Hard Drive Recovery

[PsyOps]

I have a secondary hard drive (not running my OS) that has some important stuff on it that is inop. The read arm just bounces back and forth and the computer will not detect it or read it. Does anyone know of a hard drive recovery service that would help me recover the files on this thing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

How much are you willing to spend?

 

[Chuckt]

I have a secondary hard drive (not running my OS) that has some important stuff on it that is inop. The read arm just bounces back and forth and the computer will not detect it or read it. Does anyone know of a hard drive recovery service that would help me recover the files on this thing?

Thanks in advance.

Are you sure it is the hard drive and not the controller? I've read stories that some people have recovered the BIOS on their hard drive with a bus pirate.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/2013/03/15/fixed-the-seagate-7200-11-hard-drive-with-the-bus-pirate/

The second thing is that I've also read about people replacing the chips on their hard drive using surface mount replacement components.

Talk to some electronic gurus.

The third piece of advice is to develop a more sophisticated backup plan.

 

[Chuckt]

Just wanted to mention that I use to fix hard drives by taking a circuit board off a know good hard drive (has to be the same brand and model number) and replacing it with the defective hard drive. Often the circuit board will crash due to ESD etc. The motor and platters I find are still in great shape.

ESD means electrical static discharge.

http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/141613/hdd-crash-hard-lesson-to-swallow

I hope I might point you in the right direction but you are responsible for your damaged hard drive.

 

[Chuckt]

http://forum.hddguru.com/

They might be able to help you more than I ever could but talk to them for a while before you decide a course of action.

 

[PsyOps]

How much are you willing to spend?

Tough question considering I'm also looking at buying a new computer. I guess not much. I've some recovery services can go into the thousands. Definitely not doing that. Most of the files I'm trying to recover are my music files. Not audio, but files used to load into my recording software (Cubase). All the song data I've done over the past few years are essentially gone. Like an idiot I didn't back the stuff up.

 

[PsyOps]

Are you sure it is the hard drive and not the controller? I've read stories that some people have recovered the BIOS on their hard drive with a bus pirate.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/2013/03/15/fixed-the-seagate-7200-11-hard-drive-with-the-bus-pirate/

The second thing is that I've also read about people replacing the chips on their hard drive using surface mount replacement components.

Talk to some electronic gurus.

The third piece of advice is to develop a more sophisticated backup plan.

Given the PC won't even detect the hard drive, I'm thinking it's failed. I haven't done too much troubleshooting. I have some other computers I plan on throwing it on to see if it's something motherboard or driver or what. But given how the hard drive is behaving it seems it's that piece of hardware.

 

[PsyOps]

ESD means electrical static discharge.

http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/141613/hdd-crash-hard-lesson-to-swallow

I hope I might point you in the right direction but you are responsible for your damaged hard drive.

I'm fully aware that my own equipment is my own responsibility.

Thanks for the info.

 

[GURPS]

The second thing is that I've also read about people replacing the chips on their hard drive using surface mount replacement components.

Talk to some electronic gurus.

it is easier to fine a like drive in Ebay with the same revision, and swap the PCB

 

[GURPS]

Given the PC won't even detect the hard drive, I'm thinking it's failed.

try a different computer ....


as far as backs ups .... if you have Prime, Hotmail, Apple device there is icloud, Google Drive

 

[PsyOps]

try a different computer ....


as far as backs ups .... if you have Prime, Hotmail, Apple device there is icloud, Google Drive

I'm having a hard time trusting these cloud site to back up my stuff. You're putting a lot of personal sensitive information (copyright information in my case) in the hands of people you don't even know.

 

[GURPS]

I'm having a hard time trusting these cloud site to back up my stuff. You're putting a lot of personal sensitive information (copyright information in my case) in the hands of people you don't even know.

understood ....

hard drives are cheap ... especially of you only use a 1 tb pocket drive or a 2 Tb full size drive


have an online storage drive .....

have an off line you fire up every 3 months backup drive
have an off line you fire up every 6 months backup drive
have an off line you fire up every 12 months backup drive


replace every 2-3 yrs ... I just had a WD Green Drive 2 tb start to fail
... I ran it another 2 days pulling files off, shut it down ordered a replacement 4 tb

the drive had 150,000 hours of 24x7 run time the only time I shut my computer down is when the lights go out, or a once a yeah cleaning

 

[PsyOps]

understood ....

hard drives are cheap ... especially of you only use a 1 tb pocket drive or a 2 Tb full size drive


have an online storage drive .....

have an off line you fire up every 3 months backup drive
have an off line you fire up every 6 months backup drive
have an off line you fire up every 12 months backup drive


replace every 2-3 yrs ... I just had a WD Green Drive 2 tb start to fail
... I ran it another 2 days pulling files off, shut it down ordered a replacement 4 tb

the drive had 150,000 hours of 24x7 run time the only time I shut my computer down is when the lights go out, or a once a yeah cleaning

geek

Thanks for the info

 

[LibertyBeacon]

I'm having a hard time trusting these cloud site to back up my stuff. You're putting a lot of personal sensitive information (copyright information in my case) in the hands of people you don't even know.

That's what encryption is for.

 

[Bann]

geek

After you figure this part out - why don't you use an online storage company like Carbonite which charges you a fee for the year? They used to advertise on Rush Limbaugh's show and he uses them. I'm sure they're reputable and have been around awhile.

 

[PsyOps]

After you figure this part out - why don't you use an online storage company like Carbonite which charges you a fee for the year? They used to advertise on Rush Limbaugh's show and he uses them. I'm sure they're reputable and have been around awhile.

As I mentioned to GURPS, I'm having trouble getting past trusting these sites with my info. But I'm going to have to do something other than what I am currently doing. I can't go through this again. I think Rush is now advertising a different company now. I'll have to pay attention next time I listen to him.

 

[PsyOps]

That's what encryption is for.

Once you send it off them these storage companies you really have no real certainty about how it's stored. Granted they don't stay in business if they don't protect your data, but I still have little trust in this sort of thing. The people working for these companies are still people. I think of Snowden when considering these things.

 

[GURPS]

Once you send it off them these storage companies you really have no real certainty about how it's stored. Granted they don't stay in business if they don't protect your data, but I still have little trust in this sort of thing. The people working for these companies are still people. I think of Snowden when considering these things.

is your computer connected to the internet ?

 

[LibertyBeacon]

Once you send it off them these storage companies you really have no real certainty about how it's stored. Granted they don't stay in business if they don't protect your data, but I still have little trust in this sort of thing. The people working for these companies are still people. I think of Snowden when considering these things.

If your data are encrypted with good, strong encryption it really doesn't matter how it is stored -- unless outright data loss is what you are concerned about. There's nothing wrong with being skeptical when it comes to our most precious data, but really encryption is a good thing. The Snowden case doesn't really have applicability here -- he didn't "break" any encryption, did he? I'm pretty sure as a sys admin (or analyst or whatever his "job" was) with elevated privileges, he had (ostensibly) legitimate access to the data he dumped.

I encrypt my stuff and just put it out on bit torrent. I pay for longer-term more permanent storage because torrents probably won't last forever, but for day-to-day needs torrents are just fine.

 

[PsyOps]

If your data are encrypted with good, strong encryption it really doesn't matter how it is stored -- unless outright data loss is what you are concerned about. There's nothing wrong with being skeptical when it comes to our most precious data, but really encryption is a good thing. The Snowden case doesn't really have applicability here -- he didn't "break" any encryption, did he? I'm pretty sure as a sys admin (or analyst or whatever his "job" was) with elevated privileges, he had (ostensibly) legitimate access to the data he dumped.

I encrypt my stuff and just put it out on bit torrent. I pay for longer-term more permanent storage because torrents probably won't last forever, but for day-to-day needs torrents are just fine.

Well, I'll definitely be checking into some cloud storage once I get this situation fixed. Thanks