-1 Seagate

[Mr. Switch]

Now then I have to figure out a way to try and salvage the data off of a drive that refuses to boot when it's plugged it and won't even show up in the bios...if anyone knows any dos based recovery tools that would be very nice

This is what i would do personally with my 2 drives to fix this problem:

I would unhook my 60GB HD and instead hook up my 30GB HD and set it master. Reformat it. Than, get my 60GB HD and set it slave, and put the 30GB and 60GB drives on the same IDE cable. With the 30GB disk being the one that boots, i would search the 60GB drive and pull off my data that i want, through windows. Once i do that, go out and buy a new HD. set the new one to master and disconnect my 30GB disk. i'd reformat the new drive and keep it set to master while switching my 30GB disk to slave and hook it up to the same IDE cable like before, only with the master/slave in reverse. with the new drive as the primary one, i'd pull my data off of that and use the new one from now on. Than, i'd throw away the broken 60GB'er.

I've done it before and it was really tedious, but it worked.

 

[gaara]

Well this was a SATA drive so there isn't any master/slave configuration involved...and I tried connecting it to another computer and XP once again locked up at the boot screen so I was pretty sure it was toast

Either way it's RMA'd now anyways

 

[003]

You can try putting the drive in the freezer in a plastic bag for a few hours or so, then quickly taking it out and getting your data off it. I had a 250gb seagate drive fail on me with similar symptoms. It was a slow process however.

 

[Mr. Switch]

I've heard of people doing this beofre, but how would putting it in a freezer help?

 

[molsen]

yes, the freezer trick normally works. but the thing is putting a drive in a freezer is not good for it, so it's sort of a one-shot deal to revive a dead drive just long enough to get some data off of it.

put it in a bag and seal out as much air as possible. put in the freezer for 3 or 4 hours. then hook it up outside the case (less heat) and transfer data off of it as fast as you can.

some say it works because parts that fail often get stuck and expanded due to heat. obviously, this only works if it's a mechanical problem with the drive.

it seems to be a popular method with a high success rate

 

[Apokalipse]

hard drives usually die from mechanical problems

 

[003]

I've read stories about the freezer trick actually bringing the drive back to life, of course if that is the case I still wouldn't feel very safe using it.

 

[JamesR]

Re: -2 Seagate

Rebooted the computer a few hours ago, heard several loud clicks followed by a thunk sound and my start-up froze at the windows XP screen...after spending about an hour trying to figure out which drive was the issue I went into my bios and found that my prized 500 drive was not being detected...pulled the cable and windows booted fine

Now then I have to figure out a way to try and salvage the data off of a drive that refuses to boot when it's plugged it and won't even show up in the bios...if anyone knows any dos based recovery tools that would be very nice

But yeah, I have no where to archive this stuff assuming I can even pull it off successfully, and although it isn't anything crucial, it still took hours and hours of downloading to get all that stuff...you start to realize that regardless of a "5 year warranty" that doesn't mean jack if you lose everything on the drive itself

I guess it's partly my fault and I should have done some reading, as we all know the larger the drive is the more platters that drive will contain and thus the more heat it will produce...in the case of Seagate drives with three or more platters, there is an issue with the controller chip within the drive frying after a duration of intensive reading and writing...therefore if you want a drive 250 or larger, I advise you avoid Seagate as they do not live up their reputation with larger drives

WD next time for me

my mate came around the other day to get some music off of me, he brought his 200gb portable HDD around.
plugged it into power, HDD starts clicking, light on case flashing.
plug in to usb, nothing.

i thought id have a look at the drive, and to my surprise, Seagate
poor fella was only a few months old.
im not gonna say seagate is ****, but id most likey lay the blame on my mate for not taking better care of the drive.

 

[Nubius]

western digital has more expensive hard drives

my computer's hard drive was 40 GB, bought 2 years ago, for $120!

now, you can get a maxtor 80GB hard drive for $50....

in my opinion, i would go for maxtor, just for the price...

1. WD's hard drives aren't more expensive, and in the cases where I have seen them be more pricey, it's generally a difference of a couple dollars.

2. Maxtor has THE WORST reputation for hard drives dying......I would not go for them just for the price. The old saying "You get what you pay for" definitely applies to maxtor......however they've been bought out by seagate now anyway.

My WD 200gb has been running strong for a while..........although if you do a defrag analysis of it, it's almost a solid red bar, but even if I try to defrag it, it just always says a lot of the files can't be moved.

I've got a friend who's a hard core seagate advocate.....supposedly they have the best running streak of hard drives....meaning lowest failure rate, followed closely by WD.

 

[Nitestick]

the "freezer trick" is only intended to get the hdd working long enough to recover data.