Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (
More info?)
wrapped it in a towel - put it in the freezer overnight. pulled it out of
the freezer. left it sitting outside the case, hooked it up and booted up.
got half the data, froze it again, and got the rest.
"Ben Williams" <wayne.williams9@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:ef-dnWv7b5GlOxfcRVn-3A@comcast.com...
> Freezing the drive sounds like the best idea to me for the time being. How
> long did you freeze your drive for and should I leave it in an anti-static
> bag? Also, when you say "freeze" what initially comes to mind is leaving
> it in my common household freezer with TV dinners and the whole bit.
>
> "JEM" <abc@def.com> wrote in message
> news:utGuoNlwEHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>> Snipped this from a thread from the 26th
>>
>> What ever you do, don't open the drive, there's nothing a layman can
>> service
>> in there. Not only that, the drive might be fine! The circuit board on
>> the
>> bottom of the drive may be shot and just need replacing.
>>
>> Last year, my computer fell victim to a huge power surge - toasted all
>> the
>> stuff inside - MB, CD Rom, video card, etc...
>>
>> I had two drives in the system. I pulled them out and stuck them in
>> another
>> computer. They would spin up, but I could not access the drives. I pulled
>> the circuit board off and sure enough, parts of them were melted. I had
>> one
>> spare drive identical to one of the damaged drives, swapped the boards
>> and
>> retrieved the data. The other one, unfortunately, had to go to a data
>> recovery center.(I used Iomega, and I highly recommend them.) It cost $
>> 800.00 to get the data back - 25 GB of stuff. They transferred the
>> contents
>> to an external drive and returned everything. After I received the data
>> and
>> the damaged drive, I returned it for replacement.
>>
>> So, what can you do?
>>
>> 1. Try to freeze the drive - see if that works. That works!!!!
>> I did that to a drive 60 GB that failed; it had 40 GB of videos. Got it
>> running long enough to recover 20 GB, froze it again, and got the other
>> 20.
>>
>> 2. Buy an identical drive and swap the circuit boards - see if that
>> works -
>> you can do that without voiding the warranty, I think. You may need a
>> special 'star' type screwdriver depending on how the circuit board is
>> attached.
>>
>> 3. Shop around for the best price for recovery. (Iomega was the cheapest,
>> and again, great service. Not to mention a discount on the drive I bought
>> to
>> recover the data.
>>
>> 4. After you get your data and drive back, send the drive back for repair
>> replacement.
>>
>> 5. Back up all your important files on CD or DVD.
>>
>>
>> "JEM" <abc@def.com> wrote in message
>> news:OGVhqKlwEHA.3288@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>>> Iomega recovery, if I recall correctly, is no-data, no-charge. When I
>>> used them last, they sent me a list of all the files they could recover
>>> and asked me if I wanted to proceed. If they were not able to recover
>>> the files that I needed off the drive, there would have been no charge.
>>> Once I agreed to the recovery, I paid the fee and the data was
>>> transferred to a new drive and everything returned to me.
>>>
>>> "Michael W. Ryder" <mwryder@_worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
>>> news:ugmid.63091$OD2.59664@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>>>> Ben Williams wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> "D.Currie" <dmbcurrie.nospam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:2uu330F2dk1euU1@uni-berlin.de...
>>>>>
>>>>>>"Ben Williams" <wayne.williams9@comcast.net> wrote in message
>>>>>>news:ja6dnSIYXOm2XRTcRVn-sw@comcast.com...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>This isn't the first time I've been here... It certainly won't be the
>>>>>>>last. Less than 90 days ago, my Western Digital IDE 160GB hard drive
>>>>>>>bit the dust. Thankfully, it didn't take the OS with it, as this
>>>>>>>drive was used for storage only. I had a lot of data on there, most
>>>>>>>of it sentimental, but important to me nonetheless.Western Digital
>>>>>>>has all but officially voided the warranty, stating that a small
>>>>>>>piece of plastic (no more than 1/2") found missing near the molex
>>>>>>>power connector appears to void the warranty. To avoid logistical,
>>>>>>>technical, and legal wrangling with them, I have decided not to send
>>>>>>>the drive back to them. I fear that once that they void the warranty
>>>>>>>on the drive that it will be discarded before I could instruct them
>>>>>>>to return it to me. After looking about on the Internet, I've
>>>>>>>determined that hiring a professional data recovery consultant to
>>>>>>>recover the data contents of the drive would be cost prohibitive. I
>>>>>>>am currently looking for a repair shop that could manage to get the
>>>>>>>drive started and send it back to me. I would recover the data on my
>>>>>>>own once it starts. The drive does not spin up and becomes warm to
>>>>>>>the touch after a few minutes. My suspicion is that a fuse has blown
>>>>>>>inside the drive or that the motor itself has shorted out. Can anyone
>>>>>>>refer me to a business of some sort that might be able to get the
>>>>>>>drive running. All that I need to know really is whether or not the
>>>>>>>drive can be restarted and if there is data of any sort left on it
>>>>>>>for me to grab. Thanks for the help.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'd be quite surprised if you found a repair shop that works on hard
>>>>>>drives that isn't also a data recovery company. It's a pretty
>>>>>>specialized sort of business. And it's costly to maintain a clean room
>>>>>>and have the parts, testing equipment, and quality employees you need
>>>>>>to work on hard drives and data recovery.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It might be the controller on the hard drive is shot, and I've known
>>>>>>some people who've repaired that sort of thing by getting an IDENTICAL
>>>>>>drive and putting the controller from the new drive onto the dead one.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You run the risk of killing the new drive in the process if you screw
>>>>>>up or if something in the dead drive fries the new controller. So at
>>>>>>that point you're out the cost of the new drive and you haven't
>>>>>>recovered anything. And if the controller isn't easily accessible, you
>>>>>>might not be able to swap it yourself without causing more problems.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'd be surprised if a computer shop would want to tackle something
>>>>>>like that because the chance of success is slim and the cost of doing
>>>>>>the repair is high. They don't want to run the risk that they kill
>>>>>>their hard drive, can't fix yours, and then you don't want to pay
>>>>>>because nothing is fixed. I'm not saying you, personally, wouldn't
>>>>>>pay, but it's the sort of thing that happens.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>And then who'd want a hard drive that's had the controller removed and
>>>>>>replaced? I'd consider both the old and the new ones as a bit suspect
>>>>>>after all of that. So the cost of the drive really is wasted unless
>>>>>>you want to risk using it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>You could also have an internal problem that's keeping the drive from
>>>>>>spinning, and if that's the case, it's going to take someone with a
>>>>>>cleanroom to get the drive functioning again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>About the only repairs a normal shop might attempt is putting the
>>>>>>drive in a freezer (which sometimes works if a platter is stuck, which
>>>>>>doesn't seem to be your problem) or some other brute-force methods.
>>>>>>But in those cases, the drive isn't going to be functional for long,
>>>>>>so if you don't let them do the recovery, it's likely that when you
>>>>>>get the drive back, it's going to be dead again.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I'd be interested if you do find someone who's willing to work on the
>>>>>>drive, and how it works out for you. I'd actually be pleased if I'm
>>>>>>wrong and someone wants to do the work and they actually get it fixed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I am not totally opposed to doing business with a data recovery
>>>>> company, so long as it is firmly understood that the aim is and will
>>>>> continue to be restoring the drive to a functional state. Again, the
>>>>> purpose here is for me to recover the data myself, not to sit here and
>>>>> pay out the wazoo for them to do it for me. I am convinced that the
>>>>> data on the drive is largely intact, just I have no way to access it
>>>>> at this stage. Can you or anyone think of even a data recovery company
>>>>> that will repair the drive to a functional state? I just don't want to
>>>>> pay $400-$500 to get back maybe 30-45gb of stuff. It's a ripoff.
>>>> I don't think the data recovery companies are a ripoff. It is all a
>>>> matter of proportion. How valuable is the data to you? Our company
>>>> used one several years ago to recover a tape with less than 10 GB of
>>>> data on it and it cost over $18,000. Since this was the last backup of
>>>> our system it was worth it to us. In our case the old tape drive had
>>>> got out of alignment and the backup tapes were written out of
>>>> alignment. I found this out when the tape drive died in the middle of
>>>> restoring the system. The new drive could not read the tapes and the
>>>> data recovery service we used had to buy a new drive deliberately
>>>> misalign the heads and copy the data to another drive and tape.
>>>> Definitely not a cheap or simple operation.
>>>> From what you have said it sounds like what happened to me when I had a
>>>> controller die on a hard drive. Replacing the electronics may be
>>>> something you could do yourself or something requiring specialized
>>>> equipment. And even if you did repair the drive to operational status
>>>> with a new controller it does not mean that it could read the data as
>>>> the alignment might not be the same or the old controller could have
>>>> trashed the data when it went.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
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