Hard drive failure

[ethan]

My samsung SATA hard drive has just died, cannot boot to windows with a message on the screen that says hard drive BAD, replace and restart. I'll be getting a new hard drive but was wondering what would be the best way to try and recover the data on it.

I'll set it as a slave and hope I can just copy the data, but if that fails, what other ways are there?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

[TAKTAK]

you could try the freezing trick...

where by you put the HDD in an airtight bag and then put it in the freezer for 24hours or so, and then it sometimes allows you to recover the data (sometimes allowing upto ~15mins+ of running time)

IIRC it supposedly works by cooling (well dur) the internal drive mechanism and allowing to free itself if it has become stuck or some such...

obv tis touch and go as to whether it works or not...

but i'm sure googling 'freeze hard drive' will give you plenty of results

either that, or whack a different drive in (with the current one still in) and boot from a Linux LiveCD and see if you can rescue the files...

[ethan]

Hmmm, I will look into the freezing method you mentioned. Thanks for that.

[inonefly]

have u tried install it to another pc and use easyrecover software?

[staffsMike]

Best to try inonefly's method before TAK TAK's lol

The freezing method might work though, most people seem to have some success with it.

[peterb]

Depends on the failure mode. If it is a head crash or drive electronics failure, you are looking at expensive professional recovery.

If it is file system corruption, then you are either faced with a long and tedious recovery yourself, or a slightly less expensive professional recovery.

Certainly trying it as a slave (or a linux live CD is worth it (except that if it has suffered a head crash, that will make it worse)

It might also be worth trying the mfrs diagnostic program (I think it boots from CD or floppy) and see what that says.

If that all fails, then the freezer trick is the method of last resort - most likely to work if it is a seized bearing.

[ethan]

Thanks for your tips guys much appreciated. I have ordered a new hard drive and once I get that installed I'll setup the faulty drive as a slave and see if I can get anywhere with that. The data I want to recover luckily isn't that vital as I have the most important stuff backed up on DVDs.

Thanks again chaps.