I recently suffered from a hard drive (it's data only) crash--I booted up one day to hear some sickening clicking and grinding of metal from my usually trusty 4.5 Gb UltraWide SCSI Seagate Barracuda. Windows booted up and the device manager showed the Seagate drive was there; however, it did not have a drive letter and I could not access the drive. My SCSI manager can see the drive, but FDISK does not recognize the drive. Data recovery services have given me quotes of $650+ with only an 80% chance of recovery. I would like to purchase a drive of the same model (only $99) and transplant the old platters into the new drive. Okay, my apartment is not a class 100 clean room; however, $99 and a slim chance of recovery seams more viable than $650 for data that is important, but not critical. Has anyone attempted such feats of recovery? Any advice?
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hard drive surgery 1
- Thread starter otter17
- Start date
Pugsley123
Technical User
I have never done it but I can recommend not to.
A small hair or dust particle accidentally left inside will cause a head crash. From the noises you described, it's possible that your current drive had a head crash in which your platters are now worthless.
Sorry to deliver bad news
-- Pugsley
A small hair or dust particle accidentally left inside will cause a head crash. From the noises you described, it's possible that your current drive had a head crash in which your platters are now worthless.
Sorry to deliver bad news
-- Pugsley
otter-
If you haven't done anything too extreme to that drive yet, you can try these steps:
Get a new drive working in your machine.
Wrap your old drive tightly in plastic wrap, or a zip-lock
bag.
Put it in a freezer overnight. At least 8 hours.
Remove the drive from the freezer, unwrap it, and put it
in your machine.
Start the machine, and IF the drive is accessible, copy as
fast as you can, because once the drive begins to thaw,
things may get very noisy and the drive will probably be
completely useless.
Good-Luck
Rick
If you haven't done anything too extreme to that drive yet, you can try these steps:
Get a new drive working in your machine.
Wrap your old drive tightly in plastic wrap, or a zip-lock
bag.
Put it in a freezer overnight. At least 8 hours.
Remove the drive from the freezer, unwrap it, and put it
in your machine.
Start the machine, and IF the drive is accessible, copy as
fast as you can, because once the drive begins to thaw,
things may get very noisy and the drive will probably be
completely useless.
Good-Luck
Rick
disregard absolutely to freeze your drive! That member shows to have no idea about how a disk drive works. The noise you listen from your HDD is the heads. They cannot read servo data and so continue moving trying to read something. This problem may be due to: electroics malfunctioning, heads not reading, media problems, etc.
If you take away the platters from the original disk and put them in the operating one, you'll spoil both disks because you would lose the original alignement between platters and other critical alignements.
The only operation you can do almost risk free is to change the Printed Circuit Board, but here complications could arise as well, because you should match the firmare version of the original drive with the new one.
To rule to data recovery is no to change things just to try... you should always measure, verify some part is not working and replace only the necessary. If your data is not worth to go to a professional data recovery lab, at least spare the $99 you'd spend on a twin disk because you have very high chances of not recover data and spoil the operating drive.
If you take away the platters from the original disk and put them in the operating one, you'll spoil both disks because you would lose the original alignement between platters and other critical alignements.
The only operation you can do almost risk free is to change the Printed Circuit Board, but here complications could arise as well, because you should match the firmare version of the original drive with the new one.
To rule to data recovery is no to change things just to try... you should always measure, verify some part is not working and replace only the necessary. If your data is not worth to go to a professional data recovery lab, at least spare the $99 you'd spend on a twin disk because you have very high chances of not recover data and spoil the operating drive.
For what it's worth, here is a link with quite a few testimonials on the "freeze" method. When there's nothing left to do, what can it hurt?
Paste this URL into your browser as a single line.
You will have to sign up for a free membership and after that it should take you to the "200 ways to revive a hard drive" report. You can read it or download it, whatever you like. The predominant method is essentially what I've described above. We won't get into whether or not I know how a disk drive works. ;-)
YMMV,
Rick
Paste this URL into your browser as a single line.
You will have to sign up for a free membership and after that it should take you to the "200 ways to revive a hard drive" report. You can read it or download it, whatever you like. The predominant method is essentially what I've described above. We won't get into whether or not I know how a disk drive works. ;-)
YMMV,
Rick
williambishop
MIS
I have recovered everything from little 2.1 scsi drives to 140 gig scsi and large IDE drives using the freezing method. It has worked in at least 10 cases where I had even changed out the circuit board. It does not work every time, and I have had a few instances where it didn't. But IT DOES WORK. It may not in your case, but what have you got to lose?
1223344556
Technical User
wow I just read that forum on freezing drives , I work in a pc repair shop and I have never ever heard of that . BUt now I cant wait for a crashed drive to come in. 
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1
- #8
diogenes10
Technical User
Thread751-437464 contains some additional discussion about freezing and condensation.
diogenes10
Technical User
Hi otter17
Don't know if you're still experimenting with harddrive repair, but I ran onto these articles yesterday while hunting solutions to a problem of mine. No guarantees of sucess-just additional stuff for you to look at.
Don't know if you're still experimenting with harddrive repair, but I ran onto these articles yesterday while hunting solutions to a problem of mine. No guarantees of sucess-just additional stuff for you to look at.
fastest way i know of copying an entire drive is
freeware that works just fine, but follow the readme
i've used it to dupe about 6 or 7 drives now
freeware that works just fine, but follow the readme
i've used it to dupe about 6 or 7 drives now
I had a case of a loud knocking 20 gig Maxtor out of an HP computer. I had over 3000 carefully indexed MP3's on it (over 8 gigs). I didn't recognize the noise at first and 20 minutes after boot the system would crash. I rebooted 4 or 5 times after that. What an idiot! I then put a new drive on as a slave and tried to copy the files over to it. I got about 2000 of the songs over before the drive quit. Unfortunately, there was no logic to the order, thus, no place to pick up the transfer at the breakpoint. I couldn't get the drive to come up again. I made the new drive the master and the noisy drive the slave. Still no luck. A tech friend of mind tried on his system; no luck. I let it sit for a month and heard about freezing. I put a frozen blue block under the drive and let it sit for 20 minutes then booted. I got more data, but not all before collapse. I let it sit for another 6 months 'til I built a PC with a Promise controller. I put the bad drive (on the blue block of ice)on as a slave through the Promise and it delivered. The pounding started after 20 minutes but it held on this time and finished the full transfer 3 minutes later! The ice definitely helped.
Recently, I've had problems with ANOTHER IBM 40 gig drive. This times on XP. I got the data error on disk o message. I installed a new drive with XP and made the troubled drive a slave. Upon boot, which was very slow, the chkdsk kicked in and hung during analysis, claiming many file errors. I tried again and it hung at the same spot. I switched the bad drive to a newly built PC with a different board and processor and brought out the Blue ice. The process went much further before hanging. I was then able to boot with the bad drive showing up as "f" in Windows explorer. Disk Manager says the disk is healthy and active, but that it has no file structure. It reads totally full with zero bytes. Swell.
Bottom line is that freezing works and that use of a Blue block is a more convenient way to go. They are called Freeze Pak and can be found in most camping stores. There is even one that is slightly larger than a 3.5 ide and allows the drive to sit perfectly on top for maximum effiency.
If anyone knows what I should try next with the IBM mentioned above, I'd appreciate it. The hardware sounds fine. IBM disk manager says it has bad sectors and it can't repair them. High powered analytical boot floppy says: Volume 40.19 gig, NTFS file system, Partition table found, Boot sector found, NTFS volume NOT found.
Thanks for any input!
Recently, I've had problems with ANOTHER IBM 40 gig drive. This times on XP. I got the data error on disk o message. I installed a new drive with XP and made the troubled drive a slave. Upon boot, which was very slow, the chkdsk kicked in and hung during analysis, claiming many file errors. I tried again and it hung at the same spot. I switched the bad drive to a newly built PC with a different board and processor and brought out the Blue ice. The process went much further before hanging. I was then able to boot with the bad drive showing up as "f" in Windows explorer. Disk Manager says the disk is healthy and active, but that it has no file structure. It reads totally full with zero bytes. Swell.
Bottom line is that freezing works and that use of a Blue block is a more convenient way to go. They are called Freeze Pak and can be found in most camping stores. There is even one that is slightly larger than a 3.5 ide and allows the drive to sit perfectly on top for maximum effiency.
If anyone knows what I should try next with the IBM mentioned above, I'd appreciate it. The hardware sounds fine. IBM disk manager says it has bad sectors and it can't repair them. High powered analytical boot floppy says: Volume 40.19 gig, NTFS file system, Partition table found, Boot sector found, NTFS volume NOT found.
Thanks for any input!
otter17
If you can hear the the head stack clicking and grinding sounds that means the heads have already touched the surface of the platters and made a ring in the platters.
Freezing causes moisture inside the drive, yep! I have seen it, and when it dries and the platters are not treated they cause RUST to form completely destroying the drive.
I have seen all the above techniques and they all claim it works, however, condensation is a killer, and freezing my data is not any option unless (pigs can fly).
The data might still be viable to retrieve by a prefessional service using a clean room.
Note: if all these methods really worked, I'd be out of work.
Please tell us how your recovery went, whether or not it succeeded, we are all trying to learn and enhance our knowledge base.
Klon Shugart
Data Recovery Specialist
CCNA/MCP2K/CDRT
Microsoft Certified Partners
If you can hear the the head stack clicking and grinding sounds that means the heads have already touched the surface of the platters and made a ring in the platters.
Freezing causes moisture inside the drive, yep! I have seen it, and when it dries and the platters are not treated they cause RUST to form completely destroying the drive.
I have seen all the above techniques and they all claim it works, however, condensation is a killer, and freezing my data is not any option unless (pigs can fly).
The data might still be viable to retrieve by a prefessional service using a clean room.
Note: if all these methods really worked, I'd be out of work.
Please tell us how your recovery went, whether or not it succeeded, we are all trying to learn and enhance our knowledge base.
Klon Shugart
Data Recovery Specialist
CCNA/MCP2K/CDRT
Microsoft Certified Partners
Hi
I heard of the freezer trick couple of years ago, and have used it three times, and twice with what one calls success.
IMHO, it should only be tried when you think an axle seized.
there are two axles
if you hear the actuator click it can swivle (axle is free)
if you cannot hear the platters spin up, the freezer trick may unsieze the axle.
like the gentlebeings mention; an invisible drop of condensation forming on the platter can cause a head crash
in short, if the data-loss is not going to ruin you, you can weigh the pros and the cons.
but on bizz critical data? I NEVER would dare try it.
on the subject of unsiezing; heck, a light tap on the side of the drivecasing can sometimes do that too. I seen two old drives spin up after a light tap, but these had seized because they had been in the old parts shelve too long... W/i hardly the same as seizing while in use!
having said all this I am thinking this drive must be pretty worn out
and with axles that can wobble, same light tap can knock a head onto the most important part of track one too, so that light tap would not be a too good idea too.
I heard of the freezer trick couple of years ago, and have used it three times, and twice with what one calls success.
IMHO, it should only be tried when you think an axle seized.
there are two axles
if you hear the actuator click it can swivle (axle is free)
if you cannot hear the platters spin up, the freezer trick may unsieze the axle.
like the gentlebeings mention; an invisible drop of condensation forming on the platter can cause a head crash
in short, if the data-loss is not going to ruin you, you can weigh the pros and the cons.
but on bizz critical data? I NEVER would dare try it.
on the subject of unsiezing; heck, a light tap on the side of the drivecasing can sometimes do that too. I seen two old drives spin up after a light tap, but these had seized because they had been in the old parts shelve too long... W/i hardly the same as seizing while in use!
having said all this I am thinking this drive must be pretty worn out
and with axles that can wobble, same light tap can knock a head onto the most important part of track one too, so that light tap would not be a too good idea too.
Hi Otter17,
I had a similar event approximately the same time as you.
First time it happened to me. Went looking into forums & found about "freezing".
Sealed bad disk in plastic & left it overnight in deep-freezer.
Then I unveiled connectors side only waited until connectors were dry, plugged it in.
It has been working OK evere since.
A day or two later I took off the plastic altogether.
If is is still applicable, GOOD LUCK.
Laksi, Arad, ISRAEL
I had a similar event approximately the same time as you.
First time it happened to me. Went looking into forums & found about "freezing".
Sealed bad disk in plastic & left it overnight in deep-freezer.
Then I unveiled connectors side only waited until connectors were dry, plugged it in.
It has been working OK evere since.
A day or two later I took off the plastic altogether.
If is is still applicable, GOOD LUCK.
Laksi, Arad, ISRAEL
The freezing of the drive does work.I have tried it many times. Just tried it this morning on a drive that was clicking up a storm. Would not be recognized by the system. Put it in the freezer for about an hour and PRESTO!! Was able to salvage a bunch of files from a cust.
Drive chips getting too hot is what causes these problems!
Drive chips getting too hot is what causes these problems!
i have a bum western digital 120g hard drive and it crashed, well at least thats what im told. it was working great and one day it just froze up the whole computer, i tried to re boot but the machine wouldnt re boot until i unplugged the usb2 cable from the external hd in question. after the comp re booted, i heard the WDC HD trying to start up, it was spinning but making a loud ticking noise...like a clock, the drive never started but finaly quit trying to. i looked in device mngr, it was there but it has the "code 10" "device cant start" and it dont show up as a drive in "my computer" like it used to.WDC told me it sounds like the heads crashed, could this be possible? Western digital says to send it back and they will replace it but i'll lose any info on it... all my music and pics!!!! Now im concerned with trying the freeze trick, will this cause codensation?? WDC told me they are gonna take it apart and check it to see if the drive failed or if it was tampered with or abused in any way. if so, they wont honor the warranty. i want my files but not for 500 bucks quoted by some file recovery places... and i want a new drive too... which i willl promptly sell on e-bay. no more western digital's for me!!!
how to make a transplant of heads from one hdd with the exact parts from another hdd with out screwing the alignment ???
and were I should be careful about the alignment …
did any one of you did this successfully
I have the clean room that is not a problem
and were I should be careful about the alignment …
did any one of you did this successfully
I have the clean room that is not a problem
emapopa if you look at this web site:
He switches the heads from one hdd to another, but he mentions nothing about alignement. The only thing he warns about is making the heads slap together.
He switches the heads from one hdd to another, but he mentions nothing about alignement. The only thing he warns about is making the heads slap together.
dudessquirly
Programmer
emapopa, I am having the same problem. I would like to swap out the heads from one drive to another. I have the clean room, but I'm wondering if it's worth the money it will cost me to get the spare drive.
Have you tried it yet? Was it successful?
Have you tried it yet? Was it successful?
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