Hard Drive Recovery

[rayzoredge 2]

One of my friends dropped her Dell Inspiron 1501 and the computer now won't boot. On inspection, the computer takes a long time to finish POST, then displays that it's loading Broadcom drivers, Intel drivers, and then it displays: No OS detected. Check PXE ribbon [whatever... can't remember what it said]. So I restart, check out the BIOS, and it shows me that the computer isn't even seeing the hard drive. (I'm personally used to a computer telling me that it can't find bootable media in this case, but I guess newer computers, or just Dell, now tells you that an OS isn't being detected.)

 

So now comes the fun of trying to get this hard drive to work. I'm more used to the larger 3.5" hard drives that click, whirr, and actually vibrate when they are turned on. I'm not sure what 2.5" hard drives are like normally, but this thing didn't even do ANYTHING except get slightly warm when I put it into my SATA enclosure (meant for a 3.5", but it still fit, port-wise) and trying to access it via USB. (The infamous "USB Device Not Recognized" balloon came up every single time I turned it on and off and disconnected and reconnected the drive in the enclosure.)

 

On a separate but related note, I've dropped an external 3.5" hard drive in the past from about five feet onto concrete and although it was exhibiting the USB Device Not Recognized balloon, sometimes it would actually read. (I would turn on the drive, and if it didn't work, turn it off, disconnect it, and do all that jazz to try it again.) The enclosure probably took most of the shock, but that kind of tells me that the laptop took most of the shock in the above case. (That laptop could not have dropped more than lap-height.) The drive I dropped was a Western Digital; this one I'm trying to recover is a Hitachi.

 

Now, I'm wondering, do we have any data recovery specialists here at Xisto? I've tried rapping it, tapping it, and now I'm in the process of freezing it (in a plastic bag, of course). Is there anything else that I could do that I can do in my power to get this drive running, short of opening up the drive itself and replacing parts that I don't have handy?

Edited April 2, 2008 by rayzoredge (see edit history)

[BuffaloHelp 24]

I have tried the freezing technique but it did not work for me. The hard drive I worked on failed due to the bad circuit board. After replacing the circuit board the drive was revived.But before the replacement, I tried every known-to-internet methods and the drive just would not be recognized by my computer. And before replacing the circuit board I ordered 1 bad drive and 2 good drives off of eBay. I tried the method of "transplanting" a disk plate from a bad drive to one of good, identical drive. The process was successful. The basic idea was to replace all parts that were questionable--sector arms, damaged motors and other movable parts to operate a hard drive--and place in a drive that was "known" to be operational. If you search enough, there are clues to how to make your own Class 100 Clean Room to perform your transplantation. This transplantation is to retrieve data one time; it is not meant to fix the drive so that you can salvage it. So have your data retrieving machine near by in standby.PS, the reason I purchase 3 drives--1 to transplant to another, and 3rd to practice initially to find out how to take the drive apart without damaging anything. It was used to map out screws and process of taking it apart.

[rayzoredge 2]

I'm thinking about just dropping it again just to see if whatever might have dislocated itself might jar itself back into place. If she dropped the laptop, that's the only thing that could be wrong with it: a mechanical failure. I'm just giving the freezing technique a try before I even attempt opening up the hard drive... and that's if we even go that route.I just read a couple of articles on opening those suckers up and it's rather scary... is it as hair-raising as everyone's making it out to be, or was it a rather casual procedure? There was one where the person simply used Ziploc bag "platter-handling mitts," a Ziploc bag surface to hold parts, and a dining room table (with a ceiling fan to blow dust onto the platters... )... and it worked!

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

This is gonna sound stupid I know but, did you try opening the case to make sure everything is tight? You did say it had been dropped. I know once I knocked over my HP and that happed. felt like a fool when I took it into the shop and was charged $75. just to open the case and plug up the CD rom and modem.

[rvalkass 5]

Obviously you don't actually need any of this info as I'm sure regular backups were being taken and stored securely on some external media, just like you're supposed to You can then of course take all the info off of your friend's backups and copy them to a new hard drive.The fact it heats up means it is getting power, but if it makes no noise at all then something is wrong. No matter how silent a drive claims to be, it will make a noise if it has moving parts. No noise means those parts aren't moving. Dropping it will have shaken something loose, so it might be as simple as reconnecting a wire or two and it will work. Then again, dropping it may have severely scratched the platters, damaged the read/write arm and the motor.Opening them up is not 'scary' really, but you do need to take extreme care. Also, be careful of any magnets you find Take Buffalo's advice and look for tutorials on the 'net for how to make your own mini sort of clean room if the data is incredibly precious. You should then be able to get the drive just about running and copy what you need to a new drive. If you don't feel confident doing the work yourself then ask around at any nearby PC shops or data recovery firms for a quote to get the data off.Also, remind your friend of the importance of backing their data up You never know when this sort of thing might happen, and it is a lot less hassle, and less expensive, if you can just buy a new drive and copy all your data from those DVDs or an external hard drive you regularly make a backup to.

[shadowx 0]

one problem could be that the arm that reads the disk was shocked by the fall and scratched the disk or some other way damaged it, in which case it would probably only be possible for an expert to recover it with a hive of machines and devices, if that's the case try your local PC repair service.The other thing is just the shock of the dropping while spinning has warped the disk or something, i remember knocking my XBOX over with a disk running it made a horrible whirring scratching grinding noise and the disk was engraved with a perfect ring where it had flexed while spinning due to the centrifugal force (like trying to flip a gyroscope) and got scratched bad. I also dont know what the effects of dropping a magnetic device are, i know hitting magnets reduces their power so perhaps the shock has somehow taken some of the magnetism away and ruined the data. If you didnt want the data i would suggest trying to format or otherwise erase the disk and seeing if it's some sort of problem with the drive's "identity" rather than a hardware failure. Try it on your working motherboard and see if you can feel it/hear it spinning or anything, 2.5s are quiet (ive taken one out my old laptop and i know how hard it is to tell its working) but you should be able to feel something and if you feel nothing at all it could be a circuit board failure like Buffalo said, in which case have fun with your little mechano puzzle!Let us know what works if anything for future reference!

[rayzoredge 2]

As far as data goes, it's just her pictures of her kids that she wants to keep.

And yes, the golden rule of data is to back it up. Of course, I got the "I didn't have any reason or need to back it up." My argument? Lesson learned.

One thing I'm sort of iffy on too is that I just called up Dell to have them replace the drive. They're sending a new one in and requested that we send them back the old one, so as much as I want to open it up to give it a try at swapping platters/parts, they will know I tampered with it, because I believe one of the screws will be underneath a silver foil sticker that's tamper-evident. Any chance that they'll even check it? A half of me says yes, but the other half says no, since it's such a large company and they probably wouldn't give two craps about the state of the hard drive anyway.

I just tried it again after at least 6 hours of freezing and it didn't work, so I'm trying it one more time tonight when I get back... which would mean at least 8 hours of freezing time. (It shouldn't matter since I believe it's a mechanical failure, but hell, might as well, right?) I've rapped it a couple more times to see if it would get something to work, but it's still giving me the ticks of death.

To make use of a double-post... (thank goodness for Full Edit of posts)

What do people with experience recommend as far as swapping parts in the comforts of your own home? Since, obviously, I don't have a dedicated clean room, is it feasible to have a room with no air disturbance and work with latex gloves?

When opening up the hard drive, I have read about it being vacuumed so that opening it "ruins" the drive. I'm not sure what this means exactly... does it just mean the endurance of the drive? (I'm sure the only reason why anyone would be opening it after it has been built is to commence data recovery without any intention of saving the drive itself for extended usage.)

Will the parts for the same series of hard drive fit each other interchangeably, or do they have to be completely identical? Does an 80GB HD's logic board and mechanical parts differ from that of a 160GB HD from the same model, brand, and series?

Notice from jlhaslip:

Merged Topic
Board Rules
Xisto Readme

[BuffaloHelp 24]

If you're attempting this frankenstein experiment, know that whatever you do to prevent dust from attracting you will have dust that is unfit for a hard drive to function. Thus I mentioned the transplantation process is to read data only once. I would strongly suggest getting the identical working drive for recovery attempt. Remember, all you're doing is getting the platter from your dead drive to a working drive. So you may be faced with moving only few parts.However, if Dell is trying to swap out your drive for warranty coverage I would urge suggestion of "do not touch." They, Dell, can come back with an excuse of 'well, your drive is not covered by our warranty because you tempered with the drive.'Recovery services start at a minimum of $1000 and can cost up to $5000. And they do not guarantee 100% recovery. They consider 70% recovery to be acceptable. I know this because I sent a server drive out once and got nothing but gibberish files. I still had to pay $2700 just for the "attempt" on their part. And it was because my drive was SCSI and not IDE. Imagine what SATA would cost...? I will withheld the name of the company who raped me :lol:You can build a portable clean room (4 plexi walls with 1 air in and 1 air out, two holes big enough to let my arms through a pair of gloves. Imagine a sand blasting chamber with clear top, 2 sides and front walls.) like I have with some clever mods. But even at best it still cost me well over $200 to build one. Well, in my case it was useful since the word got out that I was recovering hard drive information and few people have approached me for quick cash jobs.Later I found out that my local hardware tool shop sold very nice sand blasting chamber for $70!!! Well, mine looks better anyway But with that chamber you can feed one air intake and one air outtake. Fit both air intakes with nice HEPA filter and you got yourself a portable, somewhat, clean room. You can use Dry/Wet vac to push air in and regular vacuum clear to such air out. Place HEPA filter closer, if not inside, to the chamber outlets. Place very bright light in or above the working area and that should do it. Why do you need air to circulate, you may ask? I don't know. But the idea is to prevent dust introduced to inside the chamber from settling down at any surface. Because, you'll be loading objects in and out by opening the cover/door. If you can spare some money to fit filtered air blaster gun that would be nice. You can "hose down" objects as they enter the chamber for even further cleaning process.I don't have any plans or drawings but maybe this would be a good time to make one.

[rayzoredge 2]

Since I'm planning on returning this to Dell, I've opted out of actually opening the sucker up.I've, so far tested in a SATA external enclosure connected to my computer via USB, have simply connected with no luck (or sound from the hard drive); tapped it and no sound; rapped it and no sound; froze it for an hour in a ziploc back and no sound; rapped it some more (and harder), with no sound; stuck it in the freezer for over 6 hours and tried, but no sound; stuck it in the freezer for over 8 hours but no sound; as it was still cold I rapped it hard with my knuckle, and there was ticking, GRINDING, and clacking, but no result; I then dropped it on purpose onto a wooden surface, and the ticking, grinding, and clacking continued; I rapped it with my knuckle and banged it on one side on my desk, and Windows recognized a Hitachi drive with a SATA bridge, but then it failed to recognize a device; I banged it some more, this time on the other side of the drive, and nothing; I banged it all over on my wooden desk, and IT SEEMED TO WORK, but only recognized two partitions on the drive, and acted as though you could access it but everything was horrifically slow, then nothing; then I've been banging it around for some time and I've gotten that same result once more before an hour later of banging I got the "clicks of death." I haven't been able to change the "clicks of death" with any amount of additional banging or knuckle-rapping.The good thing is that the hard drive itself doesn't look tampered with. The bad thing is that I'm still data-less.Should I try to freeze it again? Is there anything else that I can try that's non-intrusive?

[jessica8864 0]

Try http://www.diskemergency.com/ where you recover your data easily. You just submit your problem online and get the job done in short time.