HDD resurrection?

[Gilgamesh80]

Greetings!

I'm trying to find out if I can revive a fatal HDD. My wife's computer began the deadly "clicking" this last weekend and has now flatlined. I can't get any BIOS to see it as master or slave. it just makes the click of doom.

My question is: Can I physically open the HDD and see if there's a widget or thingymabob I can replace/Macgyver rig to get it to work? If so, will opening the HDD destroy the data?

If nothing else, I'm open to ANY suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kfc469]

opening it would most likely destroy the drive further, so there may be no hope. But, if you want to, you could try opening it up and switching the platters from the broken drive into a working hdd. But, if you really want this, you would need some kind of clean room because there can be 0 dust in there because it will screw everything up.

 

[networkgeek]

opening it would most likely destroy the drive further, so there may be no hope. But, if you want to, you could try opening it up and switching the platters from the broken drive into a working hdd. But, if you really want this, you would need some kind of clean room because there can be 0 dust in there because it will screw everything up.

yeah I would suggest if the data is critical. then call a data recovery center about it. they will charge a lot though for the repairs.

if not then you just have to eat the loss and backup next time. sorry to be brutal but just being honest.

sometimes freezing the drive helps though. but that too is risky and I dont know the exact details about how to do it heh

 

[IBMan]

might try the freezer trick...seal it in a plastic bag lay it on top of a newspaper in the freezer for a few hours or a day or 2 and try it again, if it works, back it up immediately

 

[Nukem]

might try the freezer trick...seal it in a plastic bag lay it on top of a newspaper in the freezer for a few hours or a day or 2 and try it again, if it works, back it up immediately

Just want I was going to suggest. A few hours is all you need though... if it's not going to work after 3-4 hours... it's ain't gonna work after 24-36 hours...

but if it does.... then BACK UP... SOONEST!!

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Hard drives are so cheap that it doesn't make any sense to have no back up drive!!! I have had an occation to pull the controller board and replace it wiht a DOA drive of exactly the same model off of Ebay. If it is the controller board then you can save the data. There are clean room data recovery services but they will cost you several hundred dollars to extract data. Special clean room equipment is used by removing the the platen disks and installing then in a universal drive caddy. I would, frankly, write if off to experience. Hopefully your wife isn't asking you to sleep on the sofa???

 

[LA1]

sometimes freezing the drive helps though. but that too is risky and I dont know the exact details about how to do it heh

NOT FOR THE CLICK OF DEATH, Sorry
FYI I have used freezing twice . It seems to only help non click of death drives that spin up, but can not read any data. The not reading any data is not because of bad electronics, but have theories that it is mechanical and the freezing causes maybe bearings to contract, who knows
I have frozen 3 drives 2 I got data off of. Once the drive thaws it is no longer good.
do a dry run ( w/o freezing) first , running from the frig with the drive to the pc and hook up like for real. Make sure any jumpers are set, bios is set to boot from floppy, cdrom ...or ? .I like to disconnect all on the secondary ide and connect the drive to clone to , no jumpers to set, the freezer pop HD goes on the primary ide chanell. Both that I saved data from I used Ghost from a floppy. As soon as the HD thaws it starts slipping into worst and worst. When the water doplets start forming it is close to all over. I figure 5-8 minutes from frig to no read. Wrap the hd up with plastic in the frig, use rubberbands so it is easy to ubwrap.

 

[networkgeek]

NOT FOR THE CLICK OF DEATH, Sorry

hmm didnt know that, as I said I never tried the freeze trick myself. data recovery would be the only option then I guess.

 

[LA1]

Yup Ontrac or Ontrack is the best. I heard it can be on the highside of triple digit. $$$$$$$$