hard drive recovery?

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CaptTrev

NAXJA Forum User
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Long Island
Does anyone know if its possible to recover files from a hard drive that no longer spins up?

its a 2002 western digital 120GIG IDE

are there are companies that specialize in anything like this?

please help!
 
You can try a couple of things first, generally they freeze when they have been run for a long time and the bronze spindle bearing caps wear, then when you shut them down they cool off and won't spin up.
Put it in the toaster oven at around 200F for an hour or two then try it, if that does not work try the freezer for a couple of hours and give it another shot. Whichever works BE READY to do the copy or clone or ghost or whatever, generally you only get one or two shots at this. I'm running about 96% success ratio but some are just DEAD and you have to bite the bullet for a disassemble recovery.
 
Thanks for the info guys.

Rich - if the heat/freeze tricks dont do it---do i run the risk of killing the drive off completely?

if these dont work - be so kind as to tell me more about the disassemble recovery process (and costs etc)

thanks!

(turning the toaster on........)
 
well...the toaster trick worked...sort of

i got the drive very warm and plugged it into my external case....and tomy surprise it started to make noise and kind of spool up!

only thing was it started clicking and grinding....and i couldnt get my laptop to "see" it...like it never came online....

it is pretty much toast?

i am going to get a new HD from www.newegg.com

can you point me in the right direction to somewhere that can show me how to partition the new drive as well as install windows XP from scratch?

thanks!
 
clicking and grinding is a bad thing.

try the freezer, but it's likely that it's done.

installing windows is easy, as long as there are no special drivers needed.

Put windows XP disc in cd-rom, boot to that, follow the propmpts.
WIndows will partition and format the drive for you.

once it's to the desktop, install the manufacturers drivers.
 
thanks for the info.

when I install a new hard drive I also want to increase my memory from 1 GIG of RAm to 2 GIGs

I have 4 RIMMS of 256MB.

Do I need to fill all 4 slots?
for example: could i remove all 4 256s and install two 1GIG RIMMs?

or should I go with 4 512 cards?
 
CaptTrev said:
thanks for the info.

when I install a new hard drive I also want to increase my memory from 1 GIG of RAm to 2 GIGs

I have 4 RIMMS of 256MB.

Do I need to fill all 4 slots?
for example: could i remove all 4 256s and install two 1GIG RIMMs?

or should I go with 4 512 cards?
Click to expand...
RIMMS must be installed in pairs, matching the channels.

for what it costs to do 2 gigs of rambus you could just buy a new mainboard/cpu and ram. It's retarded expensive. You've already got a gig, I wouldn't drop that kind of cash on RAM that you'll never be able to use in another machine.

You wont have any problems with instaling windows if it's an IDE drive, just toss in the XP disc and go.

just too illustrate how absurd Rambus is:
512MB 184-pin PC1066 non-ECC RDRAM Rambus (p/n ALH)

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Price:$278.98
 
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Yea, rambus is a rip off, glad I steered away from it when it came out. It was retarded expensive then and it has not gotten any better.
What kind of computer do you have ? mainbrand or custom built ?
 
its a gateway. from 2002.

model 700XL. believe its a 3.2 GHz processor. P4.


it was one of the best gateways you could get in 2002 IIRC.

for around $100 I am going to throw a new 300 GIG HD in and reinstall windiows and be done with it I think.

sound like a good idea?
 
CaptTrev said:
its a gateway. from 2002.

model 700XL. believe its a 3.2 GHz processor. P4.


it was one of the best gateways you could get in 2002 IIRC.

for around $100 I am going to throw a new 300 GIG HD in and reinstall windiows and be done with it I think.

sound like a good idea?
Click to expand...

Yea, install the OS, then install the chipset drivers, should be on the support disc that GW packed in, that will bring up all the features. It is probably an intel board and if it has onboard video get the newest video drivers from www.intel.com, if it has an external agp or pci video card get the drivers from the video card manufacturers web site.
I *think* rambus is an intel 865 chipset but don't hold me to that. You can also go to gateways site, plug in the serial number and get the newer drivers from there [provided you have a working PC to do this with] whatever you do do NOT use the hardware drivers from microsoft update never never never..
 
thanks for all of the info Guys...

I'm ordering the 300 GB drive this afternoon...

I'll have to check into the seek times..

it is a 7200 RPM though...

www.newegg.com

excellent website
 
rambus was 865, with that stupid memory controller Intel had.

There were a few SIS Rambus chipsets, but I doubt the gateway has those.
They use primarily MSI boards, and MSI hasn't used SIS chipsets really widespread in the lineup.

Ilike seagate, and .10 is the latest revision.
 
CaptTrev said:
looks like a sweet HD...but 2 out of 3 reviews there say it failed on them in only a month or so!?

think that one is better than the western digital?

i havent ordered anything yet...........
Click to expand...

Not a WD fan, I stopped using them in production about 3 years ago.
On the OEM drives I have always had about a 10% failure rate no matter who I buy, wd, seagate, quantum, fujitsu, etc. so thats about 2-3 drives per case [OEM is no box, just a static bag, 24 drives per case in dividers and one cd driver disk]. Just get it, install it, and let it burn in for 72 hours or more straight, don't turn it off. Generally infant mortality shows during that period. I also generally run some utilities that exercise the snot out of the hardware too.
 
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