Hard drive Failure?

[montana9550]

I have a friends crashed hard drive which I am attempting to try and recover any data from it that I possibly can. From the research I have done so far it is not looking promising but I figured I would see if anyone had any more ideas.

Drive: Western Digital WD800JB 80G

His computer locked up one day and on a reboot drive started the following symptoms and never booted again.

I have hooked the drive to an external hd (usb) connection so that I can listen to what it is doing very closely. When I turn the power on the disk spins up to what sounds like full speed and holds it for about 3-4 seconds. Then there is a moderately loud click and the drive spins down only to immediately spin up again and repeat the process. The click sounds like the 'reading arm' is locked/stuck maybe. Also a point on the circuit board underneath gets very hot within seconds of power on. Drive won't stay spinning so obviously I haven't been able to see the drive on any computer in any situation.

In my research it sounds like the drive is dead but I have seen some odd ideas like 'rubber mallet', 'put in in the freezer over night','order identical drive and switch out circuit boards', etc.

Are any of these things worth trying? Does anybody have any other suggestions? VERY IMPORTANT: Will any of these things damage the drive further so less data will be recovered by the pros?

There is very important information on the hard drive for my friends business. Telling him he should have backed up doesn't do much good after the fact and the drive will go to professional recovery if I can do nothing.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[vacunita]

You could attempt to replace the circuit board underneath, and connected directy to a PC. If you attempt this make sure the replacement drive is of the same Make, model, and Part number for better results.

USB enclosures are not recommended for trying to salvage data of of a damaged drive as they don't let you know if the drive is at least getting detected.

You need to find out if any PC will at least acknowledge the drive.

Try pluging it directly to the computer via an IDE cable inside. If it gets detected in the BIOS its a good sign. If it doesn't pack it up and send it to the Pros.





----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[stduc]

I have had some luck with the freezer technique - but only I think when the drive won't spin up because of a bad bearing or crashed head stuck on the platter.

The technique that worked for me was to have getdataback all ready to go. Seal the HDD in a plastic bag with a power lead and IDE cable already attached. The 'far' ends of these were also inside a plastic bag to keep ice out.

Leave HDD in deep freeze overnight. Then remove it using a freezer glove. Bang it hard a couple of times with one fist while holding it in the other hand. Wrap in bubble wrap to keep cold. ASAP attach to PC, boot up, grab data with getdataback.

I have done this twice - once with 100% success, once at about 75% getdataback reported drive failure & a repeat of the technique failed. Drive would not even attempt to spin up.

 

[montana9550]

stduc, do you have any idea if this freezer technique has the chance of ruining data that the pros may be able to recover? If its unlikely that I am going to destroy drive further, I would be willing to try it.

 

[DataRec]

If the data is critical, you should stop playing around because you could cause more harm than good. DON'T try to swap the PCB. Sometimes this causes more problems as well. Ifyou really need it back, take it to a professional recovery lab. They will have tools that can properly diagnose the issue.
Here are some links for pro labs:

http://www.cherrysystems.com/

http://www.sassinsky.com/

http://www.datarecoverygroup.com/

http://www.drivesavers.com/

http://www.adrecovery.com/

There are others, but all of these are pros!

 

[firewolfrl]

I would not recommend the freezer method... here is why
Humididy ...if you are running the drive and as it thaws the platters will sweat and you will damage the read arm's pickup.

The read arm may be cycling and not stuck because a sector in the platters has damage. this creates a read then park cycle because it cannot read the index platter (platter that does not contain data just index info where the data is located on the primary platter) If this is the case then the drive usually has a high degree of recoverability

you can also get the read/park cycle if there is a burned up bearing slowing the spin speed of the drive.

as for a lab...anything you do that destroys the drive more drasticly raises the price in recoverability

 

[stduc]

I tend to agree with [navy]firewolfrl[/navy].

I guess it depends on how much you need that data back. In my case the owner was never going to pay for professional recovery (have you seen the prices!)

Moisture is a BIG issue - That is why I sealed the drives into a bag with the cables hanging out - lots of mastic was used around the cable/bag junction. The drive was never going to be used again and the cables - well - shall we say - single use only! I forgot to mention I added a bag of re-activated silica gel to the bag as well. (re-active in an oven at 95C until the crystals turn blue). So the drive was dry inside and no chance of condensation as it cooled. I think I left 24 hours before freezing while mastic set and the silica gel did its job.

Its your call - but I would say - if you plan to use a recovery service - give them every chance - the easier they find the job the less you will pay.

 

[f0r3nsixed]

I agree with Datarec don't mess with the PCB board as you may need to be more specific than just make/model the more failed attempts you have at trying to get the PC to recognise the drive the more damage you could be doing. You need to get this to a professional company ASAP.