Author Topic: dead hard drive (Read 4489 times)

sam · « **on:** June 25, 2006, 14:30 »

I have a dead hard drive, well it appears dead. Now sign of life at all. I have tested the power and I'm pretty sure that is it, well my digital voltmeter tells me there is no power going into it. I have tried it now in an external casing aswell as a various working systems, and no joy.. I was being hopeful. Anyway does anyone know of any good hard disk people who might be able to repair this? I dont care for the drive particularly but it is my sisters and she has a bunch of photos from her pregnancy that she didnt back up.. she will learn now! but argh, if I could get them back that would be great. any thoughts?

Simon · « **Reply #1 on:** June 25, 2006, 15:29 »

I could only pick one off Google. Personally, if I had precious data I wanted to recover, I think I would be reluctant to send my drive off to an unknown repairer, and would be more inclined to look for a small local computer shop that does repairs, or even take it to *cough* PC World. :ooo:

sam · « **Reply #2 on:** June 25, 2006, 15:31 »

ummm the later is a no go! :-) I do agree, thats why I am asking here, it is nothing sensitive just pictures.

gmax · « **Reply #3 on:** June 25, 2006, 15:38 »

Find an identical hard drive and swap the card on it. Your hope is that the moving parts are good but the power supply or some solder joint on the circuit board went bad.

Simon · « **Reply #4 on:** June 25, 2006, 16:01 »

Quote from: "sam"

ummm the later is a no go! :-) I do agree, thats why I am asking here, it is nothing sensitive just pictures.

No, I wasn't suggesting there was anything 'sensitive' on it, but of course, you can never be too careful, and there may be other personal details on it which could pose a security risk if disclosed.

sam · « **Reply #5 on:** June 25, 2006, 18:35 »

you are of course correct simon.

gmax I had thought of that, but I really didnt want to buy one of these s**te old drives, and plus, I can't find one for sale.. but yes good idea. I might take it into the lab tomorrow and see if I can spot a problem on the board

Sandra · « **Reply #6 on:** June 26, 2006, 00:26 »

Have you tried the overnight in the freezer trick Sam ?

It hasnt worked for me but some people say it does sometimes.

sam · « **Reply #7 on:** June 26, 2006, 01:11 »

nope i havent...so you are suggesting I stick it in a bag and freeze it?

Sandra · « **Reply #8 on:** June 26, 2006, 01:28 »

Yes, I tried one a few weeks back but made no difference but it can help apparently in some cases, if it does back your data up straight away.

I stuck mine in an anti static bag and taped the end up and left it overnight, some say a couple of hours is enough.
Connect it while its still cold and give it a try.

sam · « **Reply #9 on:** June 26, 2006, 05:37 »

i will later...

Sandra · « **Reply #10 on:** June 26, 2006, 10:23 »

Article about it here and a few other methods in the links Sam :

http://www.datarecoverypros.com/hard-drive-recovery-freeze.html

sam · « **Reply #11 on:** June 26, 2006, 10:30 »

thanks I'll take a look at it in a bit, cheers!

gmax · « **Reply #12 on:** June 26, 2006, 12:08 »

will freezing a motherboard bring it back to life?

i have a p4 gigabyte M/B only 2 years old, dead, the cpu fan spins but it wont boot up

Sandra · « **Reply #13 on:** June 26, 2006, 12:31 »

Not heard of that but they used to use a freezer spray to identify faults on circuit boards that were caused by overheating.

I suppose it depends what went on it and whether it was permanently damaged or if it just cut out when something overheated.

Reno · « **Reply #14 on:** June 26, 2006, 20:45 »

Buying that replacement hard drive of that model for the controller card would be cheaper than sending it to a data retrieval facility.

If lightning killed it you could freeze it for days and you wouldn't get a good result.

Since the majority of hds die because of disk failures and not burnt up controllers you could try calling your local pc repair shops and asking them if they have a dead hd with that model number. Chances are you'll run across one somewhere. The good thing about that is the shops normally don't charge for dead hds.