vodkatart Posted October 30, 2006 Posted October 30, 2006 After my house was broken into the other w/e i thought no problem iv backed up my photos to a portable drive. But now thats making a clicking noise and i cant access it at all. Has anyone had any luck with a data recovery company who my be able to help. Quote
Ketan Posted October 30, 2006 Posted October 30, 2006 i used to have a CD which let you access HD even if they were fubared... ...its how i got all my stuff off my old HD...will see if i can get a name for it. Quote
ljsanders Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Software to recover a dead hard drive? Sorry to put your hopes down, but if its clicking then its very likely then the platters are not spinning and therefore no software is going to get it to spin up. The drive is trying to spin itself up and failing to do so. I'm assuming here it doesn't sound like its spun up at all? This could be because of stiction. Depends if its a slow clicking sound or faster clicking sound? The faster clicking sound is often associated with a whirring noise. However stiction generally only affects older more worn out drives. This is where the heads have stuck themselves to the platter whilst parked. Unfortunately with the way the cost of drives have fallen in the past few years, so has quality, quite dramatically in fact!! A lot of the newer SATA drives simply should be considered as temporary backup storage and the MTBF is a damn sight lower than the manufacturers are willing to admit. The most common time when a drive is likely to fail is when its powered down and what kills it is powering it up. Powering drives up and down does shorten the life of a hard disc. I work in the storage business (in development), if it is stiction, one way of persuading it to unstick is to give it a tap over the end of a table whilst its trying to spin up. More like a light thump, about 10cm above the table and then tap. All drives are designed to withstand drops and violent shakes whilst they are spinning. But as a precaution, only do this if all other means has failed. If it does unstick and you can then access it, I would recover everything off it whilst you can because the next time you power it up you'll likely not to be so lucky. Data recovery specialists. Unfortunately these aren't cheap. About 500 ukp per hard drive is about the going rate roughly, mainly because they are around for businesses where the cost of data is far more important and so companies are prepared to pay it. Good luck. Quote
Blacknblue Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 One other slim chance, is it a usb powered device? I have a USB external drive that can take it's power from the USB port or also has a mains adaptor, with my laptop it works fine without the mains power, but on my desktop the USB ports don't have enough voltage to power it up properly, it just sits there clicking until I plug it in. As I say a slim change but thought I'd add it anyway Quote
Chris.B's Son Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Surprised no-one has suggested any of the popular geek/1337 techniques already: A technique I have read about loads is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow getting it nice and cold can give you 20/30mins of it working, so you can very quickly copy the data over to a HDD that you booted off. It can be repeated about five to six times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times. However, if this doesn't work, another technique that I know of (aswell as the pay someone £500) is to (beware, if not done carefully it can prevent all hope of retriving data) get an identical working HDD (Same make, model etc.) probably off eBay, and remove the platters from your dead drive (this is where the data is stored) and replace the ones in the working drive with these. The idea behind this is that it's part of the drives workings that are dead, and that the actual data isn't corrupted. This has also been known to work. The final, list-ditch idea if the £500 is a no-no, is to drop the drive from about 30cm as this has been known to kick-start the drive. Fortunately, I've never had to try any of these myself, amd have all my coursework on 3HDD's and 2USB's (and vital stuff can get backed-up onto iPod & PSP.) EDIT: The freezer technique has been known to work (or 'claimed' to 'work') but apparently only 50/60% of the time and it will definately be the last time the drive ever does anything... Money no object, data can be recovered from fragments of HDD's but it is serious £££. The platters idea, is very dodgy (and can only properly be done on a clean room) but if all other techniques have failed, and the option of paying is a no-no... Quote
pistonbroke Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 If you even as much as remove the cover from any HDD the thing is fugged as for replacing the platters thats cobblers mate Quote
ljsanders Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Surprised no-one has suggested any of the popular geek/1337 techniques already: A technique I have read about loads is if you bring the temperature of the hard drive down to the freezing point by putting it in a freezer first and then taking it back out, somehow getting it nice and cold can give you 20/30mins of it working, so you can very quickly copy the data over to a HDD that you booted off. It can be repeated about five to six times tops. Long enough to get out any important files that need to be backed up. It has been proven to work a number of times. However, if this doesn't work, another technique that I know of (aswell as the pay someone £500) is to (beware, if not done carefully it can prevent all hope of retriving data) get an identical working HDD (Same make, model etc.) probably off eBay, and remove the platters from your dead drive (this is where the data is stored) and replace the ones in the working drive with these. The idea behind this is that it's part of the drives workings that are dead, and that the actual data isn't corrupted. This has also been known to work. The final, list-ditch idea if the £500 is a no-no, is to drop the drive from about 30cm as this has been known to kick-start the drive. Fortunately, I've never had to try any of these myself, amd have all my coursework on 3HDD's and 2USB's (and vital stuff can get backed-up onto iPod & PSP.) HTH Ed ROFLMAO! Drives are vacuum sealed to prevent dust, the heads are designed to fly over the surface at a distance of less than the thickness of a human hair. Like pistonbroke says, remove the lid, drive is toasted instantly. The freezer theory.... hmmm, bulls***! The only other theory that can work in some circumstances is the light tap (as I mentioned above), but will only work in some circumstances ie. stiction. I know, because I've done it myself. Like a lot of 90% of the crap on the internet, people will write anything to get attention. Quote
Chris.B's Son Posted October 31, 2006 Posted October 31, 2006 Has anyone had any luck with a data recovery company who my be able to help. As said before, I've never had to do data recovery, but a google for Nottingham data recovery found Net-Worked and "Depending on the nature of the damage or fault we can sometimes recover the data. However if the disk is damaged and totally inaccessible, the cost of recovery will escalate, you will also be asked to pay up significant fees even where no data is recovered." There's also an online (and based in Staffordshire) company called Disk Labs and they have an online quote form and claim to contact you within 1 working day. As you say the lost data is photos, I'd say that this is your best bet as you don't want to do anything that would risk loosing it beyond the realms of recovery.... Quote
JimNoble Posted November 3, 2006 Posted November 3, 2006 Good grief there's some sh*t advice in this thread. Sorry if that's treading on anyone's toes, but it has to be said. First things first - if your internal drive has died, and you value the data on it and want to stand the best chances of recovering the data; TURN THE MACHINE OFF IMMEDIATELY and then take it to a professional data recovery lab. Preferably one that has its own Class 100 clean room facilities. (If it's an external drive, pull the plug on the drive rather than the whole machine). Don't tap it, thump it, drop it, or freeze it, and certainly don't open the casing and attempt to swap the platters over to a working drive! Sure, there may be some vanishingly small chance that one of those "cures" might miraculously gain you one last ditch chance to recover your data, but there's a far greater chance that it will not only fail, but will totally f**k up any chance you had of getting the data recovered by someone who knows what they are doing. It's a common misconception that hard drives are "vacuum sealed". However, the head actually "floats" on a cushion air (via the "Bernoulli effect"), and without that air (say, if it were in a vacuum) it would crash into the platter surface causing irreparable damage. They aren't even totally sealed; there is a small hole to allow the internal pressure to equalise (which is why you're not supposed to use them above 10,000ft - there wouldn't be enough air for the head to float on). The freezer trick does have a basis in fact. Electromigration can cause the long term degredation of the drive electronics - basically the metal tracks in the Integrated Circuits thin over time, causing a rise in resistance. This eventually causes the circuit to fail to operate correctly. Lowering the temperature decreases the resistance of the metal, allowing the circuit to function correctly (until it warms up again). However, freezing the HD can cause condensation or even ice crystals to form on the platter which can cause damage. (They're not sealed remember, so moisture can get in when it's humid). "Clicking" sounds are often the result of a head failure. When the drive powers up, it scans the head across the platter attempting to find track 0. The click is the servo arm reaching the end of its travel. See the video on this page: http://www.dataclinic.co.uk/data-re....lem.htm There are plenty of data recovery companies out there who will work on a no-recovery, no fee basis. Taking a dead drive to one of them would probably be the best place to start... Jim Quote
Hammy Posted November 3, 2006 Posted November 3, 2006 Disc labs also have a place in Tamworth and are worth a go, they are reputable, but it is likely to be VERY expensive (recovery is often by dismantling in dust free conditions etc). You never know they may give some advice over the phone. The drive manufacturer might be worth a ring ?? disc labs Dispite what has previously been said I have had success on a number of occassions with gently tapping the drive against a firm surface and also trying the drive in different orientations (e.g. upside down, on its side etc). don't do it whilst its running/ powered . The clicking is the heads moving back and forth, you can probably hear the platters rotating (whiring sound) if you put the drive to your ear. It is not uncommon for drives that have not been used for a while to "stick", hence the gentle tap. Finally - do you any other source for your photos - can most be recoverd from firends who have copies, postings, web sites etc. You may get lucky and get your laptop back (possibly many months down the road, if the culprit is caught for another offence). IF you get the data back put it on a couple of CD/DVDs, which are very cheap ,and make new ones when you add more photos, but keep the old uns! Best of luck. Quote
JimNoble Posted November 3, 2006 Posted November 3, 2006 Just found this ! Yes, two posts up Hammy... Jim Quote
steve_m Posted November 3, 2006 Posted November 3, 2006 One problem I've had in the past when trying to recover an old server is that the bearings have worn out so the disk has trouble spinning up. Sometimes turning the drive through 90 degrees can help. The drive is still useless but it has given me one session to get the data off it. Quote
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