Hard Drive Failure

[Guest]

A few days ago my hard disk died of a mechnical problem, probably due the "motor" ; it started to clap every seconds and when i rebooted, it said "Maxtor Stealth" with a capacity of 2 gigs and wouldnt initialize anymore.. then i rebooted and my bios wasnt able to detect it anymore (it kept trying to initialize making a repetitive sound)

my hard drive is garanteed but i would really like to recover my data from it... im sure its still there no doubt but i dont wanna pay 500$ just to get the data back (i dont care about the hd) ... the model is a maxtor 7.5 gig 7200rpm 512k cache (its an old one used for my backups and mp3 and important stuff ..u know) if anyone has an experience with hd failure and knows if it is possible to get the data back i would appreciate thx!

Guy Godin

 

[Guest]

I have the same experience with my Western Digital Expert 18Gb just 4 days ago. I am too interested in recovering some of my data. Any help would be appreciated too.
Thanks

 

[Guest]

make sure its your hard drive and not the mobo by plugging that drive into another system or plugging another drive into that mobo.
I always back up critcal information, no waranty saves data.

 

[Guest]

i have a second hard drive, its really not the mobo

 

[Guest]

I've read posts, where giving the hard drives a hard rap or dropping them on the carpet will free the heads up but other than that you have to take it to a shop that specializes in recovery, that will remove the platter (disk).
Then they will install it in a working drive or a bench setup to read your data information. This is more of a mechanical operation than a data "lost" problem. May not cost as much.

 

[Guest]

ok thx!

 

[Guest]

Download the HD diagnostic utilities from the manfactures site to see if you can pinpoint the problem.

 

[Skynet]

Give PowerQuest Lost&Found a shot. Excellent program at recovering data. Of course the hard drive has to at least be spinning and the heads have to move to make recovery possible. Why not open the cover and take a peek? You have nothing to loose! I have been able to recover data using Lost&Found even after the drive has been re-partitioned. Good luck.

 

[Guest]

well my hard drive cant be detected by my bios and my os ...it wont initialize at all i dont think using a software could work for me in that case, thx anyway for the suggestions!

 

[Guest]

oh ya and i call some hardware shops and the lowest price is 85$ an hour and most of them tell me it takes normally 3 or 4 hours ..so thats damn too expensive! i should backup my hard drives more often maybe...

 

[Guest]

Sometimes the actuator gets a little stuck and the drive will make a repetitive sound or fail to make the proper initialising sound.

I've got a dodgy 4Gb Samsung drive that works perfectly well with no bad sectors or anything. But sometimes it will fail to initialise. All I do is take out the drive, knock it gently but but firmly with the palm of my hand, put it back and its normally fine.

With that problem I find it works better upside down and avoid moving it. Don't drop the drive on the floor, you'll just cause more damage and could invalidate the warranty as the heads will damage the platter.

 

[Raistlin]

try this it sounds wacky but it works sometimes
put hdd in freezer for a couple hours .. take out and then try it immediately, this has a good chance of working just watch out for condensation on the circuits on the hdd(bottom)

Bored,Certified Tech

yes i got this to work for me once

 

[Guest]

🙂
It's really not related to the topic, but I had this thing exactly with my old Boca modem (28800, about 5 years ago).
It stopped working from time to time and the only thing I could do was - to place the modem in the freezer for a couple of hours.

 

[Guest]

Mine did the same thing, it sounded like a head strike problem, but it turned out to be the locator spring and assembly that locates the heads on the platters

 

[Guest]

my western dig, 20 gig went out, but I corrupted its self or something after i formatted it it wouldn't go through a scan disk, any recomendations on what to buy now, looking for 50-70 gig that will last more than a month.