Dead HDD?

I've recently had a PC blow a PSU. It all seemed relatively clean, nothing appeared damaged. However, upon trying to get the HDD to transfer data across to back it up, it's not recognised, not even with a USB caddy or in another PC. I'm starting to think it's died, but it spins up fine and doesn't appear to have anything wrong with it.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

If the data is important, send it to a specialist recovery company. They will get the data off it, but you're looking at £300+ for a half reputable company.

Otherwise, try the freezer trick. Stick it in a freezer bag and tie it in a knot (tightly). Leave it for an hour or 2, remove it from the bag, then plug it into the USB caddy.

That likely won't work, but it's less drastic than this:

Smack it off a desk or something. Don't drop, just tap it firmly off a solid surface once or twice. It might just knock a stuck head back into action. I recently had a Samsung F1 which suffered similar symptoms to you - even the USB caddy didn't recognise it (and it almost never fails). This did sort it though, and it's been fine since... though I have since copied all the data onto another drive, as there were a few changes since the last backup...

Speaking of which... do more backups. :P

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> I've recently had a PC blow a PSU.

So your PC gave a blow to your PSU? Wow, never in my 16 years of life have I ever heard that

(Sorry but I just couldn't help myself)

Monza972 Wrote:
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> turkey_machine Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've recently had a PC blow a PSU.
>
> So your PC gave a blow to your PSU? Wow, never in
> my 16 years of life have I ever heard that
>
> (Sorry but I just couldn't help myself)

Consider yourself firmly reprimanded young sir.

Gav, thanks for that. I've asked for a quote from Ontrack that I should get in the morning. My feeling is it's the motherboard on the HDD.

You say "do more backups"... the irony of that statement is that particular HDD had a backup of another HDD sent to Hitachi for RMA. I hadn't received the RMA'd drive back before the PSU blew a capacitor and presumably took this HDD with it.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/23/2009 11:00PM by turkey_machine.

Windows recognises the drive as a USB Mass Storage Device when I connect it to the caddy, but it can't find the volume on it.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Humn sounds like a job for linux!. Corrupt partition perhaps?

Seriously, Linux is awesome for recovering data.

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I've used the freezer trick very successfully in the past, and using a Linux Live CD is also awesome - reading off the hard drive might drop out from time to time when backing up, but you can often get the data back.

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I've used the freezer trick very successfully in the past

Same. Got a few vital docs off it before sending it off.

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theRacingLine.net
SportsCarArchives.com

Freezing trick did not work.

If the BIOS doesn't recognise the drive, you know something's wrong, right? :-/

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> If the BIOS doesn't recognise the drive, you know
> something's wrong, right? :-/

Well, yes, clearly - certainly if you've tried a USB controller too - but not necessarily beyond rescue. My Samsung mentioned above wasn't recognised by anything... until I smacked it off the desk... but if you're considering sending it off to a data recovery service, then obviously don't do that, as there's a chance you'll send the head through a platter... though they're bloody sturdy (I took a drive apart a couple of days ago, and now use a platter as a rather funky, if nerdy, coaster. :D).

So long as it made no strange noises, the data should be intact, certainly for the most part.

Another option you may have is buying an identical disk (same model number) and removing the circuit board off of that and putting it on your dead drive. It's normally a simple, 5-10 minute job. If it's an electrical problem, then the chances are that'll sort it. Cheaper than a recovery service, but with only a 50/50 chance of getting anywhere I guess.

gav Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> turkey_machine Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > If the BIOS doesn't recognise the drive, you
> know
> > something's wrong, right? :-/
>
> Well, yes, clearly - certainly if you've tried a
> USB controller too - but not necessarily beyond
> rescue. My Samsung mentioned above wasn't
> recognised by anything... until I smacked it off
> the desk... but if you're considering sending it
> off to a data recovery service, then obviously
> don't do that, as there's a chance you'll send the
> head through a platter... though they're bloody
> sturdy (I took a drive apart a couple of days ago,
> and now use a platter as a rather funky, if nerdy,
> coaster. :D).
>
> So long as it made no strange noises, the data
> should be intact, certainly for the most part.
>
> Another option you may have is buying an identical
> disk (same model number) and removing the circuit
> board off of that and putting it on your dead
> drive. It's normally a simple, 5-10 minute job. If
> it's an electrical problem, then the chances are
> that'll sort it. Cheaper than a recovery service,
> but with only a 50/50 chance of getting anywhere I
> guess.

I've been looking at that as an option, but the drive's a bit hard to source in the UK. Model is a Western Digital IDE 250GB HDD, model number WD2500JB-22GVC0.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.