File Recovery from Dead HDD

StrangeDejavu

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Dec 4, 2011
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18,510
Hi all,

I have a few questions/concerns. About a year and a half ago, the HDD in my Asus laptop abruptly died. I took it to Geek Squad and was told the HDD was so full, there wasn't enough space to even create a text document. I never got an definitive answer, but I have a feeling I got a nasty virus that wiped that hard drive out. Fast forward to now, I just remembered I still have that HDD. I'll be starting school this year for PC Maintenance & Repair, so recovering files from a dead HDD would be one of those things i'd like to know how to do before hand. I've built and stripped computers from the ground up in the past, but never attempted data recovery.

Now to the two questions: 1) What is the name of the USB cable i'll need to link to the dead HDD? 2) If it was indeed a virus that killed that HDD, is there a risk of spreading it to the linked computer?

I appreciate any and all answers.
 
Solution
Hi

If your drive was diagnosed as too full to use it was not dead

A dead hard disk may be one where the hard drive is not detected by the bios because the main circuit board on the disk drive has failed.

Only way round this is to find an exactly identicle drive and swap circuit boards

Or motor has burnt out
Slightly less serious is a head crash where read write heads have gouged the disk surface destroying data

Assuming Geek squad was correct. You need a USB to sata interface

Or some laptops (Toshiba) provide a port which accepts e.sata or USB cables

Western Digital dlg windows diagnostics will work with other brands

Once connected to a working hard disk extract any usefull data then re format drive

Regards

Mike Barnes
Hi

If your drive was diagnosed as too full to use it was not dead

A dead hard disk may be one where the hard drive is not detected by the bios because the main circuit board on the disk drive has failed.

Only way round this is to find an exactly identicle drive and swap circuit boards

Or motor has burnt out
Slightly less serious is a head crash where read write heads have gouged the disk surface destroying data

Assuming Geek squad was correct. You need a USB to sata interface

Or some laptops (Toshiba) provide a port which accepts e.sata or USB cables

Western Digital dlg windows diagnostics will work with other brands

Once connected to a working hard disk extract any usefull data then re format drive

Regards

Mike Barnes
 
Solution

StrangeDejavu

Distinguished
Dec 4, 2011
10
0
18,510


Thanks Mike, a bad circuit board would make sense. One day I went to turn on the laptop and it simply wouldn't boot. If I recall correctly, it was just a black screen that said Windows failed to start. It wasn't like another HDD failure I had, where I got a heads up saying it was bad, to back up and replace immediately.