Retreving data of a broken Hard drive.

ace86

Hi i purchased a Packard bell lab top last yr and the hard drive gave up on me and a I had a lot of information basically word documents and excel and photos on it and the guy I bought it off sent it to a crowd in UK to retrieve the data off but they were unsuccessful in doing it bcos they could not find and identical hard drive like mine so they could transfer the info onto.I'm wondering is there any crowds here in Ireland that are good at it and would be able to do it at a reasonable cost? Any Info Greatly appreciated.

riclad

Theres a data recovery company ,near phibsboro shopping centre.dublin.
about 200 yards away on the left as you come from the centre.
could you look on ebay ,maybe buy identical drive there.
i presume you mean drive pcb is dead.

ace86

riclad wrote: »

Theres a data recovery company ,near phibsboro shopping centre.dublin.
about 200 yards away on the left as you come from the centre.
could you look on ebay ,maybe buy identical drive there.
i presume you mean drive pcb is dead.

I don't know the technical situation but from what your man said to me they have to power up the old hard drive some way and transfer the data from that the new one but i find out what exactly is gone or how it works. I think they searched for hard drives but they had no luck,I'm a good few hrs from Dublin have ya any number for that crowd??

Dermot Illogical

Highly recommended....
http://www.criticaldata.ie

riclad

Post here the drive model no,
eg seagate jk60078a ,80gig
ut an ad on adverts,ie ,,
Wanted drive model no etc

ace86

Western Digital WD7500BVPT-22HXZT3 this I think is the model number of the hard drive I require anyone know where I get one exactly like the one I have here??

riclad

Ebay.com ,or ebay co.uk
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Western-Digital-WD5000BPVT-22HXZT3-500gb-2-5-Sata-PCB-/111138493849


Get drive pcb ,swap it in for the old one.

PCB MUST BE IDENTICAL to the drive you have .
can you feel drive spin up,
PUT finger on top of drive,
in the middle,
not on pcb.
Turn on the pc.
you should feel a slight vibration.
does hd activity light come on ,from pc led.

or post wanted hd model ,x ,on www.adverts.ie /wanted computer hardware.

IS the drive working ok physically ?
then you just need a drive pcb.

Did you try drive freezer trick,
put drive in freezer for 3 hours,
in a sealed ziploc bag.
then boot up drive . in slave mode,Use data ,power cables, from sata pc dvdrom drive.
i have a drive 500 gig
tried it in a new sata dock.Last week.
its completely dead.
i presume its a bad pcb.

IF the drive is working ok, mechanically all you need is an identical pcb.

maki

Don't do a PCB swap; it's unlikely to work. You'd need to get one with the exact same firmware revision to be in with even a remote chance.

The problem is that the PCB contains firmware unique to your drive (S.M.A.R.T. data, reallocated sectors, bad sectors). So if doing a PCB swap you'll need to de-solder and re-solder the BIOS chip too.

riclad

i,m not saying its gauranteed to work,someone posted here on boards.ie, A few months ago,
he swapped pcb,on a drive and it worked.
he managed to get an identical pcb, with the same firmware.
I,M NOT saying maki,is wrong.
ITS the cheapest option,
IF it works.

http://www.harddrivepcb.com/swap_replacement_guide.html

http://www.harddrivepcb.com/western-digital-pcb-c-11.html

maki

riclad wrote: »

i,m not saying its gauranteed to work,someone posted here on boards.ie, A few months ago,
he swapped pcb,on a drive and it worked.
he managed to get an identical pcb, with the same firmware.
I,M NOT saying maki,is wrong.
ITS the cheapest option,
IF it works.

http://www.harddrivepcb.com/swap_replacement_guide.html

http://www.harddrivepcb.com/western-digital-pcb-c-11.html

It's nowhere close to guaranteed to work. It honestly shouldn't work with any modern hard drive.

OP, you want a service like this. You ship them the PCB, they'll swap the firmware onto a fresh board and send it back to you. More expensive, but you're guaranteed a working PCB at the end of it.

riclad

Yeah ,i agree with malik,
use the service,
send em your board.
I,m presuming the drive works,normally ,apart from the pcb board.
eg the pcb is faulty.
Hence the company you used before was looking for a duplicate hardrive.
ITS possible some one on adverts.ie might have a drive with the same pcb,
and the same firmware version.
Did they company give you any info re the state of your drive.

free wd testing software,
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en

ace86

thanks for the reply lads but im not sure exactly what is wrong with the hard drive but the guy who sent way will send me on a report that he got from a crowd in the uk that did it from him. from what I know the hard drive is dead and I need an identical hard drive as they need it to abstract the info from the bad one some how I not very good at computers in what happens. I post again when I can get the report.

ace86

here is a photo of the hard drive if anyone know where there is or where i might get one that would be greatly appreciated,

riclad

I think you can buy just about any drive,
on ebay.com.
or ebay.co.uk ,
Make sure its the exact same model no,
of course if the firmware is not the same,
it may not do you any good.
put model no into google.ie. see what comes up.

Sam Russell

Have you tried Seagate or Wesern Digital to see what they can do? Seagate bought WD some time ago.

Edit: http://www.datarecoverydublin.ie/anatomy_of_a_hard_drive.php (no connection and no recommendation)

riclad

AS in previous posts ,theres companys that,ll sell you drives, drive pcbs,
with identical firmware ,
if you look at the label on the drive,
there,s more info there,not just the model no.
if you think swapping the pcb, will work ,
to acess your data.