Hard drive crashed please help!

[GVSS]

The hard drive in my old desktop finally died.

I was hoping to recover some of the data that was on it, so I installed it as the slave drive in another desktop I have but I couldn't view any of the data.

It recognized the drive like it was a new drive to the system, and asked if I wanted to format it like I was adding a new drive to the system.

Is there any way to view the data on the old drive to recover any of it, or is it all gone?

If I just try to boot the computer from the old drive it hangs up after the post screen at the windows logo.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

GVSS


Edit - Would loading up an OS that i can boot and run form a cd like Ubuntu or Knoppix linux help me at all in this situation? would I be able to view the files and save them to an external drive?

 

[Tommy Boy]

If the drive is screwed and you can't see anything on it then there is probably nothing you can do and data recovery usually costs upwards of $1000 from certain companies, maybe more. Not sure about using a linux live cd, you could try it though.

 

[bdodd42]

There are a few little tricks that have sometimes worked for me to get the hard drive to be recognized as a slave, is to put it in the freezer for 20 to 30 min and it will boot up until it gets warm, but depending on the hard drive you will have to work fast, but most of the time it will remain booted long enough to extract the data. It's not a sure thing but I have done it.

The hard drive in my old desktop finally died.

I was hoping to recover some of the data that was on it, so I installed it as the slave drive in another desktop I have but I couldn't view any of the data.

It recognized the drive like it was a new drive to the system, and asked if I wanted to format it like I was adding a new drive to the system.

Is there any way to view the data on the old drive to recover any of it, or is it all gone?

If I just try to boot the computer from the old drive it hangs up after the post screen at the windows logo.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

GVSS


Edit - Would loading up an OS that i can boot and run form a cd like Ubuntu or Knoppix linux help me at all in this situation? would I be able to view the files and save them to an external drive?

 

[GVSS]

Originally posted by pcdoctor25
put it in the freezer for 20 to 30 min and it will boot up until it gets warm

That sounds a little risky to me. I don't know exactly whats wrong with it. It seems like the boot sector is bad or something since it starts to boot up and then gets stuck.

Are there any software utilities that would let me see the data to recover it?

Thanks

 

[Grantofhell]

Yeah.

Go here and download the Active @ boot disk installer. Grab any flash drive (minimum 130MB drive) and back up the files off of it. Then run the program and create a bootable USB drive. Most computers can boot off of USB, just press Esc. or F12 or whatever key goes to your boot menu. Because of my USB's architecture, it's recognized as a HDD. This may apply to yours as well. Look under Removable and HDD. Boot to it and use the "Partition recovery" tool. This should help you image your disk or recover the partitions. I second the freezer idea, but only try that if you can't get it to boot the first time under Active@.

 

[GVSS]

Originally posted by Grantofhell
Go here and download the Active @ boot disk installer.

Will this work on a cd? the computer is pretty old (just shy of windows XP era) so I'm not sure if it will boot from a usb drive.

thanks from the help guys

p.s. - out of curiosity, how does the freezer trick enable the drive to boot when it won't boot when warm/room temp?

 

[graw2]

You could try a external enclosure or a usb to sata/ide adapter cable.

I just had a storage hard drive die on me, would not boot up and was clicking. I bought an external enclosure and put the drive in there and it read all the data on there. I was still able to transfer everything off of it.

Here is an example of the cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119152

Here is an example of a enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145133

If you do buy an enclosure, just make sure you get the right interface.

The good thing about the cable is you can connect about any type of drive and is cheaper.

EDIT: Does the drive in question have the OS on it?

When you freeze something, it shrinks it. It may shrink it enough to where there are no moving parts touching each other.

 

[cboucher]

I've had really good luck using this program called HDD Regenerator.

 

[Grantofhell]

Cold makes the platters/actuator contract. This trick really only works if the drive's issue was the actuator clicking on the side of the HDD casing.

 

[GVSS]

Originally posted by graw2
You could try a external enclosure or a usb to sata/ide adapter cable.

I don't think that would work since I've already tried using it as a slave drive, but I could be wrong, also I don't want to buy anything if I don't have to.

And yes the OS is on the disk

Originally posted by Grantofhell
Cold makes the platters/actuator contract. This trick really only works if the drive's issue was the actuator clicking on the side of the HDD casing.

Not sure that is the problem with the drive since it doesn't make any unusual noises, clicks or things like that.

Thanks again for the help guys