I know the storage prices are in an all time low, but their reliability as well! It's ridiculous...
So after installing windows, copying my files over and deleting the backups (stupid me), I left uTorrent overnight downloading the latest version of Linux Mint (Felicia, 1.2 GB)

I woke up this morning to the horrible sounds of a dying hard drive, so I swiftly turned off my laptop and proceeded to take out the disc and try everything to get it recognised again, with no success.

ATM, it's in the freezer, I'm going to try the trick in order to get my most important files back.

The sound it makes it's the common clicking sound, with a high pitch "beep" and the headstack moving back and forth. Also what sounds like the head scratching the plates

I'm considering two options now:
A) Buying another drive from the same place and change the PCB and headstack with the new one's
B) RMA'ing as soon as possible the damaged drive (but this means no data back, and tbh, there was some sensitive and private data in it)

Thoughts, anyone?

Take it out of the freezer you fool, its a hard drive, not a fu*king ready meal. DIY it and loose the data forever. Send it to a proper lab, most probably get your 'sesitive/private' data back.

You should have no more questions.

If for 'sensitive data' you mean some downloaded porn and warez... I suggest you, after the freezer, to put it in the oven, the heat will mobilize and straighten the magnetic dipoles in the surface, so it will bring all your data back, safe and sound... ROTFL... (sorry I couldn't resist..)

Don' t hear that guys ,they don't now nothing about Data Recovery.
Go ahead , you are very right ,but all depended from the Brand of refrigerator.
If is Siemens you can get some data back like your torrent files ....automatically.
If is LG you can get some Excel files back...
but if is Kelvinator no frost you have all your data back and a new drive donor with a full
backup on it.






Xronis

_________________
T3 Professional Data Recovery
http://www.t3-recovery.com

Well, I don't know how "hdd gurus" are you... but by the sarcasm I can see you've never tried the freezer thing, I myself have recovered files from 2 3,5" HDs that way.
In the case it helps, it gives you a 20 minute window to copy some files, before it goes back to its normal temperature and stop working again.

And if you think heat doesn't have an effect on electromechanical devices, then I suggest you go troll another forum.
I asked a couple of serious questions and all I got was assholes' answers.

A "proper lab" will charge me $750+. If I had that money I wouldn't be asking for advice on a forum.
Sensitive data in the sense of corporate secrets and private information.

Can I get real hdd gurus to answer me, please?

Yes, putting a drive in the freezer is a myth. Drives where this process has worked would most likely have worked if you leave them anywhere at room temperature for a few hours.. If they don't, then its data recovery time.

btw Freezing a drive can have catastrophic results. Image a warm drive going into a cold atmosphere. Water vapour condenses on the platters and freezes solid. You then power up the drive and kiss your data goodbye !

Try the new model of AEG with ice-cube......

_________________
T3 Professional Data Recovery
http://www.t3-recovery.com

Simple : we never put customer data at risk. That's what serious professionals do.



Don't tell us what to do, we can screw drives PERFECTLY without help, if only we want to.
BTW, if a freezer can give 20 min. window , I'll open a service center in Siberia or use liquid nitrogen, I'll be the Number One .



OOOOH !!! Make up your mind : heat or cold ?



And you had corporate secrets and private info on the drive connected to a laptop where you used microtorrent (so exposed to the Internet) ? A "Corporate" that can't afford $750 ? I know there's global crisis (or better, they say that's the way it is), but would you expect we will take all this seriously ? Come on, it's Sunday.

No amount of freezing will do anything about head/media damage. Sure, I've seen a handful of drives in my entire history that responded positively to cooling but unless you have a specific reason for doing what you're doing then you're wasting your time.

As a do-it-yourselfer the chances of a successful head swap are negligible. And again, if you don't have a specific reason for doing it then you're wasting your time. Your drive needs a professional diagnosis. If you had horrible headaches would you just go through a list of every medical procedure you've ever heard of that might have helped similar symptoms once and do them all on yourself?

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I'm CEO of a small company, and I have stored personal information of many clients, that in the wrong hands, could do them some harm as well as lawsuits to me. And financial information about the company.
Guess what? I'm a security expert. The fact that it's connected to the internet is irrelevant.

Now please stop posting if you have nothing to contribute.




Thanks for the suggestion. About the headache, I just might: I am that way, even if I do more harm, I like to learn everthing about everything, the internet is a fantastic (and horrible) source for information.

I've decided to RMA the drive as is and get a new one insted. I just hope that it wasn't the lack of ventilation in my laptop that caused the damage so it doesn't happen again.
Maybe that's why they ship this model with 4200RMP HDs.

Any personal suggestions on which brands are the most reliable? I trusted in Quantum until the went out of business (or whatever) and then Seagate, but this is the 2nd Seagate that dies on me (the first one, a Barracuda 7200.11, the one I changed the PCB)
WD and Maxtor gave me headaches as well (not raptors, though)

Please close that subject you do nothing more other than you become ridicule!

_________________
T3 Professional Data Recovery
http://www.t3-recovery.com

BREAKING NEWS : as I was hungry, I opened the fridge (it's Japanese) and inside the freezer I have found a SATA connector : EUREKA !! I'm a Guru, I'm the Number One, be afraid big companies we are arriving (me, my fridge and the champagne bottles I always keep for celebrating a good recovery).

(Exit hilarious mode.... CLICK!)

You sure you want to RMA a drive with all those special precious secrets? Why not put a hammer through it and buy a reliable laptop drive like a Toshiba (MK1830GAS).

ps. Security Expert that has no back ups. LOL. If you are an expert, I am Mahatma Gandhi's long lost mother.

IF there is such valuable info on it, RMA is not a good idea : what if someone reading this forum works for ... cough! cough! .... er... ehm.... guess ?!?

Jokes apart, if the problem is privacy, buy a new one instead and keep / destroy it (save the PCB !). It's gonna cost you no more than 40-50$.

My customers have generally had good luck with Toshiba, Fujitsu, Samsung, and WDC mobile drives. Can't say the same for Seagate or Hitachi.

I just got in a Venus (7200.3) drive with a head crash. IMHO Seagate is very arrogant and pretends they don't have problems. So I pretend not to sell the Momentus and 7200.11 series . . .

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http://www.datasaversllc.com

Undelete your backups. Software like R-studio or UFS Explorer should be sufficient.
DO NOT UNDELETE TO THE ORIGINAL DRIVE.
Working with the dead drive would be a lot more expensive than $750.

It's not the PCB. Burn-in new drives for at least 48 hours before trusting them with data.

Thanks for taking me seriously. I used GetDataBack for NTFS (I have used this before), to recover some files from the backup drive, but I had overwritten it with 2/3 of data after transfering to the new hard drive. Still, the software works by finding remaining $MFTs, so all the files I managed to get back, where intact.
On a side note, I don't have money for an automated backup system, so I do it by hand.
I guess 1 week of data lost isn't much, but still both worth the try to recover it and worth the try to get it deleted from the dead drive.
I guess 48 hours of burn in sounds like what I'll be doing with my replacement drive.

Thanks for the people that shared their knowledge. Also, I should have suspected that as with any other forum, trolls abound and usually have nothing better to do than to mock and pretend to be superior than people with questions.

And I hope for Rafaela, HDD Spaz and BlackST that when you're in need of answers in a matter you ignore, you don't get spit in the face.

So long, I won't be coming here anymore.

That's life. We'll be missing you.

lol

my dear friends
my momentus 7200.3 had died... i think for the weird noise he do..
my bios dosent found the hard drive
i have a dell xps 1710---

what could i do?

when is needed the change of the PCB?

thanks!
Manuel