Who here on TechIMO can recover data from a dead drive?

Micro Bean · February 28th, 2007, 03:59 AM

Ok heres my story so you guys behave on this one ok??? lol Damn if I could only remember the top of my head to what model it is since it is sitting at home I will post it later if I can. Well I believe it is a Maxtor 120GB HD ata133. Long story short I left my Comp at my moms house so my sister can use. Well my other Sister has been using it too. (the other sister issue is personal so wont detail in). So my brother in law is pissed at my sister (about using PC) Plops open the side and unplugs the Damn HD while the System was power on! Ok what an idiot. What could be worse? My sister plug the damn HD back in while the SYSTEM WAS ON!! freaking aye! hahahah The drive could have still worked but apparently she shorted it out. Now I dont care about the 10,000 or so porn on it...LOL exagerating abit....But I would love to recover my music I have over Hmmm close to 8,000mp3? I have been ripping from hard to find CD my bestfriend came from the UK and he had all these damn music I could never find (Me being an EX DJ) was very excited so Would be so damn greatful if anyone can pull that off with there bag of tricks on getting all that off the drive I dont know how maybe repairing it or somehow getting it to semi function to pull off? If someone can do it great Ill pay ya But if its a hassle worth more then 100 bucks lol forget it hehehe maybe someone who isnt busy who wants a project you know what I mean? Help a poor man out :P So thats my story on this drive. SO This is a CURIOUS question so dont anyone jump on me LOL Can it be done? And please Dont ask me System specs since it doesnt have anything to do with it LOL

pullmyfoot · February 28th, 2007, 07:41 AM

ok, i think you newed to send it to a specilised company to do that. because if the drive is shorted or does not work in any way there is really nothing anyone who is not right beside and/or does not have the proper tools and experience can do to fix it..

**RobRich** · February 28th, 2007, 08:30 AM

There are good odds the platters are fine. Likely just a component on the PCB is shorted. If you can find another drive - exact same model - then you could try switching out the circuit boards.

Micro Bean · March 1st, 2007, 12:38 AM

Thanks Rob I didnt even think of that

I think my cousin has the same drive Time to steal it from him MUAHAHAHAH! no not really but say hey can I borrow your HD I have a project :P And then throw a bunch of porn on his drive and tell his mom LOOK HES WATCHING PRON! hahahahahah Jk...But anywho jokes aside yeah I will try that.. Once I get few of these Comp repair and other comp build orders out of the way With my graveyard shift abit tasky

samwichse · March 1st, 2007, 01:10 AM

Note that if you do what Rob said, I would get the data off the drive then get another new drive. Each drive is a bit different, and each PCB's firmware is "mated" to that drive... you'll probably end up with lost data after just a few writes. From what I understand, each time it writes, the data won't be quite lined up with what the previous PCB stored, and you'll end up with a very confused (and unrecovable this time) drive.

Sam

**RobRich** · March 1st, 2007, 01:30 AM

It is definitely not a long term solution, as the firmware will not match the bad sectors on the platters. It is a quick and dirty fix to attempt grabbing the data, then dumping both drives.

However, assuming the EEPROM is salvagable from the old drive, you can attempt to migrate it to the new PCB, thus resurrecting the drive. I still wouldn't use it for mission critical storage, but it would likely suffice for a scratchpad drive assuming there is no platter damage.

Still, I would attempt to get the data, then toss both drives. You are out the price of the donor drive, but at least there is a chance of data recovery at a fraction of the cost of professionial data recovery services.