Recovering a failed hard drive

N1one

Hi guys,
I have a hard drive that has failed and I need the data recovered. But to complicate things the connection, SATA, has been broken; the plastic bit on the hard drive side broke off in the connection and two of the projecting flat metal pins have broken off (see picture). I hope this explains it. So I can no longer even connect up the hard drive properly.
Can anyone reccommend someone that may be able to fix this or recover the data and how much is that likely to cost (PC world suggested €800!)?
I'm in Galway so local to here would be great.

TouchingVirus

N1one wrote: »

Hi guys,
I have a hard drive that has failed and I need the data recovered. But to complicate things the connection, SATA, has been broken; the plastic bit on the hard drive side broke off in the connection and two of the projecting flat metal pins have broken off (see picture). I hope this explains it. So I can no longer even connect up the hard drive properly.
Can anyone reccommend someone that may be able to fix this or recover the data and how much is that likely to cost (PC world suggested €800!)?
I'm in Galway so local to here would be great.

A new logic board for that particular make and model of hard drive will solve your problem with busted pins. It's also possible, if you know your way around a soldering iron, to solder an SATA cable directly to points on the logic board, bypassing the broken data connector. You should then be able to hook the drive up to a computer and read it.

This assumes all the mechanical parts are in working order of course, and if not is only a minor step in a full data recovery procedure. At that stage you really need to be contacting data recovery companies, and it is pretty expensive

hearny

Had the hard drive failed before the drive connection broke.

What was happening with the drive before that?

Your best bet my be to replace the logic board, but that may only get you back to the state you were.

Post a pic of the label of the drive and I will see if I can locate the model.

hearny

You bet me to it TouchingVirus

DoesNotCompute

TouchingVirus wrote: »

A new logic board for that particular make and model of hard drive will solve your problem with busted pins. It's also possible, if you know your way around a soldering iron, to solder an SATA cable directly to points on the logic board, bypassing the broken data connector. You should then be able to hook the drive up to a computer and read it.

This assumes all the mechanical parts are in working order of course, and if not is only a minor step in a full data recovery procedure. At that stage you really need to be contacting data recovery companies, and it is pretty expensive

+1 on replacing the logic board. You have to find a replacement logic board from a drive with the exact same model number and revision number though.

Before thinking about going to a data recovery company, I'd recommend putting the drive in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then, stick it as a slave drive in another computer. Boot up and get as much data off the drive as possible.

As a last resort, you might try running Spinrite on the drive, to fix any dodgy sectors, so you can get all the data off the drive and back it up. This might accelerate the drive's death if it's on it's last legs though.

N1one

The connection was broken for over a year or more and but was working fine-that is the plastic bit was broken but the pins were intact. The drive failed and i broke the pins in disconnecting the connection so i never got to properly check if the failure was related to the connection or not.

This is a link to the hard drive logic board. Where would i source one of these?

numbnutz

I dont work for this company so dont start anyone!!Anyway same situation as yourself with a client,went to www.criticaldata.ie great service they dont blind you with science and are cheap compared to others.I know they're in Dublin and not local to you but they're worth a phone call.Its good to talk!!

DoesNotCompute

N1one wrote: »

The connection was broken for over a year or more and but was working fine-that is the plastic bit was broken but the pins were intact. The drive failed and i broke the pins in disconnecting the connection so i never got to properly check if the failure was related to the connection or not.

This is a link to the hard drive logic board. Where would i source one of these?

You might find a second hand version of the exact same drive on eBay. Buy the drive, unscrew it's logic board, and replace.

N1one

Thanks for that guys, i've got it working again by replacing the logic board, but.....

In the mean time i got a new hard drive and reinstalled windows on it and was working away grand. I then reconnected the fixed drive and it works fine as a second drive. But 2 problems:
1) It will not boot from this drive, even when i select it at startup- not a big problem really but as a result.... 2) i cannot not access my personal user files on the fixed drive, i presume because i'm not logged on as the user on that drive. I get an 'Access is denied' warning when i try to access my files in C:/documents and settings.

Anyone got any ideas on how to solve this?

yoyo

N1one wrote: »

Thanks for that guys, i've got it working again by replacing the logic board, but.....

In the mean time i got a new hard drive and reinstalled windows on it and was working away grand. I then reconnected the fixed drive and it works fine as a second drive. But 2 problems:
1) It will not boot from this drive, even when i select it at startup- not a big problem really but as a result.... 2) i cannot not access my personal user files on the fixed drive, i presume because i'm not logged on as the user on that drive. I get an 'Access is denied' warning when i try to access my files in C:/documents and settings.

Anyone got any ideas on how to solve this?

Right click on the Documents & Settings folder>Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner and edit. It probably says unknown owner, simply choose your admin account to be owner and check the replace owner in sub directories. You should then have full access to the folder no issiues

Nick

N1one

yoyo wrote: »

Right click on the Documents & Settings folder>Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner and edit. It probably says unknown owner, simply choose your admin account to be owner and check the replace owner in sub directories. You should then have full access to the folder no issiues

Nick

When I right click>properties i get a menu with general/Sharing/customise. These don't have an security or owner option anywhere....
I'm Windows XP.

yoyo

N1one wrote: »

When I right click>properties i get a menu with general/Sharing/customise. These don't have an security or owner option anywhere....
I'm Windows XP.

Try it in safe mode in XP

Nick

N1one

That worked, thanks guys.