My hard drive is dead

[Liviathan]

So last week my HD started acitng weird, telling me files were missing type of thing. Well it went belly up later in the week. My backup is not a 100%...when the computer boots up the HD sounds like a car that won't start because of a bad starter. I think it spins, just not a 100%.

When I get into to XP, and select the drive, thats the data drive, it tells me is not formatted. I guess it does this because I can't recognize it....should I formatted and then try to do a data recovery on it? Or is the drive done?

Any tips? New drive is on the way, just want to get a couple of files from HD that were never backed up.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

Sounds like the drive is done. If you reformat there will be nothing to recover anyway.

Here's a tip. If you have important stuff that you don't want to lose back it up on cd or even a second hard drive.

 

[Liviathan]

I backup pretty often, just happened to be caught between cycles. I learned my lesson. Mirror drives for me.

 

[Zap Brannigan]

Raid-1 is your friend.

 

[HJustin]

You're going to think I'm nuts, but give this a go:

1. Put the drive in an anti-static bag.
2. Place that bag in a Ziploc bag and seal.
3. Put the drive in your freezer overnight.
4. Next morning, prepare your system for the "frozen" drive. Have imaging software ready or a working drive with backup software.
5. Quickly install the frozen drive and attempt to retrieve data.

This trick has saved my butt more than once. The tolerances on these drives are so fine that the very subtle shrinking that occurs at freezing temperatures may allow a drive head to clear the platter so that the drive may function for a short time. And if it doesn't work, you're not any worse off for it.

Good luck!

J

 

[firerock]

Originally posted by: HJustin
You're going to think I'm nuts, but give this a go:

1. Put the drive in an anti-static bag.
2. Place that bag in a Ziploc bag and seal.
3. Put the drive in your freezer overnight.
4. Next morning, prepare your system for the "frozen" drive. Have imaging software ready or a working drive with backup software.
5. Quickly install the frozen drive and attempt to retrieve data.

This trick has saved my butt more than once. The tolerances on these drives are so fine that the very subtle shrinking that occurs at freezing temperatures may allow a drive head to clear the platter so that the drive may function for a short time. And if it doesn't work, you're not any worse off for it.

Good luck!

J

I will 2nd that!

 

[magnublm]

I will 3rd that. The drive will last just long enough to copy your data. So be quick!

 

[TSDible]

ahhh...

The old freezer trick.

Worked once for me too. It comes highly reccomended.

Nothing to lose after all....

 

[Biggerhammer]

I had been going to suggest the same.

 

[RelaxTheMind]

worked once long ago

recently didnt work for me. i turned it over and touched one of the chips and it INSTANTLY burned the crap out of my fingertip. Only one of them though.

what you guys think the chance of just changing out the pcb board are? or do you think its getting hot because of a stuck motor?

 

[mparr1708]

You can also try tapping it with a rubber mallet or the back end of a screw driver. Dont beat it to a pulp but some times a good whack will get it to boot up. Obviously this is not something you want to do unless you are sure you have no other way of getting the drive up though. Usually hitting your drives is a bad thing to do .

 

[Liviathan]

Originally posted by: HJustin
You're going to think I'm nuts, but give this a go:

1. Put the drive in an anti-static bag.
2. Place that bag in a Ziploc bag and seal.
3. Put the drive in your freezer overnight.
4. Next morning, prepare your system for the "frozen" drive. Have imaging software ready or a working drive with backup software.
5. Quickly install the frozen drive and attempt to retrieve data.

This trick has saved my butt more than once. The tolerances on these drives are so fine that the very subtle shrinking that occurs at freezing temperatures may allow a drive head to clear the platter so that the drive may function for a short time. And if it doesn't work, you're not any worse off for it.

Good luck!

J

Wow...it sounds insane but I will try it. Nothing to loose at this point. I hope its not a prank!

 

[HJustin]

Well? Did you freeze it?

J

 

[Laputa]

Or try data recovery by duplicate the drive with one of those hardware hard drive duplicator. They fix errors on the fly if the drive still detects and spins. May take a long time though; I mean maybe a day.

 

[Wadded Beef]

Originally posted by: firerock

Originally posted by: HJustin
You're going to think I'm nuts, but give this a go:

1. Put the drive in an anti-static bag.
2. Place that bag in a Ziploc bag and seal.
3. Put the drive in your freezer overnight.
4. Next morning, prepare your system for the "frozen" drive. Have imaging software ready or a working drive with backup software.
5. Quickly install the frozen drive and attempt to retrieve data.

This trick has saved my butt more than once. The tolerances on these drives are so fine that the very subtle shrinking that occurs at freezing temperatures may allow a drive head to clear the platter so that the drive may function for a short time. And if it doesn't work, you're not any worse off for it.

Good luck!

J

I will 2nd that!

it worked for me, i froze it and put it in an external drive enclosure and put ice on top of it, worked for over an hour and a half like this. internally it won't last as long, maybe 20 minutes?

 

[Bassyhead]

Yeah give the freezer trick a try, make sure you seal it up good.

 

[Tweaks R Us]

you can also try taking out your drive and pissing on it that works sometimes