Suggestion or restoring data from dead hard drive

[Monolith]

I have a 40Gig IBM hard drive that died. This drive was in my main file server as the main data storage drive. All my pc's in my rig were storing data on this drive. I called IBM and they are willing to replace the drive, however, they don't restore data. Any suggestions on how I can get my data recovered? Has anyone tried doing this themselves. I don't care if the drive is not under warrant if I open it.
Thanks

 

[Woody419]

If your hdd was formatted in FAT32 then Lost and Found might work. If you formatted in NTFS then you are looking at big bucks. Check out this link from Google.

I don't know what you expect to find opening up your hdd. All your data would just fall out on the desk in little bits (bytes?) and you would never get it back on those little disks in the right order. If you sent it back to IBM as a basket case I doubt they would honor the warranty.

 

[e_mc_2]

Freeze it over night in a sealed container with some Silica added to absorb any moisture. Then in the morning setup a computer with another drive that will hold the data(same size or bigger works best). Then run ghost to move the data over. This works for me 96% of the time. Good luck.

 

[Monolith]

I was going to see if I can reposition the head such that it can read the data. It sounds like the drive is not spinning up, I know in the past a good drop on the floor got my drives working, but I don't want to try that with this one
It's an NTFS drive and I think I have almost 31Gb of data on it.
I guess i'll just try opening it up and examining for myself
Thanks for the links

 

[MulLa]

e_mc_2 Are you serious? I've never heard of that one :Q

 

[OpalFrost98GT]

Freezing may help actually. it will shrink the metal parts insida and may free up a stuck head...lot's of people have had success with this....

 

[MulLa]

Hm... Ok must add this to my bag of tricks

 

[Monolith]

Hmm, freeze my hard drive. Wonder what wifie is going to say when she sees a computer part when she opens up the freezer. As it is, she thinks i'm nuts!
I'll give it a shot and let you know how that goes.
Thanks for the tip - this is the reason I post at Anandtech!

 

[AKLN]

 

[AKLN]

Actually, If you can find an identical drive, you can take the PCB from the new one and put it on the dead drive. As long as it's not a mechanical failure this will work 99% of the time. You will be able to grab all your data and when you have your data copy done, just put the dead PCB back on the old drive then ship it in for warranty replacement. I've done it a few times with no probs....

 

[jamarno]

I've tried AKLN's solution several times and have success in about half the cases, and I haven't yet ruined a good PCB by doing this (there may be the risk of shorting the chips that drive the head positioner or motor).

Cooling the drive can sometimes help, but I wouldn't cool it below the dew point, even if it's wrapped and dissicant is used. Just cool it to 40-50F. It doesn't free up any metal parts but probably just temporarily fixes cracks in the circuit board or lets marginal power transistors work well enough again, but maybe just cooling them to room temperature would do that as well. I had very good luck with cooling in the old days but have never been able to revive any modern drive (one built in the last 10 years) with it.