Or at least I believe it to be my hard drive. Booting into Windows prompts a checkdisk, tons of sectors unreadable.

Though it boots into Linux seemingly fine. What should I do here? I'd like to save as much information as possible. Any utilities I can use?

If it boots to linux fine you should begin to back up all you need. Also you can try a Live CD (i recomend Hiren's Boot CD/DVD and then boot to Mini XP) and back up all your files to a USB drive.

Also, the Hiren's comes with a lot of testing tools to check the health or your HDD

KMD said:

Or at least I believe it to be my hard drive. Booting into Windows prompts a checkdisk, tons of sectors unreadable.

Though it boots into Linux seemingly fine. What should I do here? I'd like to save as much information as possible. Any utilities I can use?

Click to expand...

rsync into a mounted Volume?

rsync -a src/ dest/

KMD said:

Or at least I believe it to be my hard drive. Booting into Windows prompts a checkdisk, tons of sectors unreadable.

Though it boots into Linux seemingly fine. What should I do here? I'd like to save as much information as possible. Any utilities I can use?

Click to expand...

Stick it in a ziplock bag in the freezer over night and get everything off it the next day.

I am dealing with that problem right now, too. Mine failed one day for an hour or so, then it later stopped working altogether. I took my drive out and when I spin it, it sounds like a record scratching. Not reassuring... It's currently in my freezer in a bag.

Anyway, the very first thing I'd do is boot into Linux and salvage whatever can be salvaged. After that, run various NTFS repair tools to see if you can get Windows to boot again.

Some general tips:
- Be smart enough to back up your stuff at the FIRST sign of failure. Don't kid yourself and say, "oh, maybe it won't fail." Do it anyway.
- I read on the 'net that you can stick it in the freezer for 2 - 24 hours if it fails. It shrinks the parts a bit. If this works, back up your stuff immediately.
- I also read that, as a very last resort with a failed dtive, you can tap the drive or drop it 6 inches to hopefully activate the actuators.

You should have backups BEFORE your drive starts to fail, bro.

Check the warranty status as you could get a free replacement if in warranty period.