Hard drive crashed

[jgang]

It's clicking and wheezing, so I'm pretty sure its a mechanical failure. Doe anyone have any experience with a good hard drive data recovery expert, preferably in Colorado Springs?

[kwando]

Try putting it in the freezer for a few hours, sometimes that works.

[SideShow Bob]

Try putting it in the freezer for a few hours, sometimes that works.

You have to be setting him up for a joke with that ! ??

[jgang]

"My ass may be dumb, but I ain't no dumb ass....."

Thought about that for 2 seconds before the consequences of condensation hit me....

[DenverGP]

it's not a trick... i've personally had it "fix" a drive with the click of death.... put it into a plastic bag, squeeze out as much air as possible, and put it in the freezer for an hour. Was able to read data the next time I used it (I let it sit out about 10 minutes before powering it up), long enough to get to the data I needed off it, but doubt it would keep working.

[jgang]

I'm tempted. Might try removing it and plugging it to another computer first. If that doesn't work, I just might freeze it
.

[crays]

FYI: Kwando is a computer guy, and a great guy to deal with, as well. I have no idea if the cold thing works, but my guess is that he's trying to help.

sent from somwhere

[CobaltSkink]

I have heard the hard-drive-in-the-freezer trick works sometimes.

I have never tried tried it, but...
what about putting the hard drive in a USB sled, putting the sled in the freezer with the USB cable (and power?) attached, and then trying to access it once it is cold?

[Mazin]

Yep the freezer trick works about 70% of the time in my experience.

[crays]

Hey Mazin, how's things?

sent from somwhere

[jgang]

No offense meant Kwando. Hope it didn't come across that way. Half tongue in cheek as I've read success rate is 50% or so, but if it gets wet, i.e., condensation, that may be the final nail in the coffin for the drive.

[fitz19d]

If it's already clicking, your time is already seriously limited. ATM it's a race to get the data off.

[gnihcraes]

also a nerd; sometimes the cold helps, worth a quick try.

[cstone]

If it is clicking but still running, unplug the power and don't run it till you get set up.

Burn a copy of this OS http://clonezilla.org/ and live boot a machine that has a larger hard drive than the one that is dying. Once you are ready, plug the dying drive into a USB to IDE or SATA adapter and then clone the dying disk to the larger storage disk.

You want your data off that disk as quickly as you can and the ticking sound is the clock of death for that drive. When it stops, your data is gone unless you have some serious cash to get the data recovered.

If the disk has already stopped running, you can throw it in the freezer for an hour or two while you get the storage drive and clonezilla disk up and running. The cold may work, but it may not, but at the point your disk stops running, the cold won't do anything worse to the data on the platters.

Good luck.

[HoneyBadger]

^Good advice

[cfortune]

If you have ANY Western Digital drives in your machine, this will work for you for free. Buy a replacement disk that is the same size or bigger, install it, then sync the old drive to the new. I've used it to migrate my OS to faster SSD's and stuff. I keep an old shitty Western Digital Green drive in my machine just to use it.

http://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=119&lang=en


I have a data hoarding problem....
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[Irving]

Just declare that you have information related to San Bernardino on your hard drive and the FBI will have all your data off the drive by tomorrow morning.

[bigshane]

I've used the freezer trick successfully several times.

Make sure all your ducks are in a row when you pull it out of the freezer and plug it in. USB enclosure, or dock, or whatever method you've chosen, make sure you've tested and are familiar with the software as you may only get one shot at it. Do a dry run first. The drive isn't getting any better just sitting there unplugged, (it IS unplugged and set aside, I hope) but it's not getting any worse either. Don't panic.

BTW, I worried about condensation the first time too, and even had beads of sweat outside the drive (this was in Houston, very humid). Total success. I even cracked open the drive right after, just out of curiosity, and it was bone dry inside.

Good luck.

[brutal]

If you do get recovered, please buy two drives and mirror them or pay for a good cloud based service if your data is important.

I mirror my main 2TB (media) server drive but also bought a 5TB Seagate USB desktop backup drive that came with 200GB Onedrive free for 2 years. Everything backed up to the external drive, family photos and critical data in the cloud.

the freezer trick does sometimes work. Something we used to use for old seagate drives that ran fine but often had "stiction" when powered off too long.

Bit of a drive whore myself. (C/D is on a mirrored pair)

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[DeadElephant]

I always go for the data first and then try the clone next. That way if it dies during the process I have as much of my data as possible. Rebuilding the machine is a PITA but a refresh never hurts anyway.

When all else fails I have a friend who claims to have some sort of mystical powers and she waves her hands over the drives while humming. Never works but we drink beer afterwards so doesn't bother me much.