Dead hard drive

[dannybgoode]

Hi All

We have a Dell optiplex SX260 at work which seems to have died. Its been working ok for the last few months but it blue screen'd every 2-3 days so we've ending up swapping it out.

There's some data on the drive though that we need but since we moved it, it won't boot. We've run the POST test and its coming up that the drive has failed giving a fail return code 7.

I've seen that this seems to be a common problem with Dells' that have Maxtor drives but this is a Hitachi drive.

Is this a fatal problem or will we be able to slave the drive and get to the data.

Any help woulds be appreciated.

Thanks

Danny B

[joshwa]

You should be able to put the drive in a USB caddy and view it through another PC. Probably better doing it this way rather than trying to boot from it anyway

[CaptainCrash]

It really depends on how valuable the data is - you obviously don't have a backup (or there wouldn't be a problem), so maybe it's not actually that critical. If it is, though, it could be worth simply handing it over to a data recovery specialist, who will have the tools and necessary skills to do a proper job.

Needless to say this won't come cheap, but a company could presumably swallow the cost more easily than a private individual. If you do go down this route, the less you mess around with it yourselves, the easier (and therefore cheaper) the recovery is likely to be.

[peterb]

If the drive isn't physically damaged, it is worth trying it as a slave or in a USB caddy. If it is damaged, running it increases the risk of further damage (although as it has been operated with some fault showing, that probably isn't an issue.)

If it won't mount as a USB device, then the internal (to the drive) controller may be damaged, or depending on the drive, the drive's firmware may be corrupted, or the file system on the disk may be damaged. While diy data recovery is possible under some of those scenarios, a data recovery firm may be the better option.

From my own experiences (although I have never had to actually use one) most start quoting at £250 - £350 upwards, with a no-fix - no-fee basis. The actual costs depends on the amount of data and the amount of work involved.

[tsj]

Yeah get an external caddy or install the drive as a secondary drive... you can then access the content and backup what you need