Recover Data from Damaged Harddrive - how? ideas?

  • Thread starter Thread starter crispywafers
  • Start date Start date
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crispywafers

Hi,

I hope someone can help me out. We had a brownout at our home that has
significantly damaged the master drive (Western Digital 200Gig) in our
desktop. The drive is making a ominous "clicking" sound as it tries to
read, and the BIOS does not even recognize the drive is present half
the time. The other half the time, when it finally does recognize it...
it recognizes the drive but thinks it is only 8 gigs. We tried placing
it in an external harddrive case and let our good computer access it...
but that computer was unable to access the drive either.

No recovery software has succeeded in being able to recover any data..
because the software stalls out when the harddrive tries to read (just
clicks and clicks).

What are some options we have besides sending the drive to a
professional? We don't have a grand to pay someone, but neither can be
bare losing all our family photos, financial information, databases,
etc.

Thank you for any ideas and help.
 
(e-mail address removed) a exposé le 2005-07-20 :
Hi,

I hope someone can help me out. We had a brownout at our home that has
significantly damaged the master drive (Western Digital 200Gig) in our
desktop. The drive is making a ominous "clicking" sound as it tries to
read, and the BIOS does not even recognize the drive is present half
the time. The other half the time, when it finally does recognize it...
it recognizes the drive but thinks it is only 8 gigs. We tried placing
it in an external harddrive case and let our good computer access it...
but that computer was unable to access the drive either.

No recovery software has succeeded in being able to recover any data..
because the software stalls out when the harddrive tries to read (just
clicks and clicks).

What are some options we have besides sending the drive to a
professional? We don't have a grand to pay someone, but neither can be
bare losing all our family photos, financial information, databases,
etc.

Thank you for any ideas and help.
Click to expand...


I was 2 times succesful in placing the drive in a ziplok and storing it
on a freezer for a couple of hours (well, in one case, 12 hours).

After you get it out and put it back in the computer, it *may* read the
data correctly (you may have to reboot more than once before it works).
In that case, be prepared to clone the partition on another drive as
soon as possible, because that luck don't last for long.

For other ideas, I suggest to read the following article
fromTechRepublic : 200 ways to revive a hard drive, availiable at
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5029761.html

As long as the BIOS recognize the drive, there's hope..

Good luck -- let us know how it worked !
Michel

PS: for recovery software, may I suggest to take a look a True Image
from Acronis. It was succesful for me in cloning and recovering a
damaged NTFS partition where other softwares (Drive Image and Ghost, to
name a few) failed.

Always clone the partition(s) to another disk and make the recovery
attempt on the clone. This way, if the recovery fails, your disk is
still availiable for other tools to try.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote
I hope someone can help me out. We had a brownout at our home
that has significantly damaged the master drive (Western Digital
200Gig) in our desktop. The drive is making a ominous "clicking"
sound as it tries to read, and the BIOS does not even recognize
the drive is present half the time. The other half the time, when
it finally does recognize it... it recognizes the drive but thinks it
is only 8 gigs. We tried placing it in an external harddrive case
and let our good computer access it... but that computer was
unable to access the drive either.
Click to expand...
No recovery software has succeeded in being able
to recover any data.. because the software stalls out
when the harddrive tries to read (just clicks and clicks).
Click to expand...
What are some options we have besides
sending the drive to a professional?
Click to expand...

None basically, thats what backups are for.
We don't have a grand to pay someone, but neither can be bare
losing all our family photos, financial information, databases, etc.
Click to expand...

Then you should have backed up what matters.
 
Michel S. said:
(e-mail address removed) a exposé le 2005-07-20 :
Click to expand...
I was 2 times succesful in placing the drive in a ziplok and storing
it on a freezer for a couple of hours (well, in one case, 12 hours).
Click to expand...

Unlikely to help with a drive killed by a brownout.
After you get it out and put it back in the computer, it *may* read
the data correctly (you may have to reboot more than once before it works).
In that case, be prepared to clone the partition on another
drive as soon as possible, because that luck don't last for long.
Click to expand...
For other ideas, I suggest to read the following article from TechRepublic :
200 ways to revive a hard drive, availiable at
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1035_11-5029761.html
Click to expand...

None of those will help in this situation either.
As long as the BIOS recognize the drive, there's hope..
Click to expand...

Not when even when it is recognised, it still cant read anything.
Good luck -- let us know how it worked !
Click to expand...
PS: for recovery software, may I suggest to take a look a True Image from
Acronis. It was succesful for me in cloning and recovering a damaged NTFS
partition where other softwares (Drive Image and Ghost, to name a few) failed.
Click to expand...

The drive is FAR too dead for that to work.
 
Rod Speed a présenté l'énoncé suivant :
Unlikely to help with a drive killed by a brownout.



None of those will help in this situation either.


Not when even when it is recognised, it still cant read anything.



The drive is FAR too dead for that to work.
Click to expand...

Considering the highly useful advice/suggestions you are giving (that
is: nothing) I consider my suggestions as having a higher chances of
success than yours.

Maybe his drive is completely lost anyway, but at least he will have
tried something before abandoning.

I salvaged (at least partially) more than one drive that were dead
according to "the book". I even had a client who had an "expert"
declared all his data lost for whom I recovered all but a couple of
files.. It was pure luck, not science, but at least I tried and it
worked.
 
Michel S. said:
Rod Speed wrote
Click to expand...
Considering the highly useful advice/suggestions you are giving (that is:
nothing) I consider my suggestions as having a higher chances of success than
yours.
Click to expand...

More fool you. You clearly know sweet **** all about the
basics of what happens to a drive when killed by a brownout.
Maybe his drive is completely lost anyway, but at least he will have tried
something before abandoning.
Click to expand...

Or he might decide that it is worth the cheaper pro recovery.

If he is stupid enough to try all that shit on that site,
not even pro recovery is gunna get his data back.
I salvaged (at least partially) more than one drive that were dead according
to "the book".
Click to expand...

Irrelevant. Even someone a stupid as you should have
noticed that there is more than one way a drive can die.
I even had a client who had an "expert" declared all his data lost for whom I
recovered all but a couple of files..
Click to expand...

See above.
It was pure luck, not science, but at least I tried and it worked.
Click to expand...

See above.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in
Hi,

I hope someone can help me out. We had a brownout at our home
that has significantly damaged the master drive (Western Digital
200Gig) in our desktop. The drive is making a ominous "clicking"
sound as it tries to read, and the BIOS does not even recognize
the drive is present half the time. The other half the time,
when it finally does recognize it... it recognizes the drive but
thinks it is only 8 gigs. We tried placing it in an external
harddrive case and let our good computer access it... but that
computer was unable to access the drive either.

No recovery software has succeeded in being able to recover any
data.. because the software stalls out when the harddrive tries
to read (just clicks and clicks).

What are some options we have besides sending the drive to a
professional? We don't have a grand to pay someone, but neither
can be bare losing all our family photos, financial information,
databases, etc.

Thank you for any ideas and help.
Click to expand...

There is a company in the UK that does data recovery for more
reasonable prices: <http://www.retrodata.co.uk/>

They have done a very good job for a couple of my customers, for
less than 20% of what the others charge.

20:20 hindsight:
A brownout may have been what you observed (lights dimming), but I
doubt a dip in mains voltage would physically damage a disk drive.
It's more likely that there were surges on the line as well that
caused it. You may want to consider installing anti-surge and UPS
protection to avoid recurrence. Regular backups of your data would
also be prudent because a disk drive can fail without the help of
line surges.
 
Rod Speed a écrit :
More fool you. You clearly know sweet **** all about the
basics of what happens to a drive when killed by a brownout.


Or he might decide that it is worth the cheaper pro recovery.

If he is stupid enough to try all that shit on that site,
not even pro recovery is gunna get his data back.


Irrelevant. Even someone a stupid as you should have
noticed that there is more than one way a drive can die.
Click to expand...

I'm eager to read what you have to suggest other than "net time, backup
you data, pal".

It's easy to find other's sugegstions stupid when you have nothing else
to suggest yourself.
 
Michel S. said:
Rod Speed a écrit :

I'm eager to read what you have to suggest other than "net time,
backup you data, pal".

It's easy to find other's sugegstions stupid when you have
nothing else to suggest yourself.
Click to expand...

You got that right.

The only question is whether or not your suggestion can reduce the
possibility of professional data recovery. Then again, if the
original poster considers that out of the question, he has nothing
to lose.

If nothing works, this is just another one of those sad situations
where the original poster did not have backups. Always have a
backup of your important files.
 
troll

Rod Speed said:
Path: newssvr33.news.prodigy.com!newsdbm06.news.prodigy.com!newsdst02.news.prodigy.com!newsmst01b.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!newscon02.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!news.glorb.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From: "Rod Speed" <rod_speed yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Subject: Re: Recover Data from Damaged Harddrive - how? ideas?
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 09:47:52 +1000
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More fool you. You clearly know sweet **** all about the
basics of what happens to a drive when killed by a brownout.


Or he might decide that it is worth the cheaper pro recovery.

If he is stupid enough to try all that shit on that site,
not even pro recovery is gunna get his data back.


Irrelevant. Even someone a stupid as you should have
noticed that there is more than one way a drive can die.


See above.


See above.
Click to expand...
 
....
A brownout may have been what you observed (lights dimming), but I
doubt a dip in mains voltage would physically damage a disk drive.
It's more likely that there were surges on the line as well that
caused it. You may want to consider installing anti-surge and UPS
protection to avoid recurrence. Regular backups of your data would
also be prudent because a disk drive can fail without the help of
line surges.
Click to expand...

After my last UPS died, I bought a 1200 W line conditioner (voltage
regulator). It is much more wattage than my system requires. I heard
they get hot, but it is barely warm. I also use surge suppression. I
bought the line conditioner instead of a UPS because I never produce
irreplaceable data over the course of a few minutes, which is about
the longest interval data stays unsaved to the hard disk drive here.
Combine that with the fact that hardware failures are rare, a UPS
just isn't necessary here. I realize other's circumstances may
require a UPS.

It's too bad about the original poster's lack of backups. I guess
that is one of the benefits to hanging out in a user help group, if
you didn't already know, you learn to keep backups.
 
... the basics of what happens to a drive when killed by a
brownout.
Click to expand...

Please would you share your knowledge of what you consider a brownout
to be, and what happens to a drive when killed by same?
 
A brown-out should not damage any computer component.
The ATX spec requires the PSU shutdown until the line is stable.
A bad PSU can give you out of spec voltages and spikes.

I would start with the WD diagnostics. It will likely say "toast".
 
Michel S. said:
Rod Speed wrote
Click to expand...
I'm eager to read what you have to suggest other than "net time, backup you
data, pal".
Click to expand...

There is nothing that will help with a drive thats
been killed by a brownout and which cant read
anything off the platters now except pro recovery.
It's easy to find other's sugegstions stupid when you have nothing else to
suggest yourself.
Click to expand...

Even easier when I know that none of your
pig ignorant suggestions will help him now
and will make pro recovery impossible.
 
Rod Speed avait énoncé :
There is nothing that will help with a drive thats
been killed by a brownout and which cant read
anything off the platters now except pro recovery.


Even easier when I know that none of your
pig ignorant suggestions will help him now
and will make pro recovery impossible.
Click to expand...


I just found a very interesting FAQ. It's more than two years old but
it's still relevant to this thread :
http://groups.google.ca/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/msg/ad32331015efb66a?hl=fr&
 
McSpreader a couché sur son écran :
Please would you share your knowledge of what you consider a brownout
to be, and what happens to a drive when killed by same?
Click to expand...


Brownout Definition: A reduction in the mains voltage without a
complete loss of power. A brownout is a steady lower voltage state. An
example of a brownout happens during peak electrical demands in the
summer, when utilities can't always meet the requirements and must
lower the voltage to limit maximum power.

When this happens, computer systems can experience data corruption,
data loss and premature hardware failure.

Source: http://www.asi.com.au/technology/powermgt/UPSPowerIssues.htm
 
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