i thought i would document my successful attempt at recovering the data from my hard drive that crashed on me a few weeks ago. i had been running a database program overnight and when i checked it the next morning, the computer was frozen. there was no keyboard input, only thing i could do was move the pointer. i then held down the power button to power down and when i restarted i got an ‘operating system not found’ message. when i tried again, i noticed that the bios was not recognizing my main hard drive (i have two – one 60 gb as primary and a 20 gb secondary, of which a total of 40 gig had been used). for the next few hours i tried everything i could think of to get it to work – removing main battery, cmos battery and holding down the power button; removing and reistalling hard drives; swapping hard drive postitions; putting it into an external enclosure etc. i came to accept the fact that my drive was dead or the data was corrupted. looking back, i now realize there were signs of the drive going bad. things like the notebook (very infrequently) freezing up on me, error messages about certain drivers not being found etc. had been happening for a few months, but the computer was always fine after a hard restart. i thought, ‘this is not a total disaster, since i had done a backup of everything about a week ago.’ i thought i was fortunate in that it happened on a saturday morning, and i would have all weekend, if necessary, to get everthing back together before i needed to access the files and programs for work on monday. my thinking was that i could just pop in a new drive and then restore from my backup files. i ran out to fry’s to find another hard drive. i wanted the 5k100 hitachi the same size as the drive that went tits up, but all they had in stock (that was not a toshitba – they had tons of them, i wonder why?) was a 100 gb seagate momentus, which was about $90 more than newegg’s price for the hitachi drive i was looking for. i installed the drive, installed xp, and when i went to restore my backed up data (i used backup mypc), got error messages stating that files were corrupted. i am assuming that it was because the drive was going bad at the time of my last backup – i do not think it was because of the software i used for the backup procedure. i actually started to sweat and thought i was going to have a coronary. after i calmed down, i searched the ‘net for data recovery software. i found lots of info on a program called spinrite, so i purchased and downloaded it and reinstalled the failed drive. when i tried to run it, it would not work because the drive was not recognized by the bios (i should have realized that, but you do not think straight when in panic mode – i am a dumbass). i then began to think my only option was to send the drive for professional data recovery. i contacted a few places and the quotes ranged from anywhere from $500 (for non-invasive recovery) to $3,600 if the drive needed to be opened in their clean room. i found a place that gave me a firm qoute of $800 or $1,200 if they had to open it up. i literally had the drive in a labelled box, ready to ship it to them, but i decided to search the ‘net for any other methods i could try myself.
i searched the ‘net some more for methods of data recovery and found a few message boards that mentioned freezing the hard drive. i thought it sounded like snake oil, but it would not hurt to give it a try. i stuck the drive in an anti-static bag, placed it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer for 4 hours. after i popped it into an external enclosure and attached it to my notebook, i was actually able to access files from it. i was more excited than at any time in my life. okay, maybe excepting the first time i was ‘with’ my first girlfriend. i started to retrieve files, but after about 20 minutes the drive quit responding. i rationalized that the drive was overheating. i did notice that it was making more noise than i had ever heard when it was installed in the computer. no grinding or clicking noises, just definitely louder while it was spinning. i decided to try the freezer trick again. this time i installed it in the computer and launched mobmeter to watch the temps as i copied files. it stayed at about 40 degrees for 20 minutes and then went quickly up to 55 and stopped working. i thought if i could keep it cool while it was running, i could probably ghost the complete drive and have everything back exactly as before. i tried installing the newly frozen drive back into my sager and then running it with the battery cover removed, the notebook elevated a few inches by blocks of wood, and then directing a fan under the notebook. it worked – the computer booted up and ran for about 30 minutes before locking up. this was great, but probably not long enough to get an image of the drive. i then decided to try setting my computer on a milk crate that had all the sides covered with cardboard, except the surface that the laptop was sitting on, and put this in front of my ac vent (luckily it is very close to the floor) with the ac turned on full blast. this worked. mobmeter stayed at 30 for the same 20 minutes then slowly went up to 44 and stayed there. i let it run for an hour and it continued working. i then went to the ‘net again to try and find software to create a ghost image. i was intending on norton ghost, but came across many messages that praised acronis true image. i searched again for a b & m store that carried it and the only place was compusa. i went to the closest one and it was actually on sale for $40 – no rebate needed or anything. i thought that a few things were finally turning out right for me. i was able to successfully ghost the image to my new seagate drive and everything is now running as it had before.
after all this, i decided to buy a new hitachi drive anyway and replace the 20 gig toshitba drive in the secondary drive bay. before i replaced the secondary drive, i ghosted the primary drive onto the new hitachi and placed it in the primary slot to compare the seagate and hitachi drives. the seagate runs cooler and quieter and has the longer warranty (5 years vs. 3). the toshitba drive never idled at less than 38 degrees. the seagate idles at 28, while the hitachi at 30. i should note that after taking apart the computer so many times i noticed the side port where the optional mp3 player (i think) would reside makes a great vent for cool air to enter and keep the primary drive cool. i have taped the spring loaded door open and blow a fan through it and that keeps the primary hard drive very cool. even under use, i have not seen the temps go higher than 34 on the seagate drive. it actually is cooler at idle than the secondary drive now. to its credit though, the one good thing about the toshiba was that it was faster at running my database program, most likely due to its 16 MB cache. with the toshiba i could usually run the program in about 45 minutes. now with the seagate it takes over an hour.
i searched the ‘net some more for methods of data recovery and found a few message boards that mentioned freezing the hard drive. i thought it sounded like snake oil, but it would not hurt to give it a try. i stuck the drive in an anti-static bag, placed it in a ziploc and put it in the freezer for 4 hours. after i popped it into an external enclosure and attached it to my notebook, i was actually able to access files from it. i was more excited than at any time in my life. okay, maybe excepting the first time i was ‘with’ my first girlfriend. i started to retrieve files, but after about 20 minutes the drive quit responding. i rationalized that the drive was overheating. i did notice that it was making more noise than i had ever heard when it was installed in the computer. no grinding or clicking noises, just definitely louder while it was spinning. i decided to try the freezer trick again. this time i installed it in the computer and launched mobmeter to watch the temps as i copied files. it stayed at about 40 degrees for 20 minutes and then went quickly up to 55 and stopped working. i thought if i could keep it cool while it was running, i could probably ghost the complete drive and have everything back exactly as before. i tried installing the newly frozen drive back into my sager and then running it with the battery cover removed, the notebook elevated a few inches by blocks of wood, and then directing a fan under the notebook. it worked – the computer booted up and ran for about 30 minutes before locking up. this was great, but probably not long enough to get an image of the drive. i then decided to try setting my computer on a milk crate that had all the sides covered with cardboard, except the surface that the laptop was sitting on, and put this in front of my ac vent (luckily it is very close to the floor) with the ac turned on full blast. this worked. mobmeter stayed at 30 for the same 20 minutes then slowly went up to 44 and stayed there. i let it run for an hour and it continued working. i then went to the ‘net again to try and find software to create a ghost image. i was intending on norton ghost, but came across many messages that praised acronis true image. i searched again for a b & m store that carried it and the only place was compusa. i went to the closest one and it was actually on sale for $40 – no rebate needed or anything. i thought that a few things were finally turning out right for me. i was able to successfully ghost the image to my new seagate drive and everything is now running as it had before.
after all this, i decided to buy a new hitachi drive anyway and replace the 20 gig toshitba drive in the secondary drive bay. before i replaced the secondary drive, i ghosted the primary drive onto the new hitachi and placed it in the primary slot to compare the seagate and hitachi drives. the seagate runs cooler and quieter and has the longer warranty (5 years vs. 3). the toshitba drive never idled at less than 38 degrees. the seagate idles at 28, while the hitachi at 30. i should note that after taking apart the computer so many times i noticed the side port where the optional mp3 player (i think) would reside makes a great vent for cool air to enter and keep the primary drive cool. i have taped the spring loaded door open and blow a fan through it and that keeps the primary hard drive very cool. even under use, i have not seen the temps go higher than 34 on the seagate drive. it actually is cooler at idle than the secondary drive now. to its credit though, the one good thing about the toshiba was that it was faster at running my database program, most likely due to its 16 MB cache. with the toshiba i could usually run the program in about 45 minutes. now with the seagate it takes over an hour.
