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Physically bad HD

C

CheesePoofs

Diamond Member
To make a long story short, I have a hard drive with a lot of valuable data on it that's physically dying; it will spin up for a few seconds and then makes a noise as if something's hitting the platters (I don't think that's it, but it's hard to explain) and then it slows down and stops spinning. I've tried an enclosure, same thing. I also tried the freezer trick (though it only spent a few hours freezing) and it lasted about twice as long, but that's still only 10-15 seconds, not even enough time for the computer to recognize the HD.

So anyways, I have a hard drive that seems to be exactly the same; I compared the PCB and all the major chips are the same. Is it possible to transfer the platters to the working HD? Or do something to get the data off the dead HD?

The hard drive is a Maxtor 2B020H1, which is a 20gb 5200rpm 3.25" drive, but it's a lot thinner than most hard drives.
 
Then it seems the expensive method of sending the drive to a recovery data depot is the next option.

If you haven't backed up your data to CDs, DVDs or HDDs previously then, you're up the creek w/o the.......................

They build those HDDs in a special dust free environment and need I say more?

Good luck, for sure.
 
And what have we learned about backups and/or RAID?

On a side note, their have been people who have sucessfully bought an identical drive, swapped platters, and recovered their data. Try google.
 
Every time I messed with the platters in an old drive I managed to make the heads crash. Those things are precision devices, it would be VERY hard to swap platters.
 
If your data is realy important the more you fiddle with it the greater the damage can become. If there is head to platter contact every attempt is scraping away your data :Q Although it is not inexpensive (and only you can put a price on your data) geting help early will maximize your chances of recovery. Ther are a series of vidieos on youtube that give a great deal of insight into what can go wrong and might be worth a look just search for Hard drive recovery or talk to Dave Mason as I suggested in my last post.


Good luck
Amos
 
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