Hi all,

The other night the HD in our MacBook crashed. The system was working fine on minute, hung the next and after rebooting it did not start up.

From power on the HD makes 3 loud Clicks and then can be heard seeking with regular louder then normally seeks (every 1-2 seconds).

The disk utility provided by Mac OSX does not see the drive at all.

Last backup ~6months old. The data is not so important that it is worth the "PRO" repair option.

A few questions:

1. Some of the recovery companies provide free analysis of the drive. Is it worth getting this done? or are these companies not as good as those charging for this services.

2. I have been thinking about trying a DIY job, because the lost data is not so critical. However, IF (i was successful (a big IF I know) and certain data has been damaged how can the remaining data be recovered.
-> the disk had 3 partitions (Mac, NTFS, FAT32). All the data was stored in the last FAT32 partition.

Thanks,

/James

Personally, I think I'd trust the free analysis more. In essence, if I don't know ANYTHING about data recovery, I can charge $200 to 'evaluate' your drive, simply say it's not recoverable, and make a quick (and dishonest) $200. Free analysis means the Data Recovery firm only gets paid if they can do the work. I can understand some DR companies do charge to evaluate, as a proper analysis is often doing the actual recovery.

A DIY approach will likely be disappointing in this case.

Can you provide more information about why you think it will not work in this case?

Don't waste your time or data trying it yourself.

I'll bet the site code for your drive is WU and the firmware version is 7.01. Call me psychic . . . .

It sounds like your drive has experienced a head crash. Damaged platter(s) are likely. As soon as you replace the heads (assuming you are lucky enough to get that right) the replacement heads will self-destruct as soon as they hit the rough patch.

Quite often there are MULTIPLE problems with this drive, including data corruption. They are not easy or fun for the pros to work on. Sometimes recovery isn't possible.

According to my discussions with folks at Seagate, there is no problem with these drives or this series . . . . yet we see bad ones almost every day. Go figure.

Jon

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

confirmed Jono, i had 5 in the past, all with head crashed and damaged platters. Yup 7.01 and 3.0X

FW: 7.01
Site code: AMK (Singapore not China)

If its a waste of time. Then I won't bother. I thought it would have been a fun project.

I also guess sending it to a recovery company will cost a lot too, if the platters are damaged?

Just for my information. How do you get the data off damaged drives like this in a pro lab? (or is that a trade secret)

James (and everyone else)

It's not necessarily the Chinese drives that have a problem; a small percentage of those we have seen were manufactured in Singapore.

My take on it - if it's FW 7.01, it's not recoverable.

My advice - avoid _anything_ manufactured by Seagate. They've gone from best to worst in two years.


Duncan

I have been able to recover data from 7.01 version drives, but I haven't tried in cases where the media is damaged - which seems to be the most common failure.

I think WDC is worse than Seagate on the 3.5" drives. I'm scared of the Momentus series and won't sell them until I am more confident in the QC.

I like Seagate drives <=320 GB. Duncan, what are your specific beefs (other than that they are a PITA for data recovery!)

Jon

_________________
http://www.datasaversllc.com

I was thinking of getting a Samsung (250GB) drive to replace it. Any comments good/bad about Samsung 2.5" drives?

I am with samsung as well . I totally agree with u Seagate is manufacturing shit