There was no warning — no grinding, no clicks, clacks, or sudden bang. It quickly became clear that something more serious than a simple system lock had happened. Post-reboot, the HDD would spin up smoothly, beep 12 times, and then spin down. The drive was never recognized in BIOS, which nixed any chance of using disk recovery software to extract data. This is a story of my efforts to repair the drive myself, my research into the question of whether or not users can repair modern hard drives, and the results of my efforts.
If your drive is still detected in BIOS, you may be able to use software tools to retrieve your data. There are dozens of data recovery firms, all promising clean rooms, the latest tools, and highly trained professional staff. This one, for example, is pretty much toast. There are two broad categories of problems that can nuke a drive: PCB issues and internal component failures.
Unfortunately, that didn't work either. And I probably caused condensation to settle on the hard drive platter, which could have caused a lot more damage. I eventually gave up and stored the drive for a future in which I was hoping to be able to afford professional data recovery. Should you succeed with one of the questionable methods above, note that the fix will be temporary!
So be prepared. Know exactly what you want to back up and how. Have the right backup software to quickly copy your data and have enough storage space available.
If you want to copy files manually, only copy one set of files at a time! If you make the head jump back and forth between too many files by kicking off multiple copy-and-paste processes, you will slow down the overall backup process and increase the likelihood of a fatal head crash. If you can afford professional help or simply cannot afford to wait for a miracle, do consult a specialist. My recommendation is to go with a reputable company. They should work with professional technicians and tools, be able to open your hard drive in clean rooms or under dust-free conditions, follow industry standards, and have solid credentials, as well as excellent recommendations.
After all, you will trust them with your private data. Kroll Ontrack, one of the most reputable companies in the market, offers a free consultation and cost evaluation.
Before you pick a company, be sure you understand the conditions! Most charge just for looking at the drive and making a recommendation. They will charge extra for actually attempting to recover the data. Some will charge a full recovery fee, even if they failed to recover the data. Diagnosing and fixing a broken hard drive is serious business.
Do take it seriously, but also try to exclude some of the more simple-to-fix culprits before you fork out hundreds of dollars to a specialist. The more you know, the better. How far you go to diagnose and fix your hard drive will depend on how important the data is for you. You probably wonder what happened with my hard drive. Well, one fine day, when I was dissolving my apartment, I decided to give it one last chance and then let go of it. More than two years after I had tried everything I dared to get it to work, again and again for weeks, I just plugged it in and it simply worked.
I recovered all my data. The drive actually continued to work for many more years. Call me lucky! Make sure power is getting to the computer. If the cat knocked out the plug, or cable is broken, nothing will work.
Open up the computer case. Make sure they are seated well, and no pins are bent, broken, or otherwise damaged. Do a visual check. Sometimes, it's not the drive that's dead, but the PC board that controls its operation on the underside of the drive.
If there's a power surge or a component failure on that board, your drive will stop working, but only because it doesn't know what to do next. Look for signs of damage—burns or scorch marks. If you see this, you can breathe a little sigh of relief, for it means that is your likely culprit—and often, this is a problem that can be fixed with relative ease.
If you want to replace the PCB, search on Google for replacement parts for your drive's make and model. When it arrives, remove the old board there are five tiny screws to remove—don't lose them! Slide out the old drive and replace it with the new one. Do not touch the metal leads on the new board—static discharge could blow your new board before it ever has a chance to breathe new life into your drive. You can ground yourself by either wearing an anti-static wrist band or by touching something grounded and metal.
The inside of your plugged-in computer will usually work. Slide in the new board, making sure it's seated firmly into the drive, then re-attach the screws. Reconnect the drive to the computer, then power back up. If it works, congratulations! It's a good idea to back up your data at this point, but you're ready to go. If it doesn't work—keep reading. Check to see if the drive is being recognized. Part 2. Make a choice: if this data is worth saving, it is worth finding a professional hard-drive recovery company and paying what it takes to get your data back.
If you attempt anything at all yourself, chances of recovering any data professionally will be nil. A quick search on Google for "hard drive replacement parts" will lead you in a couple of different directions. Replacing parts may work for older hard drives, but usually not for newer ones.
Do it yourself. A favorite method of brave souls is the DIY method, promoted by companies that specialize in providing parts for do-It-yourselves. The idea is that if you only replace the burned out controller board, your drive will spring back to life. Truth is, maybe it will! But there's one big caveat: the chips on the controller are, more and more, calibrated for that particular drive, and there's no guarantee a replacement will work.
However, this is by far the least-expensive option. Hire a professional. This is the ONLY option to get your drive back up and running, or at least have the files on the drive recovered which is really what you want, in the end. Turnaround times can be quicker than the DIY method, and success is somewhat more assured, but it comes at a cost, which may be worth it if your data is important.
You can expect to pay two or three times more than the original cost of the drive, so you will have to weigh the value of the money against the value of the data on the drive. Part 3. Read this first! If your drive made a clicking sound the first time you plugged it in, any time you plug it in again causes loss of data by damaging the magnetic layer on the drive.
Do not attempt this self-repair if the data is important to you for work or legal reasons. Some of these techniques are "Hail Mary" attempts that will either work or render your drive truly, finally, really dead. This will totally and finally kill any part of data that is not already damaged. Physically test the drive. Hold the drive in one hand and firmly spin it back and forth, listening for any noises as you do so. Comments There is no comment for this post yet. Full Name. How much does data recovery cost?
Data Recovery Prevention: Ransomware and how to avoid it Ransomware is a type of computer virus that is used by hackers in order to leverage our growing reliance on the data we have stored on our devic How your hard drive works Hard drives are truly remarkable. They can store gargantuan amounts of data which we rely on every day hard drive recovery is a service that's al It may even surprise you to hear that a lar
0コメント