anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

were you able to pull any info from it afterwards...?

the HD in my desktop started making some clicking noises on Thursday afternoon, and froze up... when i went to reboot it, Windows would not load up, and it would make the clicking noises from time to time...

this being my first experience with a busted HD, i tried rebooting the system about 10 different ways... i then called Dell Tech Support and they had me try to boot up using the Resource CD and then when that didn't work they had me run a Diagnostic on the HD... the HD failed basically...

The error i kept getting was "Unmountable Boot Volume"...

Anywho, I'm getting a new HD from Dell under warranty, and a tech is supposed to come out and install it for me...

Dell also gave me the number to Drive Savers, and said that they should be able to pull the files off the HD... I have over 1000 pics on it of my son, and i have to have them... but they quoted me a price of 1400-2400 for a recovery... that's damn insane, but i have to have the pics...

So before i drop that kinda money on the recovery, i am going to try and to recover some stuff myself... if i can get the pics, i'll be happy...

i'm going to get an external USB HD case, and try and hook it up to my laptop... another guy gave me a program "Easy Recovery 6" to try and recover the files from the HD...

Has anyone ever done this succesfully before...? am i risking more damage to the files by trying this myself...?

if i'm going to be paying $2000+, it seems almost silly to not even attempt it myself...

Any advice here would be appreciated...

My friend tells me that putting the hard drive in the freezer has worked before. We froze his without success. He then resorted to throwing it on the floor, roughly. I thought it was wacky, but he said it was the last resort. He managed to get some files from it before it carked it again. He is a computer tech that does service work on huge servers. That doesn't mean he is othodox though.

I was being serious too. You did say any help. I have no knowledge of these things, just passing on my experience.

I had that happen once - I recognized the noise and saved off a bunch of files to the network as soon as it started. The next time it booted up - nada. I also called Drivesavers, but the price was way too much. Luckily I'd backed up recently.

It's a horrible situation and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

it came on without warning... as soon as the noise started it stopped responding, and would never reload windows again...

but while i was running the HD diagnostics it did not make the noise... it would from time to time, but not constantly...

so maybe i'll have some luck here...?

i have some of AJ's pics on my imageshack account, and some more that i had sent to work, but nearly as many as i have on this HD...

i have read the freezer thing as well, but the guy i've been talking to, said he wouldn't do it yet... more of a last resort type thing...

It's a horrible situation and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Click to expand...

Even Diesel?...

Bad Bodie!

I have never tried any recovery programs, but I did have a hd crash on me before and I was able to save some files.
After I installed my new hd and loaded my operating system, I just installed my old hd as a slave and I was able to see my files and just copied them to my new hd.
I don't think this will cause anymore damage and is worth trying before going to more desperate ideas.

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Slaving it to a good hard drive should definitely be tried before trashing it or anything. Just because it won't boot doesn't mean there aren't recoverable files on there.

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Diesel, I know we dont get along very much here and there. But I know what your talking about and sorry to hear that. Its a pain in the butt ( I know Dave, keep it positive ) and spending the cash for a new one or repairing is tough. Especially with a little one running around, mine crashed a few months after mine was born. It was an older model I had over the years from Gateway, now I have a Dell. :x


PS Gateway customer service sucks!!

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Diesel, actually creech's suggestion is a good one! I have many tips and tricks to recovering data from a bad hard drive, and in almost every case, freezing is the number one tip. I have successfully down this at work! I have recovered three different drives, and only failed once, so I have had a 75% success rate. Place the drive in a Ziploc bag and put in the freezer for one to two hours. Take it out and immediately put in the computer (as a slave drive if possible) and boot up. If it works, you will have a short time to recover files. At work, I use an imaging program called Drive Image (Ghost is another) to make an image of the drive off to the network (or another drive). This is far faster than trying to recover the files individually. If this method works, it usually only gives you an hour or two before the drive starts acting up again after heating up. Good luck!

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

i think my drive has a hardware failure... so the freezer trick is not going to work...

and i know, cause i tried...

looks like i'll be sending it out to be cracked open and hopefully they'll be able to recover my data...

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Diesel, I've only heard about this happening to people. I have never experienced it myself (and hopefully never do) and I keep hearing about more and more people experiencing it.

Maybe I should backup my system sometime soon.


I am hoping you get all your pictures and any other vital stuff, completely successfully. Good luck! I hope the company offers a policy that if they can't recover what you need then it's free.

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

there's a $200 fee no matter what... but yeah they only charge you if they have a successful recovery...

and YEAH, you should back up your important files on your computer immediatley...

it can happen anytime man...

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Slaving it to a good hard drive should definitely be tried before trashing it or anything. Just because it won't boot doesn't mean there aren't recoverable files on there.

Click to expand...

Thats the best bet, regardless, as a slave it will remain stable enuff to dig and get your files back. The freezer solution works but only puts off the inevitable, that the harddrive is going to phooey.....

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

This happened to me about a year ago. I hadn't done a back up for a while and my HD did the same thing yours did Diesel and just crashed. We couldn't get anything off mine which sucked I lost a lot of lesson plans so its always a good idea to at least once or twice a month do a backup.

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

The freezer trick didn't work huh? Well go to my plan B. Bang it on the ground a few times, hard too. How can it hurt? You never know, till you give it a go.

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

i've decided to send it out to the pros... so there will be no banging of the HD on the floor...

not that the thought hadn't crossed my mind...

Re: Re: anyone's hard drive ever crash on you...?

Mine crashed a few years ago and i lost nearly every picture i had taken in like a year and half.. back when i took pictures a lot.... its a really bad situation that I would like to say i've learned from..... Hope you get most of your stuff Cory!

Re: Swap out the pcb!

Hi Diesel,

Major bummer mate! :bang ........ Don't give up & spend a fortune just yet though!

The same thing happened to me & what I did was to find another working example of my "exact" drive on eBay, (quite cheaply as it happened) exchange the new drives circuit board for the one on my old drive & bingo, good as new!

Mine was a Western Digital 100gb drive and the board was only secured by four "star head" screws with the contacts to the motor being a simple sprung pressure type with no soldering required.

I wouldn't mind betting your's was a "Western Digital" too?
I have since been told by a number of different people that they are *ALLEGEDLY* famous for this! :speech

Good luck.

Re: Swap out the pcb!

my HD is a Hitachi...

but i don't think it's a chip problem... it's something internal in the drive itself...