Hard drive Cooked? How to recover data

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by wgzahn@comcast.net, Jan 9, 2007.

  1. wgzahn@comcast.net

    wgzahn@comcast.net Private E-2

    It's a long story, but the latest is that I removed my hard drive and bought a $20 external USB enclosure in the hopes of recovering my photo data from the second partition. Seemed simple. Plug in power cord and 40 pin wire, secure all, start up and plug usb into other computer right? Well it worked great for 3 minutes and my wife and I were elated to see last years christmas video again.

    Then the devil came in and the drive stopped working. It wasn't making any sounds and I smelled the bad electronic smell. Upon opening up the enclosure nothing appeared out of place, but when I looked around, I noticed on the underside of the large flat wire that there was a burn spot between two wires and that there is an area on the hard drive board that gets burning hot if you turn the unit on. I believe that the enclusre unit is defective and has fried my previously working drive (I was having trouble reinstalling my XP OS on the C: partition)

    I think it's cooked, but is there a way for someone to recover my data from this drive? You can guess I forgot to back it up!!!

    Help
    Walt:cry
     
  2. gay2jp

    gay2jp Private First Class

    Most likely the board is fried. There are some services who will recover stuff from HDs but they are quite expensive. Google on "data recovery" If you can't slave the drive in another PC (with correct jumper settings), you have probably lost the data.

    Chances are the enclosure may have hastened the demise of the drive (less cooling there) but was the drive not already bad when you put it in there?
     
  3. foogoo

    foogoo Major "foogoo" Geek

    I'd get another enclosure & test it... if it has killed some of the electronics (the board) I have seen articles on replacing those, but you have to find the EXACT drive you fried & swap the boards.. idea being the outer electronics failed the hard drives data is still good.
    Still cheaper than paying for data recovery .. but look into it..
     
  4. wgzahn@comcast.net

    wgzahn@comcast.net Private E-2

    I think you are right and that the board is fried (hotspot)and that the data on the platters is OK (hopefully). I am pursuing trying to find a close match to my unit. Last night I found this great video by Scott Moulton(a 30' presentation that was recorded) that explains alot about how hard drives work and details how to recover data from them yourself. Examples, pictures and more.

    The site is www.myharddrivedied.com

    Thanks for your encouragement!
     

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