Is there any way to find out how old a hdd is?

Well I think I have a mostly dead hdd, I think this because it it now only showing up as about 40GB when it should be about 250GB and I can see some files that say they have 0 size and nothing comes up when trying to open them. And I want to know if the drive is still within my warranty (3 years I think after looking at it on websites)

Well if you have a 3 year warranty on it and you've had it for longer then 3 years it wont be covered anymore, and are you sure your not mistaking the 40gb for the amount of space left? maybe you've used 210gb? as for finding out how old an hdd is exactly i have no idea, ive always had a ruff idea due to mainly building my own comps so ive never done any research on that specif question.

Yea, i'm sure, I asked my dad about it, and he seems to think it's a FAT issue as the files are still known to be there, however there is no file to go with it. I am currently looking for a file restoration program, to see if i can get the files back.

open up your case and look at the HDD, sometimes they have a date on them, this is when they are manufactured, though some do not have this date on them, some do but it could be on the front on back look carefully, my HDD says it next to its serial number.

hope this helps

Yea, i've allready looked, there is no date

ok then try this to see how much space youve got or at least your partion size:

Start -> Control Panel -> (In Classic View) Administrative tools - > Computer management - > Disk Management -> it should come up with area that shows how big your partions are, if it refers to it as the 40GB as you describe, then is there a new partion option showen next to your C drive, if it shows there is 250GB then, does it say under the drive letter FAT or FAT 32 or NTFS?

comes up with the image attached

Try partitioning off that extra 190 or so GB and then merging it with whatever.

would that not risk wiping all the data off the unallocated part?

The only way you can get data from that unallocated section is to use a file recovery program. Depending on what you buy and what the program decides is missing they can re-invent the missing partition table entry, rebuild the file assignment tables, scan the drive for directories to rebuild file assignment tables from scratch, scan for files of various types that have no directory entries at all or reconstitute files from underneath currently written data, any of that's possible. I'm not sure it's what you need though.

The drive's not faulty by the look of it. Why do you think it's faulty?

The first of that model on the market was in January 2006, it's no more than 28 months old.

What files should be on the drive that you want to recover? How important is it to you? If, for example, they're photos that don't exist anywhere else and they have huge value to you then we could talk you through getting them back but it takes quite an effort.

If you really do want files back, don't do anything to the drive without being properly advised. Whatever you do will reduce your chances of eventual success.

If you decide you just want the drive back in use then say so and we'll get it back to 250GB and checked to be healthy. Is there useful data in that 40GB NTFS partition? Have you archived that D: drive to a backup somewhere?

Well, I ghosted the drive onto another drive yesterday, however that was only the 40GB part, it didn't seem to find the rest to ghost (I used norton ghost 9.0) the drive has all my stuff on it (it used to only be the 1 partition) it has stuff like, photos, school work/coursework, save games (save games aren't as important) etc, I would like to be able to be talked through how to get the files back if possible, I would prefer to do it with freeware programs, however if there is only programs that you have to buy that will do the job, I might be willing to spend money on it.

Thanks

Can you think if a reason why the partition size has changed to 40GB from the initial full capacity disk?

Well, my theory is, that when I plugged in my old hdd (40GB) it made the motherboard think this hdd was that one (so only 40GB in size) when I removed the old hdd.

I'd assumed that the BIOS settings for all the drives are Auto. Can you check that they are and make them all Auto if they're not?

i'm pretty sure they ar all on auto, I will check now

Edit: yes, it's on auto, and the bios says it's 249GB in size.