Hi,

I'm an IT pro, but a noob to HDD recovery. Being a pro, my family always get me to fix their broken PCs... The latest problem is my sister's external HDD with all her photos of her kids on died. ("yes sis, remember I told you once about keeping 2 copies of important things...")

Quick bit of history, it's been stuck behind a monitor for about a year, probably powered all the time.
It's a Seagate 7200.10, 500GB, SATA interface.
ST3500630AS
3.AFM firmware

First thing I did was pull it out of the external USB box and connect it direct to a PC with SATA.

Current status is that about 25% of the time it will start up but only run for a few minutes if you're lucky then goes "busy", not normally long enough to boot an OS and try to read it.
It's pretty quiet but seems to run then do one quiet click and go busy without noticeable being slower or rattling the heads a lot. It just sits there spinning platters.

I did get MHDD to read it and report SMART stats and basic info. Unfortunately I was running it from a CD with no other HDD attached so I have no copy of anything MHDD told me.


I'm guessing it's a bad bearing causing the platters to run slow (would the disk go busy if that were the case?)

First question, am I likely to be able to fix this myself (i.e. could it be a software fix!) ?
Next question, can anyone recommend a DR outfit in SouthWest UK that would have capability to do this sort of recovery?

I've had a quick google and "Duck Data recovery" look like they know what they're doing. Some of the more prominent google advertisers sound like some bloke with a copy of partition magic rather than an organisation with a clean room.


If it is a bearing, I've heard of ideas like freezing the drive. Is that a possible solution or just an urban legend?
Thanks for any advice.
If you need any more info, let me know. (I haven't got a seagate to serial interface built yet....)

Max

Freezing the drive is not an URBAN legend, is a GALACTIC bullshit - falls in the category about using coke as birth control method : if it worked, it was not time for a baby - or even better, it could work if it was used not BEFORE neither AFTER, but INSTEAD OF. Sorry couldn't resist.

AND your drive bearing is fine otherwise it wouldn't have inited, trust me.

About the rest, I'm in conflict of interests so I can't help

Doesn't sound like bearings to me.

Much more like bad sectors or a bad/weak head.

Should be easily recoverable at a sensible price, AT THIS STAGE

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Duck data recovery?
I can recommend pcimage anyday for internal repairs to HDD's. Dont take chances with other Duckers.

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..

"Other Duckers"

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Fixed that for you

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

OK, so "Duck" have a silly name but they actually appeared in a Google search, unlike PCimage, who don't unless I add "Peterborough" to the search terms. (I can't remember exactly what I searched for yesterday)
Most of the other top matches for "hard disk recovery" have a lot of information about recovering deleted files, which puts me off using them for a genuinely failed hard disk.
I like that PCImage do a different level of service, more speed=more money.
At the end of the day, it's the sister's money and choice.

Thanks

I guess some companies do not need to spend thousands on marketing and google, I guess with some companies the proof is in the pudding

Exactly so. I prefer to work for myself rather than Google

_________________
PC Image Data Recovery
http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

Just as an aside, duck registered their website two months ago and did so through a privacy registrar so you can't see the registrant details. Pcimage's website has been around since 2002 and has full details on their registry info (though I didn't post it here). This obviously isn't a be-all and end-all but does shed some light on things.

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

I still don't get why people when the car battery breaks down they want the very best battery on the market even if they have a 1802 TRABANT and they want it for yesterday, when they need their data they ask clairvoyant first then friends then idiot IT "I know all" then DIY then they ask for help whining about price....

(not this case but why generally happens ?!?)

1802 Trabant -- hahah Do you have this classic in your garage? I think those are the ones you had to make a small fire under engine to defrost it in very cold climates.. lol

_________________
It seems that the unluckiest people in the world are those that don't backup.
Free Solutions
Picasaweb- Pictures and movies | Dropbox - Documents and other..

I was just sitting here wondering the same, and it hit me.
Male ego,the need to think "I can fix anything". "How hard can it be"