UK: recovery of data off a HDD that will not spin up

[johnbullas]

Linked to another post regarding trying to get the data off this HDD myself....

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1183123

The Western Digital 20GB IDE HDD is 5 years old, is unseen by the BIOS and whirrs and clicks but will not spin up, the data is teaching aids used by my wife for music lessons at school, can any UK based listers please advise on likely cost and who can recover the data. The HDD itself is not physically damaged or contaminated as it failed in situ in a PC.

It is chilling out in the freezer at this time (double bagged) awaiting a last ditch personal attempt to grab the files

I would guess the process is to remount the media in another "chassis" to read it?

John & Helen
Southampton UK

 

[azgalaxyonline]

Your situation is common, you need a data recovery specialist, this drive could possibly have internal problems are it maybe as simple as replacing the controller, it needs to be evaluated.

Azgalaxyonline

 

[johnbullas]

any advice as to who to talk to in the UK based on personal experience ANYONE?

 

[johnbullas]

Western Digital 20GB HDD

S/N WTAAV3917615
MDL: WD400EB-00CSFO
WD P/N as above
DATE: 21 Nov 2001
DCM: DSBBHD2B

Anyone got a scrap HDD they can send me the controller card off of... since it is not seen in BIOS could this be the cause?

John

 

[stduc]

A hard drive only reports its existance to the system (BIOS) at bootup after it has passed its own controllers diagnostic tests. These include, but are not limited to.

1. Spinning up to speed
2. Heads loaded OK
3. Data read and verified correctly from diagnostic tracks.

The most common reasons for a failed hard drive are.

Heads have crashed and 'glued' themselves to the platter. Preventing the disk spinning.
Spindle Motor has failed. - Disk can't spin up to operational speed.
Controllor board has failed.
Head stepper motor has failed. - Heads won't load.

 

[johnbullas]

Any way to isolate which one(s) of these are to blame?

After a night in the frezer I think I got some response via the data retrieval software mentioned in the other thread

I certainly span up and responded to the pcs attempts to get data off it....

John

 

[stduc]

Not really - you need specialist equipment. Having said that, your ears should tell you if its spinning up to normal speed. If you hear continuos clicking then the heads are failing to load.