Recover files after a hard-drive crash.

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snessiram · #1 Post by **snessiram** » Thu May 29, 2008 2:27 pm

Hi,

My mom's 4-year old packard bell's ata (laptop) hard-drive recently crashed. Her explanation is that while it was running she started hearing a "grrrr" sound ("whisper it") and shut down the computer. From that point it wouldn't start up anymore at all. I once got a disk error. Also I see the reading from harddrive light pinking but it seems to go very slow but never manages to start anything (just goes to next type of device to check in the startup-list from the bios) and when I went into the bios it wasn't listed with the IDE devices.

As the cd-drive stopped working some time ago and the "8"-key doesn't work anymore and it makes too much noise (fan noise, P4 cpu is kinda hot) etc... we're probably just going to buy a new computer (probably a thinkpad). But as she doesn't have a recent backup (februari is latest and not sure if it's a complete backup yet), it would be nice to still save some files from it... any suggestions what to do?

Thanks!

vanaya · #2 Post by **vanaya** » Thu May 29, 2008 3:37 pm

The only suggestion I have that has worked for me only once, is connect to IDE to USB connection. Then connect to a working lappy or desktop. Sometimes it works depending on the how bad the grinding was it might work for a enough time to do the file retrieval.

fuscob · #3 Post by **fuscob** » Thu May 29, 2008 7:49 pm

vanaya wrote:The only suggestion I have that has worked for me only once, is connect to IDE to USB connection. Then connect to a working lappy or desktop. Sometimes it works depending on the how bad the grinding was it might work for a enough time to do the file retrieval.

Yes, you should definitely try hooking the drive up to another machine first, preferably by an IDE-to-USB bridge like vanaya mentioned. Unfortunately, from your description, it sounds like the drive might be physically damaged (noises typically indicate physical damage) in which case your only option would be to pay (a lot) to have the drive recovered professionally. Good luck!

egibbs · #4 Post by **egibbs** » Fri May 30, 2008 6:36 am

If there is anything on it that she REALLY needs don't try to start it up again - just send it off to a recovery company and pray. If there was a real head crash then every time the platters spin your chances of getting anything off diminish.

If it's just stuff she'd LIKE to have, go ahead and try it yourself.

Ed Gibbs

snessiram · #5 Post by **snessiram** » Sat May 31, 2008 4:18 am

Thanks for the tips guys, I was planning on trying with an enclosure. Maybe even put the drive in the freezer if that helps as it is non-critical data so I can take some risks.

#6 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sat May 31, 2008 5:53 am

You could also get a 2.5"-3.5" adapter and connect it to a spare IDE connector on a PC. Make sure it's the only item on that IDE cable and you can NOT hot-swap the HD as with USB.

#7 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat May 31, 2008 6:18 am

Sometimes the freezer thing works. Just be sure to put it in a freezer bag when freezing it. It you don't it may get some ice inside of it when you freeze it and when you power it up the magic smoke will come out. Take it straight out of the freezer and power it up. Don't fool around, get the data saved before the drive heats up and quits again.
I have done this many times in the shop. It doesn't always work.
IDE or USB connections both work but IDE is faster and time is of the essence. Don't use USB if it is only a USB 1.1 connection, USB2 is OK.

Recover files after a hard-drive crash.

Recover files after a hard-drive crash.

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