Hard Drive Failure.. HELP! need suggestions

LiquidIce1337

Senior member
Aug 23, 2005
537
0
0
So my external maxtor 250 gig hard drive started clicking tonight.. instantly turned it off.. I cannot get it to startup so I did not try more than like 3times because it clicks periodically trying to spin up... Now I have so much important data on this drive.. I am hoping I can retrieve it. I read you can throw the hard drive in the freezer (does anyone know exactly how i should store it in the freezer safely such as remove all the air from a ziplock bag then place it in there??) and my 2nd question is do I plug it in via usb or would it read quciker through being connected directly to the motherboard. Anyone have suggestions on a good reliable replacement drive, I have read things about those perependicular recording drives..

thanks
any help is appreciated!
 

LiquidIce1337

Senior member
Aug 23, 2005
537
0
0
the funny thing is, I was in the process of getting dual layers today to start doing so, I can't trust mechanical hardware.. Also, this hard drive IS my backup of my important data, since it's an external I only turn it on when I need it and I barely run it for long periods of time as to extend the life. blah... but I hope the freezer idea works.. I need suggestions for a new hard drive. Do the new perpendicular recording ones have better yields for reliability? How would one of those fare as an external hard drive used for mobile gigs.
 

statikuz

Member
Jul 30, 2006
39
0
0
Sometimes freezing it makes it work just long enough to get some data off it but not necessarily. If the drive is making clicking and grinding noises, then it's probably a head crash or some other mechanical failure, and the more you mess with it the more data you're going to lose. I had this problem with one of my HDDs, it became corrupt after I unplugged it from USB without ejecting it one too many times. I was able to get back most of what was on it through a combination of CHKDSK and a program called Active@ Undelete which seemed to work pretty well for the price.

You can also have the data professionally recovered, they basically take apart the drive and swap out motors and things until they can get it to work long enough to get your stuff off, but that costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500.
 

LiquidIce1337

Senior member
Aug 23, 2005
537
0
0
Thanks for the advice statikuz, I believe I'll cross my fingers and try freezing it for a day then slap it in in the morning before the humidity sets in.. I really think it happened because of the humidity we had in massachusetts here on wednesday. No air conditioning and hardly any ventilation would cause humidity to get the best of this drive.. I am hoping I am correct.. it dramatically cooled down the past 2 days so maybe the heads or platters have expanded.. freezing it I think is my only option.. don't think I see myself shelling out all that much for data recovery.. any reccomendation on hard drives?
 

statikuz

Member
Jul 30, 2006
39
0
0
I think I got a WD Caviar 200G to replace my last external HDD and haven't had any problems with it. I've found that hard drives are pretty much all the same except the super cheap and super expensive ones.
 

LiquidIce1337

Senior member
Aug 23, 2005
537
0
0
I see, I had the same notion, im going to give seagate a whirl, just ordered a new 200 gb perpendicular recording one.. can't go sata since my external box i got recently doesn't support sata.. I hope this perpendicular recording style will reduce wear and tear.. either way hard drives suck in my mind after this misfortune.. hopefully I'll be able to retrieve the data off it and put it on the new one.

The only question I have is.. I have an external enclosure which housed the dead drive.. do I...
A. install it back in there after i freeze it? or
B. Install it in my computer on the ide bus..

im not sure what to do.. either way I am going to transfer hard drive to hard drive.. I would think the 2nd option is better but as far as keeping it cold.. inside a computer wouldn't fare as well as externall with like an icepack on it while I try to get as much data as possible off of it.

any suggestions?
 

statikuz

Member
Jul 30, 2006
39
0
0
I would connect it via IDE but you don't necessarily have to install it in a bay if the cables are long enough, it could be sitting just outside the case. I think that might work better than connecting it via USB, just one more thing to eliminate.