Maxtor hard drive problem

[softmind82]

Hi ,

I got maxtor 60 GB hard drive which was working fine before i made some mistake...

My computer was on and i attached this device with my pc and it was detected fine that time then i tried to unplug the power cable from this drive while it was on and gave me some spark and since then it did not work, there was not any king of smell or any thing .

But all i want to know that is there any way i can copy my important data which i kept saved in that drive...


Please help me i hope there will be some way to copy my data.

Well sorry for my stupid mistake

 

[sailer]

First off, I would suggest using periods and capital letters when writing because without them you have a long run on sentence that is hard to decifer. Since you state that "since then it did not work", I assume you are using a different computer to ask your question.

I always have the computer turned off when attaching or detaching hardware. Any time that electricty is involved, the chance of a spark, even if unseen, is present and it can destroy components instantly. And yes, I learned that lesson myself the hard way. Now I'm taking a guess that when you say that it "gave me a spark and since then it did not work", you mean the computer does not work. It could be that the motherboard was destroyed, not the hard drive.

Take the hard drive out of the computer, set it as a slave drive, and install it on another computer. If you can access the drive, then the hard drive is still probably good. Then download all the important data to DVDs, CDs, or floppies if necessary. That will give you copies of your data. This incident is also why its neccessary to back up everything important constantly. Also, if you can access the hard drive on another computer, it points to some other piece of bad hardware on the non-working computer, like a shorted out motherboard for instance.

Now, if I am misunderstanding and you mean that the Maxtor drive was a slave drive in the first place and since you disconnected it, it does not work, then a different thing may have happened. If that case, the spark probably shorted out the hard drive and ruined it. There are some companies that can disassemble a hard drive and directly read the platters. That is extremely expensive, so unless the data is critical, it won't be worth it. In this case, all I can say is live and learn from your mistakes.

Never, ever, disconnect hardware from a computer while it is on. Electricty is not forgiving in any manner, and since the data is recorded magnetically, an electrical short can wipe it out permanently. You may be lucky and be able to reformat the hard drive and use it again, but it may also be garbage. If you do have to reformat it, the data is lost. Sorry that I can't be more helpful, but this is the best I can suggest with the imformation you gave.

 

[softmind82]

COmputer is working absolutely fine but drive is not working anymore since then , well i would like to clarify that computer was running on other hard drive so i connected this additional one .

All i need to get my important data to copy on other device.

Thanks

 

[sailer]

Ok, then by my present understanding, the computer was working on a "C" drive and you hooked the Maxtor as a slave drive, a "D" drive. After you disconnected the Maxtor/D drive, the Maxtor/D drive doesn't work anymore, but the computer still works using the C drive. Again, you could try hooking the Maxor into another computer and seeing if it is detected and you can open it there.

Another thought just occured to me. You can try opening the Control Panel and then opening the "Add hardware' icon. From there, you might be able to add the Maxtor back into your computer and then open it. If it opens, you might be able to then get into it and save the data. It might also might detect the Maxtor and tell you whether or not it is working or is damaged. Another place to check is in "My Computer" to see if its being detected at all. I've had the case where a drive is detected, but unable to be used. At that point, I either had to reformat the drive or throw it away as damaged beyond repair. Ok, there are a lot of "mights" in my thoughts, but that's the best I can give at the moment. Someone else may have a better idea. All I can do is wish you good luck on this.

 

[softmind82]

My Primary Drive which is installed in Computer got 4 partitions A,B,C,D all working fine... and other drive which i attached got 4 partitions too so this drive is not working and even it does not show me in the system when i go in to cmos neither in my computer at all.

 

[sailer]

In this case, you may be out of luck with the Maxtor. A data recovery service may be able to access the data and provide it to you, but I don't know any other answer. Sorry about it all, but I'm out other of ideas for you to access and copy the data.

 

[softmind82]

Well Thanks for your help Sailer >>>

I hope somebody might be able to tell me some clues .

Cheers much appreciated

 

[rodney_ws]

You live you learn... either accept the data is lost or be prepared to spend a rather hefty sum of money (it's around $1000 in the US) to have the drive shipped off to a data recovery lab. I can't imagine an electrical spark like the one you described damaging the platters so your data is almost certainly still there... whether you're willing to pay to have it extracted... well, that's up to you.

Bet you won't make that mistake again

 

[Onus]

Since it is almost certainly the circuit board and not the head assembly and/or platters that was damaged, this is one of those cases where you might be able to swap the circuit board off a known good IDENTICAL drive and read the data off of it.
If it is an older drive, you might still find the identical model on ebay. Be sure to ask the seller about revision level and / or date of manufacture to be sure it is in fact an exact duplicate. Good luck.

 

[PixelPixie]

true true.... another way is to use thee awesome tool "R-Studio" or any other powerfull low-level scanner. Scan the drive, make an image if needed or just pull the files off of it to a Different drive and throw that evil Maxtor out the window....I gotta laugh, sorry, I have a Muxtor 60gb sitting next to me as I am trying to reconstuct some lost & recovered directories (put in the usual dir "found.0000"). Fun stuff! ;(

 

[hddlab]

If data is must be recover, you need send it to DataRecovery company. I can help you but you must send your HDD to me.

 

[cyberjock]

in reguards to Jtt283's post:

IDENTICAL drive = same identical firmware and everything. Some controllers have it stamped on it, some you have to plug the drive in and read the firmware version with a program. If they firmware versions don't match you could destroy your data if your hard drive gets tons of CRC errors and the drive tries to 'fix' them. I have not personally seen someone swap controllers on 2 hard drives and be able to recover data. I've read a few people happened to be lucky enough to bought 2 drives at the same time, but I don't now many people that actually would risk 2 hard drives for data on 1.

Typically, I'd think you'd see the $1000 price tag and decide it's not worth it. The cost of your mistake will be your lost data. I'm willing to bet $1000 you won't spend the $1000 since your using a 60GB. That's relatively old and very cheap to buy by today's standards.

 

[gent]

Is this an internal drive or an external caddy?
PATA or SATA?