MAXTOR DiamondMax VL 40 shows 0 MB at startup. PCB changed..

[pasco]

Hi 2gether

I have a very strange Problem with a Maxtor Harddrive. At startup it showed me suddenly only "MAXTOR Proxima 0 MB", but it's a 20.4 GB HDD...

So I thought, the PCB is damaged. I'd looked for a PCB with the same Sticker on the big chip. It says "A9DLA" like the one from the orginal PCB.

But I did one big mistake I guess. I opened also the HDD! Only very short, but I touched the "arm" and moved it manually to the outer end of the disk...then I closed the disk.

Now I changed the PCB and the HDD shows up in BIOS again like MAXTOR Proxima 0 MB but makes a strange noise. It's the "arm" in the HDD that moves very quickly from in to out and from out to in...it makes the often described "clicking noise", but it's very fast, like 3 or 4 times a second...so it's not the usual clicking.

Do I have the wrong PCB? Or have I damaged the disk completely by moving the "arm" manually? The disk surface looks still great and there is only one disk.
Is there any chance to rescue the data? It's very important to me.

Thanks a lot in advance for ANY help or suggestions.
P@sco

[rchadwick]

Likely originally firmware, possibly now a head failure. If your data is important to you, send it to someone. The more you mess with it, the less likely you, or anyone, will recover anything.

[pasco]

Yes, the data is really very important. It's also very sensitive data. So I'd need somebody I can trust. Probably I need to find somebody in Switzerland as I'm living in Switzerland. Do you know a good address? I don't want to mess any further with this disk. I hope somebody can still rescue the data.

[rchadwick]

I'm in the US. Hopefully someone on here is local to you. As for data security, most reputable companies don't (And don't have the time to) go through your pictures, word documents, or financial info. They look just enough to verify the data is not corrupted.

If the platter wasn't scratched, data is likely recoverable, but expect to pay more because of your attempt.

[pasco]

Thanks for giving me some hope . It's a HDD from a company, so it's business sensitive data, not private. I've just found a swiss HDD recovery company. The platter looked perfectly as I looked into the HDD. So I'll have a try. Money doesn't matter to much now.

[biggiesmalls]

pasco, do you still have a A9DLA pcb laying around? i need one bad

[rameez]

I have this pcb if u need contact in PM .

[salvationlaura]

Normally, there is IT department/center which is charge of computer security and data processing in big companies.

The sensitive data can not be sent out to a data recovery company easily. You may be asked to provide some ID testimonial from your company, sign confidential agreement and things like that.

It seems there are not many data recovery companies in Switzerland because people ther are too rich. If their HDD have problem, they just throw away and buy new ones.

Best Regards,

Laura

[pasco]

If the platter wasn't scratched, data is likely recoverable, but expect to pay more because of your attempt.

Likely originally firmware, possibly now a head failure. If your data is important to you, send it to someone. The more you mess with it, the less likely you, or anyone, will recover anything.

I've sent it to an professional DataRecoveryCenter. They sent my HDD back and weren't able to recover anything ! The cause was "too heavely surface damage" ...

I opened the disc and looked into it: there is really a "circle-scratch" in the very inner circle of the disc... So there is really no chance to get anything again from this disc? The rest of the disc looks perfect, it's "only" this one cirlce-scratch...

[N.C.]

If the platter wasn't scratched, data is likely recoverable, but expect to pay more because of your attempt.

Likely originally firmware, possibly now a head failure. If your data is important to you, send it to someone. The more you mess with it, the less likely you, or anyone, will recover anything.

I've sent it to an professional DataRecoveryCenter. They sent my HDD back and weren't able to recover anything ! The cause was "too heavely surface damage" ...

I opened the disc and looked into it: there is really a "circle-scratch" in the very inner circle of the disc... So there is really no chance to get anything again from this disc? The rest of the disc looks perfect, it's "only" this one cirlce-scratch...

Hello,

What type of data on it exactly?
What size?
How many free space are on the disk?
Maybe i can try it, but it is really small chance...

Regards,
Janos

[pasco]

Hi

What type of data on it exactly?

You mean what kind of format? I think it's NTFS, the important ones mostly .doc-Files (WinWord).

What size?

20.4 GB

How many free space are on the disk?

Dunno .

Maybe i can try it, but it is really small chance...

Hmm...what do you think, is it possible and if yes, what would it cost?

GrZ
P@sco

[wiseleo]

It's possible to image a drive with a scratched platter. Your costs will escalate depending on how many heads transfers the drive will need to be imaged to the fullest extent possible. Not everyone can do this - the lab to which you sent the drive appears to not be sufficiently equipped and normally does logical recoveries.

It is possible to recover your .DOCs from a partially imaged disk if the technicians are sufficiently skilled.

According to its datasheet, this is a single platter disk. That is the ideal scenario for data recovery!

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/maxt ... asheet.pdf

Count your blessings on that as that makes heads/platter transfer work a lot easier and in turn lowers your cost.

I ran a search for data recovery on http://www.google.ch for pages in Switzerland.

There is an Ontrack company in Switzerland in case you need an expensive choice. I wonder if Laura can recommend you one of her local customers to help with this.

In short, don't give up!

[pasco]

Yes, it's a single platter disk.

Indeed, ontrack is too expansive. I've already had a lot of costs by now so I don't know if it's still worthwile.

Who is Laura? It still would be very great to safe some data....

So long, P@sco

[BlackST]

I wonder how much data is worth... What do you expect to pay (how much?)

[wiseleo]

Yes, it's a single platter disk.

Indeed, ontrack is too expansive. I've already had a lot of costs by now so I don't know if it's still worthwile.

Who is Laura? It still would be very great to safe some data....

So long, P@sco

Laura sells physical data recovery products for SalvationData to data recovery firms. http://forum.hddguru.com/ucp.php?i=pm&mode=compose&action=quotepost&p=55931 - click this to PM her.

She can probably refer you to some of her customers in Switzerland who are presumably qualified to help you. The tools are not cheap (I just ordered some...argh $500!). Someone who owns both the platter transfer and the Maxtor firmware tools would be in an ideal position to help you.

You'd need at least one heads transplant and someone with sufficient expertise to image the damaged disk and then run recovery tools on it.

The donor disk should be inexpensive, but finding it could be challenging.

In any event, I doubt this will be cheap.