My arcade's HDD died!! (Desperate- Mame 127 help)

[gman314]

After 4 years of hard work and tweaking, my 1 TB SeaGate HDD simply refused to boot the other night  .  I am still hoping to be able to recover some data, but I am bracing myself for the worst.

I have most of my roms, videos, snaps, etc. backed up on discs, but the bottom line is that I do not simply have as much free time now to mess around with things as i had 4 years ago (2 months ago i had a baby and recently I returned back to work). 

The bottom line is this, it took me many many hours to figure out how to compile Mame 127 with the hiscore diff, no nag/load screen diff, u1 through u8 diffs, and neogeo.zip applied.  I know that this would take an experienced person only a few minutes, but I am somewhat lacking in computer knowledge.

What I am asking is if there is a kind soul out there that has a complied version of Mame 127 and would be sympathetic enough to send it to me?  I know that my Donkey Kong hi scores are gone (about 126,000), but at least this could be one less thing for me to worry about.  Please Help!!  This is so bad!!!! 

[claremont]

What makes you think the drive is bad? I have been a system administrator for a quarter century and only very rarely have I experienced a truly bad hard drive. Oftentimes the hard disk controller will act up, but the data itself is typically intact and recoverable. If the drive wont boot, install another hard drive set up as the primary, and set the seagate up as a slave. Once you boot to the primary disk, copy everything you can from the seagate over to the boot disk.

[DeLuSioNal29]

It's happened to me, so I totally understand.  Just when I thought I was screwed, I discovered that I was able to retrieve my data with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter.

Try purchasing something like this and plug in your hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102

Plug the USB connector into another computer that you know works.  Chances are your data will be fine (just the boot sector is screwed).  So you will be able to copy over all of your precious data.  Then try reformatting the drive and installing the OS again with your arcade machine's motherboard.

Also, try swapping out the cable for the hard drive and switch the power connector to a different one.

Good Luck!

DeLuSioNaL29

[Diet_Pepsi]

It's happened to me, so I totally understand.  Just when I thought I was screwed, I discovered that I was able to retrieve my data with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter.

Chances are your data will be fine (just the boot sector is screwed).  So you will be able to copy over all of your precious data. 

+1 -- same thing happened to me and I was able to retrieve data (pictures of my kids) using a similar USB dock.  After that near-death experience I have a home server and an additional backup that I keep offsite...

[gman314]

Thanks for the input. I have already invested in a Thermaltake BlacX device: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153071

Do you think it will do the same job as the IDE/SATA adapter that was mentioned earlier? When I first used the BlacX to copy from the old drive to a new one, many files either refused to copy or would have taken a ridiculously long time to do so. I'm still hoping that its just a boot file that is corrupted and not all of my data.

[Diet_Pepsi]

That device is pretty much the same as what I used.

[DeLuSioNal29]

When I first used the BlacX to copy from the old drive to a new one, many files either refused to copy or would have taken a ridiculously long time to do so. I'm still hoping that its just a boot file that is corrupted and not all of my data.

I had this same issue with my external hdd case. It would freeze and take long to copy files over.  Sometimes not at all.  I bought the adapter I mentioned above and I was able to read everything just fine. It's $19.99 (normally $29.99) and if you use coupon code:  CABLEME30 you get another $6.00 off. With free shipping and no tax, it comes out to $13.99 total.  Mileage may vary with the device in your situation, but either way it's a heck of a deal and a handy device to have.  Our IT department uses it.

D

[gman314]

I ordered that IDE/SATA adapter (should be here by Thursday).  One of my concerns is the fact that my "currently non working" HDD is running XP and the host computer that I will use to transfer the data is a Windows 7 computer.  Will this be an issue?  Suppose I use a MacBook as the host computer, would that be an issue?

[nipsmg]

No, that won't be an issue.  The macbook and the Windows 7 computer should be able to read data off that drive.  I'd almost recommend using the Macbook as (i'm almost positive) OSX will only mount NTFS volumes as Read Only.   (I'm assuming your disk is formatted as NTFS). 

[Dervacumen]

What is the model of your Seagate drive?  A 7200.11?   Is it detected in BIOS?  I had one that stopped being recognized by BIOS - it was buggy firmware.  Made a special cable, sent it some commands through Hyperterminal and it's been working ever since.