Hard Drive recovery

[delmarrey]

Thanks guys!

The "Mac OSX disk repair" is already came with this machine and it didn't do the job.

And I haven't much experience with Unix so I'll leave that to the experts. The last time I did any programming was when I got rid of my PC in 1994 and went strictly Mac, except at work. No choice there. Although I still do have my SHARP Scientific Computer EL-5500III (1985) and still use it to this day.

[hellosailor]

del, real hard drive recovery experts will typically charge +$400 US just to do an estimate, and often over $1000 to do any sizeable recovery when it can be done. That's just what it costs.

They bring special tools and facilitites into the ball game. If the drive is fubar but the platters undamaged, they may swap platters into another drive (from an inventory on hand) in a clean room--but that's surgically clean, something you can't make at home without a lot of expense.

They can examine the magnetic bits on the platters, literally extracting data that has been overwritten multiple times, because each pass tends to be a little out of alignment with the others. And that requires special equipment to tickle the heads "this way" or "that way" rather than where the latest track was written.

They do all sorts of arcane things, and that costs bundles of money.

If you switch out the electronics from a working drive to yours, that eliminates any problem except internal mechanical failure, and if it is mechanical failure, you're pretty much helixed. If that screen shot was true and your other Mac can READ the files...by all means, read 'em and copy 'em out.

Freezing the drive is sometimes a viable option, because deep freezing sometimes unsticks parts that have jammed mechanically, allows failing bearings to work for a while longer, etc. by changing the dimensions as they contract. But since your drive sounds like it is spinning up, not grinding, etc., I wouldn't expect that to help. The downside to freezing is that it can cause condensation and ice crystals and moisture problems--so that's a Hail Mary play, only to be tried if the next option is tossing it out.

Anything worth backing up, is worth backing up to AT LEAST TWO separate locations, separate media, separate batches of media. Take a look at the Wetern Digital "Passport" series of external USB drives. Not the cheapest--but small and with a good warranty and reputation. "deck of cards" sized, no external power needed.

[delmarrey]

Yeah! I was looking for a seaworthy hull and came up with a China copy.

[Lancerbye]

Hi Del
It sounds like your computer techs south of the border are bigger ripoffs than ours. Had the same problem happen to me last spring. Even though I spent many years working on systems such as Pblais discribed I haven't done too much with PCs so I brought my laptop to Paradon in Victoria. $80 and they told me some sad news so I asked them if I bought a reconditioned computer if they would transfer the data to my new laptop. They side yes at no charge on top of the $600 dollar price tag for a good laptop with Wndows 7. They tried cloning and that didn't work so they put it through their high priced recovery software. Took two days. End result. All my stuff recovered a good laptop and a better OS. Price was only the charge of the computer and the original trouble shooting of $80. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

[SailFastTri]

delmarrey I'm in the IT business and rather than get into a pissing match with anyone in particular I'll just say you're getting a lot of bad advice here. (Some good advice too.)

The bottom line is if you care about recovering your data the LESS you do the better your chances of a pro being able to help. If you don't know what you're doing the worst thing you can do is physically abuse the platters or mechanism inside. (So if you tapped it with a hammer or froze it you have risked further harm.) Do not under any circumstance open it up (game over).

Buy a disk recovery utility that bypasses the OS and controller firmware by going at the platters raw. Follow directions carefully. If it's spinning and you get a SATA adapter you might have had good luck with Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software, Services & tools - Stellar Data Recovery (I have no affiliation).

If that doesn't work take it to a pro is my best advice. (not me.)

And for those who think the pros are are a rip-off you obviously don't value your data or other people's time/expertise. The fact is it takes time, training, knowledge and tools/resources. I love it when some guy who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car and has a nice boat criticizes someone else for trying to make a decent living by providing a valuable service. (Sorry for ending in a rant)

[dacust]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

delmarrey I'm in the IT business and rather than get into a pissing match with anyone in particular I'll just say you're getting a lot of bad advice here. (Some good advice too.)

The bottom line is if you care about recovering your data the LESS you do the better your chances of a pro being able to help. If you don't know what you're doing the worst thing you can do is physically abuse the platters or mechanism inside. (So if you tapped it with a hammer or froze it you have risked further harm.) Do not under any circumstance open it up (game over).

Buy a disk recovery utility that bypasses the OS and controller firmware by going at the platters raw. Follow directions carefully. If it's spinning and you get a SATA adapter you might have had good luck with Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software, Services & tools - Stellar Data Recovery (I have no affiliation).

If that doesn't work take it to a pro is my best advice. (not me.)

And for those who think the pros are are a rip-off you obviously don't value your data or other people's time/expertise. The fact is it takes time, training, knowledge and tools/resources. I love it when some guy who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car and has a nice boat criticizes someone else for trying to make a decent living by providing a valuable service. (Sorry for ending in a rant)

Well, then, seems your advice is about the same quality as everyone elses. Some good, some bad. Welcome to the club.

First, he doesn't have a SATA drive. It's PATA (IDE).

Second, why buy a $50 piece of software he might not need? Why not first buy the $15 adapter posted above and see if it's just the external card or power supply?

Your advice to not open it up is good. Same as several other already posted.

Advice to not freeze it or knock on it with a hammer is good. I might try that, but only after I've decided to throw it away. Just before tossing it, first I'd try freezing, then tapping, then tossing into the trash.

-dan

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

The bottom line is if you care about recovering your data the LESS you do the better your chances of a pro being able to help. If you don't know what you're doing the worst thing you can do is physically abuse the platters or mechanism inside. (So if you tapped it with a hammer or froze it you have risked further harm.) Do not under any circumstance open it up (game over).

Thanks for that! So far I've only tapped it with a pencil and have ruled out the freezer. I'll try my $33+ investment and go from there, most likely a pro service.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by dacust

Well, then, seems your advice is about the same quality as everyone elses. Some good, some bad. Welcome to the club.

First, he doesn't have a SATA drive. It's PATA (IDE).

Second, why buy a $50 piece of software he might not need? Why not first buy the $15 adapter posted above and see if it's just the external card or power supply?

Your advice to not open it up is good. Same as several other already posted.

Advice to not freeze it or knock on it with a hammer is good. I might try that, but only after I've decided to throw it away. Just before tossing it, first I'd try freezing, then tapping, then tossing into the trash.

-dan

My bad -- wasn't paying attention to the drive I/F. I stick by my other points though. Thanks for the feedback.

[Bergovoy]

<--- offers apologies... great advice and no worries on the mist id of the drive type... it is irrelevent anyways, and as such unworthy of making any point on...

other then moisture intrusion, what is wrong with 'freezing' and or cooling... I understood from other PROs, that they do that early on in thier attempts...

they also indicated that they never give hard prices, except for hourly rates... with daily updates to the clients to affirm / confirm directions to proceed...

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

delmarrey I'm in the IT business and rather than get into a pissing match with anyone in particular I'll just say you're getting a lot of bad advice here. (Some good advice too.)

The bottom line is if you care about recovering your data the LESS you do the better your chances of a pro being able to help. If you don't know what you're doing the worst thing you can do is physically abuse the platters or mechanism inside. (So if you tapped it with a hammer or froze it you have risked further harm.) Do not under any circumstance open it up (game over).

Buy a disk recovery utility that bypasses the OS and controller firmware by going at the platters raw. Follow directions carefully. If it's spinning and you get a SATA adapter you might have had good luck with Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Software, Services & tools - Stellar Data Recovery (I have no affiliation).

If that doesn't work take it to a pro is my best advice. (not me.)

And for those who think the pros are are a rip-off you obviously don't value your data or other people's time/expertise. The fact is it takes time, training, knowledge and tools/resources. I love it when some guy who lives in a nice house and drives a nice car and has a nice boat criticizes someone else for trying to make a decent living by providing a valuable service. (Sorry for ending in a rant)

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Bergovoy

<--- offers apologies... great advice and no worries on the mist id of the drive type... it is irrelevent anyways, and as such unworthy of making any point on...

other then moisture intrusion, what is wrong with 'freezing' and or cooling... I understood from other PROs, that they do that early on in thier attempts...

they also indicated that they never give hard prices, except for hourly rates... with daily updates to the clients to affirm / confirm directions to proceed...

If it's a frost free refer then it'll probably be OK but mines running, just not computing. I think it's circuity in the case and hopefully not the drive.

These things are like boats. Once you open up that can of worms you either pay or scrap it.

[dacust]

Originally Posted by Bergovoy

...

other then moisture intrusion, what is wrong with 'freezing' and or cooling... I understood from other PROs, that they do that early on in thier attempts...
...

The entire bag of tricks I have would all be things a pro would do early on in their routine. The biggest steps they would take would be later, and would all be things out of the reach of, probably, everyone here in this forum.

So, the last thing I would try is freezing/tapping. But I might still be doing it in the same order they would. They'd just keep going long after I would have given up or called a pro. So, it WOULD be early on in THEIR world.

-dan

[s/v Jedi]

Changes in temperature are the worst thing that can happen to a hard drive. We used to run Usenet servers (for the Internet news groups) that had 12-20 hard drives each. This was running 24x7, always writing files and always reading files. These drives were hot. When a server would loose power, it was the end of all the drives, they would never spin again. But as long as kept spinning, they would continue to work for a year or 2 or more. The only way to deal with it was with hot-swappable drives and RAID controllers that automatically switch to a spare drive when one of the drives fails. We basically replaced worn-out drives which became the new hot-spare for the RAID system.

I think there's a good chance to retrieve the data from this drive because it is spinning and not making the clicking sounds. When swapping it with the $33 identical unit doesn't help, every respectable computer geek can swap the controller PCB on the drive itself. If that doesn't help it's the clean room and $$$

cheers,
Nick.

[Filmsomething]

I didn't read the entire thread so sorry if this is a repost.

Most external hard drives are a regular internal hard drive just in an enclosure. You can pick up an external hard drive enclosure from staples for around $40. Try it and if it doesn't work just take it back, or put a 1tb drive in it and use it as a replacement.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by Filmsomething

I didn't read the entire thread so sorry if this is a repost.

Most external hard drives are a regular internal hard drive just in an enclosure. You can pick up an external hard drive enclosure from staples for around $40. Try it and if it doesn't work just take it back, or put a 1tb drive in it and use it as a replacement.

I'm getting another complete 80GB FireLite for $37.50 including ship'n. It should be here the middle of next week. I'll swap out the drives, so we'll see.

[chala]

Originally Posted by dacust

Advice to not freeze it or knock on it with a hammer is good. I might try that, but only after I've decided to throw it away. Just before tossing it, first I'd try freezing, then tapping, then tossing into the trash.
-dan

Before you toss it you can open it like I do and marvel at how it works. Watch it when it boot. If the arm (arms) does not search, it may be stuck in park against a perished shock-absorbing pad (common) try to assist the arm gently but do this only during the start of the drive booting time (very short time). It worked for me many time and so long you do not drop a cup of anything in the drive, it is surprising how many time the procedure work. Good luck.