Harddrive failure...HELP!!!

Frank Z

My computer's drive crapped out yesterday so I'm using my kids PC right now. I really need to save the data thats currently on the bad drive. Anyone know of a way that I can do this after I install a replacement HD?

nadams

Depends on how dead the hard drive is. If it just won't boot up anymore, it could be as simple as hooking your new drive up as master, loading windows on it, slapping the old drive in as a slave, and finding your stuff and copying it off.

BUT, if the old drive is dead, like really dead... you're going to be into big bucks to get your stuff off. There are professional data recovery options out there for you, but you are definitely going to pay for them. I don't recommend trying your own data recovery on a really dead drive, because you can permanently screw things up that even the pros can't recover. But sometimes you can recover everything... it's a toss-up really. How important is your data? If it were that important, it should be backed up somewhere.

Oh, and if you don't have a CD-R drive for burning backups, now would be a great time to get one...

Demiurge

^^^

+1

If your stuff is important and you have back-ups you only have to make up from the time of your last back-up. If you don't have back-ups...it's really going to cost you. I would suggest an investment in a ZIP Drive or something of the sort and religiously back-up your data every day if it's that important to you. Then keep your back-up in a fire proof safe. Here at work we do constant back-ups and always have one off premises.

steveinaz

www.drivesavers.com

If you can't recover any data yourself. Try your hard drive on another IDE port to verify that the drive is dead first.

Frank Z

Well the new harddrive is in and the old one just sits there and clicks...life isn't very good right now.

nadams

clicking is a bad thing... if you intend to try to send the drive away to be recovered, unplug it, and never fire it up again. The more you try to do to it, the more likely the platters will be damaged. The less power-up time it has on it from the time of failure, the better...

polkatese

Sorry to hear that, Frank! It happened to me in August of last year. 8 months of history plus 300 contacts on Outlook went bye bye. The data recovery service wants between $750 to $1500 to "TRY" rebuild the data on the HD, with no guarantee that the file will be readable. So, I ended up rebuilding the data manually one at a time. Now it is all about backup, backup, backup. Nothing like an expensive education to appreciate...

ledhed

Well, if it is not important enough to pay for, there is another option that if works good, if not-your drive will probly be toast. The clicking is the read/write head touching the platter. Smack the HDD, it should free the head and then might be able to boot long enough to backup.

ledhed

Hope it helps. Data Recovery

Mazeroth

When you say the old one just clicks, do you mean how it normally sounds or does it sound bad? If it sounds normal I have an option for you that really does work.

My two older brothers and I have been computer nuts for the last 15 years. The middle one is a graphics artist and in the last five years went over to Apple Macintosh computers. We've had two hard drive crashes in the last three years or so and the Windows computers can't recognize the drive at all. When we tried putting one in his Mac, BAM, instantly recognized it and we were able to back everything up. This happened a second time, about two months ago, and wouldn't you know it, the Mac was able to read the drive and pull all the info off, while the Windows computer couldn't. I have no idea why, but it just works.

With that, if you have a friend or know someone with a Mac, take the drive to them and see if their computer can read it. It's worth a shot.

Polk65

Frank, sorry to hear this. I just went through this recently.

If you have both the new drive and old drive on the same old data cable, try a new one. Often they are the cause of the problem. Also check that the hard drive jumper for master/slave/cs is firm. Finally, check the power plug going into the drive. Sometimes one of the leads inside can recede into the plug's socket when you connect the hard drive.

When you have the old drive hooked up, does it report the correct size in your computer's bios? Another thing to try is boot with a floppy disk to DOS and can you see the folder and file names on the old drive?

You may be able to use software from a floppy disk in DOS to copy your files or even the entire hard drive. One program is from Symantec called Ghost. Programs like this operate in a DOS environment so if there are any problems being caused by Windows not being able to recognize the drive you might be able to salvage some or all of your files.

Frank Z

Thanks for the advise folks, but I'm sorry to say the drive is toast. No luck getting anything off it at all. Some of the data was backed up but a lot of my personal stuff (pics, files, etc.) are simply gone for good.

nadams

Alright... but if the data was $1500 important to you, there is a good chance they'd be able to recover it. What those companies do is take the drive into a clean room, disassemble it, and load the platters into a special machine. This machine is what reads the disk, which gets around any problems with the heads. If the heads have crashed into the platters, smacking it around, or even running it, can make the damage much worse...

If you think that the spindle motor has just seized (IE- you can't hear the drive spinning up when you turn the machine on) some time spent in the freezer can sometimes alleviate this problem long enough to get your data off. Freezing the drive makes the metal inside (particularly the spindle bearings in this case) shrink, which can sometimes free up the drive.