Unreadable Hard-Drive

[gabrielorie]

Hi there, for a while now i've had a crashed hard drive with important files i've been trying to get out. The drive comes on but when it reaches the "Starting Windows" screen, it freezes and shuts down. I tried to use it as a secondary hard drive on another computer but the computer didn't even come on. I carried it by a hard drive specialist and he said it's a physical problem, and he can get the files out for me but it will cost a lot, over $300 US dollars 😱 He said he needs to get something called a donut drive, and he said it is extremely expensive. So i googled it and i didn't find anything, no information on donut drives, except a flashdrive/donut... I'm guessing this is some sort of scam to get my money?

EDIT: If it is a scam, is there any way that i can get my files out? The drive cannot come on at all, so i'm hoping there's a was of opening it and taking out the data or something like that... :$

 

[steamroller16]

If you have a computer in which you can reach the Starting Windows screen, then you might be able to mount the drive in Ubuntu on the same computer.

You can run Ubuntu from a CD without loading anything from the hard drive. Once Ubuntu boots up, click on try without installing when it gives you the option. Once inside the OS click on the folder icon on the left near the top and click on your hard drive under devices if you can see it there. If your hard drive still works, you should see the contents of your hard drive. You can insert a flash drive or an external hard drive and copy the files that you need to it.

 

[gabrielorie]

Thanks for the reply I'll definately do that wednesday because i have to go and get my drive from the man, hopefully it's that simple... And i'll tell you if it works.

 

[MajinCry]

Is the drive Sata? AFAIK Sata is hot-swappable, so could you try turning on your computer and plugging this HDD as a secondary drive?

 

[Guest]

Hi there, for a while now i've had a crashed hard drive with important files i've been trying to get out. The drive comes on but when it reaches the "Starting Windows" screen, it freezes and shuts down. I tried to use it as a secondary hard drive on another computer but the computer didn't even come on. I carried it by a hard drive specialist and he said it's a physical problem, and he can get the files out for me but it will cost a lot, over $300 US dollars 😱 He said he needs to get something called a donut drive, and he said it is extremely expensive. So i googled it and i didn't find anything, no information on donut drives, except a flashdrive/donut... I'm guessing this is some sort of scam to get my money?

EDIT: If it is a scam, is there any way that i can get my files out? The drive cannot come on at all, so i'm hoping there's a was of opening it and taking out the data or something like that... :$

He means donor drive not donut. He plans to change out the pcb (electronics) on your hard drive. You can buy the exact hard drive off of ebay, get the correct torx driver (the type of screws that hold the board) and swap it out yourself. Not a garantee, but possibly worth the risk.

 

[Max1s]

I agree with the ubuntu idea. If the harddrive works, just use it as a secondary on another computer, or on a CD based OS like linux.

 

[gabrielorie]

Ok i just installed ubuntu to a flash drive and it installed correctly and you can hear it spinning and you can feel it moving but my pc isn't reading it. I remember back in September i tried swapping the board (the one with the power connector and hd to motherboard connector) with another board, it's also a seagate but it was an IDE HD. Everything was lining up correctly so my dad and i decided to try it but when we did it didn't even get power in it. We swapped it back to the original board but after doing that i can't recall it being read on my pc again, thats when i carried it by the HD specialist. Do you think i damaged something?

 

[gabrielorie]

Wow thats wayy too expenisive 😵
Does anyone know about any services in America (with a website) that can fix it? Hopefully it's cheaper there. Also i would like to try reedo_39's suggestion but i'm afraid i might fry something...