Thinkpads Forum

I have a crashed Toshiba hard drive. It's 4gb from a Satellite 2530 CDS. It was my friend's work computer years ago and she'd like to see if she can get her old files off it.

The hard drive tries to spin when I connect it via USB but Win 7 won't load it. The drive is not clicking, but I can hear a fast rev'd-up spin, then it goes quiet. I get the USB Mass Storage Device listed in Device Manager, but with that annoying yellow exclamation mark. I ran PC Inspector File Recovery and nothing.

Do you guys have any suggestions? I thought about buying some recovery software, but I'm not sure what's the best, or if its even worth trying. The freezer trick, maybe? I don't know ...

Any help is greatly appreciated,

Mike

Any sort of Windows recovery software is going to require the HDD be visible to Windows as far as I know. Besides sending the drive off to a specialist who takes it apart to retrieve the data you my be out of luck.

I have a couple of ideas - first, try a Linux live CD, ubuntu works well. Second, if the usb cable of the adapter you are using has two connectors on the one end, make sure that they are not both plugged into the same usb hub if possible, or a connector on both the front and the back of the system.

Good luck

craigmontHunter wrote:I have a couple of ideas - first, try a Linux live CD, ubuntu works well. Second, if the usb cable of the adapter you are using has two connectors on the one end, make sure that they are not both plugged into the same usb hub if possible, or a connector on both the front and the back of the system.

Good luck

Thanks I'll give ubuntu a try.

craigmontHunter wrote:first, try a Linux live CD, ubuntu works well.

No dice. The drive spins up, then goes quiet, just like in Win 7, which saw it as an Unspecified USB Mass Storage Device with the scrambled name of: .ñª.,<&?·È>

It's a Toshiba drive. Think there's any manufacture specific software that could help?

Mike

I had a hard drive fail not too long ago. Tried the other suggestions in this thread without success. I just sent my drive in under warranty and got a replacement. Yeah, I lost files too - mostly email. Just goes to show the importance of a regular backup strategy.

Regarding Toshiba software, the following (scroll down the page to the bottom) indicates there really isn't any...
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_21534607.html

My feeling is the only way you will recover files off of that hard drive is to send it in to a recovery service. That will cost some money of course.

Shoot ... Can any one recommend a by-mail recovery service?

Mike

There is an expensive little program called Spinrite that has saved my butt on more than one occasion. See: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm It's about $90 USD. The upside of Spinrite is that it's real good at making an otherwise unusable drive readable again and it is WAY cheaper than a data recovery service. The downside is that if the drive is rapidly going downhill, Spinrite might make it worse because of trying so hard to recover the data. There's no trial version either.

To use an automotive analogy, it's kind of like buying one of those OBD-II code readers. You might not use it very often, but when you do, it can save you a boatload.

mediasponge wrote:There is an expensive little program called Spinrite that has saved my butt on more than one occasion. See: http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm It's about $90 USD. The upside of Spinrite is that it's real good at making an otherwise unusable drive readable again and it is WAY cheaper than a data recovery service. The downside is that if the drive is rapidly going downhill, Spinrite might make it worse because of trying so hard to recover the data. There's no trial version either.

I'm going to give it a shot and will report back.

Thanks for the tip

miketoro wrote:
I'm going to give it a shot and will report back.

Nada. "Unable to recognize sector zero." Oh well. With some felt and glitter it will make a fine paperweight.

You might have better luck by hooking up that HD to a PC, using e.g. a 3.5" to 2.5" HD adapter,
or get one of these useful gadgets that helps me out all the time:
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail. ... mily&id=39
It's way more advanced hardware than the insides of a USB enclosure.

RealBlackStuff wrote:It's way more advanced hardware than the insides of a USB enclosure.

Since there are only a couple of chipsets that all the vendors use for any USB to PATA interfacing task, it is very highly unlikely that the $39 Apricon adapter is essentially any different in terms of its USB-PATA interface electronics than a cheap USB enclosure.

Cheers,

Bill B.

well, if it's the controller that has failed (hard to say if that actually has though), you could try the old trick of - swap a controller board from an identical (or nearly identical) hard drive to see if it boots up. I have had that approach actually work once and the HDD booted up just fine, many times it has not too of course. If you try this, you would want to find a HDD that works. Ebay might be a good source for that.

RealBlackStuff wrote:You might have better luck by hooking up that HD to a PC, using e.g. a 3.5" to 2.5" HD adapter,
or get one of these useful gadgets that helps me out all the time:
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail. ... mily&id=39
It's way more advanced hardware than the insides of a USB enclosure.

I had an experience with a desktop HDD last year that's sound similar. A friend at work brought over his desktop machine in a panic when the HDD failed and he needed data off of it. It wouldn't spin up either; very similar to your situation and your description of what the drive does. I was using one of those inexpensive adapters on it and just left it attached to one of my computers and walked off to do other things. When I returned several hours later, it had spun up and I could access the files....but under certain conditions. It wouldn't let me copy folders "nested" more than about 2 layers. It did best when I copied a file directly vs. inside a folder.

Although, in your case, it's a laptop drive so the adapter is different, you can try one of those cheap enclosures that has 2 USB connectors on one end instead of one. I've had experiences where a drive started up fine with a single cable, but other where it wouldn't until I attached the second USB connector to give a a little voltage "bump".

RealBlackStuff wrote:You might have better luck by hooking up that HD to a PC, using e.g. a 3.5" to 2.5" HD adapter,
or get one of these useful gadgets that helps me out all the time:
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail. ... mily&id=39
It's way more advanced hardware than the insides of a USB enclosure.

I follow RBS's advice as often as possible. I love my Apricorn DriveWire HD Adapter. It utilizes a AC power supply. No need to receive sufficient 5V power from USB ports.

If OP decides to use a USB enclosure -- If HD doesn't spin up with Y-cable utilizing two USB ports, OP can try connecting the USB enclosure to an AC powered USB hub.