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HDD recovery

E

ericsan

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 11, 2002
Messages
103
I have a close friend - almost family, with a dead hard drive. Its a laptop WD 250 Scorpio with the click of death. I've used all of my tricks and I know that further attempts to image the drive can make it worse.

He has business files that need to be recovered. I've used a data recovery service before with success, but it was $1,200.

He can't pay that much - and we are looking for a service for around $200.

Any recommendations?
 
Prayer? You are not going to find a reputable professional service for that amount of money. For future reference, the $200 he was willing to spend will buy him a nice 4TB external drive, or even a pair of 2TB's for his backup needs.
 
I am praying. I've used Drivesavers before and they did it for $1,200. I've seen a clean room do the work - and know what it's worth. He just can't afford it. I'm hoping that someone else can do it without having to open the drive - but I'm not sure what the click of death needs physically.
 
Which is the closest to the click failure scenario you are hearing? Did the drive ever post? What exact model of drive do you have?
 
I have the drive in an external cradle. It spins up, clicks two to three times, then spins down.
 
Laptop HDs are particularly notorious for going bad because people tend to be careless with them while the hard drives are writing (i.e. shaking around, dropping).

Most people just don't understand that just because it's called a "laptop" doesn't mean that you should actually use it on your lap.

Not to mention taking the time to back up important files on $4 USB sticks.

Sorry quick rant there. Yeah if the files are important then he should pay drivesavers.
 
ericsan said:
I have the drive in an external cradle. It spins up, clicks two to three times, then spins down.
Click to expand...

Before you make any determinations then remove it from the external enclosure and place it with known good power thus taking possible bad/insufficient power, cable and ports out of the equation.
 
Tried the freezer trick - no help.

The sound samples say it is a "bad head". That sounds about the closest.

I'll try another machine with a good PSU.
 
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