bootable Server 2008 and my Vista 64 CD's, which both were not able to read the harddrive, due to, I am assuming, missing RAID drivers.

Is there a way to reach to the harddrive and recover the files? The HP's recovery CD is absolutely pointless. It has no command prompt and its backup program fails miserably. It saves everything as a weird fbw extension, and none of them has made a complete transfer (or didnt have the patience to wait...)

Any kind of help will be of great help,


Thank you.

[Noyb]

If you only have one HDD .. You're not really running RAID.

Install a new HDD .. and recover it using the HP recovery DVDs
Then you should be able to install the old HDD as a second HD and read it... if it's still readable.

You might also try booting in safe mode .. and see if it stays booted so you can backup some files.

[underclocked]

Either of these should help:

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm

http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk-dos.htm

The Win version has a hard disk monitor that shows error rates.

[Valfar]

Technically, there only is one HDD, which is said to be in RAID...so is that not really a RAID? Will it break nothing if it is disabled?

[Noyb]

Don't mess with the Bios ...
Just install a new HDD .. and recover it with the recovery DVDs.
Then you may be able to install the old HDD as a second HDD and read any Data from it.

In a HP .. If the second (or 3rd ... or more) HDD has a bootable partition ...
Tap the esc key at bootup .. And you will enter a boot loader that will let you select which HDD to boot from.

When you boot the HP .. see the bottom of the HP screen .. it should say ESC=<Boot Loader>

All my newer HPs say RAID .. But this is just a RAID JBOD... (Just a Bunch Of Discs)..

[Valfar]

the computer does not have any other bootable harddrives, just the failing one.
I am confused as to what you mean by;
"Just install a new HDD .. and recover it with the recovery DVDs.
Then you may be able to install the old HDD as a second HDD and read any Data from it"

Do you recommend that we should buy a new, formatted SATA hdd, plug it in, install an OS, then access the failing hdds content through it?

[theFakeGeek]

That seems to be indeed what he means.

Before you run out and buy a new HDD have you tried running a Hard Drive diagnostic tool? You can either use generic tools or download them from the manufacturer of your drive.

As for backing up your data you can look into downloading Ubuntu Linux onto a CD, booting from that and moving important data to a flash drive or external Hard Drive.

Hope that helps.

[Noyb]

Do you recommend that we should buy a new, formatted SATA hdd, plug it in, install an OS, then access the failing hdds content through it?

YES .. But it doesn't need to be formatted .. Just a new one.

Not sure I like the variable speed on this 750 gig replacement for your m9350f ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136150

But I'm running a few of these 500gigs ..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073

They make Bigger <> Smaller ... And you can go shopping here ..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nd&Order=PRICE

These are OEM HDDs .. Which means they do not come with connectors.
You'll need on of these cables to install the old HDD as a second HDD ..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812123163

[Noyb]

Once you get a new HD freshly restored .. and you have extracted your Data from the old one ...
and if it checks out OK ...

You can make a copy of your new system to the old HDD .. or another new one ...
Then you can have an internal back up .. And you won't have this problem again.
It can look something like attached ...

Check back when you get to this point and I can tell you how ... Dual booting is easy in a HP.