COMPUTER TECHS UNITE!!!!

thrasherfox

BUSA
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I have a client who's hard drive has failed. And I need to pull the data off the platters.

I have an identical drive that works fine. I have already pulled the platters out of the bad drive houseing and I plan on putting the platters into the good drive houseing I have.

Thought I would throw this out to you all to see if anyone has done this and if anyone can offer any advice.

Yes, I know I should be in a clean environment, but I dont have one so I am working with what I have.

I was able to pull off about 1/2 of the data the person needed before the drive totally failed. So now I am trying to get the rest..


Anyone have any advice?

Ron
 
If you break the seal on the hard drive platters you can forget it.  1 particle of smoke is 100x bigger than the gap between the platter and the drive head!  So unless you have a clean room or a vaccum to work in, it wouldn't be advisable. You can replace the controller board on the outside of the drive if it is infact the same drive.

If you've done one like that before, and it worked correctly, than go by a lottery ticket and don't go out in the rain storm (lightning can kill). You were just plain lucky.

Good luck.

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If you break the seal on the hard drive platters you can forget it.  1 particle of smoke is 100x bigger than the gap between the platter and the drive head!  So unless you have a clean room or a vaccum to work in, it wouldn't be advisable.  You can replace the controller board on the outside of the drive if it is infact the same drive.

If you've done one like that before, and it worked correctly, than go by a lottery ticket and don't go out in the rain storm (lightning can kill).  You were just plain lucky.

Good luck.

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Pretty much what he said, you shouldn't open a drive unless you're in a clean room environment. That's one of the reasons why the professional data recovery services charge the big bucks.

Also, what kind of software are you going to use to read the drive's data? If it's badly damaged you might need something like this:

http://www.x-ways.net/winhex/forensics.html
 
I have a harddrive that just makes clicking sounds when the pc starts, I would guess that it wouldnt be the controller board right?
anyway to get data off of it?
 
Have you heard the one about putting the harddrive in the freezer? Nerds at work tried it on two different times with partially failing drives and recovered SOMETHING off of it both times. when you got nothign else to loose...

Of course, I don't know why you are even wasting time on it becuase they made backups of their truly important data. If not, then it wasn't important data. Heck, even HOTMAIL can store up to 250meg [10meg chucks] offsite

good luck
 
oh that sucks attic. sorry to hear it.

backups need to be part of the data planning/purchase design, even for our home systems. Heck zipping up those excel spreadsheets might even fit on a 'floppy' disk. If you dont wanna loose it, back it up and backup the back up. So, if you are buring a backup to CD or DVD, go ahead and burn two. get a $6 car CD booklet and take your second backup to work and you've just qunitupled your odds of recovery. If you have a house fire and loose your PC, you will probably loose your backup CD/DVD also, unless you buy a fireproof safe.
 
Have you heard the one about putting the harddrive in the freezer? Nerds at work tried it on two different times with partially failing drives and recovered SOMETHING off of it both times. when you got nothign else to loose...

Of course, I don't know why you are even wasting time on it becuase they made backups of their truly important data. If not, then it wasn't important data. Heck, even HOTMAIL can store up to 250meg [10meg chucks] offsite

good luck
Actually WWJD, that is what I was doing.

I would stick the drive in the freezer for 20 minutes, pull it out and It would give me about 5 minutes where I could access the drive.

The I would have to shut the computer down, put the drive back in the freezer for 20 minutes and repeat the process over.

I did that about 15 times until I finally got to a point where that stopped working..

Dang!! I thought I was the only one who thought of that and did that, I was proud of myself and my dad thought it was a cool idea.. now I hear someone else did my idea!!!!
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I have got about 1300 important files restored, they have about another 1000 I an trying to get.

And uhh no.. Typical situation, client had 0 backups.

It still amazes me to how many people come to me and have critical data on a drive they use for business and NEVER back anything up.

Or if they do backup they rely on backing up data to a floppy which is waaayyyy not a good idea..


Thanks for the input all... I will post the results later..
 
I've already lost one 200 gig hard drive. and now I have about 4 gigs of pics from my digicam... so... um... maybe I should back those up sometime soon
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You know what? I'm gonna do that RIGHT NOW. 2 DVD back ups of my pics starting as soon as I hit send! My 40 gigs of games, I could give a rip about. Oh and my MAME ROMS, I better get those covered too
 
The freezer trick will work IF it the controller overheating.  You can even run the drive while it's in the freezer, if you can get you computer close eniugh.  You cable can't exceed 24" for most highspeed drives.

As for the clicking sounds for AD, that's usually because one of the drive heads has been damaged and is touching the platter (very bad).  The clicking is made when the controller detects a problem and tries to quickly park the heads.  Get a good program like "FileScavenger" and hook the bad drive up as a second drive, so your OS can work without the "bad file/sector" errors.  "FileScavenger" can do some pretty in-depth file recovery (from experience).

And yes, I'm probably a computer geek, but a "Damn Fast" Hayabusa kinda Geek!
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BTW...I lost my laptop drive about 2 weeks ago, and lost 23.8GB of digital photos (some are my published work).
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I had the photos backed up to a second drive, and had much of it burned to DVDs.
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So recovery wasn't very painful, just slow!
 
Does the drive even spin up?

If it doesn't the drive motor might be toast and it might be a lost cause. The question then is "How much is the data on worth to you?". You can always git most of it back, but you'll have to send the drive to a company that specializes in hard drive recovery.

If it does spin up it could by a controller issue. With the computer off, take a can of compressed air (aresol based) and turn it upside down. Spray it (while it's upside down) on the controller board, but be careful. It will get very cold. This is an alternate to putting it in the freezer. Stop when the board starts to get frosty. Turn the computer back on and see if the bios finds it. It the bios doesn't find it, you'll have to replace the controller with one from the same make and size of drive.

If it does find the drive you'll have to keep it cool to keep it working. The spay or a small refrigerator would do fine (in most cases).

God Speed

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I did read about that and was going to try it
its hard to back up 200+ gig drives
First, how much of the drive is data? You shouldn't need to back up your applications or operating system, as you already have those on install CDs etc.

Also, it may be worth buying an external hard drive (USB, Firewire) to do incremental backup, then periodically back up to tape or CDROM/DVD anything that is needed long term. Put the critical stuff in a fire safe or safety deposit - preferably offsite. You can also back up to another PC if you have a network, or use a wireless connection, or even back up to online storage on the Internet.

http://www.remotedatabackups.com/
http://www.usdatatrust.com/internet_backup.asp
http://www.xdrive.com/
http://www.firstbackup.com/Internet-backup/Internet-backup-service.asp

Backup media is getting cheaper all the time, so consider how much it would cost to have to recreate data lost due to a hard drive crash (if it's even possible.)
 
i had it in the freezer and it didnt help it just clicks and is not recognized
thanx anyways
What I have also done when it clicks, have it connected but hanging lose. Hold it wiht one hand by the sides and use your fingers to tap the bottom of the drive.

Most of the time it will un stick allowing you to access the drive.

Other times (espcecially with XP) once in awhile it will cause the OS to blue screen and crash. But usually just power off and back on and it is fine
 
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