corrupt/failed hard drive, options?

CharlieZeroOne

hi all

a hard drive died on my, bout 4 years ago. I held onto it because there is a lot of my design work, artwork and video work on the drive.

I'd like to recover it at some stage, I always pictured this being a costly affair though.

Was mulling over it again just a few mins ago, so I said id start a thread and maybe find out what my options are.

If anyone knows anything about it at all I'd appreciate any insight.

kind regards,
redd .

CreepingDeath

Define "died" ?
How far along the following steps did you get ?

1. Does it power on ( do you hear it spin/make any noise? )
2. Does the BIOS recognise it in the BIOS setup screen?
3. Do you hear nasty clicking sounds from it ?
4. If it was the main hard disk, did Windows start up?
5. If Windows started up, was it just certain directories that had problems?

I imagine there's a few Linux rescue disks to try, if you can make it past points 1 & 2 above.

Or if you want something commercial, then try SpinRite for $89.
Although I tried SpinRite on a laptop disk for someone recently and there was just too many unrecoverable sectors.
It took 61 hours to process 19% of a 320Gb disk.
Although the data you want might be on an easily recoverable section of the disk, so you might be in luck.
Sometimes it's just the Windows/boot sector part that fails, but the rest of the disk is okay.

ScumLord

Last time I checked getting data off a clicking hard drive, a UK company said they could but it would cost £600 (this was a good few years ago now), the high cost was due to them having to open the drive in a clean room.

dylanobyrne1

Hi!
When you turn the PC on do you see a blue screen with text that nobody understand saying Fatal Error or something (BSOD), If so you will have to get a new hard drive mate, maybe the store can get it back. But as far as I know you will have to get a new hard drive

CreepingDeath

dylanobyrne1 wrote: »

Hi!
When you turn the PC on do you see a blue screen with text that nobody understand saying Fatal Error or something (BSOD), If so you will have to get a new hard drive mate

That's not true in all circumstances.
There are a large number of software reasons why Windows might give a BSOD, when the hard disk is physically healthy.

ShRT

Have a listen to these to identify what "clicking" noise is being made.
http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php


If you are going to do the work yourself, its best to connect it up to the motherboard of the pc rather than through a usb adapter.

Also have a look at this guys site:
http://www.myharddrivedied.com/presentations-resources
He has a hell of a lot of stuff on drive recovery and what not to do. Ideally you want to image the dodgy drive to good one and then work on the recovery on the good drive. That way if you make a mistake, you can always go back to the dodgy drive.

Have a look here for that kind of guide:
http://www.technibble.com/guide-using-ddrescue-recover-data/

johndoe99

as "CreepingDeath" said, define died?

If you believe the HD could be fine,

you could purchase a caddy or maybe a mate might have one to borrow:

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/DYNAMODE-35-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure-Silver/297318/6.8

attach your HD and connect it to your PC, it will become an external HD. The files may then be copied to your new PC. This all relies on your HD being undamaged.