Recover Dead Hard Drive
So your hard drive just all of a sudden crashed on you without any warning and you can’t get it to start back up. The more often you use your computer for work the more often you should back up the data in case your hard drive fails.
There are a few different ways to fix your dead hard drive though and hopefully one of the following solutions will work for you.
Hard Drive Recovery Software
There are many companies out there nowadays that provide software to recover your dead hard drive. While there are many reasons as to why your hard drive may have crashed the software can try to determine just exactly what went wrong.
Kernel FAT and NTFS Data Recovery Software
Recovers deleted, corrupted or lost data from NTFS and FAT drive partitions. Recovers data from EIDE, SATA, SCSI, PAN, ZIP, IDE drives and more. Allows the recovery of hard drive data after the loss of the Master Boot Record (MBR), boot sector and FAT.
Kernel For Macintosh Data Recovery
Recovers deleted or formatted partitions as well as recovering data from Lost or Missing Mac folders. Fully supports drive types IDE, EIDE, SCSI and SATA. Preserves long file names when recovering files and folders. Can recover data from mac hard drives, CD-ROM, digital camera cards, iPods as well as many other devices.
Works on any Seagate/Maxtor hard drive along with all other hard drives. Tests USB, 1394, ATA (PATA/IDE), SATA and SCSI drives.
Specializes in Windows, Mac, Linux, Novell, Unix and iPod data recovery. If they cannot retrieve your data you pay nothing.
R-Studio File Recovery Software
Recovers files that have been deleted or when Recycle Bin has been emptied. Can recover lost files after hard drive formatting as well as when the partition structure was changed or damaged on the hard drive.
Hard Drive Recovery Experts
You may not want to buy a piece of software and instead take your dead hard drive to a certified recovery expert. Make sure you are dealing with somebody who knows what they are doing though, you might think that taking in your hard drive to your local computer store will solve all your problems. When in fact, it could cause more problems than what already exist.
It takes a lot of understanding to know exactly how a hard drive works and even more knowledge and expertise in how to fix the drive.
Professional data recovery services. Utilize state of the art clean rooms increasing the chances that your data can be successfully recovered. Have heard estimates of between $1000-$2300 for recovery.
Hard drive, RAID, tape, flash memory and many other services. Can perform recovery on both desktop and laptop hard drives as well as digital cameras, mp3 players, cell phones and more.
CBL Tech (USA) CBL Tech (Europe)
Free evaluation of your hard drive. No cost to you if they can’t retrieve any data. Can recover deleted, overwritten corrupted files along with physically damaged hard drives.
Offers both hard drive recovery services as well as hard drive recovery software. Can recover files from hard drive crash/failure, water, fire, heat, smoke, power outage, virus and human error damage.
Re-Source Hardware (Australia)
10 years of experience in the industry. No charge if they cannot recover your data. Can repairs problems such as hard drive clicking, skipping, clunking, scraping, not spinning and not detecting BIOS.
Ways To Backup Your Data
Should you somehow get your drive to boot back up yourself without having to resort to sending it in you may in fact have a very limited amount of time before it shuts down again. This is why you should have a plan and be prepared ahead of time so that you can maximize your chances of retrieving important data.
- Use a USB stick drive for smaller backups (8GB or less)
- Use a USB enabled hard drive and backup your files onto that
- Backup important files onto a CD/DVD disc
- Upload important files to a file hosting website
- Send yourself an email of important files
- Hook up hard drive to another computer and attempt to retrieve files
- Use a Linux Boot CD to backup your important files – Knoppix
Data Backup Software
Once you get your hard drive up and running you will need some software to backup your files.
No limit on data or file size. Free 30 day trial, works on XP,Vista,Server 2000/2003/2008,ME
Backup files to almost any type of media storage device. Quick, easy to use interface lets you backup files in seconds.
Backup to any media device, ZIP compression support, multi-language interface (English, Spanish, French, German)
Do It Yourself!
Now, I would only move to this as a last resort option. There have been a few cases reported around the internet as to how to recover your dead hard drive and get it working again.
Freeze The Drive
Some people have had this work for them while others have not. If you want to try it out remove the hard drive from your computer. Place it in a Ziplock bag and stick it in your freezer, leaving it overnight if possible. Remove it from the freezer, place it back in your computer and start it up.
If you get lucky you may be able to get your drive to boot up and give you some time to recover important files. How much time is not exactly known as some people have reported 10 minutes of time up to a few hours. In any event, make sure you know beforehand exactly what files you need to back up and where they are to maximize the time that you do have.
Hit The Drive
Some have had luck with this one as well. Take the hard drive and hit it lightly against a flat surface such as a table. Make sure that whatever side of the drive hits the table is completely flush. You don’t wanna hit the corner of the hard drive on the table first. Supposedly this has a chance to potentially knock hardware inside of the drive back into place.
Of course, this could also ruin the drive permanently and give you no chance whatsoever to recover your files.
Replace The Logic Board
Others have had success with opening up the drive and replacing the logic board. The logic board is the piece of plastic that is usually green that has a whole bunch of little electronics on it. If you choose to go this route, when selecting a hard drive make sure that they are exactly the same model as well as the same firmware version.
Having a different firmware version could give you another error and will not let you access your files even though the hard drive is actually working just fine. If you decide to try this DO NOT open up the drive any further. The actual working hardware of a hard drive is extremely sensitive to dust and debris. Even a tiny spec of dust that lands on a platter could ruin the entire drive.
Replace The Hardware – NOT RECOMMENDED
You can still try this out should you know what you are doing. As I said before, even 1 spec of dust could ruin the entire drive but there have been reports of others being able to open up the drive, mess with the hardware and actually repair the drive. Of course I would have to say that these people got extremely lucky and would hazard to guess that most that try this end up completely destroying any chance of recovering any data.
Note: The above methods listed under the Do It Yourself section are a last resort option! I cannot guarantee nor do I hold any responsibility as to what happens should you try any of the particular methods that I have listed. These methods are what I have found that have worked for some and you may or may not get lucky like they did.
Of course, all of this leads down to the importance of backing up your data in the first place. Should you ever have a hard drive crash you will have a fresh backup of your data readily waiting for you. Instead of wasting money on software, experts or even trying methods yourself you can go buy a hard drive at your local computer store, install it into your computer and load the backup.
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