How to retrieve data off a bad drive?

[DarrellS]

I unplugged my SATA drives and installed XP Pro on my IDE drive and when I plugged my SATA drives back in, only one of them shows up.

I can hear it spin up but neither Windows or BIOS is able to see it. If I could get BIOS to see it, I can use GetDataBack to recover the data but without BIOS seeing the drive, I am unable to retrieve the data.

What are my options and how much will it cost? It's not data that I'm willing to spend a lot to get back but it's over 350 GB of data (500GB Maxtor Drive) that I've accumulated over 2 or 3 years. The drive is less that four months old so replacing the drive shouldn't be a problem but I'd like to get the data off before I return it.

[Krispy Kritter]

Unless the drive is recognized by the BIOS, you are pretty much out of luck. Outside data recovery services are cost prohibitive unless it is really important data. Try connecting the drive to a different PC or even using different cables/connectors.

[aedipuss]

if the drive board is fried and it doesn't show up in any bios, then the only way to recovery the data is to buy an exact duplicate of the drive, remove the platters from the dead drive and put them into the new drive. at that point you copy off the data from the old platters to a third drive. when finished you throw away both opened drives.

[Des]

Can you try the drive inside of another machine in case it is more an issue of the BIOS or MB and not necessarily the drive?

I have also had good success by connecting an un recognized drive to the USB port via a SATA/IDE to USB adapter after booting up. Another thing that has worked is putting the drive in the freezer for about an hour (or more) and then immediately trying to read it either via the USB adepter or by directly installing the drive. Presumably the freezer will contract a possible loose mechanical component and allow it to begin to function, I guess f it got loose or something.

Then again I might have just got lucky the 4 times I have had to do any of this :wink:

--dES

[DarrellS]

I've tried all the above options (trying different cables, trying different port, using different machine, using an external enclosure) but nothing worked. I'll try the freezer trick but I don't think it will work. I think the problem is the circuit board.

If I use the board off an exact drive will I still have to throw away the drive? If so, It will cost over $300 since I'll have to buy two new drives and won't be able to return the dead drives.

[aedipuss]

you only have to trash the drive if you open it up to get at the platters. once dust is allowed in they are quickly toasted by the micro scratches created by the dust on the heads. it also voids the warranty. board swapping may work if the drive has removable ribbon cables, otherwise it has to be opened. it's not very likely it does.

platter swapping is also not something that is easy for a non technician to do without breaking one or both drives.....

[mikel]

You might find this helpful...

200 ways to revive a hard drive

http://www.hddrecovery.com.au/downloads/200ways.pdf

good luck

[gyoshi]

TestDisk worked well for a drive I couldn't read. I was able to recover most of my data with this program.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

[DarrellS]

Thanks for the link.

I'm probably going to have to just suck it up and kiss the files goodbye. The problem is, this was the drive that I put all my data on from the other two drives that bit the dust. I was lucky to get the data back from them (well, only one cause the tech erased one drive and I used software to recover the other) only to have the back-up drive go a couple of months later.

I have the worst luck with drives. I've probably thrown a dozen away in the last 5 years. I bought another Seagate today. Hopefully I'll have better luck with them

[budz]

try putting the hd's in the freezer.

[DarrellS]

I went to Fry's today with my brother to get a couple of A drives. One for him and one fpr a PC he's building for his son and I picked up another 500GB Maxtor exactly like the one that's messed up for $90. I took the board off the new drive and put it on the messed up drive and hooked it up and copied all the files to the Seagate I bought a couple weeks ago. Put the board back on the new drive and installed it as my capture drive.

I'll RMA the messed up drive tomorrow and that will give me over 2TB of storage.

[budz]

I went to Fry's today with my brother to get a couple of A drives. One for him and one fpr a PC he's building for his son and I picked up another 500GB Maxtor exactly like the one that's messed up for $90. I took the board off the new drive and put it on the messed up drive and hooked it up and copied all the files to the Seagate I bought a couple weeks ago. Put the board back on the new drive and installed it as my capture drive.

I'll RMA the messed up drive tomorrow and that will give me over 2TB of storage.

I just had 2 maxtor hd's (one is sata 150 & other one is pata) begin to fail on me but they were about 3 years old. Luckily I was still able to save the data and transfer them to my other external hd. I dunno if I wanna buy another Maxtor since the total is now 3 that have failed on me. I'm sure heat contributed to their early failures as well.

[DarrellS]

It was the only way I was going to retrieve that 375 GB of data off the bad drive and I was kinda leary of sending in the drive with all that data on it. It was $90 well spent I think to get the data back (I would've got it a couple of weeks ago but they wanted $150 for it then) and like you say, I'm leary of Maxtor drives now. I have a 40 GB boot drive that I've had for years and had no problems with but since Seagate bought them out, they've turned them into their budget drives. Hopefully they'll send me a Seagate instead but I doubt it.

EDIT: Yea, the Maxtors do run very hot.

[lacywest]

interesting

[DarrellS]

Good news!

Got my replacement drive from Seagate tonight and to my surprise, not only was it a Seagate drive and not a Maxtor but it was a 750GB drive instead of a 500GB drive like I returned.

Looks like I'm a Seagate customer from now on.

[SLK001]

Looks like I'm a Seagate customer from now on.

Welcome to the club.

[Krispy Kritter]

Unless I'm mistaken, they are now the same company anyway.