Dead HardDrive, Please RES!

Heyas

My Maxtor 120GB harddrive has just died on me.
It seems that it simply stopped spinning, BIOS doesnt detect it at all.

Unfortunately a lot of my personal data was left inside that drive.
Anyone knows how I could recover it?

Yours Truly
K

If you are sure it's not spinning, you've probably got little choice but to spend your monies and give it to a data recovery firm.

As with most Maxtors though, assuming it has *just* died on you before making that post, let it cool for a few hours, set it as a slave drive in another system (or install another HDD in your current one as a master with a new OS installation), and try copying things off it in small chunks (start off with 500mb to 1gb max at a time I'd say), starting with the most important data, and if it starts failing again, switch it off again, letting it cool for another couple of hours. It usually works with Maxtors. If it still isn't recognised after a couple of hours, you're back to square 1 though.

Yeah... tried that... Left it one week off hoping it would work when I returned home.

It went dead on me when i finished sorting through all my personal files just before leaving on holidays... went completly stressed out!!!

Thing is in portugal they said they could fix it (in principle) for 114 euros. Here the cheapest data recovery is for 900 quid.... Worst is that the place hasnt answered my emails for overseas repairs.

It according to my googling it seems that the controller of the hd has died. There is also a possibility of it being caused by mechanical malfunction but since there arent any sounds coming from it its doubtful.
Im considering personaly changing the controller but that will mean that 905% change of ending up with two dead drives (the currently dead one and the one who's controller im going to use).

Anyone else has any ideas? anything would work...

Some people recomend cooling dead hard drives in a domestic freezer. (Wraped in a plasic bag to protect it from condensation). I have never tried it myself, but it it is truly dead then I guess it can't hurt.

Also it might not be spinning up due to mecanical sitction. If that is the case you may get it to start by powering it up and then giving it a twist.

In any case, you should order the replacement and set it up with windows etc, as you may only get one chance to copy your data off. Definately don't try booting from it again.

Depends on the value of the data and what is wrong... IF it is the electronics on the drive, you might find a company that can replace or substitute them and read the dat off for you. If the drive is really dead, then the data can still be recovered by a specialist (they dismantle the drive in a clean room and remount the platters - thats why it is so expensive)

The freezer trick can work if the bearings on the platter or the head actuator have seized up - I suspect because everything contracts and frees it for a short time. Worth a try, but male sure the drive is placed in an antistatic bag and then sealed in a plastic bag first! As the previous poster said, make sure you have a computer all set up and ready to go for when you take the duff drive out and connect it as a slave as it may be the one opportunity you get. Good luck.

if the drive suddenly stopped working, its doubtful that the headers would just seize up whilst the motor was still spinning.

my samsung spinpoint just died on me last week, losing lots of personal stuff with it.
My new hard drives are in (also spinpoints) but im setting up a raid 1 array, so i have some data security.

i'd suggest when u get the money to buy an identical hard drive. if the disk isn't pulling any power at all, the circuitry could have failed, thats what i think happened to my spinpoint. Take the identical hard drive apart and disconnect the circuitry. The motor is connected to the board by a thin-ribbon, so the platters remain untouched. now, open up the dead hdd and swap the circuitry for the new one and see if it pulls any power then. if it doesn't work just put the new circuit back into the new drive and put it back together and voila, new harddrive. If it does work then voila, personal data recovered.

:)

Yeah... this is what im thinking about... though that will be last chance only...

I might just post the drive to portugal, have it repaired there for 114 euros and then shipped back to me. My mates back there better handle it.

Though, its a bit unsettling the fact that i could so easilly find someplace who does the job in portugal (they have shops in every major shopping center) and here I cant get anywhere to do it.