Re: Bad external drive, salvaging data?

On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 20:03:32 -0500, "Kevin Childers"
<kchilder@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"RnR" <rnrtexas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9e5k44pp0diuc4g3cej2kvf371vi746d11@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 06 Jun 2008 23:59:45 -0400, Tony Harding <ToHard@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

RnR wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:59:00 -0500, journey <journey@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:50:45 -0500, RnR <rnrtexas@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:28 -0500, journey <journey@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks to all who replied. I should have said it's a One Touch II
(250GB). As usual, this group has pointed me in the right direction.
If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. I
am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do
some more Googling.

Fortunately, the drive was "expendable" as far as the data I have on
it, otherwise I would have had a backup. I think it might have had
country music on it <jk>. Actually, it had a lot of music that I
offloaded from iTunes that I would not likely want to listen to, old
versions of installs, etc.

Journey, I hope I'm wrong but I think the drive is toast so you may
have trouble salvaging data from it. That said, for a last resort,
try what some people recommend... freeze the drive and then try it.
I have no idea if this works but please keep us posted what works (if
any) for you. Thanks.

ps-- I hope I'm wrong and you are able to salvage from it.
Thanks, I remember hearing about freezing drives. I am going to try a
utility from Maxtor if I can find one from its site (Maxtor's owned by
Seagate now I think so maybe it is over there), there is a program
called GetDataBackNTFS that I will try too. If nothing else works,
I'll try freezing the drive. If that doesn't work, I'll apply a light
coat of olive oil to each side, lightly salt and use fresh ground
pepper, sear each side using a cast iron frying pan, and finish it off
in the broiler until it's just the right shade of pink.


I agree... might as well try the HD mfgr utilities first. Maybe just
put some bbq sauce on it and bbq it when the weather gets nice <g>.

Hm, sounds like a nice touch, but I drill 3-4 holes thru the platters
from the bottom (which are quite soft) and pitch the drive.


Actually the last 2 drives that failed on me, I took apart and kept
the magnets (real strong) and scratched the platters and then broke
down the hard drive cases into different garbage bags on different
days to get rid of it without it being able to be resurrected. I
know I went a bit overboard as I didn't have anything so confidential
but at least I got good magnets out of it <g>. I don't know if I'll
do it again but it wasn't that hard to do.

Magnets are cool for so many things, almost strong enought pin phone book up
on the fridge. Sold the cases as scrap metal. Platters make good wind
chimes. According to the US federal governmental security types, there a
several good programs for erasing disk for unsecured re-use or resale.
Saddens me to say I've seen more crate load of 100(+) Gb drives with pick
axe holes punched through them, because some one thought that was a secure
way to destroy them. BTW it's not 100%, but it does stop the casually
curious.


Correct Kevin, I read the same. Actually even the scratches aren't
any better but as you said, it would stop most people except the well
trained / determined ones.

BTW, I use the magnets for my refrig door (notes/papers) and you have
to use a bit of strength to pull them off but work well for that task.
.

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  • Re: Bad external drive, salvaging data?
    ... If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. ... am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do ... I remember hearing about freezing drives. ... put some bbq sauce on it and bbq it when the weather gets nice. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: Bad external drive, salvaging data?
    ... If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. ... am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do ... I remember hearing about freezing drives. ... put some bbq sauce on it and bbq it when the weather gets nice. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)