hard drive recovery?

[RichP]

sounds like good advice - thanks.

what utilities do you recommend to exercise the HD?

It's a test suite that stresses video, cpu, memory, HD, and some others features I don't use.
Here's one thats fairly simple to use
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/?dir=&location=home&langx=en&a=

 

[crawldaddy]

WD has had a problem on some models with the internal air filter adhesive failing. This causes the filter to drop into the space between the platters and the head actuator, and this keeps the drive from spinning-up. You can open the case in a clean area, and use tweezers to pull the filter out. Trouble is that when you re-assemble the drive, it won't want to recalibrate because the spindle is held in place by the top...and you've just dislocated it (so the platters are at a slight angle, and the heads can't find the tracks). On my drive, I was able to position the top cover somewhat, then while the drive was trying to start and recalibrate, i nudged the top cover around until i got "the sound" then tightened the screws. I was able to recover 100% of the data. You might as well try this, because you're looking at a door stop anyway. If you get some data, you'll feel like a rock star. You should be able to mount the old drive as the new D drive, then copy stuff from D to C.

If you want to really gearhead-out, you can download a copy of any of a number of Linux CD bootable OS images (Knoppix or Centos or even the tiny Morphix Base) then use the DD command to do a LBA to LBA copy from D to C. This will leave you with a repairable image of the old drive on the new drive. You will have to do some partition editing by hand later if you want to extend the original partition to the size of the new disk drive.

good luck

 

[CaptTrev]

"If you want to really gearhead-out, you can download a copy of any of a number of Linux CD bootable OS images (Knoppix or Centos or even the tiny Morphix Base) then use the DD command to do a LBA to LBA copy from D to C. This will leave you with a repairable image of the old drive on the new drive. You will have to do some partition editing by hand later if you want to extend the original partition to the size of the new disk drive."


WOW - I don't know what any of that means - but it sounds really cool. thanks for the cool advice/trick on the WD drive...I'm going try it --right now that drive is a paperweight - so i have nothing to lose.

Can you explain that last part a little bit more?

MY new WD 300 GIGer should be on my doorstep when I get home tonight.

I know I should partition that drive....should i go 100GIG for one and 200 for the other or what ratio do you all recommend?

 

[crawldaddy]

"If you want to really gearhead-out, you can download a copy of any of a number of Linux CD bootable OS images (Knoppix or Centos or even the tiny Morphix Base) then use the DD command to do a LBA to LBA copy from D to C. This will leave you with a repairable image of the old drive on the new drive. You will have to do some partition editing by hand later if you want to extend the original partition to the size of the new disk drive."


WOW - I don't know what any of that means - but it sounds really cool. thanks for the cool advice/trick on the WD drive...I'm going try it --right now that drive is a paperweight - so i have nothing to lose.

Can you explain that last part a little bit more?

MY new WD 300 GIGer should be on my doorstep when I get home tonight.

I know I should partition that drive....should i go 100GIG for one and 200 for the other or what ratio do you all recommend?

I don't know how to explain it except in some detail - though it won't be sufficient - you will need to seek a small amount of help from your local Linux user's group.

LBA means Logical Block Address. Each 512 byte chunk of data (sector) is assigned a number from zero to whatever the last sector would be numbered. This is how we got away from cylinder, head, sector (CHS) addressing some years ago.

On the zero-th LBA, the OS stores a small data structure that describes the size of each of up to four partitions. this is true of "most" OS products. Linux includes a utility to edit this "partition descriptor." It will also display the partitions as they are.

After you boot something like Centos on the CD, you can print-out the MANual pages for DD by typing:

MAN dd

You can then tell DD to "disk duplicate" from 0 to whatever. This will copy the old drive to the new drive, including the partition table. after that's done, the OS will think that the new (is it 300gb?) drive is the same size as the old one (was it 100gb?)....so 200 gb will be unaccessable. you fix that by editing the partition table using a utility the name of which I can't remember.

The point of all of this is that (1) the drive is probably recoverable from the paperweigh state, and (2) once recovered, there's a fairly easy way to make a duplicate that's identical at the "physical device" level so it will perform like the old drive, with all the data, etc. once that's done, all you really need to do is to edit the partition table and tell the OS that the drive is a bit larger than once believed...and voila, you're back with all the data and on a 300% larger drive.

bill
* on a clear disk you can seek forever *

 

[XJLafonda]

I'd be careful with gateways. They are kinda finicky about what parts they'll accept (Or that's how my old gateway was). Like if I wanted to upgrade something, it had to come from gateway....so I bought an HP

 

[RichP]

I'd be careful with gateways. They are kinda finicky about what parts they'll accept (Or that's how my old gateway was). Like if I wanted to upgrade something, it had to come from gateway....so I bought an HP

ROFLAMO so you now have to buy it from HP.....
Pay a little extra and find a good local builder who uses main line standard parts, they can build you a machine that will run circles around any of the big gorilla boxes...

 

[tommyr]

One thing I have tried with limited success if the drive is ticking is hook it up to the computer, leave it out of the case and 'gently' bang it on your desk. Occassionally that will free up the stepper motor enough to at least get 'some' of your data off of it. I have known others to open the thing up and give the platters a spin and jiggle the arm a little, then re-assemble.

Like RichP says, be ready to do your copying at that time......

 

[1985xjlaredo]

There are many company localy around here KC, that will do it for less than 100 bucks.

 

[djblade311]

This is the only one I'm aware of and have recommended to my customers.

ESS Data Recovery Labs
800 237-4200
www.savemyfiles.com

I've used them before when I was working in Chicago where my manager had installed a software stripe on 3 scsi disks in Windows NT. one drive failed and buh bye data.

ESS pulled the drive platters and recovered the data. Highly recommend them.

AND...they are even located in my old hood in Southern Illinois so I got to visit my parents while they were doing the recovery. Took them only 1 day for 40 gigs but was a little pricey given the scenario. $800

 

[RaccoonJoe]

Several tricks for recovering hard drives. one way is the old "bang it on the desk and hope for the best" theory.....It actually works, surprising. Make sure that you hit the drive flat on the desk....if it's not flat, you'll scratch the platters and be really screwed.

Another trick is to freeze the drive. This works surprisingly well. Just drop it in the freezer for 24/48 hours, plug it in, and copy that info fast.

Remember, we'll dealing with moving parts here. It's not a question of "if it fails", but "when it fails". The only way to get around this is to keep good backups.....in multiple media, in multiple locations.

*currently spending life as a server/network tech for major rural ISP*