[crazyface]

Hi!

Well, I can google the terms easily enough, but I don't think it seems a smart idea to just ship my HDD off to someone just because they happen to be amongst the first results on Google's page!

Has anyone else out there had experience with these sorts of companies? How can I be certain to pick a responsible one?

Additionally, can anyone who has suffered a problem like this before please give me some idea of the costs I will incur?

My HDD was working flawlessly for months, then one day the BIOS failed to detect it. I've switched it around to different ports, different cables, all that, and the computer's BIOS spends quite a lot of time trying to find it - but after a few minutes it gives up and moves on.

Ironically, this was my newest drive, and I was using it as the backup for my other drives, which I expected to fail. Unfortunately I also began cleaning them out once the files were transferred, so now my failed HDD has lots of stuff that I have no other access to!

Thankfully this sounds like an electronic problem, rather than a mechanical one, since there's been no grinding, no odd noises, and the failure happened all at once between reboots. The drive has always been super quiet and neither before nor now can I detect it audibly spinning up - but it does get quite hot when I leave it plugged in, probably a clue to its fatal failing.

 

[cerbie]

Costs all depend. If it is just electrical, and a compatible PCB can be hooked up, that may do the trick. Without third party reviews, I'm not sure how to rate companies that are largely dedicated to this kind of work.

Having done some data recovery here and there, it's not always a science, and sometimes things are too far gone. But, if it's not even spinning, there is more hope than could otherwise be the case. "swish swish" is very bad, FI

.

If it's new enough that you can still buy the same exact model drive, maybe see if you can do it yourself w/ a PCB swap. Then, failing that, send it somewhere (hey, you end up with a new backup drive, still, unless you're super clumsy).

Beyond that, I feel your pain. You know not to get bitten, you do your diligence in backing up, and then mere days before you might have sync'd everything up again--BAM. I can be high and mighty when somebody loses their data due to trusting cheap moving parts too much, but sometimes **** just happens.

Finally, though, it's not ironic that it would be the newest drive. Most failures geneally occur within the first few months, or the drive lasts several years (in some cases, like 'Cuda III and IV, and Bigfoots, 10+).

 

[GreatBug]

if it shows any signs of life, I've heard that SpinRite can perform miracles.

 

[ericj]

actual data recovery service typically costs a few thousand dollars, fwiw.

 

[crazyface]

Well I'm almost certain that the drive has sustained no physical or mechanical damage, so I really doubt it will cost me thousands of dollars - unless I continue to have no luck getting closer to figuring out how to pick a recovery service!
There really don't seem to be any forums about it, discussions about different service providers, reviews, etc. It's crazy! So all I can hope to do is find someone who has had a problem similar to mine and see who they went with and what happened.

I don't know where to ask!

 

[geetarman49]

If u have 2 resort to using a professional data recovery service, then it may well cost u $$$$.... however, i would recommend that u get in touch with the drive manufacturer's technical support. Since it may take 48 - 72 hrs before they can respond, depending upon how busy they are, to expedite matters make sure that u include ALL relevant info incl. but not necessarily limited to: make/build pc, OS/v#, ram, pwr supply info, mobo & rev#, BIOS rev#, model, rev#, sr# of affected drive. Also make sure to inform them that u have valuable data that needs to be recovered.

If u want to diy, then i suggest moving the affected drive to another pc and using a boot environment such as UBCD4Win and then running any of a number of included disk/file utilities. Personally i would not attempt to use spinrite unless i had a backup of the data in question (no disr. to Steve Gibson).

Lastly, u might try to get opinions/assistance from either MajorGeeks hardware forum, WildersSecurity hardware forum or the ncix forum - obviously u would have 2 join.

FWIW, my guess is that the drive's MBR is botched.

hth,
don

 

[KONAKONA]

Keeping an eye on this thread, my friend has a few hard drives that got foobar'd and got a case of the clicks now. D:

Might tell him about the manufacture bit...

 

[geetarman49]

steve gibson has documented cases of the clicks on his website ... as a last resort, i would recommend using spinrite. But, if the data weren't all that important to me, then i would recommend the drive manufacturer's low-level format utility or 'restore to factory default' utility ... u would lose the data but likely gain back a fully operational drive. I have also successfully resurrected malfunctioning drives using dBan to zero out the drive. Then do a FULL format when reinstalling the OS ... for a large drive, this process can take the greater part of a day.

don

 

[geetarman49]

forgot to mention that dBan is a free, bootable utility for wiping drives.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

I'm going to guess that it's a Seagate drive?

 

[crazyface]

Yes, it's a SeaGate.

It's WD for me from now on!!!

But none of these boot environments/programs can help if the BIOS cannot detect the drive, correct? That's my problem - the BIOS strains to detect it, it sits there trying, but ultimately it gives up and moves on.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Is it a 7200.11 series ? I have one that did the same exact thing...it's stuck in busy mode and can't be detected by the mobo bios during boot up/post.

Check out this link I found for the fix...it's a daunting task but it works for these drives. I still need to get the 20 bucks worth of parts to try it on mine.

The Solution for Seagate 7200.11 HDDs - MSFN Forums

Peete.

 

[DocHamm]

I've worked for several companies that have used Ontrack Data Recovery with good success, but it doesn't come cheap.

 

[crazyface]

My 7200.11 is OEM, not retail, so I'm not covered by any warranty and so they won't fix it for me.

Looks like I'll have to do this myself, or find a HDD Recovery service to do it for me... But in any case, thanks so much for showing me the problem!

 

[vegaman]

Prickley Peete's link looks like a good bet, and unless the data is incredibly important, you're going to be better off trying to recover it yourself because of the cost.

geetarman49: while those suggestions may help in some cases, the bios can't even detect the drive so they won't work in this case.