Hard drive with all my photos suddenly not working :( HELP!!

[GFWilliams]

I'm in a very sticky situation...

I've got an external hard drive which I keep all my photos on.
I've also got Computing coursework on the hard drive which is due soon.

Now I've got backups of a lot of my work, but the last one was about a week ago, so is very out of date.

I've got backups of a few of my photos on CDs and low res on the interent, but I've got a huge number of high resolution photos on the HDD.

Now the problem:
When plugged in, the hard drive makes some strange tones. The actual disc doesn't feel like it is spinning.
The computer makes the binging sound that it recognises that something has been plugged in, but then nothing else comes up.

On a Mac if I plug it in, it comes up with an error message, then asks if I would like to format it.

What are my options? I really would like the data as my photography is very important to me and I would rather not have to redo the coursework

Oh, and I'm a poor student, so the cheaper the better...

Thanks,
George

[Cerberus90]

Theres not really much 'you' can do. You could try taking the HDD out of the external enclosure and hooking it up directly to the PC in the case.

Only other option is to send it to a data recovery company, but these are usually expensive and not really very successful.
I suppose you could try it on Linux (Live CD), but as it didn't work on a Mac, I think the HDD will probably be knackered.

[marshalla]

I'm not that expensive!

Sounds like there is a failure somewhere on the drive. Experience suggests that it is more likely to be the controller board than the platters. Platter failure tends to present as bad sectors rather than the whole drive going off at once.

Now - you have a USB housing between the drive and the PC - so try the physical drive in another housing first. If that doesn't work, then it's the drive that has gone. First attempted solution in this case is to find an IDENTICAL drive (down to revision number on the board) and swap the boards over.

Edited by marshalla on Thursday 22 April 19:03

[GFWilliams]

marshalla said:

I'm not that expensive!

Sounds like there is a failure somewhere on the drive. Experience suggests that it is more likely to be the controller board than the platters. Platter failure tends to present as bad sectors rather than the whole drive going off at once.

Now - you have a USB housing between the drive and the PC - so try the physical drive in another housing first. If that doesn't work, then it's the drive that has gone. First attempted solution in this case is to find an IDENTICAL drive (down to revision number on the board) and swap the boards over.
]

Marshella,

Thanks for the reply
How much is not that expensive? (pm if you would like)

I'll try to find an identical drive - how do I go about finding one?

Thanks,
George

[marshalla]

Hang on - before trying a drive swap - you need to try a different USB housing/interface. You can pick them up in Maplin for £10 to £20 usually.

If that doesn't work - THEN you need to go looking for an identical drive to try a board swap - ebay is usually pretty good for them.

[The Excession]

After trying all the above you're then in the realms of running hot or cold. i.e. wrap it up in tissue put in plastic bag ans stick in freezer for a few hours, try it again. Then it's oven at 60C for 20 minutes and try again.


I've managed to get data off and old IBM DeskStar using this method.

[marshalla]

The Excession said:

After trying all the above you're then in the realms of running hot or cold. i.e. wrap it up in tissue put in plastic bag ans stick in freezer for a few hours, try it again. Then it's oven at 60C for 20 minutes and try again.


I've managed to get data off and old IBM DeskStar using this method.

Likewise- I've used this trick a couple of times, but fortunately the barristers never asked how I got the data off the "broken" discs.

[GFWilliams]

Hang on - before trying a drive swap - you need to try a different USB housing/interface. You can pick them up in Maplin for £10 to £20 usually.

I've already tried this with no joy

[marshalla]

Then off to ebay* it is!

• other sources of hard discs are available

[TurricanII]

Cerberus90 said:

Only other option is to send it to a data recovery company, but these are usually expensive and not really very successful.

I have used OnTrack (aka Vogan) many times with 100% success, from failed controller board (burn marks on it!) to banging drive heads. It will be >£500 though.

If your photo's are important enough, skip the freezer and oven and send it straight to a recovery house with a sealed white room to take your disk apart.

[aberdeeneuan]

Indeed - what price do you value the data?

If it's for all your photos, is it really worth the risk?

[GFWilliams]

aberdeeneuan said:

Indeed - what price do you value the data?

If it's for all your photos, is it really worth the risk?

It's very difficult to put a price on my photos as I've got copies of the best ones in low resolution, which is what is used all apart from prints.

I need to raid my CD backups, which are at home and decide exactly how many photo sets I have lost and how much it is worth worrying.

I've decided to just re-do my coursework as I'm on a tight deadline, so just need to get on and finish (stupid computing project!)

[S47]

Try giving the H/D a good hard shake - this sounds stupid but I've used this method to recover data from 2 H/D/s which failed in the past.
If this works, immediately tramsfer all you files to a new H/D, your H/d doesn't have long to live so don't be tempted to continue using it

[JB!]

i have a h/d in my pc with 200gb of media that i want to recover, but its not reading properly and making a clicking sound.

is it fked?

[marshalla]

JB! said:

i have a h/d in my pc with 200gb of media that i want to recover, but its not reading properly and making a clicking sound.

is it fked?

That also sounds like a controller board failure.