Another chuffing Maxtor dead..need help recovering stuff from it

[Clunk]

I have another Maxtor 160gb SATA drive that has finally decided to die, ironically, I had taken the drive out of the case, to put it in an external caddy as a spare backup drive...I was just about to drag all the stuff off it and it died.

I am guessing that this is a power issue as the pc refuses to even post it is connected (was only a storage drive), and when i first reconnected it, the psu went into protected mode, I can recreate this with this hard drive, so it isnt the psu or anything else.

The pc doesnt recognise that the drive is connected at all, not even in the bios, but i can feel it trying to work i hold on to it.

I was wondering what the best way of recovering my data from this drive is? Is it possible to buy a cheapo but working drive of the same model and just swap bits over, or what?

any ideas, or pointers would be appreciated ta

[g8ina]

Look for Odie Ferrious in uk.adverts.computer - Duncan Clarke for real, he runs Retrodata for HDD recovery. If all else fails, he can work wonders.

[Craig321]

Hi,

Have you checked a letter is assigned to the drive? If no letter is assigned then it will not be recognised.

[Clunk]

Look for Odie Ferrious in uk.adverts.computer - Duncan Clarke for real, he runs Retrodata for HDD recovery. If all else fails, he can work wonders.

Thanks, Ill have a look, Ill bet that isnt cheap though!

Hi,

Have you checked a letter is assigned to the drive? If no letter is assigned then it will not be recognised.

Thanks, but Im not sure how not having a drive letter would cause the psu to shut down

[WhoCares]

Sometimes you can get hdd to work again if you put them in the fridge for a couple of hours, obviously in a static bag. It only works for a small while, but sometimes enough to take data off the drive.

Hope it helps

[Clunk]

Sometimes you can get hdd to work again if you put them in the fridge for a couple of hours, obviously in a static bag. It only works for a small while, but sometimes enough to take data off the drive.

Hope it helps

Thanks, will try that, i think im going to try and locate a used one and do a transplant first

[bobby18121]

the hard drive maybe taking in to much power or your psu is not supplying enough power, but you hard drive's readers and headers maybe broken like one of mine i lost 40 gb of data and another 8 gb wont even power up.

[Clunk]

on the pcb, there is a small perfectly square chip, and it is really really hot, too hot to keep my finger on, and all the others are cold, so im guessing that this is the culprit.

[colinloves]

of course, there is software out there that can recover stuff thats been deleted from years back. But PC must recognize the drive for the software to work.

[chuckskull]

Sounds like it's fried, bad wiring in the external caddy or static most likely, the short is killing your PSU. I doubt you'll be able to get anything back without a professional as you have no one to to boot with it in.

Though if this is the problem it'll be an easy recovery if you're willing to spend the money.

[dave87]

I think Clunk is suggesting using the pcb from a living drive (or one thats had crashed heads, but the chip still works) and recovering that way?

If so I know some people have had luck doing it, just need to find a drive from (ideally) the same batch, but any from the same revision should be sufficient

Dave

[ukengineer]

get the same type of maxtor drive, doesnt even have to be the same size, and swap the controller cards over, if its sata or pata, you can use either of these too to get her running again. good luck.

[Clunk]

Sounds like it's fried, bad wiring in the external caddy or static most likely, the short is killing your PSU. I doubt you'll be able to get anything back without a professional as you have no one to to boot with it in.

Though if this is the problem it'll be an easy recovery if you're willing to spend the money.

It didnt get as far as a caddy mate, just tried connecting via a straight modular wire from psu and sata cable.

I think Clunk is suggesting using the pcb from a living drive (or one thats had crashed heads, but the chip still works) and recovering that way?

If so I know some people have had luck doing it, just need to find a drive from (ideally) the same batch, but any from the same revision should be sufficient

Dave

Yep, thats exactly what i am intending to do

get the same type of maxtor drive, doesnt even have to be the same size, and swap the controller cards over, if its sata or pata, you can use either of these too to get her running again. good luck.

I was just going to ask about this. A mate of mine has a similar age 80 gig ide that im going to try. SO, the controller card doesnt influence the platters in any way as far as the pc identifying it is concerned then?

[DragonStar]

So, this got me thinking, would this work on my 2.5" drive, a 100GB external one died on me a few months ago, i tried various things to get the data back but none of it worked. I had another spare drive so i thought what the hell worth a try, they were both from fujitsu, but the other one was only 20GB, was made a year earlier, was 4200 instead of 5400, and the PCB was a different color, but thought i'd try it anyway as i might lose a 20GB drive, but on the other hand i might gain back a 100GB drive, so removed all the screw from both pcbs and found out that it was a VERY simple swap operation, replaced just 3 screws to test it, and it made different whirring noises, but ultimately it didnt work, so i switched them back over and replaced 3 screws, this time the 20GB drive wouldnt works, windows made 2 found hardwares noises right after each other but that was all and the light went red, bo***cks i thought, i'd killed both of them, i decided to stick all the screws back in anyway, tried it again and it came back on "phew, crisis averted", tried the 100GB drive same noises, replaced all the screws and... WTF... "Found new hardware... your hardware is installed and ready to use", checked my computer and theres the 100GB disk, double click on it and it tells me the disk isnt formatted do i want to format it now...

now of course im wondering if the drive is gonna just die again.. And id like to get the data back if i can..