Hard Disk Failure

[Christopher Chisholm]

Depending on the state of the drive, you could try a couple things 
before sending it off to expensive data recovery centers.  For one, you 
could some sort of data recovery program, which reads data from a drive 
at a very low level.  I've used these with mixed success on drives 
before.  It really depends on the state of the drive. 

An old trick is to put the drive in a freezer overnight.  While I really 
can't explain it, sometimes you'll get a few minutes of time with the 
drive when you take it out.  And if it doesn't work, you really haven't 
lost anything.  Although, the drive recovery people might wonder why 
it's so cold :)

Another option (one I've never tried and probably is not a good idea) is 
to buy another of the same model drive and try swapping the platters 
from the bad drive to the good drive.  I believe this is what the drive 
recovery people do.  You have to be really careful, though, because one 
touch and a finger print is on a platter forever.  Not only that but 
even trace amounts of dust or sand can scratch the hell out of platters 
when the drive is running.  Plus is takes some really small 
screwdrivers.  But, if the data on the drive is not of the most critical 
importance, it would be a lot cheaper to give this a shot than to spend 
$1000+ on having someone else do it.  I mean... how hard could it be?!

-chris

Neil Joseph Schelly wrote:
> My boss just came to me with a failed hard drive in a personal computer of 
> his.  I'm remembering only that someone mentioned having some experience with 
> hard disc recovery services recently, but I can't seem to find it in my list 
> history.
>
> Can anyone with experience, suggestions in this regard let me know what I 
> might suggest to pass on to him?  Especially price-wise and expectations?
> -Neil
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