Re: Best Way To Recover Data From A Crashed Hard Drive?


"Noname" <noname@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:XibXf.55159$YX1.25669@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

<monkey.omen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1143765429.473414.135540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Besides paying $1000+ to a recovery service ...

I have a 2.5" laptop hard drive that has failed. It was the primary
drive in a laptop that one day, failed to boot with an "OS not found"
type error. It has (had) a bunch of digital photos on it that we don't
want to lose.

I pulled it, plugged it into an external USB case, and attached it to a
Linux computer. It spins up, doesn't make any horrible clicking or
grinding noises ... for a few seconds, "fdisk -l /dev/sda" actually
returns some information:

Disk /dev/sda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15120 * 512 = 7741440 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3773 28523848+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3774 3876 778680 1c Hidden W95
FAT32 (LBA)

So it's not *totally* borked.

"cp /dev/sda1 /tmp/the_data_goes_here" fails with an I/O error. Same
with the dd command ... attempting to copy /dev/sda rather than
/dev/sda1. it won't mount. If I plug it into a Windows XP computer,
it hangs ... the drive is never accessible.

Any suggestions? it's a Hitachi DK23DA-30F drive, about 3 or 4 years
old. I've thought of looking for another one on eBay, and
disassembling them, moving the platters from the dead drive to the new
one, and trying again. Is this hopeless? Seems worth the cost of an
old 30 GB drive.

The data's worth some effort to recover, but not $1000+ for some pros
to do it.

Thanks.

Go ahead and swap the platters! It's an easy job and guaranteed to
work!!!!

Before anyone else enters into this discussion (to correct my obvious
sarcasm)- swapping platters is guaranteed to destroy your data.
Given that you would attempt to swap platters, pay for professional Data
Recovery!
There are companies that will recover your data for much less than $1000.

But, the more you play with your hdd the more damage you may create and the
cost of the DR is likely to increase!


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Re: Unknown USB Device
    ... >>> Well, I tried connecting the external drive to my laptop, ... >> recover the ... > Visit Topic URL to contact author (reg. ... be recovered from the platters by changing the controller. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Physically destroying hard drive data
    ... >> I have a bunch of old obsolete hard drives with somewhat sensitive ... >> information on them I want to physically destroy and put in the landfill. ... >> (being sure to penetrate the platters rather than just the outside ... > and maybe impossible for most practical purposes to recover anything. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage)
  • Re: Physically destroying hard drive data
    ... > I have a bunch of old obsolete hard drives with somewhat sensitive ... > information on them I want to physically destroy and put in the ... > (being sure to penetrate the platters rather than just the outside ... for most practical purposes to recover anything. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage)
  • Re: Physically destroying hard drive data
    ... Arno Wagner wrote: ... >> I have a bunch of old obsolete hard drives with somewhat sensitive ... >> (being sure to penetrate the platters rather than just the outside ... > for most practical purposes to recover anything. ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage)
  • Re: are harddisk completely sealed ???
    ... that would scratch the platters or read/write head. ... With the cost per ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)