Can anyone recover data from a dead Hard Drive?

[LazyLion]

One of my Samsung 160 Gb SATA HDDs has died. It just stopped working suddenly and now refuses to be recognised at all. When I flip it over I can see a little blackened short-out damage on the PC-Board underneath. I am not so worried about the drive's warranty as I am about the contents of the drive. There was a lot of good stuff on it. Software that I had collected over the years and my entire collection of Audio Books. Do any of you know how to recover that data? Or is it just too much effort to be worth it?

 

[pierrehugo]

ok first of whatever you do if the drive is physicaly damaged dont power it up because if a computer tries to write or read from it it could cause more problems... you can go to a specialist where they remove te platters (the part that holds the data) and recover the data but it depends if the cost of recovery is worth the expence in your opinion...

 

[Wisemansa]

try cssi.co.za, had a hdd with a messd up pcb they repaired it

 

[charlbronn]

If it's the PCB that is damaged, it may be much cheaper (in relation to data recovery) to just buy another identical Samsung 160G drive and replace the broken PCB with the new one (that's if you're comfortable with doing such things).

The PCB repair mentioned in the above post looks like a good option if the price is right.

 

[AirWolf]

Had a problem with a hard drive about a year ago.

Used Datadetect to recovery the data onto a dvd. They did a good job, but pricey - about R4500 [I think] because the hard drive had a head crash.

 

[MidnightWizard]

Dead , Dead , Dead

When I flip it over I can see a little blackened short-out damage on the PC-Board underneath.

How did that happen ?

SAMSUNG drives are not SEAGATE

IF the PC board can be unscrewed safely then it can be replaced with a working example from a similar drive. That should get you up and running as long as there is no other damage. Head crash and motor seize are the worst.

KZNCM

 

[Sandman30s]

HD recovery is expensive! Sorry to say, but pay the price for not doing backups...

 

[oldsarg1943]

As some here replied, if you can locate another PCB and feel ok with doing that, replace it. Other alternative is get a new just like it, swap PCBs. After all that is done, get another hard drive of at least 20Gig, set it up USB and use it for a back up.

The price you pay for not backing up. So simple to do, but everybody wants to put it off.

 

[antowan]

One of my Samsung 160 Gb SATA HDDs has died. It just stopped working suddenly and now refuses to be recognised at all. When I flip it over I can see a little blackened short-out damage on the PC-Board underneath. I am not so worried about the drive's warranty as I am about the contents of the drive. There was a lot of good stuff on it. Software that I had collected over the years and my entire collection of Audio Books. Do any of you know how to recover that data? Or is it just too much effort to be worth it?

Best to take it to somebody reputable. You could get an identical (in every way!!!) drive and take the circuit from it and place it in the old one to make it work. It is tricky but it can be done...

 

[LazyLion]

As some here replied, if you can locate another PCB and feel ok with doing that, replace it. Other alternative is get a new just like it, swap PCBs. After all that is done, get another hard drive of at least 20Gig, set it up USB and use it for a back up.

The price you pay for not backing up. So simple to do, but everybody wants to put it off.

I have contacted the place mentioned above and will get them to diagnose it for me. They sounded quite eager to try it. If it is reasonable enough I will go for it.

I normally do back up as much as I can... I don't think a 20 Gig removable drive is going to help me much in backing up my 820 Gigabytes.

This was stuff that I had downloaded just a few days before... and had not had chance to back up yet as I was still in the download session.

But anyway

 

[noswal]

Look at Spinrite from grc.com about $90

 

[killadoob]

surely u cannot 800 gig of really important stuff

unless 600 gig porno is really important

 

[LazyLion]

surely u cannot 800 gig of really important stuff

unless 600 gig porno is really important

er, um...

these are all my... um... office documents and databases and um... video training files... and uh... photographs of my dog.

ya know... stuff that is irreplaceable!

 

[AirWolf]

er, um...

these are all my... um... office documents and databases and um... video training files... and uh... photographs of my dog.

ya know... stuff that is irreplaceable!

But 800 gigs

 

[LazyLion]

But 800 gigs

It was 800 Gigs before...

2 x 250 Gb and
2 x 160 Gb SATA drives (it was one of these that died)

but I ran out of space...

Now I have...

2 x 750 Gb and
2 x 250 Gb

= 2 Terabytes... dun worry... I will fill them up chop chop!

 

[AirWolf]

It was 800 Gigs before...

2 x 250 Gb and
2 x 160 Gb SATA drives (it was one of these that died)

but I ran out of space...

Now I have...

2 x 750 Gb and
2 x 250 Gb

= 2 Terabytes... dun worry... I will fill them up chop chop!

Are you attempting to download the "whole" internet or something?

 

[|tera|]

Look at Spinrite from grc.com about $90

Won't help much if it's a circuit or mechanical problem, spinrite is good however

 

[LazyLion]

Are you attempting to download the "whole" internet or something?

No, just back it up!

 

[LazyLion]

At least my hard drive did not look like this one...

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=622101

 

[LazyLion]

try cssi.co.za, had a hdd with a messd up pcb they repaired it

They came back to me with a quote for R5831.10 to recover the data from the drive.

I told them I didn't want to buy shares in their company!