so long story short, i was between hard drives and didnt have my data backed up. just setting everything up today in my new server and first thing to do was backup my important data. the drive wont show up, not even on the boot screen. what are my options here? i do have 6 of this same drive (yeah, really stupid i didnt back it up earlier right?) so i can switch the pcb if that might help, or salvage other components. is it better to just send it to a professional? any software that might work? any help would be appreciated, or links to other peoples threads who were in my situation. thanks everyone.
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retrieving data from dead hard drive?
- Thread starter ekuest
- Start date
If you have the $$$ and the data is important and not reproducible, professional recovery is always the best choice for the best results. If you want to take the risk, first make sure you try a different SATA cable, power cable and SATA port. If you get nothing in the BIOS (meaning, no reply at all, not 0GB) do you hear the drive spin up? What drive manufacturer and model is it? What firmware version is on the label?
sorry i wrote the post in a hurry heading out the door. its a 2TB samsung F4. i have to do a bit of work to get the drive out but i will check the firmware tonight. i have tried multiple sata cables and ports, including using a cable and port from a drive that does work and switching it over so those are ruled out. havent yet ruled out the power plug. i think its a dead drive and not power/plug problems since the computer has been warning me for like a week that a drive was dying and i should back it up. its been a crazy week though so tonight was my night to finally get everything backed up. figures that it would also be the night it finally went kaput.
EDIT: it showed up on boot! changed the power plug. maybe got lucky?
EDIT: it showed up on boot! changed the power plug. maybe got lucky?
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EDITEDIT: its fine! somehow it wasnt getting power i guess. i will have to check my homemade power plug i suppose. i used those ones that you just press on to existing wires and then put a cap on. everything is transferring to a backup drive as i type this. crysis averted, you can all move on with your lives now. 
EDITEDIT: its fine! somehow it wasnt getting power i guess. i will have to check my homemade power plug i suppose. i used those ones that you just press on to existing wires and then put a cap on. everything is transferring to a backup drive as i type this. crysis averted, you can all move on with your lives now.
Glad to help, always good to hear a good outcome. For backup, get yourself an external USB case and stick on of your drives in it. Use synctoy or syncback pro or something like that and set an auto schedule to back up all your important data. 2 backups are even better than one!
well i have all my stuff on 2TB drives with 2TB drives for backup. i just had all my important files on my laptop and the backup on one of the 2TBs but then i had to reformat my laptop. its been like a month between when i reformatted my laptop and today when i was going to back it up. i stress to everyone i help with their computers the importance of having all important data backed up, and here i failed to do it myself.
i stress to everyone i help with their computers the importance of having all important data backed up, and here i failed to do it myself.
I've done the same thing in the past - tell people to always have a back up for their data, save hard copies, etc. Even here at work we stress to people over and over to save things to the network drive and not to their PC. Then I have a hard drive issue and I realize that I havnt taken my own advice. Or I've created a new folder and didnt add it to the weekly back up scan.
Ahh, ya live and learn