I know there are alot of these posts lately, but I have a different question.

I bought a new Dell laptop a couple of months ago and the HDD failed on boot up the other day. It was making some odd croaking sounds, but I was able to get a system diagnotic on it with a HDD time out error message. When I rebooted, it froze up half way through the Dell boot up screen and has never done anything else. Dell came and replaced almost every component in my computer, but I would like to get the couple of months of work and photos off the old hard drive.

I put it in an external hard drive enclosure with two USB plugs. The device is not detected. I put the hard drive in another like computer and it said no hard drive was detected. We bought another similar hard drive and changed the controller board to no avail. The new hard drive in the docking station is detected, so I know the system works. I put the faulty hard drive with new controller board in my computer and it made a few sounds, but froze up at the same place.

I downloaded the Seagate Seatools and it cannot detect the HDD as an external device. All of this sounds like this is the firmware problem that so many are experiencing. This is my question. I do not think my data and pictures are worth the $500-2000 that is being quoted. Can I purchase one of those FAT data recovery programs that uses DOS to go in the back door to access the data? Or can I do something to the bios to see the drive? At this point it is more of a challenge to see if we can get the data ourselves, than to send it out. Let me know if anyone has any further ideas. Thank you.

This usually indicates some level of physical damage, likely one or more failed heads.



Unfortunately this will not work on a modern drive due to adaptive (drive specific) data embedded in the pcb.



Not likely if the drive is making abnormal noises.



No, you need to address the root of the problem before you can begin looking at the file system. No software will magically fix a firmware or physical defect.

Before you attempt any DIY work, please read the stickies on this forum. If your data is valuable, put the drive away until such time that you can afford a professional service. Hard Drives may seem simple to fix to the average user, but one wrong move and your valuable data is toast. If you don't think your data is worth $500+, just buy a new drive and move on.

_________________
Data Recovery Ireland

Thank you CK for your comments.

I do now have a new hard drive to back up my stuff. I think I will take the $500-1000 and go back to the places we visited and try to reshoot the photo. That sounds a lot more fun. Have a great day and thanks for the quick reply.

Thanks. I'll add that to my list of suggestions. :-)

Sorry for your loss, though.