Hard Disk Crashed, now what?

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kioras

Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
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I had my 500gb data drive crash this morning.

System would not boot with it installed on my MB, had to disconnect the sata cable to get the system to post.

any ideas on how to connect the drive to the system, to atleast retrieve the data, and wipe data before rma'n it. (it has saved passwords, recipts, along with outlook ost files, that i want to retrieve/wipe)

Can I plug it in after the system boots, and with it being a sata, will windows 7 reconize it, if it can, or should i get like an esata connection for it.

My boot drive is an SSD, that is happily chugging along currently however.
 
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"Crashed"?

I'd try it in another system or in an external enclosure. Does it click? Does it show up in BIOS?

Otherwise you can attempt the freezer trick. Otherwise you may be SOL other than spendy data recovery.
 
I hope you have an up-to-date backup. You could try other SATA-ports and see whether the BIOS still recognizes it. Otherwise, it may very well be game over (unless you want to spend big $ on recovery).

I drill holes through the drive platters before disposing it. And if you're really paranoid you can fill them up with something.
 
crashed as in, when the system boots, it stops at trying to reconize the hard drive. (EVGA board, so i was able to see with the trouble shooting, where exactly the bios locked at, which was sata detection)

When I disconnected the drive, the system would now boot.

I guess when I get home, i'll unplug it from the sata ports that have it connected to the intel SB, and to the marvell onboard sta controllers, to see if they will reconize it.

Otherwise, I guess it is time to just scratch it off.
 
Might I recommend this?
12-119-152-S01


It should allow you to boot and then try to retrieve data.

Furthermore, I have had a lot of good experiences with Knoppix with respect to data recovery. You may want to give it a try.
 
Put the drive in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer for a few hours, then connect it after booting the system using either SATA hotplug or the device l00 linked. You can usually copy the data from the drive using a block disk copy utility, such as Ghost/Acronis or linux dd. Make sure that the copy program you're using has been set to ignore errors.

If that doesn't work, you can try replacing the drive's logic board with another one from ebay.

If a new logic board doesn't help, you can open the drive and see if there are any obvious problems, like a stuck head or huge scratches on the platter, and try fixing them manually.
 
I would try simply booting into windows.........then connecting the drive to see if it comes up. also check out drive recovery software on the web like recuva - something that can find lost files
 
Matt897 said:
I would try simply booting into windows.........then connecting the drive to see if it comes up. also check out drive recovery software on the web like recuva - something that can find lost files
Click to expand...

Thats what I will try to do, well the second thing, after seeing if it will boot with it plugged into the xtra non intel sata controllers.

WIll have to try after work.

Any have a suggestion for a brand of hd in the 1-2tb range?
 
you had a 500TB drive!? 8MB thumb drives, it's the only logical recovery option
 
kioras said:
misstype, as i got into work.

500gb drive of course
Click to expand...

FTFY

I'd agree with the others. Get a drive to USB adapter and hook it up to a functional machine. Stellar Phoenix ang GetDataBack have worked wonders for me. If the drive won't spin try spinrite (bootable).
 
Try another SATA cable and a different SATA port before you get too exotic with your solutions.
 
I want to buy one of those 500 TB drives!

but yeah, bag + freezer, or if you have an e-sata port you can connect it after your computer boots. if you are lucky it will work.
 
BTW, no need for extra hardware. Boot any recent linux livecd then plug the drive in and it will be recognized (assuming the drive is readable) and usable.
 
the system boots normally, this was my data drive, thankfully.

my SSD is my windows drive, and it was able to boot and run normally after unplugging the other drive.

So luckily I don't have to goof around with other systems. (no other system in the house can take sata anyways)
 
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