Hard Drive

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How to fix a dead hard drive

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How To Diagnose And Fix A Dead Hard Drive To Recover Data
by Tina Sieber
Several years ago, I experienced a hard drive failure. I was at work when my lap
top suddenly started to act particularly strange. First, I thought it was becaus
e I had too many windows open and the RAM was full, but when the problems persis
ted after a reboot, I knew it was more than that. I immediately started to back
up recent files. About half an hour later, the hard drive failed audibly and the
laptop wouldnt boot anymore.
Thank God I had backups! Except that I didnt have backups of everything. Just wee
ks earlier my backup drive had reached capacity. To back up important work files
, I had decided to delete my personal photos. The irony was that I had already p
urchased a new external drive, but had not taken the time to back up my photos.
Now they were lost and I was devastated.
Over the next couple of weeks I researched ways to recover the data and consider
ed doing everything under the sun and did most of it to revive the old hard driv
e. I eventually did recover my data, but not in the way you would expect. If you
r hard drive has failed physically, maybe this little guide can help you or at l
east give you some hope. So roll up your sleeves and get to work.
External Hard Drive? Check Whether The IDE / SATA to USB Enclosure Is OK!
When your external hard drive fails, it can do so for all the same reasons an in
ternal drive can fail. Sometimes, however, its not the drive that stops working,
but a connection within the enclosure! And in that case, the drive is easy to re
vive.
Before you open up any hardware, be sure to discharge your bodys static electrici
ty, i.e. ground yourself. Remove the hard drive from its casing and use a IDE /
SATA data cable and power connector to install the drive internally on your desk
top computer. Alternatively, you can get an IDE / SATA to USB adapter or a new U
SB enclosure, so you can hook the drive up externally via USB.
SATA vs. IDE
The image above shows a SATA connector (left) and an IDE connector (right).
Once you re-connected the external drive to your computer, given the enclosure w
as the culprit, Windows should recognize it and assign a drive letter. If this d
oesnt happen, you can try to manually find your drive to further narrow down the
issue; the process is described further down.
Internal Hard Drive? Make Sure The Hard Drive Connections Are OK!
Sometimes, its not the drive that failed, but the physical connection of cables t
hat connect the drive with the computers motherboard. You can only wish that this
is your problem! So before you hire an expensive technician, make sure the data
and power cables are firmly connected on both ends.
SATA Hard Drive
To prevent hazards to your health, its essential to turn off the computer and unp
lug the power cord. As mentioned above, you also need to discharge your bodys sta
tic electricity, i.e. ground yourself before you get working on your computers in
ternals. Then open up the case and make sure all connections are OK. Our guide o
n how to physically install an internal hard drive shows which connections to wa
tch out for.
Once you have made sure the connections are OK, boot the computer again. If you
have a desktop computer, you can leave the case open, but stay clear of its inte
rior.
Whats That Sound?
As you are trying to get the hard drive to run, listen to the sound it is making
. Is it completely dead? Or is it still spinning? What exactly does it sound lik
e? Compare your sound to the list of hard drive sounds provided by Data Cent. Th
is will help you diagnose the type of damage.
Hard Drive Disk Platter
The damage can be either internal or external. A clicking sound, for example, is
suggestive of a malfunctioning head, i.e. internal damage. A completely dead dr
ive, on the other hand, could be due to a faulty printed circuit board (PCB), wh
ich would be external damage.
Is The Hard Drive Recognized?
Sometimes, you can hear your drive spinning, but it never pops up. Or maybe its c
ompletely dead. To pinpoint the type of damage, try to manually check whether or
not the drive is recognized by your computer.
You can do this via the BIOS in case its the primary hard drive and your computer
no longer boots. After you turn on the computer, enter the BIOS by pressing a t
rigger key, which could be [DEL], [ESC], [F2], or [F10], depending on the manufa
cturer. Within the BIOS, navigate through the available menus to find where it l
ists which types of drives are connected to the computer. Usually, this informat
ion is found under the Advanced menu, but you might also find it indirectly unde
r Boot settings.
BIOS Boot Order
If you have hooked up the drive to another computer, you dont need to access the
BIOS at all. In Windows, click the key combination [Windows] + [R], which will l
aunch the Run input window. Type cmd into the field and hit [Enter]. This will o
pen the Command Prompt. Here type diskpart and hit [Enter], to open the respecti
ve tool. In the diskpart window, type list volume and hit [Enter] to show all dr
ives connected to your computer.
DiskPart
If the drive is recognized and thus appears in the list above, but doesnt show up
as an accessible drive, chances are Windows only recognizes the PCB, but the dr
ive itself is damaged (internal damage). In other words, if the drive is recogni
zed in any shape or form, the PCB is most likely working and replacing it will n
ot fix the hard drive!
Is The Printed Circuit Board Broken?
As mentioned previously, your drive can be damaged internally or externally. The
external PCB, if damaged, is relatively easy to replace. However, data recovery
specialists warn that swapping the PCB can ruin the drive and cause you to lose
all data on it. So if you do care about your data, better err on the side of ca
ution.
HDD Circuit Board
Even if you can see that your PCB is damaged, there might still be internal dama
ge. Moreover, as mentioned above, replacing the circuit board yourself can damag
e your drive further, which reduces your chances of recovering your data. Now th
at you have been warned extensively, here is a video that explains how to swap t
he PCB.
Note that many websites now sell PCBs and provide guides to find exactly the rig
ht circuit board for your drive. You can easily find them on Google. So if you r
eally cant or dont want to afford professional help and are certain that (only) th
e PCB is damaged, those resources might save you a lot of money and your data if
youre lucky. Or not.
Witchcraft & Wizardry
When my hard drive failed, the PCB was fine; the drive was still recognized and
spinning, but it didnt show up in Windows, meaning I could not access it, and no
software recovery tool could help me, either. So I put my last hope into some of
those obscure tricks that youll find floating around the Internet, like shaking
the drive, hitting it onto a hard surface, exposing it to dry heat in the oven,
or sticking it in the freezer overnight. If you have any idea how a hard drive w
orks, then any of these methods should give you the shivers!
Frozen Hard Drive Head
Well, I didnt dare to melt my drive, but my suspicion was that the head was stuck
. So I did shake it, but to no avail. Since I could follow the reasoning, I also
wrapped my drive in an airtight Ziploc back and stuck it in the freezer overnig
ht. The idea is that the low temperatures cause metals to shrink and contract. S
o if the head was stuck, the cold might get it unstuck. In practice, that didnt w
ork either. And I probably caused condensation to settle on the hard drive platt
er, which could have caused a lot more damage. I eventually gave up and stored t
he drive for a future in which I was hoping to be able to afford professional da
ta recovery.
Backup Strategy Advice
One last thought about the weird methods above: If they do work, they will only
work temporarily! So be prepared. Know exactly what you want to back up and how.
Have the right software to quickly back up your data and have enough storage sp
ace available. If you want to copy files manually, only copy one set of files at
a time! If you make the head jump back and forth between too many files by kick
ing off multiple copy and paste processes, you will slow down the overall backup
process and increase the likelihood of a fatal head crash.
Consult A Specialist For Professional Data Recovery
If you can afford professional help or simply cannot afford to wait for a miracl
e, do consult a specialist. My recommendation is to go with a reputable company.
They should work with professional technicians and tools, be able to open your
hard drive in clean rooms or under dust free conditions, follow industry standar
ds, and have solid credentials, as well as excellent recommendations. After all,
you will trust them with your private data.
Kroll Ontrack, one of the more reputable companies in the market, has an extensi
ve and well-designed compendium of consumer myths in regards to data recovery, t
hat will help you pick the right candidate. We have also had a discussion on Ans
wers, where several data recovery companies were recommended.
Data Recovery Consumer Myths
Before you pick a company, be sure you understand the conditions! Most charge ju
st for looking at the drive and making a recommendation. They will charge extra
for actually attempting to recover the data. Some will charge a full recovery fe
e, even if they failed to recover the data.
Conclusion
Diagnosing and fixing a broken hard drive is serious business. Do take it seriou
sly, but also try to exclude some of the more simple to fix culprits before you
fork out hundreds of dollars to a so-called specialist. The more informed you ar
e, the better. How far you go to diagnose and fix your hard drive will depend on
how important the data is for you.
You probably wonder what happened with my hard drive. Well, one fine day, when I
was dissolving my apartment, I decided to give it one last chance and then let
go of it. More than two years after I had tried everything I dared to get it to
work, again and again for weeks, I just plugged it in and it simply worked. I re
covered all my data and the drive is working until this day, almost six years af
ter it failed initially. Call me lucky!
Have you ever experienced such a miracle? What helped you revive a hard drive in
the past? And how did you recover the data

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