Data Recovery Tricks?

l008com

l008com

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 20, 2002
Messages
374
I've got a pair of 9 GB Drives. They are OLD. They are 5.25", full hight. So they are each the size of two CD rom drives. They were ancient when I bought them about 7 years ago. I had them in a tower connected to my computer and they worked pretty well. One was filled with music, the other with everything else. Anyway they died, probably from me accidentally kicking their case repeatedly. Now years and years later, I'd love to get some data off of them. I don't need the music at all but I had lots of graphics files I created while in school. Are there any tricks I might be able to use to get these drives to run again, just long enough for me to copy some files one last time?

They both do the same thing. When you plug them into power, you hear a clicking noise. It sounds like they try to spin up but cannot. Thats all they do .click... click... click...

I have a small powersupply that powers one drive, so I plug that into the drive, and I have a USB to SCSI adapter I plug into my computer and into the drive. The clicking happens whether or not the SCSI is plugged in. Any ideas? I'm not going to send them out to a lab. I don't even know which one is the mp3 drive.
 
The ultimate "click of death" eh? Try sticking them in the freezer overnight, then when they're COLD try to pull the data off of them. BE QUICK! Once those puppies heat up (if this does work) you're toast!
 
I was actually taught this in College, then it was reiterated to me at tech school. I'm just saying that's what I have been told may work. At this point you have the click of death, so it's dead already, freezing is always a last ditch effort. You are at the last ditch effort. There may be some companies that can pull the platters from the drives, and charge a buttload of money. I couldn't tell you I know this for a fact as I don't, but that may be an option also.

EDIT: Also if condensation is a worry, you may want to try putting the drives in freezer bags.
 
If the freezer thing doesnt work, data recovery services can almost guarantee they can get the data back.
Runs anywhere from 1-4k depending on company and how fast you need the data back.
 
Rtstrider said:
I was actually taught this in College, then it was reiterated to me at tech school. I'm just saying that's what I have been told may work. At this point you have the click of death, so it's dead already, freezing is always a last ditch effort. You are at the last ditch effort. There may be some companies that can pull the platters from the drives, and charge a buttload of money. I couldn't tell you I know this for a fact as I don't, but that may be an option also.

EDIT: Also if condensation is a worry, you may want to try putting the drives in freezer bags.
Click to expand...

I was just thinking. Is there an idea temp? It might be safer for me to put the drive in a plastic bag, and put it outside overnight, then the next day, while it's outside and ice cold, runu a usb cable out the door and try connecting to it like that, from my laptop inside.
 
Pingo Pango...
So my drives are out on the deck. Its about 32 out now. Its going to get into the 20's tonight, but tomorrow night its going to be 10. So I just wanted to double check and see if anyone had any thoughts as to an ideal temp to do this at?
 
They are each in a bag just in case any precip happens but we aren't supposed to get any. I didn't know if too could would do something bad like freeze the grease in the bearings etc. I don't know, but Ill wait until tomorrow night, when its ten degrees out. BRRRR. What a treat it would be to get some super old data back! And now I use Time Machine so I should be safe forever :)
 
I would see what Spinright thinks of it. That program has helped me recover drives that I would've thought are otherwise toast. Its invalueble to me as a computer repair guy and well worth the $80.
 
I don't run windows, plus the drive won't even spin up. If I could get the drive to show up at all, I have plenty of utilities I could run to try and repair/salvage data off of them.

AND I tried it tonight. I left both drive out overnight, and I went down at 1 am when it was about 17° out and, wouldn't you know it, my mom brought the drives in even though i told her they were out there for a reason :) So I put em back out for about an hour and a half, maybe two. I plugged them in, while they were still outside, and they both do the same thing. A light clicking and no spinning. It sounds like the clicking is much lighter than the seek arms, its gotta be the main drive motor. The other suspicious thing is that both drives do the exact same thing, and both drives "died" at the same time. Makes me kind of suspicious. Are there any other tricks out there? I would love to get this data back. But like I said data recovery is out of the question. These are super old drives, that haven't worked in ~7 years or so.
 
Double check all your settings and jumpers.

Try a different scsi adapter?

Also... have you ever taken apart a hard drive and gotten the magnets out of them? Well the magnets in that size of drive are MONSTERS!

n57508300_31333670_7600.jpg

*And I have rather large hands.

I challenge anybody to pull these magnets straight apart just using their hands.
 
I haven't messed with jumpers or anything because it does the clicking even when its just plugged into power, with no scsi plugged in at all. I'm going to try again at some point with a more powerfull powersupply. After that, I'm out of ideas.
 
l008com said:
I don't run windows, plus the drive won't even spin up. If I could get the drive to show up at all, I have plenty of utilities I could run to try and repair/salvage data off of them.

AND I tried it tonight. I left both drive out overnight, and I went down at 1 am when it was about 17° out and, wouldn't you know it, my mom brought the drives in even though i told her they were out there for a reason :) So I put em back out for about an hour and a half, maybe two. I plugged them in, while they were still outside, and they both do the same thing. A light clicking and no spinning. It sounds like the clicking is much lighter than the seek arms, its gotta be the main drive motor. The other suspicious thing is that both drives do the exact same thing, and both drives "died" at the same time. Makes me kind of suspicious. Are there any other tricks out there? I would love to get this data back. But like I said data recovery is out of the question. These are super old drives, that haven't worked in ~7 years or so.
Click to expand...

spinright is a bootable CD (even comes with its own version of dos). if the arms can move and the thing spins, even at an abnormally slow or almost non existent speed, spin right will pull the data off , even if as much as 40% of a sector is currupt, it will still get the data off it.

mind you, if the drive doesn't show up in bios i guess there isn't much hope.

Viva la non-volatile revolution!
 
I don't run windows, plus the drive won't even spin up.
Click to expand...

Sorry Bud, you're screwed. For all intents and purposes, those drives are dead and will need professionial help to be recovered.
And the more you screw with 'um, the harder it's gonna be.

Good Luck!
 
i am having the same problem with a really old drive that clicks, and i refuse to get rid of it.

i have heard stories and rumors about buying an identical drive and swapping the parts out.. but, unless you do it in a very, very clean room, you will have problems, because one spec of dust can ruin it.

i have also heard that sometimes dropping the drives square on a flat surface fairly hard can sometimes bounce the arm the right way...

i have tried the dropping trick on mine, but it does the same thing.. it just clicks when it spins, and does not get recognized... looking back on it, i kick myself for not dumping the data the moment it started making noise, but still booted up...

also, i could murder my friend who used to work in a company will a full fledge data recovery lab, but was too pussy to ask them to help him (me) out! =P

but, if you find a solution, let me know!!!
good luck!
 
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