Hard Drive Recovery
 

Any computer buffs out there?

I had an external 500gb hard disc failure a few weeks ago and lost all my personal pics, docs etc.

Bought one of those devices off Amazon but still failed to read the drive. Looks like the only way now would be to pay a firm hundreds of pounds to recover the data.

All car shows, holidays, weddings, car rebuilds etc Gutted!

Anyone out there have the know how to help me please?

If the drive is spinning then it maybe a logic fault on the brd. Its a long shot but if you can get another drive the same model version etc then swap the logic brd.
beyond that its data recovery but i would do some research as it may not be as much as you think. I had a drive recovered around 20yrs ago and it was around £850 back then but not many were doing it back then.

P.

Ps. Also try it in another machine as a slave, do not try to boot from it. if you can see it then its a start. I used to have some drive software so if you can get machine to see it then drop me a line and i will do some digging.

When you plug in the hard drive, does it spin up?
- if yes, then see next question
- if no, then should check if you have another EXACT drive and try switching the mainboard that is on it because the board might have gone

If it spins up, is there a grinding noise?
- if no, see next question
- if yes, you could try the freezer trick. Basically put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer for a day or two. This might be enough to let it run smoothly enough for the computer to use it so you can pull some data from it.

If it spins and there are no noises, does the computer "see" it? check My Computer to see if it is there. If not, check Disk Manager (Right click on My computer and click MAnage if on Vista or 7). If it is there and just not able to be used, then you can try this next step but be warned. You do have the potential of losing data!!

Right click on the partition and format it (a quick format not a Deep Format!!!).
Download Recuva (free software from the internet)
Open Recuva after installing it and do a Deep Scan of that drive. Then ask it to recover that info that it does find to another drive. I have used this program and method many times and it has always worked for me on hard disks, SSDs, flash cards, USB sticks and anything else that holds data (even a floppy disk once!) but every situation is different.

Hope this helps you out and if you need any other help feel free to write here or PM me. Good luck

LAST resort before binning it is double ziplock and 24hours in the freezer, might get you 15minutes use before its completely gone.

It makes a noise when you connect it but the computer does not identify it at all. Tried one of those recovery kits. Wired it all up and still no drive identified. I had a fella run some tests and still no good.

Heard of freezer trick but most say whatever, do not do this?

Cost of recovery firm is £299 - £399 and that's the cheapest.

I am thinking of getting a new pcb for it ? They are around £25 delivered from Canada. May be worth trying do you think???

Gutted mainly due to all pics I've lost.

we normally ask the grand son to fix it!!!!

Not got any computer repair shops near you???

Yes Pete but its specialist stuff. Has to be opened in a sterile lab environment etc or you can contaminate disc and lose it all for good.

Give these guys a call:-

http://www.krollontrack.co.uk/data-recovery/

good luck with it, suppose we should all back up the hard drive. (sounds good, but I know ****** all).

Thanks Dave. Sent an inquiry off to them just now.