HDD = Dead

[apsoul]

My parent's HDD has died. Bios does not recognize that the HDD is connected. I tried different sata cables, different sata connections, different power connections, and finally all of the above in a different computer. None of the computers recognize that the drive is even present.

At startup, i can feel the HDD spin up, but nothing other than spinning. Prior to failure I had Copied about 24GB from a different HDD onto the dead one, and then burned the data to a couple DVD's. Upon next reboot: "Insert system disk to continue".

The HDD is a seagate 7200.11 *cringe* Firmware hp24.

What kind of chances do I have of recovering files from the disk if i replace the PCB? Other than that my only option (if i want the files enough) seems to be to pay lots of money to send it of to a HDD data recovery place. Any suggestions on a business of choice for the last option?

 

[MindoverMaster]

You could try freezing it, but I don't think that would help. You could try a knew PCB. You never know, though.
I doesn't seem to be a hardware problem inside the plates or headers.

 

[carnageX]

What model is your drive? Have you checked to see if it was one of the affected drives from the bugged firmware?

Firmware Updates for Seagate Products

If it is indeed one of the affected drives, you just need to contact SeaGate, and they will start up a ticket with you. I had to go through this with one of my drives. What they do, is give you a prepaid label, have you send the drive to their drive recovery place. They then back up your data on their drives, fix the firmware, and then send the drive back to you. Make sure it works, because they give you 30-40 days of having your data stored on their location in case in stops working for another reason.

 

[memory]

You could try a usb to sata/ide adapter cable, they are not to expensive or a external enclosure. I just had a hard drive die on me, started clicking and the computer would not recognize it.

I bought a external enclosure and put the dead drive in it and I was able to recover the files off the drive. I don't know how that works but it worked for me. I have also used a usb to sata/ide adapter cable to recover files from a friend's screwed up drive.

I think that any body that is into computers should have a usb to sata/ide adapter cable. They are inexpensive, about $20 and they could save you alot of headaches.

 

[carnageX]

The drive isn't being detected by this BIOS, though, which poses a larger issue.

 

[memory]

The drive that died on me was not detected in the bios either, IIRC. It is worth a shot to try the cable. You never know when it might come in handy in the future.