Anybody do hard drive repair/recovery? :'(

[trippy1313]

Hey guys, I screwed up, haven't back up my hard drive in a couple years, and guess what? It's not working now.

Does this thing where it starts up, clicks for maybe 10 seconds, then spools down. PC won't read the hard drive right now.

I've never had a hard drive fail on me my entire life. I've had and built plenty. Not really sure how to go about it. I've looked online and it seems people want upwards of $1k to recover data from it.

Now, I'm not saying my pictures and documents aren't worth that, they are, but that's a lot of cash I don't know that I can spare at this moment in time.

I'm at a loss. Has anybody dealt with this? I had considered buying an identical, model for model, firmware for firmware, spare drive to ppasible swap parts, but haven't found anything online saying that will or won't result in a good or bad.

Not sure if you guys have this, know what to do, or know someone who can help?

Trying to mainly get pictures of my family, and my music. Of course there are other files, but those are my priority.

 

[Hisrudeness]

My Viao laptop hard drive was just on the verge of packing up (it sent notifications) so I took it to a computer tekkie who is in a small business networking group with me. He changed and saved the hardrive data, fitted a new cooling system, added some ram all for £170. 7 days turnaround so I'm pretty happy. It's running cooler and quicker now and I didn't lose anything.
Not sure why folks in your area are charging so much? Have you got local tekkies rather than the internet? Like a store or something?

 

[T-STER]

It is risky but you may be able to swap the platters into a identical drive, i have heard of people doing it but have not done it personally but i do not see why it would not work. It would require meticulous planning and care though to avoid scratches etc.

I recovered a friends hard drive not so long ago, the physical drive and spindle were fine so we bought an identical drive and just exchanged the rear mounted pcb and this restored function. I make it sound simple but the first time we tried it didnt work because the firmware was different, we upgraded it and got it too work.

Basically, the the drive internal mechanics are messed up then platter switching may be your only option, if it a failure from the pcb you may be able to switch it out.

 

[trippy1313]

Basically, the the drive internal mechanics are messed up then platter switching may be your only option, if it a failure from the pcb you may be able to switch it out.

That's kinda what I was considering... I just haven't really heard of any stories from "non-professionals" doing it. And the companies that do it obviously don't provide any information. But I'd hate to just try it a mess it up of course.

I was also thinking of buying an identical drive, trying the pcb swas first, and if that don't work, put it back and possibly swap the heads or platters. Not sure how that all affects Windows 7 thats on it.

 

[Ghettoboom767]

Hi,I'll ask my friend today what he says,he's worked on computers a lot and websites. Is this from a tower or laptop?
Can you give me manufacturer of computer and hard drive.
Seagate or ? I'll ask my friend if there's a safe way.

 

[caution]

Man that sucks. I've been able to get dead drives back with a PCB swap. It's not a guarantee since each board saves a table of bad sectors for that drive, so some files may not work. Don't even think about cracking the seal on the drive if you ever want your files back. If the platters need a new housing then have a place do it properly in a clean room. I wouldn't even have attempted that 20 years ago, let alone today, with the way densities are now. Forget it. One speck of dust and you're done for.

 

[trippy1313]

Yeah it's a tower. Seagate 3.5" Barracuda 7200.12.

And yeah, I know by watching videos of this exact drive, I have the skill to swap the heads, but... without scratching platters or getting dust on it enough to not damage it... that's what worries me as well.

Also I haven't figured out, IF the parts work fine, will the software/firmware read the same with identical replacement parts, or if I'll need special software to read the drive.

 

[toshik]

A couple of hundreds on ebay.

 

[T-STER]

A couple of hundreds on ebay.

Usual helpful fountain of information from Tosh.....

 

[trippy1313]

A couple of hundreds on ebay.

Usual helpful fountain of information from Tosh.....

Hahaha. Actually, with the same model, pcb AND firmware.... theres only about 5 on eBay. 2 are listed for parts only.

 

[Ghettoboom767]

Sorry,bad storms last night,asking today but I totally respect anything Caution says here! I'll see I mean if you can't start up the hard drive how can you extrapolate the data to be transferred?!

 

[toshik]

A couple of hundreds on ebay.

Usual helpful fountain of information from Tosh.....

Well, I go by the thread name and answer the question.
Unless you guys already discuss how the moonlight affects the growing rate of the electrical poles

 

[trippy1313]

A couple of hundreds on ebay.

Usual helpful fountain of information from Tosh.....

Well, I go by the thread name and answer the question.
Unless you guys already discuss how the moonlight affects the growing rate of the electrical poles


The growing rate of electrical poles? I wasn't aware they grow. Do tell. Lol.

 

[TW5]

Had a few drives go bad, but I do backups.
Sometimes it will work again and backup right away.
Give it a few taps, clean the dust off it.
Im working on a bad drive right now
dont open it, there some things to try first

If you have Hirens Boot CD
go into PartedMagic and than file manager and copy important files to flash drive.
but it takes a little learning the boot CD thing.

 

[Reli]

Drives often go bad on laptops because the owner didn't put it to sleep before walking around with it, banging on it, putting it in a backpack and biking to work, etc. That is why SSD is the way to go with laptops.