Dead hard drive?

[Glyndo]

I installed a new heatsink yesterday, and everything was fine with it, although I did have to remove my motherboard to install the base for the heatsink. Reattached everything exactly how it was before, and started up...no hard drive. I've got three hard drives, so I tried using different USB ports on the motherboard, no difference; tried changing the USB leads and power leads, no difference.

I'm wondering whether there is any possibility of being able to get the data off the now defunct drive...I've got a lot of work on there that I don't have recent copies of and the Mrs isn't happy that we've lost all the holiday pictures either.

[blueball]

When you say USB do you mean SATA?

There was a thread about dead disks a couple of days ago, you can find it here

[Glyndo]

Yeah that's the one, it's a bit early for me right now!

Cheers for the link, I'll have a look in there now

[Behemoth]

Are the drives powering up at all ?

Also check to see if the SATA cables aren't damaged, try some spare ones if you have any.

[Glyndo]

The other two drives are working fine, and worked when I used the cables that were attached to the dead drive. I've bought a new drive and connected that using the cables and it's been working fine.

I've also bought new cables and am gonna try them on the dead drive, just in case.

[Behemoth]

Hmmm does sound like a failed drive then, not much can be done there sadly.

[Glyndo]

I'm inclined to agree; just tried now and nothing. Tried with just that one drive connected and it wasn't detected in the BIOS. It was making some funny clicking and buzzing sounds too.

Half-tempted to try the freezer trick, just in case. But it's only pictures and some work, a few savegames too; nothing really important.

But don't let Mrs G find out I said that!

[Behemoth]

Well then, like you say, not the end of the world.

[vti_786]

what is the freezer trick if i may ask?

[Glyndo]

what is the freezer trick if i may ask?

My understanding of it is that you put the hard drive in the freezer for a length of time, suitably covered to prevent condensation forming on the actual drive.

Apparently, this has worked in the past, allowing people to use their drive for long enough to recover data from it. It's either that or I throw the drive in the bin, so I may as well try it before binning it.

[Behemoth]

I've only never known this trick work once, and that was before the drive failed totally. I suspect the controller board on this drive has gone hence why its not working, at all. Any amount of freezing it won't bring this one back from the dead.

[vinnyT]

I've uesed the freezer trick 3 times, it worked twice though only for a short period, just enough time to get my clients data off. I believe that the third drives problem was related to the controller pcb so the only option would have been to obtain an identical drive and swap the pcb,s, too much hassle and not worth the expense.

[Behemoth]

One of my mates went to all the trouble of getting a controller board for one of his laptop hard drives even after I told him he was wasting his time as the drive actuators had failed and not the controller board, didn't stop him wasting £60 though !