Off-Topic

Uglyman

Member
Mar 9, 2012
165
68
Pyalong
I have been building/upgrading/repairing pc's for the last 25 years for myself and others and there is a chance you can recover the data yourself. First thing to test is whether the drive spins up when powered up, you can usually hear it and feel it spin up when you have it plugged in to your pc. If it does not spin up it can usually mean one of two things 1. the platter bearing has failed. First and easiest trick to getting it to spin up is put it in a sealed plastic bag and put it in your freezer for a day or two then get it out and quickly plug it into you pc and start it up and get ready to transfer data as quick as you can from the drive to another good drive (you may only have a few minutes to do this). 2. Circuit board failure, if the drive does not spin up after the freezer trick then you may be able to source another drive of the same model and transfer circuit board from the new one to the dead one, it usually one takes a couple of screws and removal of a ribbon cable to swap it over.

If the drives spins up but makes a ticking/clacking noise alot and spins off and on you may have a BIG problem as it can be the read head/heads have been damaged and are not positioning properly over the platters, this situation requires a clean room to pull apart the drive and remove the platters and may still not get your data back if the read heads have failed drastically and hit your drives platter damaging the surface.

Let me know what model/size the drive is and I may have a spare among my many..many spares which I could swap out the circuit board on yours with.
 

chimaera

enjoy the little things
May 13, 2012
5,473
2,295
Sandringham
I have been building/upgrading/repairing pc's for the last 25 years for myself and others and there is a chance you can recover the data yourself. First thing to test is whether the drive spins up when powered up, you can usually hear it and feel it spin up when you have it plugged in to your pc. If it does not spin up it can usually mean one of two things 1. the platter bearing has failed. First and easiest trick to getting it to spin up is put it in a sealed plastic bag and put it in your freezer for a day or two then get it out and quickly plug it into you pc and start it up and get ready to transfer data as quick as you can from the drive to another good drive (you may only have a few minutes to do this). 2. Circuit board failure, if the drive does not spin up after the freezer trick then you may be able to source another drive of the same model and transfer circuit board from the new one to the dead one, it usually one takes a couple of screws and removal of a ribbon cable to swap it over.

If the drives spins up but makes a ticking/clacking noise alot and spins off and on you may have a BIG problem as it can be the read head/heads have been damaged and are not positioning properly over the platters, this situation requires a clean room to pull apart the drive and remove the platters and may still not get your data back if the read heads have failed drastically and hit your drives platter damaging the surface.

Let me know what model/size the drive is and I may have a spare among my many..many spares which I could swap out the circuit board on yours with.
Thanks, useful tips! I don't have the SATA enclosure yet so can't test, but will let you know once I manage to.

The freezer trick is ... interesting. That's the point I might save up to pay someone who actually knows what they are doing o_0

The drive is Hitachi, 500gb. Sorry not the clearest of pics:

photo.JPG

photo2.jpg
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
The freezer trick is ... interesting. That's the point I might save up to pay someone who actually knows what they are doing o_0
The freezer trick is something that nearly any experienced tech knows about, though it's one of those things that sometimes works, but if you're not careful, it is possible to wind up with ice in a place you don't want (worst I've seen is moisture winding up on platters on a drive with a breather hole.. that sealed bag didn't help much compared to the unbagged drive we put in at the same time). I'd be loathe to suggest this to anyone trying to recover data that they consider to be really important without them understanding the inherent risk associated with doing it. That said, I've had to use this one a few times over the years. :P

When it comes to data and recovering it, it's all about risk. If the data is valuable to you, then you're better off not taking unnecessary risks, and give it to someone who knows what they're doing. If it's not that valuable to you, play away :P
 

chimaera

enjoy the little things
May 13, 2012
5,473
2,295
Sandringham
Okay so I plugged in the hard drive and ... a faint whirring sound, but did not appear on my device list.

:(

So looks like I might need a specialist to take a look after all. At least some of the services only charge if they recover the data. Payam gets lots of good reviews, and/or will look into Data Recovery Labs mentioned earlier.


I tried the drive from my old laptop and got access, even though I can't remember the Admin details to get to my pictures. D'oh.
 

MagicJ

Moderator
Jul 11, 2011
9,650
3,761
Hobart, Tasmania
I'm the Owner of Brisbane Data Recovery not Corporate Data Recovery.
So, your claim of 'the best data recovery service in Brisbane' is somewhat biased.

Do you have any expert advice to add, or have you just trawled up this (almost) 3 year old thread just to get a plug for your business?
 
Do you have any expert advice to add, or have you just trawled up this (almost) 3 year old thread just to get a plug for your business?[/QUOTE]

So, your claim of 'the best data recovery service in Brisbane' is somewhat biased.

Do you have any expert advice to add, or have you just trawled up this (almost) 3 year old thread just to get a plug for your business?
Well, I add a comment on chimaera post. And of courseI have suggestions for any data recovery issues. If You have any question just leave a reply. I will get back to you ASAP. Thanks for asking!!