Hard Drive Restore

[Reddog]

Ok, my harddrive went kaput on my old system (97-98). It was a 4 Gig samsung. Now my computere won't recognize that it exists (no, I checked the cables). Any way to restore the data without buying new $86 HDD? I need one file in particular. Anyone creto help.

[Bovon]

Your computer must be able to see the drive, and then there is a slim chance you can copy your data from a C: prompt, even if the master boot record is shot. But, if you cannot get to a DOS prompt, it is unlikely you will be able to recover anything. There are people that have the tools to disasemble a drive, and retrieve data from the platter...but, this is so expensive, only big companies who cannot afford to loose the data do it.

Several years ago, I read where this guy had a drive die on him, and he also had some data he didn't want to loose. He hunted down another drive exactly like his bad one, took both apart, and put his platter(s) in thie other one, replaced the drive in his system, and it worked...he got his data...and junked the drives. This was probably more luck than anything else.

[Reddog]

No offense, but is there anything not as risky I can do? Whats wrong with the drive anyway... Never had something like this hapen... I need one particular file.

Also, what should I do? Replace the HDD or get a water cooler for another computer (Duron 800, @ 90F). Also, what is a non-conducting liquid I can use for the WCer?

[Bovon]

Not that I am aware of, sorry.

You say you 'checked' the cables. I suppose you mean that you checked that the ribbon cable was plugged in tight. Ribbon cables do go bad. I have had them do this to me...after figuring out that the drive was dead, a friend suggested I try a new ribbon cable, and the drive lived on a couple more years till I got a new one and retired it. You might like to try another cable.

I also suppose it could be power supply related as well...don't see right now how, but I guess it is possible..be sure the drive is getting voltage.

If possible, before giving up...ask a friend to let you put the drive in his system to see if it will come up...

Hard drives are full of electronics. Anything can go wrong...a dead chip, to an open resistor will cause the drive to die. Lightning strikes nearby sometimes will cause spike voltages in the power lines...these spikes are quick, and powerfull..possibly passing thru the power supply and damaging electronics in the system elsewhere.

I have a buddy that has a platter from a dead drive made into a clock at his house. The drive just up and died one day while he was using the machine. He replaced the drive, reloaded everthing...then took the old drive apart to look into the insides. He said the read/write arm just fell off, and was loose inside the case.

[nilknarf]

oops, duoble post.

[This message has been edited by nilknarf (edited 05-07-2001).]

[nilknarf]

Reseat the cables. (ie. - disconnect and reconnect them)

Try another drive to verify where the problem exists.

BTW, transferring files at the command prompt will not retain the long filenames.

Have you tried using the BIOS autodetect to find the drive?

You need just one file? Do you have a backup of the drive, or that file?

DO NOT try opening the drive case. If anything gets inside, it could permanently damage the drive beyond recovery.

[Dokeman]

On some drives, there is a little circuit board that sometimes shorts out. If there is a burn mark on the circuti board you can probably find an identical drive and swap out the circuit board. Other than that it is probably gone.

[rlpos]

try hooking it up to another pc as a slave and see if it is detected. I recently had a samsung that would not recognize on a pc but hooked it to a diferent system as a slave and it did see it.Recoverd data from it then ran Samsungs low level format software re-patitioned it and reformated it. Now it works fine on either pc.

[Reddog]

Okay, its a little embarassing, but I didn't try changing the cables http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif. I'll try that.

I used the BIOS autodetect first, so yeah...
Don't have a second HDD to try (don't trust it with my good 20GB HDD, so).
Could be the PS, although I've had it for a few years now (one or two).
HDD is getting power, but I'm hearing an odd clicking sound as I turn the computer on now.
Hmmm.........

Also, any advice on my Water cooler question?

[Reddog]

Well, here's the results:
DEAD! D-E-D dead!
Sorry to waste all your time. If you can help me, can you tell me If I should invest in a new HDD or in a Watercooler first. Thanx yall! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[flyness]

ta da i got your answer call one of these numbers and they can restore your data

ActionFront Data Recovery Labs (800) 563-1167

Drive Savers (800) 440-1904

On-Track (800) 872-2599 maybe (not sure)

they can actually get data off of even damaged harddrives i dont know how much it cost though

[nilknarf]

Welcome to the club of those who've had drives fail without data backup.

If you send it out for data recovery, that data had better be worth it. You're probably looking at several thousand dollars, as they charge by drive size, not data size.

[Reddog]

O well, I don't really need that file (found the data I need on this comp). FALSE ALARM!

Sorry http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif

[nilknarf]

That's ok!

You spurred some discussion which may help someone else.

Tim