Dead Hard Drive

[QBA]

I'm Running a Pentium 4 with XP Pro, my computer cant find two Western Digital Hard Drives, one a 250 GB (WD2500JB) and the other a 80 GB I use both as back up and most of the time I have I them unpluged from the IDE port, the 250 GB is like a year old and the 80 is like 6 month old.

I have try it making it my primary slave, secondary slave, secondary master and always the same result, every time I turn on my pc I heard the hard drive making a clicking sound and then a message on a black screen saying something like "Primary Slave has a Fatal Error" and the only choice it give me is to restart my system.

I have important data on both hard drive and I wish I could save it, any idea if there is a way to fix these hard drive and what the clicking noise is all about? It sound like is trying to read the drive or something.

I was thinking as a ultimate option to buy another 250 GB and a 80 GB open both of them and changing the disk from the bad hard drive to the new one to see if I could read my data, just in case that the problem is not with the physical disc that store the data inside the hard drive.

Thanks

Alex

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Moving the disc is very hard, and has to be done in a clean room.

This method works most of the time. Put the hard drive in a ziploc bag, and put it in a freezer overnight.

Data recovery specialists have 99% data revovery rates, and they are also very expensive. If your data is worth that much, you should get it recovered.

 

[QBA]

Thanks DJ-CHRIS,

My data is not worth all that money so I will go for the freezer option

are you pulling my legs or is for real the freezer overnight thing? in case is for real would that work when the hard driver is making a clicking noise too?

 

[uzi9mm]

The freezer thing works. I thought that the freezer thing was a joke but it works. So you have my confirmation that he is not pulling your leg.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

It actually does work, never tried it before.

 

[joshd]

yea it works. amazing, innit?

 

[QBA]

Thanks Guys I guess at this point I got nothing to lose, let me try that and I will keep you posted it tomorrow of the results if any

 

[Juice Daddy]

oooo...

I have a few hd's that stopped working..., I am going to have to try that..

does anyone know how exactly it works???

 

[joshd]

i think it is something to do with the metal disks contracting when they get cold. im not sure though...

 

[consultant28]

when writing on the disks, there are 2 kinds of ways to do that. 1. use the magnetized disks that reverse the polarities i.e. reverese polarity 1 becomes 0 and vice versa. I am not a chemist, but low temperature has an effect on magnetization, and might help fix if the write heads are going bazerck.

2. Heat exposed write. New technologies (more and more used in nanotechnologies) they use heat write on the hard disk. Heating will create something like a whole that signifies a 1, while no hole signifies a zero. Every digit has a specific space. Re-heating the metal will cause the hole to become flat again. It's like puttin wax on a sponge and putting a metal ball on it., remove the ball and u will have a u shaped curve on the wax. Put the sponge in the oven, and the wax will become flat again because the sponge will push the liquid wax up. (imagine it).

Dunno exaclty why, but the freezer thing might work. Just like when u put ur PC on the balcony u get better performance in the winter. It's all about heat disipation and management.

Later. and good luck.