HD Failure

[enduro]

Regrettably my Seagate EIDE 320Gig main hard drive failed last week with about 200Gig of photo's on it!! :( Fortunately however, it is under warranty until 2012 but the warranty doesn't appear to cover data recovery - of course I will want to recover the images.

Fault: Hard drive was performing as normal and then on 2 bootups displayed a NTloader error, on the next boot up the HD was not recognised by the machine and now it just makes ticking sounds. Sounds like the head armature is stuck or something similar.

I called around a number of places that deal with data recovery and have been quoted a three stage price system of about $250, $500 and $1200 depending on the level of recovery they need to escalate to. The ppl I was speaking to indicated that it was unlikely that the minimum charge would fix the problem as the drive would likely need to be taken apart and that would void the warranty. :(

I really should hvae backed up the drive a month or two ago when I was reformatting and reconfiguring the machine. I didn't have enough DVD's at that time as it would have taken about 25 of them to complete the task.

The cost is quite high and I am wondering if there is another way I might be able to kick start the drive with software or even send the drive internationally (Asia) for a less expensive service.

Any ideas?

[Tannin]

If you want your data, you'll just have to pay the asking price, Wayne. Would you get a knee replacement from a cut-price foreign surgeon? Even as things stand, there is no guarantee at all that you will get your stuff back, it all depends on the nature of the fault. Good luck!

[Robjess]

Gosh mate.. sorry to hear that. But this is a good opportunity to reinforce - backup backup backup!! Seriously, if people are not backing up their data now - please do and do it!! Remember, the best source of backup are 3 copies of the data. i hjave my original data on my HDD on my PC, i then have that data backed up to a removable hard drive, and I then have that data backed up to another removable hard drive. I dont bother with off site storage - which technically you should.

[enduro]

Gosh mate.. sorry to hear that. But this is a good opportunity to reinforce - backup backup backup!! Seriously, if people are not backing up their data now - please do and do it!! Remember, the best source of backup are 3 copies of the data. i hjave my original data on my HDD on my PC, i then have that data backed up to a removable hard drive, and I then have that data backed up to another removable hard drive. I dont bother with off site storage - which technically you should.

All those hard drives sound like and expensive but necessary set of hardware.

[ricktas]

Not really - you can get 500GB drives for under $200.00 these days. Well worth it when you look at the cost of recovering (hopefully) your lost data. I have 2 x 1.5TB backup drives. One lives at a friends, in case of house fire etc.

[enduro]

Not really - you can get 500GB drives for under $200.00 these days. Well worth it when you look at the cost of recovering (hopefully) your lost data. I have 2 x 1.5TB backup drives. One lives at a friends, in case of house fire etc.

I have purchased a 500 today and will pick it up shortly.

The few HD techs I spoke to recommended not getting TB drive as the are reportedly still unstable and they are the most often seen drives for data recovery in their shops.

[ricktas]

I have purchased a 500 today and will pick it up shortly.

The few HD techs I spoke to recommended not getting TB drive as the are reportedly still unstable and they are the most often seen drives for data recovery in their shops.

Yeah, but any drive can fail...as you know, which is why I have 2 backup drives, files are all duplicated on both.

[enduro]

Yeah, but any drive can fail...as you know, which is why I have 2 backup drives, files are all duplicated on both.

you are correct and a mirror system is something that I have been considering for some time. I should really get a RAID controller card.

[Tannin]

Wayne, mirroring is not a particularly useful security measure, as the only thing it protects you against is physical failure of the drive itself. It is powerless to protect you against any and all of the other risks - and these, colectively, add up to a substantially greater risk than physical failure of the primary drive.

An off-line backup is the only safe backup, especially when it's multiple layers - e.g., external drive, plus optical media.

[Robjess]

yeah dont go raid.. you want a copy of your files on an external drive. And yes you may think that buying an additional external hard drive is an unnecessary expense.. but its not as expensive if you lose all of your data and cant recover it, or the cost of a data recovery service.

Also with optical media - DVDs etc.. remember that cheap DVDs are exactly that.. cheap media.. I dont use DVD's for any sort of reliable data storage..

[saratoga]

I really know very little about this but have read on several forums that freezing or cooling the drive often gets them to work again if only to allow you to recover the data.

Might be worth a google search!

just had a look here http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html

[nisstrust]

yeah back up, i have 2tb of back up hard drives that are just sitting there waiting for me to back up my data, i have been too lazy plus the fact that i need to spend another $200 for an esata card and another $100 for a hard drive to complete my raid stripe and then i can back it all up. It my drive was to fail now, i'd be miserable.

Goodluck with it all !

[ShaneB]

Not really - you can get 500GB drives for under $200.00 these days. Well worth it when you look at the cost of recovering (hopefully) your lost data. I have 2 x 1.5TB backup drives. One lives at a friends, in case of house fire etc.

750G seems to be the sweet spot for price at the moment - in internal SATA drives, anyway.

What I'd like is one the external RAID units sold by WD. $500 gets you two 1T drives which can be RAID 0 or 1 as you chose.

I regularly back up to an old internal SATA drive and an external unit.

Good luck with the data recovery.

[trigger]

RAID 3 is the way to go. It might be expensive but heck its automated data redundancy and read performance increase. Together with 1gbit LAN storage on or offsiteish (garage/storeroom) its the thing for those whose data is $$

[Kodi]

I am on a Tech support forum and we recommend a program called Get data back.You can use the free trial to see if it can see and recover the data and if it can you then buy the program.
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

[enduro]

Thanks for the information, it is helping me to solve the issue and providing some good info for other.

[edenconnell]

You can buy a Western Digital 1TB drive for $200 from Officeworks, I have one going to get another!

[trigger]

I can vouch for GetBackData NTFS. It saved my data! it saved about 70% of the photos and files I had on a "dead" HD

NTloader error is when the bootsector / Volume boot record for Windows has been corrupted or deleted.
This is easy to fix. I'd Trial-Getbackdata with the HD plugged into the computer even if it doesnt show in the BIOS. When you load up Getback it does detect, at the low level the drives that are "hidden".

BUT

If this situation is that the the arm is actually stuck/bent, and you plug it in. The arm could spin and physically scratch the disk. This is perminate damage.

:(




I am on a Tech support forum and we recommend a program called Get data back.You can use the free trial to see if it can see and recover the data and if it can you then buy the program.
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

[enduro]

You can buy a Western Digital 1TB drive for $200 from Officeworks, I have one going to get another!

I saw similar priced 1TB drives at the computer store today and was wondering about the quality. My local shop has WD SATA for $155.

I don't have SATA and would need to by a SATA converter PCI card thingy.

[Kodi]

Officeworks in Sydney have 1tb Western digital externals at $176 and $199 the $176 is a bargain but don't know if it is available in Perth.
Try Get data back you have nothing to loose it won't cost a cent if it can't see the Data, if it does it will be a LOT cheaper than Pro data recovery firms

[saratoga]

It still seems that freezing the HD for a few days has worked for many people.

[enduro]

I put my failed drive in the chest freezer for 4 hours (with peas and corn wrapped about it) and it spun up for about 10 sec and then the ticking started again. Will try for several ours more.

Also tried that Get Data Back software however it seems to be built for recovering lost/deleted data rather than CPR on a twitching drive. :)

thanks all.

[oldfart]

Regrettably my Seagate EIDE 320Gig main hard drive failed last week with about 200Gig of photo's on it!! :( Fortunately however, it is under warranty until 2012 but the warranty doesn't appear to cover data recovery - of course I will want to recover the images.

Fault: Hard drive was performing as normal and then on 2 bootups displayed a NTloader error, on the next boot up the HD was not recognised by the machine and now it just makes ticking sounds. Sounds like the head armature is stuck or something similar.



You can attempt to save the drive your self, but to try costs you the price of another drive (Identical) and there is no assurances of success.

The circuit board at the bottom of the drive is easy enough to swap, and in alot of drive failures all that is required. The tricky bit is buying the exact same model and version of the drive.

If you can get the drive to spin, and be recognised by the bios, Spinrite from grc.com might recover the drive enough to get the data off it.

If your a religious man, prayer is also strongly recommended.


Freezing the drive was a trick used to recover Fujitsu MPG hard Drives that had a chip that overheated to cause the failure, it is strongly not recommended on other drives as it kills more than it saves.

[enduro]

You can attempt to save the drive your self, but to try costs you the price of another drive (Identical) and there is no assurances of success.

The circuit board at the bottom of the drive is easy enough to swap, and in alot of drive failures all that is required. The tricky bit is buying the exact same model and version of the drive.

If you can get the drive to spin, and be recognised by the bios, Spinrite from grc.com might recover the drive enough to get the data off it.

If your a religious man, prayer is also strongly recommended.


Freezing the drive was a trick used to recover Fujitsu MPG hard Drives that had a chip that overheated to cause the failure, it is strongly not recommended on other drives as it kills more than it saves.

I am about to try Spinrite now and my Q. is will run the same if the faulty drive is set as the slave drive? Can't seem to see a reference to that in the manual thus far.

Drive is not recognised in the BIOS at boot up. Sounds like teh drive it fragged and only opportunity may be to take it to a PRO.

Fortunately not ll my images are on one drive.

[Harves]

Sorry to hear that Wayne, I had a similar thing happen a couple of months ago, fortunately I backup to another drive on my machine as well as a portable drive. Hope someone can recover your work successfully.

Which reminds me.... must do a backup tonight

[enduro]

The bright side is that Seagate will honour the warranty & replace if a tech needs to dismantle the drive. Maybe they will allow me to use the original retail price to upgrade to a larger size.