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need hard drive recovery help!!!

post #1 of 17
7/2/08 at 2:45am
Thread Starter 
ok, seriously in big trouble here, my seagate freeagent desktop 500 gb external hard drive decided to go tits up on me today. i know it isnt a dell specific question, but i fine the dell owners are generally the smartest people

anyways, all my pictures are on there... ya, i know i should have back ups, and believe me i am kicking myself right now, and i actually did back it up, and thought i was ok, but i guess i formatted that drive a bit ago and forgot to replace the backed up stuff. baka....

it was making a faint clicking sound and wasn't seen by my laptop at all, so i began doing research and found out the light sometimes does something so disconnecting it most likely would fix it. i took it apart and disconnected the light, no joy... so i took it completely apart and plugged it directly into my desktop, and it made that faint clicking sound... so, now i assume the actual drive is really bad, but i have never had a hd fail on me so completely, so who knows???

any advice, or experiences anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.
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post #2 of 17
7/2/08 at 12:40pm
Sounds like a possible controller board failure. Drivesavers.com can retreive data from some real disasters (fires, floods). However, I won't lie to you, the rates for this type of recovery are PROHIBITIVELY expensive, however drivesavers won't charge you if they can't recover everything you ask for. What else is nice too is Drivesavers also is a warranty recovery provider for the major hard drive manufacturers. If your drive is under warranty Seagate will not void it if you send it to drivesavers.

There might be other services out there offering the same levels of service. I Just know most about Drivesavers because they sent me a bunch of marketing crap in the mail. The good part was though that I got a code to give out that gives you 10% and waives shipping and other fees for attempts.

Again, you may not like the quoted price, but it's worth asking. PM me if you'd like the discount code.
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post #3 of 17
7/2/08 at 5:13pm
Thread Starter 
thats not good news... well, if i have to go that route i will definitely hit you up!!!
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post #4 of 17
9/10/09 at 4:49pm
Thread Starter 
so, i tried drive savers, i was prepaired to spend 3 or 4 k but they couldnt recover anything for me ... still have the hd and maybe someday there will be some new method to recover files. i still catch tons of crap from my wife for loosing 10+ years of pictures...
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post #5 of 17
1/13/10 at 8:58am
this is why Backups ARE SOOOOOO IMPORTANT!!!! NEVER FORGET TO BACK UP YOUR FILES to a second drive or to CDs or DVDs
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post #6 of 17
1/13/10 at 9:31am
OK I have only read about this so if the Dr. House of PC repair wants to lay into me I am ready.

Buy the identical drive swap out controller board. If that works repair is cost of the HDD. $87.70 on Amazon, link. But I would read what the actual HDD is, one to save money and two to make sure you really get the same drive since you are going to part swap.

Edit: Option 2? File a report with the police saying there is child pornography on the HDD. When you are arrested for filing a false police report. Have your lawyer file motion for discovery of HDD content. After serving your 30 days for filing a false report you will have 10+ years of photos back?
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post #7 of 17
1/13/10 at 10:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by powerpack View Post
OK I have only read about this so if the Dr. House of PC repair wants to lay into me I am ready.

Buy the identical drive swap out controller board. If that works repair is cost of the HDD. $87.70 on Amazon, link. But I would read what the actual HDD is, one to save money and two to make sure you really get the same drive since you are going to part swap.
Informative input

Quote:
Originally Posted by powerpack View Post
Edit: Option 2? ....
*face-palm*
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post #8 of 17
1/13/10 at 6:09pm
Thread Starter 
first thing i tried was the new hd enclosure, but it didnt work. sent my hd in to 2 different places but neither could recover any data.... still have the hd in case technology improves. still a painful thing to loose all your pictures
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post #9 of 17
1/13/10 at 6:18pm
The only other way I know of in these cases is to relocate the platters from the bad drive to a good one and use the new drive to read the data

You need the exact same drive
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post #10 of 17
1/13/10 at 10:28pm
Woodstock read some of these links on this page. Unless someone said they considered this they likely haven't?

Dave swap platters? Do you have a clean room? Will run the risk of same remapping you might with PCB swap so of the two? Unless you know you crashed your heads which would likely damage the platters anyway I think my method is a better first choice. Yours could always be done second with no extra cost, same parts? And if mine doesn't work Woodstock can swap back PCB and have a replacement drive no data. Yours means destined for premature failure almost guaranteed. And once Woodstock exposes platters to the environment outside a clean room any future recovery is put it real risk. My method not so much might just not work.

I had done much reading on this in the past Woodstock consider. Really not much downside but $75? Unlikely to put you in a worse position than you are now, just might not work.

Anyone want to explain the flaws in my logic directly? I could have no idea what I am talking about but say why?
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post #11 of 17
1/14/10 at 4:04am
Thread Starter 
i bought the exact same hd and tried to use the board from it to use my bad drive, that didnt work. i sent it to drive savers and they attempted to swap platters with multiple same model hd's, didnt work. platters seem to have come into contact with the read arm while spinning so there is nothing to be done unfortunately
Quote:
Originally Posted by powerpack View Post
Woodstock read some of these links on this page. Unless someone said they considered this they likely haven't?

Dave swap platters? Do you have a clean room? Will run the risk of same remapping you might with PCB swap so of the two? Unless you know you crashed your heads which would likely damage the platters anyway I think my method is a better first choice. Yours could always be done second with no extra cost, same parts? And if mine doesn't work Woodstock can swap back PCB and have a replacement drive no data. Yours means destined for premature failure almost guaranteed. And once Woodstock exposes platters to the environment outside a clean room any future recovery is put it real risk. My method not so much might just not work.

I had done much reading on this in the past Woodstock consider. Really not much downside but $75? Unlikely to put you in a worse position than you are now, just might not work.

Anyone want to explain the flaws in my logic directly? I could have no idea what I am talking about but say why?
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post #12 of 17
1/14/10 at 10:46am
Pretty Much toast then
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post #13 of 17
1/14/10 at 11:09pm
Thread Starter 
i am aware
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post #14 of 17
1/14/10 at 11:19pm
painfully I am sure

I have a drive here in my desk with the exact same problem
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post #15 of 17
1/14/10 at 11:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dave-p View Post
Pretty Much toast then
Quote:
Originally Posted by woodstock View Post
i am aware
I agree! Sad that my bad joke might really be the only way to get back. 30 days Wood? I actually think no way the local or State cops could do if you can't get it done. They do buy from the private sector. I do wonder if FBI has all this super genius stuff? I think not as the private sector is what fuels it regardless of million dollar contracts. Woodstock yea put it away and hope cryogenics allows you to come back in 2080 to see your photos.
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post #16 of 17
1/15/10 at 3:17am
Yeah, if Drivesavers can't recover data it can't ever be recovered.

Remember, a backup is only a backup if its not your only copy of that data. Backup implies that you have a storage device you use full time and the backup only gets accessed for updates and for recovery. I backup to my file server weekly and thankfully it has a RAID 5 array in it so I'm covered in case one drive craps out. Would like to update my server's chassis with another RAID enclosure so I can have enough drives for RAID 6.
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post #17 of 17
1/24/10 at 9:52am
I still have a hard drive that I'd like to one day get recovered too. Has a bunch of old pictures on it I'd like to get back, but I don't have the money to send it to any data recovery places.
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