Hard Drive Failure

[Samuknow]

Here is the deal.

A friend brought over a computer that was getting a Boot Error.

After trying to boot several times I went into the BIOS and tried to setup the hard drive. The bios could not even see the drive. I tried a new cable and nothing. After messing around with it a little while, the drive showed up in the bios. I quickly saved and rebooted. Still no luck. I tried the drive in another computer as the primary and the secondary and I still can't get to the drive. Ok, it appears that the drive has failed. I installed an old drive I had lying around and set up an OS. I am using that computer now.

Now to a question."everyone thinks finally", Is there any way to retrieve the data from the drive???? Backups were not made and this computer stored all of her accounting data for her business. I have tried all I know to do. I bought some software a while back to recover data from a CRASHED drive since I wiped out the partition but I do not think that will work on a drive that the computer will not even recognize.....

Help me please.....

Sam

[mookydooky]

It sounds like there is something physically wrong with part of the drive. Either that or the the electronics that interfaces with the the computer is fried, but I find that unlikely since you got it to work once. Most likely, the only way you'll be able to retrieve the data is to either find the physical defect or send it off to a service that specializes in retrieving data off the platters.

[GrahamGarside]

those specialist services are very expensive though and dont always guarantee success.
does the drive power up and spin?

[Samuknow]

It does power up and spin.....Every once and a while the bios finds the drive. Now it has started clicking.....

[robbie]

Originally Posted by Samuknow

It does power up and spin.....Every once and a while the bios finds the drive. Now it has started clicking.....

It might help to put a cooler on it and when it DOES come to life back up what you can.
HTH
Rob

[Staz]

Once it is all sorted out you may want to sugest a raid array in mirror mode for her next computer.

[Samuknow]

This is not my machine. I am looking at it for a friend. I did preach the backup sermon to her but I guess it is too late now....

I have heard that if you put the drive in the fridge or freezer that it can help it at least boot. I already tried a couple of big fans on it and nothing....

[GrahamGarside]

its a long shot but try setting the drive to the lowest pio mode in the bios

I've not heard of putting it in the freezer before but if all else fails and professional recovery is too expensive then it's worth one last shot at it. make sure that you seal the drive completely in an anti static bag, and then that bag again in a polythene bag to prevent any condensation. dont leave it in too long because you don't want it going below the mimimum storage temp which I'm not sure but i think its about -20°C

[fantomfreq]

Originally Posted by GrahamGarside

make sure that you seal the drive completely in an anti static bag, and then that bag again in a polythene bag to prevent any condensation.

You'll still get condensation any way you look at it. Water is in the air, so unless you vacuum seal the container somehow, you'll get some sort of condensation. Just don't try the refrigerator thing unless it's a last resort. It sounds like you really don't know what to do with it though, so good luck.

[GrahamGarside]

Originally Posted by fantomfreq

You'll still get condensation any way you look at it. Water is in the air, so unless you vacuum seal the container somehow, you'll get some sort of condensation. Just don't try the refrigerator thing unless it's a last resort. It sounds like you really don't know what to do with it though, so good luck.

It's minimal though I did this to get the heatsink of a tnt2 years back and it was quite a common technique

[chrisbard]

I heard that if you put the hard drive in the micro owen and set maximum heat you have a chance to blew up the hole house!