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Drop goes the Hard Drive!

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  • Hard Drives
  • HD
  • Storage
Last response: in Storage
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April 11, 2003 3:13:43 PM

As I was was replacing my case one of my HD fell out of my hands and landed on the floor (uh yes it was the primary and yes the floor was concrete) now as most of you already know it wont boot OR even get detected. Two questions:

1. Is there a way (ANY WAY) to get the data off that drive?
2. Since I hear no rattling or crackling, what happended? Since I really don't know what a HD consists of besides a disk, belt, moter and a few ball bearings what do any of you think broke? Just curious...
Thanks all!

More about : drop hard drive

April 11, 2003 3:22:37 PM

Do you know what platters and heads are?

War Eagle
April 11, 2003 4:01:23 PM

A hard-drive consists of 3 main components:
-1- Platter, on a spindle which spins at high-speeds - the spindle can possibly be ball or fluid bearings.
-2- Head and arm. The head is a small loop of wire which hovers slightly above the hard-drive platter when it is spinning at a high speed. The air-flow forces the head up a tiny amount when the drive is spinning. The arm is controlled by a "voice-coil" - basically this is a large magnetic coil which accurately controls the arm position.
-3- Circuit board/case. The circuit-board can hold the cache, controller etc.

You need to understand the hard-drive head is automatically "parked" into a "safe zone" on the hard-drive platter. During normal transport, the head will not move from this zone. Sometimes a mechanism of some kind gently holds the arm/head in place.

What probably happened when you dropped the drive the shock may have cause the head to jump from the parking position and scratched the surface of the hard-drive platter. Since the drive was not spinning, no air-flow was forcing the head from the platter surface.

Possibly the shock may have damaged the circuit board too. I would get an old drive the exact same type as your own, and try an rescue attempts from then on. You could try switching the circuit-board over for a starter.

Good luck anyhow, and I hope this helps you understand things a little more.

<b> ====
Basmic</b>
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April 11, 2003 4:19:28 PM

If you have Data on that drive that is irreplacable you could try contacting one of the many data recovery companies that have sprung up in recent years. Most can repair a hard disk far enough to copy the data to either a tape or another hard disk... but make no mistake, this is expensive, usually costing considerably more than the hard disk itself and you will still have to replace the hard disk.

A word of wise for the future: <b>backups</b>

There is no point backing up your OS or software, you can just reinstall all that and when backing it up you risk backing up viruses, bugs and trojens in the process.

Backing up data (photos, documents, music, etc.) that can't be easily replaced is an absolute necessity... if you want to avoid this problem again. I have backup scripts on my machine and copy my data to zip disks in ARJ compressed format a couple of times a week. You may not need to go that far but periodically burning the stuff you can't replace to CDs makes a ton of sense.



--->It ain't better if it don't work<---
April 11, 2003 4:45:25 PM

Amen. CDs are a hell of a lot cheaper than paying one of those companies to recover data off a fvcked up disk.
I'm still working hard at dwindling down a stack of 100 CDRs I got for FREE at BestBuy.
Keep an eye on enough sales papers and you can frequently pay for any CDRs you need with money you find on the pavement. It only takes pennies to save you the aony of losing stuff the next time your throw your hard disk at the floor.

War Eagle<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Auburn9698 on 04/11/03 11:52 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
April 11, 2003 4:50:30 PM

Thank you, very interesting. I was going to try and dig into it if I ever had some spare time. I at least backed up the most important data. I just don't want to have to go back and sort through the backups again. A lot more work than what I want to get into especially since this machine is giving me such a tough time to begin with.
April 11, 2003 5:00:09 PM

I have learned a lesson about backing up that data, I have to admit I jumped the gun on organizing my mp3's, and photos on a machine that I wasn't finished building yet. I am normally pretty good about backups, I work for a Data Protection company (go figure). Live and learned. I planned on using my CD-RW for a weekly backup. I was too busy trying to fix the problem I had and never imagined I'd drop a $130 piece of equipment on a cement floor. ARG!
April 11, 2003 5:28:53 PM

Heh, heh, nobody imagines that they will.

War Eagle
April 11, 2003 5:37:26 PM

First off, let me say that I'm not recommending this to ANYONE, but, having said that...

Once in college I dropped a hard drive and it wouldn't spin up anymore. I got really pissed because there was alot of important info on there that of course, wasn't recently backed up. I was so mad that I flung the thing across the room against the wall! Then for some reason or other, I picked it back up, plugged it in, and it WORKED!!! I quickly saved all my data to floppies (cd burners weren't very widespread then) and replaced the drive.
a b G Storage
April 11, 2003 5:51:01 PM

Not that it always works but i have heard of people putting the hardrive in the freezer overnite and getting it to work for a while. Never had to try it but if its dead what is it going to hurt.
April 12, 2003 2:18:26 PM

The other day I was watching TechTv and on the show they were talking about data security. They were saying that the only way you can keep your data safe when you want to get rid of the drive is to destroy the drive.

So they had two drives, one of which had already been pounded by a hammer. The platters were made of metal and it dented like you'd expect. He got this other drive out and hammered it and the platters shattered. he found out during a commercial break that it was a ??Seagate?? with ceramic substrate is what he said.

So I'm wondering did you hear a sound like breaking glass when the thing dropped?

GK

Yes, I made it past newbie w00t.
April 12, 2003 5:42:08 PM

Quote:
2. Since I hear no rattling or crackling,

Well, let's see here....given his first post, I would say he's not hearing any broken parts bouncing around in there....

War Eagle
!