Hard drive repair

mayhem# · 13-09-2002 9:30pm #1

Lads,
I'm in a bit of a tiff here.
One of my hard drives has gone tits-up.
It's no longer detected at bootup and oddly enough it even stops other drives on the same IDE-chain from being detected.
The drive itself tries to spin-up but the only real sign of life is that it goes; rrrrr, click, rrrrr, click , etc.
There's about 40gigs of data on it that I rather not lose (MP3's and stuff...). Anuone have any tips?

Stephen · 13-09-2002 9:41pm

Is it a Quantum fireball?

mayhem# · 13-09-2002 9:43pm

Haha, really funny...
No it's a Seagate yokie..

longword · 13-09-2002 10:18pm

If there's critical data on it, stick the drive in a zip-lock bag, keeping as much air out of the bag as you can. Throw it in the freezer for half an hour. Then take it out, plug it in, and hope for the best as you copy your data off.

After that, chuck the drive out or open it up and extract the platters for use as coasters.

The Apprentice · 14-09-2002 12:38am

stick the drive in a zip-lock bag, keeping as much air out of the bag as you can. Throw it in the freezer for half an hour. Then take it out, plug it in, and hope for the best as you copy your data off.

LOL... this cant possibly work where did u hear this one..
Strange but anyway..
There are some companies who are open to this kind of thing...
Basically restoring lost data on hds discs cdrs that kind of thing.. maybe u should go down that road. But it aint cheap.
I think they charge by the gig
Also mp3,s can be replaced very easily... if ure in dire need of some i,ll even sort u out. But for the other data u,d want to keep .... (i dunno basically im out of ideas to help u) hmmm could be a failed hd.. still as long as the platters are ok. Could u try getting a same hd 40 gig model etc and replace the platters and try hoping for the best

Appy

Gerry · 14-09-2002 12:45am

replace the platters apprentice? Are you mad? Do you know anything about hard drives? Mayhem came into #tech.ie and got pretty pissed off when he wasn't offered a magic solution to his problem. The most you can hope for is that you leave the harddrive for a while, and it boots up for you once to get the data off, or else you pay loads for a data recovery company to get the data for you. Thats about it really.

longword · 14-09-2002 12:52am

Originally posted by The Apprentice
LOL... this cant possibly work where did u hear this one..

The freezer trick _does_ work! But it's a last-ditch strategy. Google for it. My guess is it works by shrinking the drive bits slightly, giving them a bit more room to play.

strat · 14-09-2002 1:16am

a hd of mine died recently
i googled aroudn for hd recovery software and found lots
i didnt have to use it in my case - managed to ger 95% of the stuff i need anyway
these ones appear to be good from user and other reviews etc

http://www.tucows.com/system/preview/250603.html GetDataBack 2.00
http://www.tucows.com/system/preview/263215.html Stellar Phoenix 8.0-Data Recovery Software 8.0
http://download.com.com/3000-2248-6...g=lst-0-4 -NTFS Runtime's DiskExplorer

most of them come in FAT32 and NTFS flavours

longword · 14-09-2002 1:20am

In this case, with the BIOS not even seeing the drive, software won't do you any good at all. But if you do manage to get the drive spinning these tools can be handy for avoiding the damaged areas of the disk, if any.

mayhem# · 14-09-2002 12:14pm

Originally posted by longword
If there's critical data on it, stick the drive in a zip-lock bag, keeping as much air out of the bag as you can. Throw it in the freezer for half an hour. Then take it out, plug it in, and hope for the best as you copy your data off.

After that, chuck the drive out or open it up and extract the platters for use as coasters.

Heard of that one but was saving it as a last ditch effort...

mayhem# · 14-09-2002 12:17pm

Originally posted by The Apprentice
LOL... this cant possibly work where did u hear this one..
Strange but anyway..
There are some companies who are open to this kind of thing...
Basically restoring lost data on hds discs cdrs that kind of thing.. maybe u should go down that road. But it aint cheap.
I think they charge by the gig
Also mp3,s can be replaced very easily... if ure in dire need of some i,ll even sort u out. But for the other data u,d want to keep .... (i dunno basically im out of ideas to help u) hmmm could be a failed hd.. still as long as the platters are ok. Could u try getting a same hd 40 gig model etc and replace the platters and try hoping for the best

Appy

Yeah right, replacing the platters is a better option than the freezer method?!
Did you ever tried it?!
And yes I do know that MP3's can be replaced, just don't fancy having to d/l all the stuff again, as some of it is fairly hard to find....

mayhem# · 14-09-2002 12:20pm

Originally posted by Gerry
Mayhem came into #tech.ie and got pretty pissed off when he wasn't offered a magic solution to his problem.

Me, get pissed off?!
I don't think so mate, I was just giving you a slagging because all the response I got to my questions about reviving my HD were:
"Have you got any more Trinitron monitors for sale?"
Some tech channel...

Gerry · 14-09-2002 12:27pm

Right, well perhaps that wasn't the best response, but as you can see theres not much you can do with the thing. In any case you didn't hang around to hear any advice that might have been given.

My IBM 75GXP gave the exact symptoms you are describing. After leaving the drive for a day it managed to boot up, I ghosted all my stuff off it. Next time it was clicking again, so I used the ibm format utility on it, and its fine now. You hadn't even told us what drive it was in #tech.ie.

mayhem# · 14-09-2002 12:36pm

Originally posted by Gerry
Right, well perhaps that wasn't the best response, but as you can see theres not much you can do with the thing. In any case you didn't hang around to hear any advice that might have been given.

My IBM 75GXP gave the exact symptoms you are describing. After leaving the drive for a day it managed to boot up, I ghosted all my stuff off it. Next time it was clicking again, so I used the ibm format utility on it, and its fine now. You hadn't even told us what drive it was in #tech.ie.

No, didn't have the time to hang around...
Got a lot better advice last night on the IrishWAN channel of all places...

Gerry · 15-09-2002 1:54am

Well could you share it with us so?

leeroybrown · 15-09-2002 3:20pm

replace the platters apprentice? Are you mad?

lol

Seeing that a few microns of dust can damage the platters of a HDD, I'd really like to meet someone who managed to successfully swap the platters of any HDD let alone a modern high capacity drive.

The Apprentice · 15-09-2002 5:09pm

hehe... its ****ed anyway so to speak..
If the freezer bag option dont work i cant see why not tryin it cant hurt.. (platter change)
Even do all may go belly up !!!

If its too precious best case scenario is bite the bullit and pay a company to try and do it professionly..

Just my opinion never said it was a good one or viable one .... lol
Cheers

Hard drive repair

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