when is dead really dead?

[pawz]

I am talking about hard drives... I have one here, the owner said the system was very slow... darn right, like forever since there is not a peep, whirr, click, vibration or any other sign of life coming from the drive, and of course it isn't recognised.

I have read about folks putting them in the freezer to unstick platters, but that doesn't seem appropriate in this instance.

I noticed that SMART is enabled on the machine, so either that was an afterthought, since it is disabled by default I think, or it has not given out any disk failure warnings since the owner seems not to have been aware of any trouble.

I would like to help here, but do not see what I can do, apart from buy a new one and set it all up again, as I can't interrogate a disk that isn't found, shame because , of course, they have lost everything on there, unless there was a way I could slave it, but I don't see how.
I think you are going to confirm that there is nothing to be done, but if you know different I would be pleased to know

 

[micker377]

What OS? You can boot with a Win98 boot disk and use Fdisk to see if the partitions and format are OK. If Fdisk gives a "not found" error, you probably have a paper weight.

 

[pawz]

yes, Micker, thank you. As the disk is not recognised there is nothing I can do I think. I was wondering about swapping the controller card if I could find the same model. Don't suppose I have the same one here - is there any sort of trade in eBay for that sort of thing? It might be that there is nothing on there the lady wants to retrieve, and maybe she can spend £40.00 on a new drive without minding, but I would like to explore all the options if pos.

 

[edfair]

Some have had success at swapping the board. I would guess about a 40 to 50% rate for this problem, but that is instinct, not any proven figures I've ever seen.
There are engineering change level modifications to boards that could affect the success or failure of such a proposed swap so you need to be aware of revision levels of the boards.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[pawz]

um, thanks Ed. I had a look on eBay, but nothing going on there, so unless I can find the exact model among my own small stock - unlikely - I guess its the end of the road

 

[stduc]

The SMART data - if it is a SMART drive - is held on the drive. Enabling it in the BIOS simply allows the PC on Bootup to warn you of impending problems. Can you try the drive in another machine - but not as the boot disk - (as a slave perhaps?) If SMART is enabled on the BIOS and the drive has issues it should report them. Unless it is a dead disk!

If another machine sees the disk okay - then you just have a controller issue. If not, you could try SprinRite (

http://www.grc.com)

it will report all the SMART data to you. There is also GetDataback (

http://wwww.runtime.org).

GetDataBack will let you see if there's data there for free.

If the drive doesn't even spin up when on power (have you checked the power connection is providing power?) then there is probably not much you can do. You could always try the freezer? Or giving it a smart wack!?!

 

[pawz]

stduc - thanks for that. the disk is not recognised so I can't slave it.
Owners never reported any SMART warnings.
The computer is packed up and ready to go back now - they are going to get a laptop instead of bothering with this machine I think.
Shame because there is nothing wrong with it apart from needing a new drive.
Your info is not wasted though, I shall follow those links and hope to download the utilities next time they are needed, thank you

 

[Peahippo]

Our data is precious; in comparison hardware is expendable. We can be brutal with recovery methods.

1. Face facts: a hard disk that gives you even the tiniest hardware problem is a "dead hard disk". The only thing we need to do with one of these is recover data and then trash it.

2. If the drive exhibits no life, you can try physical recovery steps in order of increasing severity:

2a. Freeze. Stick it in a baggie, smooth out as much air as you can, and put it into the freezer. 24hr later, remove it and let it thaw for a couple of hours.
2b. Whirl. Take the drive in your hand and spin the case by wrist flicks, allowing inertia to unstick the platters inside.
2c. Replace electronics. Find a good drive with the same electronics board, and swap those parts.
2d. Shocks. Gently (~4" falls) bang the hard disk case onto a wooden surface 6 times ... once on each edge, as well as once per face.
2e. Open it. Make sure the area isn't very dusty. Open the case to expose the platters and heads. Spin the platters by touching the spindle. Gently move the head-arm very slightly ... no more than a couple of millimeters. Shake the hard disk upside down to remove any dust that might have fallen in during this time, and then put the cover back on.

3. At this point, if the drive is still functionally dead, either you take it to a data-recovery professional for enormous costs, or grab your cryin' towel over your lost data.

4. Belatedly, consider a backup strategy for your data in the future. Software-based RAID is not a bad option. Hard disks are so cheap that it makes sense to buy a system with 2 identical hard disks, and simply have a mirror RAID setup. Don't use hardware RAID -- it's expensive for home use, and if the controller dies you generally find the hard disks unreadable by another type of controller. Software RAID is slower, but we're after reliability here, not speed. (Besides, you should be using Linux or a stripped-down Windows XP (along with the previous generation of apps like Office 97 or 2k) on your machine.).

 

[pawz]

A friend asked me to look at his computer (XP SP2) because it would not boot and he was concerned that there was data on there that he needed.

I brought it home and got nowhere with recovery console, so slaves it to another system running XP to get his docs before trying anything else.
As soon as I slaved it I heard ( to my dismay) the hard drive clicking. I was able to get on to the desktop and read some of the files, and copy his docs over to the master, so that was ok - I thought.

I put the disk back in its own box again as master, and then found it wasn't even recognised, and apart from one brief 'revival', it has remained in that state and even its own diagnostic disk could not find it.
I got him a new hard drive and did all that is needed and he has the machine back and up and running, but now he has told me that there were - are- precious photos on the old disk and wonders if they can be retrieved.

I have told him I will try as the disk did seem to have intermittent activity, but I am not at all hopeful. You might know differently.
We are willing to buy recovery software if we can afford it as this situation is sure to arise again, and we have been pointed to Runtime's Getbackdata, which I have had a look at, and feel it might do the job as sometimes this drive is recognised in BIOS, but is reckoned to have zero bytes size and does not have an option to boot it..what makes me hesitant though and unwilling to part with £62 Great British Pounds too easily, is that this drive does click alarmingly and only sometimes 'settles down'. Would I be wasting cash on a drive that nothing can retrieve from or is there a reasonable margin for success do you think?
All suggests welcome

 

[G0AOZ]

GetDataBack is a good programme which I've used from time to time. However, it won't solve the problem of a physically damaged drive... Your chances of success with this drive sound limited to say the least, but it's always worth having a go. If you buy the software now, even if it can't be used on this drive you would at least be able to use it in the future.

ROGER - G0AOZ.