[tyrion]

I dropped my 250gb LaCie external usb hard drive and all it does is click when I connect it. The computer doesn't show the drive as connected. I have a data recovery service that quoted me $995 (flat fee if data is recovered). If there is anyone out there that has any expertise that is willing to help, let me know. I am willing to pay.

I've received some good suggestions from some who read about the problem in my for sale ad for my portable rig. One was to buy the identical drive and put the platters from the bad drive into the new drive. Has anyone tried anything similar?

I have a lot of what is on the drive backed up on CDs but there is still a lot that I didn't backup yet that I need to recover.

Thanks!

 

[Nebby]

You can always try the freezer trick

-Open up the drive case and take out the drive.
-Put the drive into a ziploc bag, and throw it in the freezer for a few hours.
-Take the time while it's freezing to plan your attack; make sure there's enough space on your other hard drive to copy your data to, etc etc.
-Take it back out and hook it back up, and chances are you will get a hour or so of time to do what you need to do (depending on your luck, I've had some stay up and running for over a day after freezing, and some only stay up for 10minutes or less)
-If it doesn't stay up long enough, freeze it again but for a longer time and retry. Note that you don't have infinite retries, after a few times the drive WILL stop working.

I won't claim to even know how it works, but it just does. If you don't believe me, feel free to google "hard drive freezer trick"

 

[tyrion]

Thanks for the tip! I wonder if that would work where there is a mechanical issue from dropping the drive. I need to read some more to see if there is any risk to the data by freezing before giving it a try. If the data is safe, then it's worth a shot. I have to buy another drive to make the transfer.

 

[Wodgy]

Physical damage coupled with sounds from the hard drive mechanism usually points to the need for hardware recovery (swapping the platters with a good drive), but you shouldn't attempt to swap the platters yourself. Reputable data recovery companies will have a cleanroom to do this. Modern hard drives are very dense and dust can be a real problem.

Make sure whatever data recovery firm you choose is capable of doing physical recovery. Some places will just run software tools to try to recover the data. If there is real, physical damage, this will most likely make the problem worse.

If your data is valuable, don't try homebrew remedies. You can imagine a broken hard drive head dragging across a platter as it tries to spin up, causing more damage.

If you're not sure if the company you're dealing with is reputable, some of the major hard drive manufacturers now have their own data recovery operations, e.g.:
https://services.seagate.com/index.aspx
These are probably reasonable.

 

[tyrion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif If your data is valuable, don't try homebrew remedies. You can imagine a broken hard drive head dragging across a platter as it tries to spin up, causing more damage.

I tend to agree with you which is why I got the quote from a specialist about an hour away from me. This is a link to the company. They do use a clean room and do physical recovery. It's a $1000 but those pictures on the drive are easily worth that.

 

[Nebby]

Wodgy is right, if the data is valuable by all means use a data recovery company.

 

[braillediver]

Not my field expertise- the recovery of items lost in the water is and what I've learned is a pristine, un-trampled search area is the key to a successful recovery. If someone tells me they searched the area themselves it reduces the chance of me being able to find the item. The more they searched the area the less likely it’ll be I can find the item.

If you try to recover it yourself you might make it harder or impossible for professionals to recover the data.


Good Luck Mitch

 

[Icarium]

The freezing method is a decent enough homebrew solution for unimportant data, but if the data is valauble definitely go with a pro outfit. I think the idea behind the freezing thing is that if your harddrive is dying because platters are rubbing against each other the freezing will shrink the platters temporarily and allow you some access time. Of course each time it warms up and they start rubbing against each other more damage is caused and invariably the drive is foobarrr'ddd.

 

[tyrion]

I think that I might as well bite the bullet and go with a pro. Thanks for all the help.