Hard Disk Failure

WillDAQ

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Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
2,725
Location
Ukania
Hi All,

Looking for some suggestions after my Windows system hard disk (fortunately not the My Documents Disk!) gave up the ghost.

Switched the machine on, selected Windows from the grub list, the XP loading screen comes up followed by a nasty click, spin down noise and a reset. Neither Linux nor even the motherboard are now acknowledging the existence of the disk.

I'm guessing the answers aren't going to be positive, but:

1) Any magic voodoo you can think of to bring it back from the dead, even for a while?

2) Know any cheap data recovery experts (I have backups but i'd rather a replacement hard disk that slots in where the current one is!).

Cheers
Annoyed of Bristol
 
Sadly further research suggests i'm looking at hardware failure to the point that the drive is scrap.

Still, gives me a chance to replace the rubbish case, give everything a good clean, play HDD musical chairs and do a full reinstall of XP and Linux.. yay...:(
 
If it's a SMART failure or something where the head scratched the disk, the data should be recoverable, but the disk will be unusable. Generally, you should replace a drive if you are experiencing any trouble with it, and anyways upgrading to a new drive every couple years (for newer better tech) is recommended.

When you get your new disk, install a S.M.A.R.T. status monitor (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/SMART-Disk-Monitor.shtml or http://shareapp.net/disk-smart-info-monitor_download/) to alert you to any impending problems before they occur.
 
This will sound like a totally crazy idea, but we've used it several times in the IT office where I used to work and it might work long enough for you to recover stuff from the disk:

Put the drive in a zip-loc bag and put it in the freezer overnight. Then while it's still cold (straight out of the freezer) plug it in and see if it'll work.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but it's easy and cheap and might give you the window of time you need to work with it. If it doesn't work, well you didn't lose anything and the drive is undamaged to try something else.
 
If it's a SMART failure or something where the head scratched the disk, the data should be recoverable, but the disk will be unusable. Generally, you should replace a drive if you are experiencing any trouble with it, and anyways upgrading to a new drive every couple years (for newer better tech) is recommended.

When you get your new disk, install a S.M.A.R.T. status monitor (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/SMART-Disk-Monitor.shtml or http://shareapp.net/disk-smart-info-monitor_download/) to alert you to any impending problems before they occur.

From what I can tell it's toast to the extent that the PCB is dead, I suppose i'm fortunate in that its only a system disk rather than user data.. Didn't give any advanced warning, just went out with a bang.

In terms of experience, it's a 3 year old Western Digital which is why i'd got my backup regime sorted. Got another identical drive of the same age so i'll chuck the pair. Get a second 500GB Seagate (to match the one I installed a couple of months ago) and jobs a good'un. Prolly gonna get a new external backup drive while i'm at it (anyone got one of these?)

Never heard of the smart system before though, once i'm back up and running i'll be having that!

This will sound like a totally crazy idea, but we've used it several times in the IT office where I used to work and it might work long enough for you to recover stuff from the disk:

Put the drive in a zip-loc bag and put it in the freezer overnight. Then while it's still cold (straight out of the freezer) plug it in and see if it'll work.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but it's easy and cheap and might give you the window of time you need to work with it. If it doesn't work, well you didn't lose anything and the drive is undamaged to try something else.

Ah yes, the old trick to reduce the running tolerances for a while. I would be tempted but the thing won't even spin, plus i'd need to image the entire disk for it to be of any use<_<
 
Anytime I've ever heard a nasty click as you described, it's never been a good thing :(

The freezer method never worked for me, but I've heard some have had success with it.

As far as the 2nd part of your question: Cheap data recovery seems to be an oxymoron, unfortunately.
 
In terms of experience, it's a 3 year old Western Digital which is why i'd got my backup regime sorted.

I don't trust drives older than their warranty (usually three years). If you can afford it I'd suggest a raid set-up in the future.
 
I don't trust drives older than their warranty (usually three years). If you can afford it I'd suggest a raid set-up in the future.

Yeah, hence my switch to Seagate (complete with 5 year warranty!).

My new plan is to mirror the two internal 500GB hdds with an external 1TB (seagate...) that I can backup every couple of days. Also means when I go home (at uni atm) I can take the 1TB in case the PC gets nicked.

Now for Linux i've been using the standard tools for backup, knowing that if it does fail I can copy the whole lot to a new disk and it'll still work.

Windows on the other hand would need imaging to get a complete system backup, so i've been backing up documents/application data/start menu that lets me reconstruct a new install nice and quickly. Anyone know good imaging software to save me the effort?

I was thinking about running Linux from a virtual machine on the Windows host next time I reinstalled, but i'm damn glad I didn't now as i'd have no bootable OS at all!
 

I 2nd this. And this being the internet, I'm sure you can find it some places more "seedy". Might be worth a try either way if there's anything of value on it. Heard it can work miracles, even on a completely toast drive.
 
When I did goto school the computer repair teacher used Ghost. It worked ok for what we did... which was very little.
 
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