Hard Drive Recovery

**a_d_smooth** · 05-14-2008 04:04 PM

My Hard Drive has mechanical failure. Does anyone here do "Recovery" for a fee, or can refer me to a service actually used yourself. And no I don't download porn. It just died and fails to power-up due to a bad sector.

**PuppY_K1ck3R** · 05-14-2008 04:13 PM

How much info do u need to backup from that drive?

**breamo** · 05-14-2008 04:29 PM

I've used these guys before:

DriveSavers - Data Recovery Center Your Data Recovery Specialists - Home

Be prepared to pay about $1500-$2500

**tomahawk** · 05-14-2008 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by a_d_smooth

My Hard Drive has mechanical failure. Does anyone here do "Recovery" for a fee, or can refer me to a service actually used yourself. And no I don't download porn. It just died and fails to power-up due to a bad sector.

i've gotten tips from my old work (tech support) take the drive, and like swing it up and down vigorously (my old boss saved a couple hard drives that way). dunno if this'll work, but i remember seeing some writeups somewhere (search for it?) try to get as close of a cleanroom as possible, and take apart your hdd, then transfer the platters to a working hdd (note do at your own risk, this is just me htinking i heard about this somewhere, i could very well be wrong)

or just say #### it and toss the hdd.

**gtrxi** · 05-14-2008 05:12 PM

Originally Posted by a_d_smooth

My Hard Drive has mechanical failure. Does anyone here do "Recovery" for a fee, or can refer me to a service actually used yourself. And no I don't download porn. It just died and fails to power-up due to a bad sector.

i actually did the recovery myself (albeit via illegally downloaded software, but hey. the prices they charge for recovery are insane)
if you wanna give it a shot here you go:

i removed my bad disk and put it into an external harddrive case and hooked it up to another computer, the computer seemed to recognize that a drive was attached but everytime i plugged the drive in it would get lag-happy.
trying to enter the drive through windows explorer also prompted the explorer to crash
anyway i downloaded a program called R-Studio (r-tt.com i believe) and ran it
it was able to recognize the drive and recover the information, however the HD is still unusable

this doesn't exactly answer your question but hey, its another option
if you have a case laying around it's definitely worth a shot. good luck

**assumeivan** · 05-14-2008 05:13 PM

are you trying to recover the whole system? or just the hard-drive?

**a_d_smooth** · 05-14-2008 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by assumeivan

are you trying to recover the whole system? or just the hard-drive?

I'm using another HD already. But its completely free of any files I have ever created; like day1 of a brand new computer. I really just need one file (super-important), and wouldn't mind getting some music/pics back. There is a guy about 1/2 hour from me who charges $125 an hour, but I can't afford that much right now...

My computing was really simple, MS Word, AIM, Photoshop, and Internet. I don't even DL music anymore (or porn).

Thanks everyone...

**Hanael** · 05-14-2008 07:34 PM

woah.
$125 per hour.
if i charge that much, i must be rich by now. o_0a

are you sure it's mechanical? if not, it'll be fairly easier....and hopefully, the data is still intact.

it'll really take time in recovering HDs..i used to recover my friends corrupted HDs, and one time, it took me 3 days just to recover 20gb.
yeah, illegal & free software helps.

However, if it's mechanical damage..well......i feel bad for you.

**MalakaiKingston** · 05-14-2008 07:39 PM

Originally Posted by a_d_smooth

I'm using another HD already. But its completely free of any files I have ever created; like day1 of a brand new computer. I really just need one file (super-important), and wouldn't mind getting some music/pics back. There is a guy about 1/2 hour from me who charges $125 an hour, but I can't afford that much right now...

My computing was really simple, MS Word, AIM, Photoshop, and Internet. I don't even DL music anymore (or porn).

Thanks everyone...

If you want to ship it to me I will see what I can do, no promises though.

**a_d_smooth** · 05-14-2008 07:48 PM

My friend who does IT for a living said he couldn't do anything with it, and advised me to try a professional Recovery service. That's as far as I know. He said it wouldn't power up.

This gets lengthy and full of jargon, but It looks pretty resourceful.

YouTube - Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 1

**a_d_smooth** · 05-14-2008 08:08 PM

The guy from the Hard-Drive video recommends this:

HDDGURU: MHDD

But I wouldn't know what to do with it...

*Thanks Malakai. I'll let you know...

**MalakaiKingston** · 05-15-2008 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by a_d_smooth

The guy from the Hard-Drive video recommends this:

HDDGURU: MHDD

But I wouldn't know what to do with it...

*Thanks Malakai. I'll let you know...

What I would do is hook it up to a usb harness, if it mounts then I would just run spinright on it if it doesn't mount that's when things get tricky. If it mounts my success rate is very high.

**Hanael** · 05-15-2008 02:17 AM

..usb harness?
lol

well, i use usb2ide or usb2sata connector. It's easier that way..you don't have to worry about external cases, which basically the same thing...but the connector only is cheaper.

**jb_** · 05-15-2008 05:52 AM

if it's a mechanical failure, try putting it in the freezer for a while, then take it out and quickly get the important stuff off it before it warms up.

the theory is that hard drives are built to such precise tolerances that the contraction gives things a bit more room to move, so to speak.

it's worked once for me, and a few other people have said it's worked for them.

the reason why data recovery is so expensive is because the drive needs to be dismantled in a cleanroom laboratory (because of the tight mechanical tolerances), and sometimes an identical hard drive (right down to the batch number) might need to be sought in order to swap parts.

**jb_** · 05-15-2008 06:19 AM

Originally Posted by Hanael

..usb harness?
lol

well, i use usb2ide or usb2sata connector. It's easier that way..you don't have to worry about external cases, which basically the same thing...but the connector only is cheaper.

last time i used one of those, it let the magic smoke out of the drive because the pins were wired wrongly. once the magic smoke had been let out, the drive didn't work any more

**Camel** · 05-15-2008 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by jb_

if it's a mechanical failure, try putting it in the freezer for a while, then take it out and quickly get the important stuff off it before it warms up.

the theory is that hard drives are built to such precise tolerances that the contraction gives things a bit more room to move, so to speak.

it's worked once for me, and a few other people have said it's worked for them.

the reason why data recovery is so expensive is because the drive needs to be dismantled in a cleanroom laboratory (because of the tight mechanical tolerances), and sometimes an identical hard drive (right down to the batch number) might need to be sought in order to swap parts.

Agreed, I have done this many times to recover drives. Put it in a ziploc freezer bag. Use your mouth to suck all the air you can from the bag and close it quickly. This keeps moist air from being in there with the drive to a certain extent. Put it in the freezer overnight. Next morning, have your machine ready to accept the drive before you take it out. Handle the drive with oven mitts so you don't raise the surface temp of the drive. Keep it in the ziploc while it's hooked up.

If it actually a hardware failure, this might just do it. If it is a bad sector. Find a utility called SpinRite and use the boot disk it creates to right the drive back to usable condition.

Is the drive spinning up and making a clicking sound constantly? or just spinning up and is inaccessible to the os?

If you can't tell, I do this for a living.

Last time I had a drive recovered, it was 2700 bucks to swap the head with a similar one and recover the data to DVD's. But that was a 2.5" drive, not a desktop drive.

C

**PuppY_K1ck3R** · 05-15-2008 09:17 AM

I 2nd the freezer idea aswell worked on 2 out of the 3 drives i was trying to recover.

***SWEET*** · 05-15-2008 10:16 AM

Recovery programs are just made for the persons who deleted some infos from their windows and who want it back...
If you have a hardware problem, it's a whole differnt business and that's when data recovery companies come into game. It's very expensive.
Follow the different tips given in this topic, it might actually work out pretty well.
But if it doesnt even start or if it does a big nise that does like"srouatchhhhhhhhhhh" you can forget it...