Damaged Hard Disk

mewso · 20-11-2002 2:21pm #1

A couple of months ago my HD just died for no apparent reason. I still don't know what happened. Had to run into itdirect and grab a new HD and re-install everything but I had lost alot of stuff.
As far as I could tell the PC could not read my old HD at all. A mate said to hang on to it as he had heard you can still get at the data on it by moving it to another HD if the actuall data is not damaged. I'm just wondering if this is possible and how I would go about it.

strat · 20-11-2002 2:29pm

mewso · 20-11-2002 5:32pm

Thanks for the links but software is not much use to me since the machine won't boot if I connect this HD to it. As I said the PC could not read the HD, at one time under WinXP with it installed as a secondary HD it started trying to scan it and I had to switch off as it was going nowhere.
So my question was ore about this idea I heard of removing the data storage part of the HD and placing it another one which depends on the stored data part of the HD not being the damaged part.

BogoBot · 20-11-2002 6:21pm

If its the PCB part of the drive that is damaged then you can remove it leaving the disk with just a couple of pins sticking out.....

The tricky part is getting a 'donor' disk of exactly the same type to transplant a PCB from.

This will only help if its the PCB and not the platters, heads or motors. The fact that a machine is not booting when the drive is attached means that it probably is the PCB that is at fault.

This method rescued my system this weekend....twas a SCSI disk with a damaged 68pin connector.....

BogoBot

mackanz · 24-11-2002 2:37am

Musician,

What brand is that hd? Can i guess that it is a IBM?

I may have a sollution in that case.

Mac

mewso · 24-11-2002 8:12pm

Yeah Deskstar 75gxp 30gig

Mork · 24-11-2002 8:32pm

Originally posted by mackanz
Musician,

What brand is that hd? Can i guess that it is a IBM?

I may have a sollution in that case.

Mac

I'd be interested in listening to what you have to say about fixing one of these friggin IBM 75GXP's I'm down to my last one now as I managed to get a refund from Dabs.com after 4 warranty replcements

Mork

mackanz · 24-11-2002 11:18pm

How could i guess that huh? Well, around a million of those GXP 75´s are dead, myself have had 3 of them.

First of all, get the tool from ibm: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

That tool have both a 0 write program, it completely wipes out the hd, but be aware, it takes a while. It also have a tool where you can change the speed that the disk rotates and change it from ata 100 to ata 33 or even p10.

I hate linking to other forums but here it is:

http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35651&highlight=Fix+your+broken

I have done this 6 months ago and it is still running 24/7.

Mac

mewso · 25-11-2002 12:04am

Many thanks. So I assume the data cannot be recovered.

mackanz · 25-11-2002 12:43am

I would say no to that. But try FIRST to lower the speed of the disk and see if it can be read at least so that you can backup what you have there.

Mac

mewso · 25-11-2002 1:45am

ok thanks again

Kali · 25-11-2002 2:21am

If it is important information that you need off it, then there are one or two data recovery places in Dublin... and they usually only charge full-price if they're successful (~€180 iirc).

That'd be a last resort for vital stuff though imo

RicardoSmith · 25-11-2002 3:14am

I bought two identical maxtor drives and one of them failed. I had 5yrs+ worth of work all stored on it! Chip blew on the PCB! I had lent the second drive to a mate, so I got it back swapped the pcb, got my data from it onto a third drive then stuck the pcb back on the second drive and returned the first drive to the shop. So it can work!

Of course if the problem is not on the PCB then you are stuffed!

Gerry · 25-11-2002 3:14am

Changing the "speed" of the disk from ata 100 to ata 33 changes only the speed of the interface between disk and motherboard. It has no effect on rpm, the speed the disk spins at, this remains at 7200.

Mork · 25-11-2002 5:03pm

Originally posted by mackanz
How could i guess that huh? Well, around a million of those GXP 75´s are dead, myself have had 3 of them.

First of all, get the tool from ibm: http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm

That tool have both a 0 write program, it completely wipes out the hd, but be aware, it takes a while. It also have a tool where you can change the speed that the disk rotates and change it from ata 100 to ata 33 or even p10.

I hate linking to other forums but here it is:

http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35651&highlight=Fix+your+broken

I have done this 6 months ago and it is still running 24/7.

Mac

I've tried these tools in the past, your drive will fail again. I've run these tools and got about another 2-3 months out of the drive before it packed up again. I'll NEVER buy an IBM hard drive ever again, I've since went down the SCSI route as reliability is more important to me now.

BigEejit · 25-11-2002 7:44pm

I've since went down the SCSI route as reliability is more important to me now.

Amen to that ... I have lost quite a bit down through the years ... now I have mirrored scsi drives ... more expense but at least your data does not go bye bye on a regular basis...
And of course my performance is much better too. ..

mackanz · 25-11-2002 8:02pm

Originally posted by Gerry
Changing the "speed" of the disk from ata 100 to ata 33 changes only the speed of the interface between disk and motherboard. It has no effect on rpm, the speed the disk spins at, this remains at 7200.

Thanks for "picking" that out. I just tried to help the fella.

mewso · 25-11-2002 8:48pm

Guys don't start a fight now

I'm surprised some of you have lost data so often. This is something that has never happened to me until now. What do you do with your PCs when you are at this tweaking? I'm happy to build myself a new PC once a year without overclocking every sinew till it bursts.

mackanz · 25-11-2002 9:02pm

The thing is that i can´t have my hands off the hardware in the pc until i know i have tweaked it as much as i can. To be honest, i use my pc more for twekaing than for what it´s supposed to be used. It´s a hobby sort of.

RicardoSmith · 26-11-2002 12:47am

overclocking is evil and I have to stop...

mackanz · 26-11-2002 12:01pm

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
overclocking is evil and I have to stop...

Very true, my friend!

Thats why god gave us programs like Drive Image to use.
Awesome program.

Mac

Damaged Hard Disk

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