NOOO!!!! I think I may have just lost 80 gigs of data! :(

[WarDemon666]

I just lost about 4 months of work on a program ive been spending day and night working on..... A windows shell to play music, video, games, programs etc, to run in my car computer....

I bring my laptop harddrive in an external case everywhere I go so I can work on it at school and at home.


I dropped it at school today and now it wont spin up...


when i tilt it from side to side i hear a ticking noise, something like a head that fell broke or something....


Is there ANYTHING at all that I can do to try and get my data back???


Thanks

 

[Ipno]

If the head fell and broke the only way you'll get that data back is if you pay some high priced data recovery firm to get it for you, and even then you might not.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

i back up useless sh1t all the time...so you definetly should have backed up your stuff. That doesnt help you here tho

 

[CapaJC]

I'd tell you to restore from your backup, but I'd prob'ly just sound like a dick. Man, I'm sorry. That sucks. Those data recovery companies often charge thousands of dollars. Some don't charge unless they recover data, some charge anyway. Some offer 24hr turnaround, if it's critical.

If I ever had to go that route, I'd probably do a google search for 3rd-party reviews of data recovery companies and try to learn which are a good combination of cheap and good.

Best of luck, whatever happens. And definitely come up with (and implement) a data backup plan in the future. It can be easier than you think, once it's all set up and working.

--James in S.D.

 

[MrDingleDangle]

in 4 months you never backed it up?!?!?!??!

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
in 4 months you never backed it up?!?!?!??!

I did..... but on that drive... (i lost about 4 weeks of work once cause i unplugged it and it was saving, so i though, ill just save it in a new folder so if that happens again ill have a new backup.... i never thought id drop it


before i dropped it it 'ticked' when i shook it lightly, and now it still does it, but a lot worse...

if I buy another hard drive with the identical rev. number and same size, would it be possible to replace the broken part? Its a fujitsu 80 gb hdd


Thanks again for your help

 

[Ipno]

You can't replace parts in a hard drive. Once you crack it open it's dead, unless you're doing it in a clean room with the right environmental controls, in which case you might as well take it to the data recovery people.

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: Ipno
You can't replace parts in a hard drive. Once you crack it open it's dead, unless you're doing it in a clean room with the right environmental controls, in which case you might as well take it to the data recovery people.

I read that if you put on a hot shower for a while to steam up the whole bathroom and wait for the steam to leave it settles most of the dust and its a good place to do it....


ideas?

 

[WarDemon666]

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/

?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: WarDemon666

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
in 4 months you never backed it up?!?!?!??!

I did..... but on that drive... (i lost about 4 weeks of work once cause i unplugged it and it was saving, so i though, ill just save it in a new folder so if that happens again ill have a new backup.... i never thought id drop it

"backing up" on the same drive is not really "backing up". Well, I guess it saves you from utter stupidity (like accidentally overwriting/deleting the files in the 'main' directory), but it certainly isn't a solid backup solution, as you do not really have two independent copies of the data.

before i dropped it it 'ticked' when i shook it lightly, and now it still does it, but a lot worse...

If you hear anything rattling around in there, and it won't spin up, it's probably dead.

if I buy another hard drive with the identical rev. number and same size, would it be possible to replace the broken part? Its a fujitsu 80 gb hdd

Depends on what's wrong. If you broke the circuit board, replacing that has a pretty good success rate. If you actually busted the actuators or one of the heads, you're probably SOL on fixing it yourself, as opening the drive to try to fix it is as likely to irrevocably destroy the data as to get any of it back. If, God help you, you shattered one of the drive platters, your data is toast. The good news is that, unless you dropped this thing off the top of a building, the most likely thing you broke was the circuit board. That's about the only thing you could realistically fix on your own.

If it's not the circuit board, and you didn't completely disintegrate the platter/platters, a professional data recovery firm can probably get some or most of the data back. However, it will cost you.

 

[WarDemon666]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: WarDemon666

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
in 4 months you never backed it up?!?!?!??!

I did..... but on that drive... (i lost about 4 weeks of work once cause i unplugged it and it was saving, so i though, ill just save it in a new folder so if that happens again ill have a new backup.... i never thought id drop it

"backing up" on the same drive is not really "backing up". Well, I guess it saves you from utter stupidity (like accidentally overwriting/deleting the files in the 'main' directory), but it certainly isn't a solid backup solution, as you do not really have two independent copies of the data.

before i dropped it it 'ticked' when i shook it lightly, and now it still does it, but a lot worse...

If you hear anything rattling around in there, and it won't spin up, it's probably dead.

if I buy another hard drive with the identical rev. number and same size, would it be possible to replace the broken part? Its a fujitsu 80 gb hdd

Depends on what's wrong. If you broke the circuit board, replacing that has a pretty good success rate. If you actually busted the actuators or one of the heads, you're probably SOL on fixing it yourself, as opening the drive to try to fix it is as likely to irrevocably destroy the data as to get any of it back. If, God help you, you shattered one of the drive platters, your data is toast. The good news is that, unless you dropped this thing off the top of a building, the most likely thing you broke was the circuit board. That's about the only thing you could realistically fix on your own.

If it's not the circuit board, and you didn't completely disintegrate the platter/platters, a professional data recovery firm can probably get some or most of the data back. However, it will cost you.

Is it risky to take it apart? if i remove the 4 screws and look inside, could it be a head thats broke? If its the circuit board, do I still have to use the 'shower trick'?

 

[Kakumba]

Aye, as has been said, its time to call the profesionals. My understanding is that you need at least a Grade 100 clean room (100 parts dust per million parts air?) but I could be wrong there. I suspect your bathroom isnt quite up to scratch. Thats only if its really important.

They charge a lot per hour, but if you can find one that doesnt charge unless they get the data, that would help. Also ask them to only try recover certain data (Have heard that if they are only getting some data, they get the job done faster = cheaper)

And at the end of the day, you just learned the lesson the hard way. Sorry.

 

[jdkick]

Originally posted by: WarDemon666
i lost about 4 weeks of work once cause i unplugged it and it was saving, so i though, ill just save it in a new folder so if that happens again ill have a new backup.... i never thought id drop it

That experience should have been your first heads up. Also, duplicating the data to another folder on the same drive is not sufficient, as you have now learned. You need to duplicate the data to another drive (home PC) or some other media (CD/DVD). This is especially important with development work where such minute and frequent changes can occur... IMO, daily backups would be ideal.

With some drives you can replace the controller board, provided that the failure wasn't mechanical. In your case, it sounds like a mechanical components was actually broken in the fall. Even if you could find an identical drive, I doubt you'd be successful in replacing the necessary components and extracting the data given: 1) the lack of a clean room and 2) insufficient experience with disassembling/reassembling drives.

Sorry to say, but your best bet would be to send the drive in for recovery. I did this myself a few years ago and the charge significant - $800CDN (including a new drive). It wasn't my data tho... but i've been very strict with backups ever since (important stuff duplicated on an external drive and the really important stuff then burned to DVD).

 

[Mellman]

As much as it sucks, I bet you still don't learn from this mistake and backup on multiple hard drives/data sources. I can't tell how many times family friends have lost data, and have no backups, and its the same people every time.

Your only option here bud is to determine the value of the program. More likely than not you will need to spend several thousand dollars to recover the data, even if it is recoverable, it may still be corrupted. I've never had mission critical data to recover, any data i've lost i either had a backup, or was only needed once and just never deleted.

Good luck on your quest.


As far as recovering it yourself, sure its possible for you to try the hot shower method, but then your skin oil may get on the platters too - while i've replaced covers on drives with lexan, i've not ventured into replacing the head which sounds like thats what ya broke Oh - don't keep plugging it in hoping it will work this time. the head could be bent, and scratching the platters, making a recovery impossible by anyone.

GOOD LUCK!
-Matt

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: WarDemon666
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/

Seen it before. In theory, swapping platterns can work, if you can create a sufficiently 'clean' environment. Although they did mention several things that could screw it up (such as the bad sector list getting corrupted and marking all the sectors as unreadable).

I'm skeptical that it could possibly work with a multi-platter drive due to alignment issues (though if your laptop drive only uses one platter, you could have a shot).

One of the replies there did mention the possibility of taking out the whole motor/spindle assembly from a shot drive, sidestepping the alignment issue. However, I don't know if this is feasable with all models of drive.

If you CARE about this data, call the professionals.