Hard drive recovery

Time to say aaaah!

We are currently researching the possibility of recovering 2 from 3 hard drives that gave up recently. Two of the drives are very important. Before we get into a discussion about backing data up, I backed the first drive onto the second and then both stopped working, as luck would have it. I have an external housing in which I can test drives. I took a drive which works and this can be read by three computers, the two I want to back up do not respond at all.
I've started searching for ideas on how to recover these drives myself, although I suspect this is impossible outside of dust-free conditions. The trick of putting the drives into the freezer has been tested, but was only used as a last resort after many attempts in other directions. I don't really want to recover the drives professionally, as we are a bit short on pennies for a while.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

Well if the freezer trick didn't work, and both drive fail to show-up on any PC, then it sounds like they are dead.
There are only 2 ways to recover your data.

1. You already mentioned, and will usually cost at a min. 200 Eur and will rise depending on how much data you want recovered. (Depending on the companies pricing structure)
2. If you can find the exact same model HD, thats working you can try swapping out the controller board with the one on the
dead HDs. Will only cost you the price of another HD. It must be the exact same make/model. Even then its still 50/50 on recovery.

Good Luck.

does all the 3 comps run on windows? if yes, then i would suggest you try with a Knoppix CD first. You might have luck in getting to boot up using a live Knoppix CD, attach another HDD and then copy all the required data to the new HDD.

I've said it before on this forum and on others, go to CBL (or .com; they're worldwide). They are the best. Everyone I've sent there -- including one guy with a b0rked 10-drive proprietary array designed by a now-dead company -- has gotten every bit back. They aren't cheap, but despite what Darknight continues to spout even though I've said it already, they give you a set price for the recovery.

CBL -- unlike every other crap company out there *cough*ontrack*cough* -- does NOT charge for a diagnosis. You send them the drive, they give you a call and tell you whether they can do it or not (they can) and how much it will cost you. These days it's easiest just to send them a new drive to dump the data to. They are also safe, certified to handle secret and classified information. If you decide it ain't worth it, they'll send you back the drive or dispose of it for you.

CBL charges less to recover your data than some of the other firms charge just to look at the drive.

I do not work for CBL nor do I have any financial interest in the company. I have a lot of experience with their service for my own drives and other storage media as do my friends and former customers.

woof.

Did they approve this message?

AFAIK they don't know about it but most (if not all) of their advertising is word-of-mouth from customers. What they wanted two years ago for full recovery of a 60GB notebook drive was half of what OnTrack demanded just to look at it. More than €1200 just to look at the drive and tell me it would then cost me at least €2600 more if I actually wanted the data off it. And if OT says they can't get the data, you're still on the hook for that outrageous amount. CBL's motto (since 1995 or before): "No data, no charge".

woof.

Well they sound like a good company, but I am fairly confident with Mac OS X Leopard and Time Machine being used in conjunction with my 500 Gb Iomega HD. I think it's very unlikely i'll ever need to use their services. Guess it's not so straightforward for Windows/Enterprise users.

We're talking about the physical loss of the fucking hard drive, doofus. Your Iomega (you must be too young to remember the infamous Iomega click-of-death) and pretty-but-overpriced computer can't do shit if the data can't physically be read because the heads crashed, magnetic heads broke, logic board fried, or any of a dozen things that can go wrong with storage media does, in fact, go wrong.

You don't need to tell me how great your favourite computer maker is. Just show me a data center filled with racks of that company's product. The 10-drive array I referred to was connected to some big fucking AIX iron, not a shitty little Dell laptop.

woof.

I refer you to the last sentence in my previous post, bumnuts.

It has nothing to do with the OS.. It sounds like a HARDWARE Failure.. Something which can (And Does) affect every kind of computer..

Hi.

So, good news. I will be able to recover the newer drive (which is still under gaurantee) with Ontrack EasyRecovery Professional in raw format - I'll have to rename everything manually - the ID3 tags are still intact in the music folder (back-ups of my original vinyl Disco 12" collection). I've woken up the older drive after recovering it with EasyRecovery and can read it only using a Digitus hard drive reader which turns the drive, when removed, into an external drive. My new computer can read it via USB 2.0. I have to copy each folder on the drive seperately, as not all folders were recovered - 90 % was recovered. I still have to hope for the best, but it's looking good.

Both hard drives can no longer be used normally. When I've copied the data, I'll have to get my money back on one and throw the other one away. As for the third drive, it was used by a MAC user and afterwards the Windows machine did not want to know. All data was backed up, so I've formatted it for Windows on a MAC and now it is recognised on the Windows machine.

Thanks for your help so far!!!!

@DK & BD
looks like i missed the obvious. AFAIK "computer" is a broad term.

where does OP mention the type of OS/ HDD? All i can c is that out of 3 hard disks 2 failed. was it on an aix, solaris, hpux, windows..?!! The title mentions "info amd experience". I'm familiar with amd (along the lines of intel) and amd as in "auto mounter daemon". so cant be the title. in the body of the message cant find a clue about the type of hard disk. is it a scsi-based?!! or is this a netapp (hahaha.. no chance, then he would be using tape drives and ontap, wouldnt he.. not to mention costs)

again OP mentions that a backup was made from the first to a second HDD. which method? disk cloning (smitty AIX)? or using ignite (hpux)? veritas backup manager? or something like "norton ghost"?

EDIT: Now that OP has mentioned how he has reached a colution... still care to say that its a h/w problem?

I tried not to go into too much detail, but no SCSI drives were involved. The 80GB Maxtor drive, which originally had Windows 95 on it, has Windows XP Pro installed and is quite old. As for the newer Samsung 200GB drive, it is external and is being used via USB on Vista and XP machines. The third one is a cheap pocket sized 250GB drive powered via USB - the drive inside cannot be removed.

Hi HC,

my comments were rather towards DK & BD. just wanted to understand how they reached the conclusion that it was a hardware problem. It appeared to me to be a common problem where the master boot record (MBR) is corrupt.

thank you for posting the details & the results

No problem


Funny you should say that, I started with the command Fixmbr in DOS, but only discovered that the drive was dead after removing it and putting it into the external drive housing. The machine was trying to boot in a loop process and kept showing a blue screen for less than a second each time it started again.

IMPORTANT

I am not using Windows Explorer to copy the data from the old hard drive, I am using Total Commander 7.03, to avoid problems caused by Explorer when it encounters corrupt data.

Have a nice wet weekend

I'm afraid the Penguin didn't help. I tried Knoppix as well...

The old computer is being retired. I was in the process of copying data over when the disaster hit! The new one is so good that it runs Crysis with both hands tied behind its back. I don't play games, I edit videos, but I decided to find a game that needs more power than any other and had a machine built that could more than cope with all requirements and with future development and as such can cope with high definition video editing. Total cost EUR 1400.

Funny that these problems turned up just as I was getting ready to put the new machine into action

Both drives are now recovered in full
It took a long time, but it worked.

The 200GB drive could only be recovered using Easy Recovery. I started two forms of recovery, RAW and DATA. Both worked.

I suspect the 200GB removable external drive gave up because it was running hot. I will now turn off all external drives, when not in use, to extend life.

If anyone feels they need more details, I'll see what I can add.

On a lighter, non-technical note, I'm impressed that you admitted to this ...


... in open forum.

Glad it's all worked out even though I didn't understand any of the geeky stuff.

Back-ups are allowed, not downloads ( ). All vinyls are still there as proof
One of the local radio stations in Hamburg has done the same.

Addition.

Something strange... I'd almost given up trying to recover the second drive, with the new computer, until I got the old laptop out (USB 1.1, 6GB hardrive, 333hz Pentium II). This was the only computer that could read the damaged 200GB drive via Easy Recovery. weird, but true. I'll try anything!

Me too!

At 333hz it must be really slow. I'm surprised that it could run Easy Recovery at all.

Just to keep you up to date HC, new legislation has been passed in the UK regarding this very topic, Any change in format (i.e.vinyl-CD, CD-mp3) requires that you now obtain a PRODUB licence. If using mp3s from legally obtained souces (Purhased Vinyl & CDs) it is now illegal to form change these track without this licence. The entry point is £250 for the first 5000 tracks, sliding scale thereafter. This fee is payable yearly. Apparently the music industry has decided that even thouh we DJs have purchased the music and paid the artists their dues, we are now expected to dip our hands in our pockets a second time for the ability to "copy" the track in to a more transportable, workable format. I myself have my etire collection on a Denon HD2500, was very pleased not to have to humpf my CDs around with me, however my collection runs in to the £400 bracket with a further £300 yearly, this new licence is a laughing stock and you can bet your bottom dollar that Germany (the land of beaurocracy) will have a similar legislation in place.

Be careful, according to EU law, owning the album does not give you permission to "rip" for commercial purposes. I expect the legislation will change at some point down the line to include iPod users.

Me neither - dumbnuts

I don't work as a DJ here anymore. Here in Hamburg it was a case of complain first, try to pay less on the night and expect low prices for very long nights. Working in the Hamburg clubs proved pointless - brain-dead managers, low pay and zero concepts to keep the clubs/discos going. In the clubs there was always some wannabe DJ trying to get your job. I'd rather stay at home! I was a DJ in the best years, 1975 onwards, so I'm happy with that.

I didn't really want to get involved with another topic here, so I'm out of here.

See you in the next topic.

numb maybe, not dumb... ''me too'' was deliberate...

What happens if you open the case of a 750GIG drive and exposed it to the air, does it mean it cannot be repaired.