My hard drive died. I took it to the IT people who hooked it up to some machine and said the drive is not spinning, and therefore, they cannot get any data off it. I don’t have hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend on data recovery companies so I am looking for any hints that MIGHT get the drive working, at least temporarily. I put it in the freezer because someone told me that sometimes works, but it did not.
Any advice?
I was going to suggest the freezer thing but you already tried that. The only other thing I can think of is to attach the power and data cables and fire up the computer, then give the drive a very fast turn in the direction that the platters would spin. Sometimes that will get the platters to start turning, and a very weak motor can take over from there.
Does the computer see the drive? If it doesn’t, then the controller board is dead and no amount of freezing, spinning, or anything else is going to revive it.
No, the computer doesn’t see the drive. It would be able to see the drive, even frozen, if the controller board was OK? Isn’t it, therefore, possible that I just need a new controller board. The computer is from Dell, and I know you need the exact same HD model board, but it doesn’t seem that hard to come up with.
Swapping controller boards ranges in difficulty from “remove several screws that have heads you won’t own screwdrivers that fit and unplug it from one or two headers” to requiring de-soldering and re-soldering connections. And requiring screwdrivers that you probably won’t find at the neighborhood Ace Hardware store. Usually, they’re just tiny Torx screws, but I’ve seen some real wacky things in the past like pentagon-headed screws.
The hard part will be to find the exact same model of drive. And I mean EXACT, down to the firmware version.
How about removing the platters from the drive and inserting them in a “live” drive? Is that possible?
That’s how the pros do it. It requires special facilities (like a clean room) since a single spec of dust can wipe out several sectors worth of data. The chances of you successfully swapping platters at home with a basic set of tools is pretty small.
Yes and the price tag can easily run into the $2,000-$3,000 range for this service. As ECG pointed out it is possible, just often cost prohibitive. If its data a $15/hr employee can rebuild in a week or so it might be cheaper just to rebuild it.