Help! Hard Drive gone!

[developdomains]

Hard Drive in the mrs laptop just broke, I've taken it out but it sounds like (when u shake it gently) the needle has broke off.

Does anyone know a hard drive specialist I can send it to to get the photos off that are on there????

thanks in advanced.

Justin

 

[dtm]

Hard Drive in the mrs laptop just broke, I've taken it out but it sounds like (when u shake it gently) the needle has broke off.

Does anyone know a hard drive specialist I can send it to to get the photos off that are on there????

thanks in advanced.

Justin

Used to have an office along the hall from these guys based in Stafford. They may be able to help
Datawreck | Hard Drive Data Recovery USB Recovery
Laptop Data Recovery | Datawreck

 

[retired_member8]

I always recommend keeping a back up of files so you can quickly recover your files, should your HDD fail.

Without looking at the drive itself, I cannot comment on whether the drive’s contents are recoverable. Normally, when a hard drive cannot boot, setting the jumper to slave and adding a new temp hard drive as a master solves the problem of recovering your files.

I would personally take the drive to any local IT specialist and they should be able to recover these files, depending on the damage.

 

[davedevelopment]

How much are your photos worth to you? The data recovery guys usually charge £400+ and that's whether they can recover anything or not

 

[disruptive]

I think PC world may have a service. Its not cheap, but maybe less than 400 quid quoted elsewhere...you could try that. Never ever reply on one disc drive...just blown two portables. I reckon I spend 1k on portable drives every year! They are useless....one lives and learns....

2.5 inch are a nightmare.

 

[retired_member12]

Recovering data from a damaged or scrubbed HD can become very expensive. We took a resigned Director to the High Court about 11 years ago, and decided to recover what we could from his old laptop which jumped into his garden pond a week earlier.
Apart from the fact that the HD was a sealed unit, and the obvious scrub the idiot had had done, we got the data we were looking for. Total cost for the recovery: over £4000 + Vat.

You might need to forget thse photos MWT!

 

[aZooZa]

You don't mention much about your system, but fdisk can rewrite a master boot record in some cases, which might be a simple solution to your problem. Photographs are probably one of the easier type of files to recover because they have distinct binary signatures and if the disk is not too fragmented, you should in theory be able to get them back. The same goes for music files. Some commercial disk recovery utilities might work, but they'll only generally find photos and music, which is obviously what you need. Most of them have free trial versions which will at least tell you that what is recoverable on the drive before you spend any money for them.

Take a look at some of these search results and see if you can get a copy of fdisk to work, using the -mbr flag:

fdisk mbr - Google Search

Here are some disk recovery solutions:

corrupt disk data recovery - Google Search

Best of luck!

 

[redbird]

it sounds like (when u shake it gently) the needle has broke off.

Justin

Most of the above aint gonna work if this is the case

 

[developdomains]

Hi guys

thanks for the replies.

Dale - it had XP on it. ive plugged it into my laptop using a usb to din adapter thingy on slave and nothing

someone suggested transfering the actual film disc part to another drive, but shouldnt this only be done in lab conditions?

I always recommend keeping a back up of files so you can quickly recover your files, should your HDD fail.

thanks JG for the tip

 

[aZooZa]

Hi guys

thanks for the replies.

Dale - it had XP on it. ive plugged it into my laptop using a usb to din adapter thingy on slave and nothing

someone suggested transfering the actual film disc part to another drive, but shouldnt this only be done in lab conditions?

thanks JG for the tip

LOL - 'bolted horse' comes to mind...

Anyway, the drive internals are probably in a vacuum. Don't unscrew it matey. If the platters need moving to another drive it will need to be done by an expert.

 

[Skinner]

I use Active Undelete to do this stuff, that low cost software will save you 100s.

Generally data recovery is charged for inspection and build (they pull the drive apart, rebuild it and fit it into their special boxes), then you are charged by the GB usually £400-600 for the first part then about £100-400 per GB.


edit: removed the usb thing as its been done.

 

[retired_member8]

Hey,

it is common practice for any computer user so I don't know why you posted a sarcastic face. £400/£4k seems expencive for perhaps an hours work. Transfering the actual film means opening the hdd itself, which will only cause more damage if you don't have clue.

As stated before, changing the jumper settings On the 'dead' drive to a slave and mounting a new drive as a master, will most definantly recover your files. If you took it to a specialist they will most probably use that mehod.

I really don't know why I bother helping you.

Hi guys

thanks for the replies.

Dale - it had XP on it. ive plugged it into my laptop using a usb to din adapter thingy on slave and nothing

someone suggested transfering the actual film disc part to another drive, but shouldnt this only be done in lab conditions?



thanks JG for the tip

 

[developdomains]

Hey,

it is common practice for any computer user so I don't know why you posted a sarcastic face. £400/£4k seems expencive for perhaps an hours work. Transfering the actual film means opening the hdd itself, which will only cause more damage if you don't have clue.

As stated before, changing the jumper settings On the 'dead' drive to a slave and mounting a new drive as a master, will most definantly recover your files. If you took it to a specialist they will most probably use that mehod.

I really don't know why I bother helping you.

pls read the thread, the needle on the drive is knackered and ive already slaved it off another drive!!!!!

sarcastic face? yes because that doesnt really help me now does it!!!!!

 

[developdomains]

LOL - 'bolted horse' comes to mind...

Anyway, the drive internals are probably in a vacuum. Don't unscrew it matey. If the platters need moving to another drive it will need to be done by an expert.

sounds expensive. mmm i'll be googling data recovery most of the morning then

 

[jimm]

Hey,

£400/£4k seems expencive for perhaps an hours work. Transfering the actual film means opening the hdd itself, which will only cause more damage if you don't have clue.

You do realise what actually needs to be done? Its not just a cast of drop the platters in another drive. These drives are built so some parts have a clearance of less than a human hair (the head over the platters) and the have to be in a perfectly clean environment.

Suggesting someone to take their HDD to bits when there is a chance they will want the data recovered is just plain stupid.


Justin,
I have an account with a decent data recovery firm through my business. They will investigate for free to tell you if they think they can recover anything and single HDDs where hardware has failed are usually around £400-600. Drop me a PM if you are interested.

 

[retired_member12]

It's like aZooZa, Skinner & Jimm have said, they dismantled the drive, and rebuilt it into their own equipment. Imagine a fire damage recovery, it's going to be difficult enough to do as it is, made worse if you don't also eliminate the distorted case the discs are in. We're talking nm spacing here, not microns. There is no way on this earth that a jobbing shop can swap the platters. The guys we used explained that the head spacing is maintained by a combination of disc spin speed and an air film it produces, which the head literally floats on. We're talking 'black art' here. If only one head has come off, then maybe the others discs can be read with their heads intact, but again that's a specialist job. As it was explained to us, even if there is a marginal platter wobble, the head arm will tend to follow it, governed by the air stream created beneath the head, but we're still talking about a tolerance of nanometres, there is a limit!

Seriously, unless the software solutions bear fruit, I'd write the photos off as a loss!