Is there a way to retrieve data from dead hard drive?

[GioTheMelon5]

No one really answered my other question so I'm just going to assume my hard drive is dead now. Is there a way to get my files and stuff from my dead hard drive? If it costs anything, how much does it cost?

 

[Ronshere]

I have used the old trick of placing the dead drive in a plastic baggy to seal it up then freeze it for a good 24-48 hours. Then remove it fast and hook it to your computer and you hopefully will be able to use it long enough to get everything off it. Freeze it s cold as you can make it.
But work fast and try to keep the drive from warming up. Wrap it with some insulating material to keep it cold for a while. This worked quite a few times in the past for me.
Another way that is very difficult but can work, (I have actually done it on 2 dropped drives that had the sata connections broken off), is to get a sacrificial drive, one you can afford to lose, and you open it up and remove the platters in it and take the platters from the dead one and install them then close it up. But it is very difficult and the sacrificial drive has to more or less then dead drives specs. You can google about that trick if you are desperate to see exactly all that is involved. Be ready for a learning curve.

 

[USAFRet]

No one really answered my other question so I'm just going to assume my hard drive is dead now. Is there a way to get my files and stuff from my dead hard drive? If it costs anything, how much does it cost?

Depends on how and why it is 'dead'.
What is it doing? Internal or external? IDE or SATA?

 

[GioTheMelon5]

No one really answered my other question so I'm just going to assume my hard drive is dead now. Is there a way to get my files and stuff from my dead hard drive? If it costs anything, how much does it cost?

Depends on how and why it is 'dead'.
What is it doing? Internal or external? IDE or SATA?

It's an internal SATA drive, I plugged it into my computer and tried getting access to my old documents folder by going to properties and enabling it to everyone, after that it started screeching and clicking and then it stopped and made a whining noise. I guess that's a sign its dead.

 

[USAFRet]

it started screeching and clicking and then it stopped and made a whining noise

Yeah, that's pretty much dead.
Smack it, freeze it, heat it....it won't be any more dead.

 

[GioTheMelon5]

it started screeching and clicking and then it stopped and made a whining noise

Yeah, that's pretty much dead.
Smack it, freeze it, heat it....it won't be any more dead.

Okay but that never answered my question, I asked if there was a way to retrieve data while it's dead?

 

[GioTheMelon5]

I have used the old trick of placing the dead drive in a plastic baggy to seal it up then freeze it for a good 24-48 hours. Then remove it fast and hook it to your computer and you hopefully will be able to use it long enough to get everything off it. Freeze it s cold as you can make it.
But work fast and try to keep the drive from warming up. Wrap it with some insulating material to keep it cold for a while. This worked quite a few times in the past for me.
Another way that is very difficult but can work, (I have actually done it on 2 dropped drives that had the sata connections broken off), is to get a sacrificial drive, one you can afford to lose, and you open it up and remove the platters in it and take the platters from the dead one and install them then close it up. But it is very difficult and the sacrificial drive has to more or less then dead drives specs. You can google about that trick if you are desperate to see exactly all that is involved. Be ready for a learning curve.

Is the first one safe? I don't want to ruin anything in my computer or my SATA to USB cable.

 

[DSzymborski]

Decent data retrieval, depending on what exactly is wrong with your hard drive and what you need to recover, can be $500-$1000 and easily more depending. Freezing your hard drive won't do anything to the rest of your computer -- I'd recommend using a SATA enclosure in the future as that's more flexible than having to reinstall your dead hard drive -- but whether it'll work briefly depends on the exact nature of the damage and there are definitely no guarantees.

Hopefully your lesson won't end up being too expensive, but the fact remains that data that's worth keeping is worth backing up responsibly, so hopefully you'll learn the right lesson coming out of this. Backing up your important data is no different than changing the oil in your car or changing the filter in your furnace.

 

[USAFRet]

Is the first one safe? I don't want to ruin anything in my computer or my SATA to USB cable.

freezing? Sure, it is 'safe'. It won't mess up anything else in the PC.
It probably won't work, but you can try.

 

[Solandri]

properties and enabling it to everyone, after that it started screeching and clicking and then it stopped and made a whining noise. I guess that's a sign its dead.

Sounds like a seized bearing, which is actually pretty easy to fix for a HDD data recovery service.

You can try the freezer trick. Who knows, it may get the bearing to unstick. Just make sure to use the plastic bag (and keep it on), otherwise moisture from the air will condense on your chilled drive, shorting out its circuitry. (Edit: Yes I know condensed water is basically distilled and ion-free, and so can't conduct. That doesn't mean it can't pick up ions from the surface it's condensed on.)

If you open up the drive as someone suggested earlier, you risk making it impossible for a data recovery service to retrieve the data. So how you want to proceed depends on how valuable the data is to you, how much money you have, and how much you're willing to gamble. The freezer trick is relatively benign as long as you don't let water condense, so can be tried "for free."

If it is a seized bearing and you do manage to get it spun up, don't turn it off again until you've gotten all the data off. There's no guarantee you'll be able to spin it up again.