reviving a gubbed hard drive....
Discussion
Came home tonight to find my slave drive making a funny noise. Restarted the PC and the squeaks and clunks coming from it tell me that either a mouse is inside my PC having an extremely fun time, or my slave drive has given up and taken all my holiday photos, music etc with it. I had the drive in 3 partitions, one for music, one for photos and one for general crap. None of those partitions are showing in My Computer.
Is there a way, without giving the hard drive to a man in a shop, to pull all the stuff off the drive before I lob the bloody thing on the barbeque??
I'm pretty handy with a screw driver, just about know my way around the inside of a hard drive and I dont mind trying anything!
I just want my photos back.
TIA
Stuart.
Is there a way, without giving the hard drive to a man in a shop, to pull all the stuff off the drive before I lob the bloody thing on the barbeque??
I'm pretty handy with a screw driver, just about know my way around the inside of a hard drive and I dont mind trying anything!
I just want my photos back.
TIA
Stuart.
I've just had a similar thing...see this thread...may or may not help you....
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Squeaks and clunks could be a sign of the heads physically riding the platter(s), and as such, you may have lost some data.
All you can do is keep trying it - if you can shove it in a Firewire/USB 2 enclosure, then connect repeatedly.
Hopefully on the one occasion it shows up, you can pull the files you want off it.
A trick that has been known to work is to stick the drive in the fridge overnight. Some have frozen it and let it reach room temp before connecting, and found the metal contraction allows the heads to freely move across the platters once again, thereby salvaging their data.
Other than that, it's the big boys with their big reassembling toys, but you are probably talking £3-500 easily, depending on the amount you need them to/they can recover for you.
All you can do is keep trying it - if you can shove it in a Firewire/USB 2 enclosure, then connect repeatedly.
Hopefully on the one occasion it shows up, you can pull the files you want off it.
A trick that has been known to work is to stick the drive in the fridge overnight. Some have frozen it and let it reach room temp before connecting, and found the metal contraction allows the heads to freely move across the platters once again, thereby salvaging their data.
Other than that, it's the big boys with their big reassembling toys, but you are probably talking £3-500 easily, depending on the amount you need them to/they can recover for you.
Just a quickie, the freezer trick does actually work. Stick it in a bag with the air removed to stop condensation, freeze for a few hours. Power up. If it works... grab as much as possible until it warms up and starts to go bonkers. Repeat until you can't get any more off it.
Often you only have one or two shots at it before the drive packs up all together from the abuse... so grab the stuff you really really want and put them on another HDD, don't burn to DVD directly from the bad drive (it's slower).
Often you only have one or two shots at it before the drive packs up all together from the abuse... so grab the stuff you really really want and put them on another HDD, don't burn to DVD directly from the bad drive (it's slower).
I got EasyRecovery Pro on a "free" download, and ran it with a couple of drives that failed a few months ago which I'd since given up on, and I got roughly 99% back!!
The drive with the data on was visible in My Computer, but when I tried to access it, it says it's not formatted and would I like to format it now? Of course not!!
Was so pleased to see the prog copying them over!!
Now a happy chappy! Hope you have similar success!
The drive with the data on was visible in My Computer, but when I tried to access it, it says it's not formatted and would I like to format it now? Of course not!!
Was so pleased to see the prog copying them over!!
Now a happy chappy! Hope you have similar success!
I too can vouch for the freezer trick.
Also putting it in an oven for twenty minutes at around 60-70 degrees celcius.
Alternate between the freezer and oven a few times.
The trick is to be ready if the drive does actually work, you might only have a few minutes, so make sure you know exactly which data you are going for, and don't hang about.
Also, orientating the drive at different angles can sometimes help.
I managed to revive an old IBM Desk Start (colloquially known as a Death Star) just long enough to get a friend's Company acconuting data off.
Also putting it in an oven for twenty minutes at around 60-70 degrees celcius.
Alternate between the freezer and oven a few times.
The trick is to be ready if the drive does actually work, you might only have a few minutes, so make sure you know exactly which data you are going for, and don't hang about.
Also, orientating the drive at different angles can sometimes help.
I managed to revive an old IBM Desk Start (colloquially known as a Death Star) just long enough to get a friend's Company acconuting data off.
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