Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Dead Hard Drive Data Retrieval

bullados

bullados

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I need help. My family has made me their general IT goto guy, and I can't solve this current dilemma.

My cousin's computer's hard drive failed a while back, and they want to get the information back off the thing.

It currently spins up, but it won't start WinXP. A couple of seconds after startup, I hear this light clink, like a record player being turned on its side and the reader hitting the side of the player in freefall.

I've been trying the Ubuntu boot disk idea, but (even though I'm acceptable in Linux) I can't find the area of the hard drive, and thus I can't find my cousin's information.

Here's the specs of the computer, if it'll help.

Compaq Presario 5320
Intel P4 1.5 Ghz
512 MB RAM
40 GB UltraDMA Hard Drive
12x DVD-ROM
12X CD-RW
16MB nVidia Vanta graphics card
XP Home preloaded

Thx for any help you can give!

Oh, and before I go out, my cousins are dirt poor, so the solution has to be as cost-effective as possible...
 
bullados said:
Here's the specs of the computer, if it'll help.

Compaq Presario 5320
Intel P4 1.5 Ghz
512 MB RAM
40 GB UltraDMA Hard Drive
12x DVD-ROM
12X CD-RW
16MB nVidia Vanta graphics card
XP Home preloaded
Click to expand...
Well, there's the problem.

Anyway, have you tried putting the hard drive in another computer to see if it can see anything off of it? If you can, you should get a new hard drive and copy whatever information is salvageable. Hard drives much bigger than that are quite affordable these days.
 
Yeah, sounds like something on it may have physically busted. What I would do is get your hands on either a Windows 98 install CD or boot disk (http://www.bootdisk.com is your friend), boot off of that, and see if the anything can even be read off the drive. If it can, plug it into another computer as a slave drive (most likely gonna have to fiddle with the jumper settings on the back side of the HD) and copy over what you can.

Clicking sounds are usually a very, very, VERY bad thing though.
 
There is a program called "Spinrite" and if you just google it then it should be the first thing that pops up. It runs about $90 and even if they can't afford it it's still a great program for you to use in the future. It gets about all of the data off of the hard drive but you have to give it some time depending on how much data is on it. I have done it multiple times before and sometimes it's a few hours and one time it went 3 days. But I don't have to worry about having my hard drive crash anymore since I switched to Mac a long time ago. :biggrin:
 
cmak37 said:
There is a program called "Spinrite" and if you just google it then it should be the first thing that pops up. It runs about $90 and even if they can't afford it it's still a great program for you to use in the future. It gets about all of the data off of the hard drive but you have to give it some time depending on how much data is on it. I have done it multiple times before and sometimes it's a few hours and one time it went 3 days. But I don't have to worry about having my hard drive crash anymore since I switched to Mac a long time ago. :biggrin:
Click to expand...
ALL hard drives WILL (most likely) fail, it's just a question of when. Macs are just immune to viruses (for the most part), not hardware failures. So it's always best to back-up any data you don't want to lose, Mac or PC. (Unless you're like me and don't have anything on your computer you would give a crap about if the hard drive failed. :tongue:)
 
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Sounds like the actual Hard Drive (hardware issue) is broken.
There are specific Diagnosis programs you can run..

My laptop came with a "Diagnostic and Utilities CD" and has helped numerous times.
(included when my hard drive shorted out/died)
 
toxictaipan said:
ALL hard drives WILL (most likely) fail, it's just a question of when. Macs are just immune to viruses (for the most part), not hardware failures. So it's always best to back-up any data you don't want to lose, Mac or PC. (Unless you're like me and don't have anything on your computer you would give a crap about if the hard drive failed. :tongue:)
Click to expand...

Truth. My MacBook's HD suffered a random, no warning signs death a few weeks ago and I had to replace the whole thing. Everything on it was lost.

Although Macs are still self-executing-virus free. For all the OS X viruses you have to choose to run it and usually feed it your admin password. So don't run mystery software. :)
 
toxictaipan said:
ALL hard drives WILL (most likely) fail, it's just a question of when. Macs are just immune to viruses (for the most part), not hardware failures. So it's always best to back-up any data you don't want to lose, Mac or PC. (Unless you're like me and don't have anything on your computer you would give a crap about if the hard drive failed. :tongue:)
Click to expand...


Immune?
NO
Not much support of viruses for the mac.
YES
Also nicely said on the Hardware failure

Have you tried putting it in the freezer for awhile and hooking it?
That worked for me a few times with old failed HDD's I work on.

There is a program called HDD life that I use to make sure my HDD are running fine.
 
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Metallic clicking or clinking is always a sign that the drive has either catastrophically failed, or is going to do so in very short order.

In the best case scenario, the clicking is the firmware parking the drive head and attempting to recalibrate because it encountered an unrecoverable read error -- which can be caused by normal wear, but in this case indicates that the wear is severe enough to have weakened the magnetic layer, which means it's time to replace the drive anyway.

In the worst case, you've suffered a head crash, in which case the drive is already toast -- the head has impacted the drive platter and already scraped off some of the magnetic layer, and the more you try to read from the disk, the more it will get damaged. The fact that you say it started to boot but now is completely unrecognizable to the operating system leads me to believe this.

With a clicking drive, under no circumstances should you try to power on the drive again. If the drive head has indeed crashed, trying to spin up the drive again is going to irrevocably destroy whatever might be left. I've seen a severely crashed head literally scrape the entire drive platter clean in a matter of seconds. Once that happens, your data is literally a pile of dust on the floor.

There are no economical repair options at this point. The only real choice is to send it off to a data recovery service that can take the drive apart in a clean room and read the data straight off the platters. These types of services can run anywhere from $200 to over $2000. Most of these companies will analyze the drive for free if you ship it to them, and then give you a cost estimate to decide if you wish to proceed, so it probably can't hurt you to find one that will do this and let them take a look.

If there is nothing truly critical on the drive then you are probably best off just accepting the loss and moving on -- and learning the lesson of keeping good backups. (A few of you out there may recall me learning this lesson myself at Nationals '08....)

Regardless of how you choose to proceed, you need a new drive.
 
Ok I admit that every hard drive will crash at some point. (But macs are still better :tongue: ) And macs aren't completely immune to viruses either, it's just that they are much more uncommon. Regarding Spinrite, I believe that Geeksquad uses that program. On second thought, I think that they got sued for having a pirated copy of it.:lol:
 
Chairman Kaga is right. I had a Seagate 120 GB hard drive die on me with my movie I was working on. Putting the hard drive in another computer will not work because the disk is not spinning. Its more then likely a Mechanical Failure. You would have to take it to someone to have it 'fixed'. It will cost me around 500 dollars to have it done. The bigger the hard drive, the more it will cost. Also, there is no software that will fix that problem for you because if the computer does not know its there, the software will not and if you keep plugging it up, you risk losing your data and hardware.

Don't try any of the 'do it yourself' patches like the freezer method. Most if not all hard drives bigger then 20 gigs operate the same during any kind of temperature change and will not work and you risk damage to your partitions and sectors. The crash was more then likely do so several Bad Sectors stops. Viruses have nothing to do with it. Just back up your files and clean out your registry files too. Having a clogged registry can lead to this too, well the crashes anyway.

If you want to save your data, please do not put it in the freezer. This method has been tested on several failed hard drives and only worked on 2 or 3 for like 1 minutes which is not enough time to get data from them. Also, do not attempt any data recovery as it may lessen the chance of having a successful recovery of your data and do not power the drive because you could damage hardware and finish the drive itself.

drivesavers is a good place to start for it.
http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

If money is no object for you and your files are must haves then give them a call. The only thing I can tell you is to power down your computer when not in use to take less stress off your hardware and when you get a new hard drive, don't buy a Seagate. They will fail on you. Get a Western Digital.

Don't take it to Geeksquad, the don't have the tools to handle this. I know. They just send them to someone who can fix it. More then likely to Drivesavers because they are the best right now.

Thats all I can tell you. I know a lot about these things a will like to help in anyway I can.
 
cmak37 said:
Ok I admit that every hard drive will crash at some point. (But macs are still better :tongue: ) And macs aren't completely immune to viruses either, it's just that they are much more uncommon. Regarding Spinrite, I believe that Geeksquad uses that program. On second thought, I think that they got sued for having a pirated copy of it.:lol:
Click to expand...

A friend of mine had his Macbook's hard drive completely die on him in less than a year, the replacement Apple gave him lasted ~4 months, and the replacement drive he bought retail since he was out of warranty died in two weeks.

Hardware failure is hardware failure. Macs are no less vulnerable to hardware failure than PCs. Edit: Doubly so since Apple switched to x86 processors a little while ago, since now the components are the same.
 
My school uses MacBooks and I've heard multiple teachers having hard drive cashes.

And Professor_Chris, in your first post you're implying that Compaqs are bad, but they're not ever since HP took them over.

I'd just do what the others are saying. Try one of those programs. Pop the hard drive in another working computer and execute the program to see if any magic happens.
 
Jran Sakarra said:
Immune?
NO
Not much support of viruses for the mac.
YES
Also nicely said on the Hardware failure

Have you tried putting it in the freezer for awhile and hooking it?
That worked for me a few times with old failed HDD's I work on.

There is a program called HDD life that I use to make sure my HDD are running fine.
Click to expand...
I said, "(for the most part)"....

China is hacking into our governments computers, our GOVERNMENT'S computers. I don't really think any computer I'll ever come into contact with is safe from a virus. Mac just don't have them right now, I used the wrong word. Sheesh. You will jump on a Mac in a minute.


Yeah, though. Software won't work if you can't get it to start up. Your best bet is to get a new drive and see if there is any way to recover the information from one of those sites already mentioned.
 
Mew* said:
And Professor_Chris, in your first post you're implying that Compaqs are bad, but they're not ever since HP took them over.
Click to expand...
HP merged with Compaq in 2002, the PC in question was released before the merger.

Personally, I'd never again get a PC with the name Compaq on it no matter who they merged with. The fact that they still release computers under that name is a terrible idea. They should just be HP and be happy about it.
 
It sounds like it may be a head crash. If the data is not that important (IE worth $1000+) than you may want to try the freezer trick... It works some times. Here is a link, not sure if the gym will block it though... http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html

Old, very old Compaqs were actually pretty good, and I am talking early to mid 90's. Their quality dropped late 90's, then when purchased by HP, still continued to be low end PC's. Though that is how HP markets it as the value brand.

And as for Macs being immune to viruses... yeah right. I work tech support for over 100,000 (60,000+ of them being on site) end users, I have seen my fair share of Mac viruses. Granted it is less than that of Windows based PCs, but the numbers are growing. Keep in mind that Macs are used less than Windows based PC, though Mac's share is growing. As it becomes more popular, hackers and virus writers will target it.
 
I would suggest using a recovery tool like Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery Software which is quite efficient and powerful in recovering data from failed hard disk and ofcourse it is cost effective and reliable.give a try
 
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