Fw: Hard Disk Failure

[hewitt_tech]

Dang, replied to Jerry directly but wanted the list...

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "hewitt_tech" <hewitt_tech at comcast.net>
To: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Failure


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jerry Feldman" <gaf at blu.org>
> To: "GNHLUG" <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 10:24 AM
> Subject: Re: Hard Disk Failure
>
>
>> On Tuesday 14 February 2006 10:12 am, Michael ODonnell wrote:
>>> > buy another of the same model drive and try swapping the platters
>>>
>>> Yow!  I've disassembled dead drives just out of curiosity
>>> and I'd bet serious cash that the even an accomplished
>>> hobbyist would find swapping platters from one drive to
>>> another to be anything but straightforward.  The various
>>> parts and assemblies often don't fit together in ways that
>>> make sense to humans, the tolerances are unforgiving and
>>> you'll likely need some specialized tools as well as
>>> access to a well maintained Clean Room and a bunny suit...  ;->
>> FWIW, if the data on the drive is important, I would immediately take it 
>> to
>> a qualified data recovery company. If you try to do it yourself, or take 
>> it
>> to the corner computer store to try to save a few bucks, you stand to 
>> lose
>> some or all of the data. Companies, like OnTrack, specialize in this type
>> of thing, and can generally get as much data off the drive as is 
>> possible.
>>
>
> On a fairly regular basis I recover failed hard drives for clients. In 
> some cases that simply means adding a new hard drive and using the disk 
> mirroring software that comes with the drive. I have used dd to copy the 
> drives and in the case of a dead drive I have replaced the electronics 
> module which is usually just bolted on to the drive chasis. However once 
> you determine that you have surface defects you are pretty much forced to 
> turn the drive over to a specialty house. The risk you take is that 
> powering up the drive might cause more damage to the drive assuming a 
> crashed head(s).  On the other hand I sometimes have recovered 99+ percent 
> of the data for the customer and my charges are usually far below what a 
> specialty shop would charge. To get hold of the electronics I've simply 
> searched eBay for a used drive with the identical model number. The used 
> drive is often available for small money and well worth it to the customer 
> if it allows the drive to return from the dead. I agree with Jerry though 
> that if the data were sufficiently valuable I'd pass on any recovery 
> attempts and go straight to a specialty house. A few weekends ago the CBS 
> Sunday morning show had a short segment on hard drive failures and the 
> interviews and reporting on the specialty houses were pretty interesting. 
> As others have pointed out the specialty houses have clean rooms and in 
> one case that they caught on film, the tech had a dissassembled drive in 
> his hands and he was carefully polishing a platter surface. In effect he 
> was trying to buff away a scratch on the surface. I assume that they would 
> reassemble the drive and try to recover whatever could then be read.
>
> BTW, one of the vendors featured on the TV segment was DriveSavers. Check 
> out www.drivesavers.com nice web site with some neat videos.
>
> -Alex
>
> P.S. A slight variation on the "hit it with a hammer" method. In the case 
> of sticktion (anyone remember that famous Seagate model?), I would pick up 
> the drive and snap it in a twisting motion with my wrist - that would free 
> the platter.
>
>> Additionally, if you know a drive is failing, take as much data off that
>> drive as soon as possible, and replace it before you lose the rest.
>> -- 
>> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
>> Boston Linux and Unix user group
>> http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
>> PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
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>