Resurrecting Dead Harddrives?

Broue Master asks: "The main harddrive of a friend's computer stopped working. He described to me that the computer began by emitting strange 'scratching sounds', and after a while, it made a 'loud *tock* sound' and stopped. He tried to reboot it but soon realized that the harddrive wasn't spinning anymore. He asked me if I could revive it, at least long enough so that he could retrieve at least his "my documents" folder. The computer was running XP. I did a little googling(tm) of my own to find out that the most recommended solution out there seems to be 'freezing' the harddrive for a day in a ziplock bag. I'd like to know what fellow Slashdot readers have done in the past to try and resurrect dead harddrives and if the freezing method would still be a good idea, today. The harddrive is a Samsung 30Gb." A good 95% of the time, once an HD is gone, break out the shovel, because it's time to bury it. Still, it would be interesting to note, if only from an anecdotal standpoint, if any of you have managed to perform such miracle hardware resurrections. Have you managed to revive a dead and decaying drive from the dead long enough to pull data off of it? If so, what did you do?

Comments

Identical drive and swap platters.

[Wardish]

From the sound of it it was a nasty head crash.

If the value is high enough send it to a qualified recovery company. If your willing to risk it and you have the tools, swap the platters from the bad drive to an identical known good drive.

Odds of getting it running with cold or hot is low considering the reported noises.

Qualified recovery company figure 100% they get data and probably about 90% of it. Odds of switching platters yourself and getting most of your data figure 60%, odds of using cold (freezer) or heat (it can work...) 30% or so.

BTW if you do the freezer make sure and bag it. You don't want a lot of nice humid air on your drive when it's nice and chilly.

Now back to my Thorazine...mmmm thooraaaszzzzzhhhh....

Try this.

[Tooxs]

Take the drive out and have cables long enough to set the drive flat on a smooth non conductive surface, like a bench or table top. Turn the system on and give the drive a quick spin about a quarter turn around the axis of the platter, then listen to see if it spins up. If it was just a sticky spin motor it might let go, if it does, try and get your stuff asap. I've recovered data on a few drives like that. I've had a couple were this worked once but not twice, so you shouldn't press your luck. It's a long shot, but it gives quick easy results if it works.

DriveSavers

[gabe]

www.drivesavers.com

Re:Drop trick

[Oinos]

Remember kids, if you're going to drop your hard drive, drop it on it's SIDE. Dropping it flat on it's top or bottom is only going to embed the heads into the platters.

Re:Freeze first, then

[XenonOfArcticus]

I've done the brain swap successfully before (about 10 years ago). I have heard anecdotally since then that this may not work with more modern drives that may store calibration data in non-volatile storage on the electronics board. I can't confirm if this is true.

I've never tried freezing one. I think I'd try a brain swap first, as it's unlikely to cause physical harm. I can't say the same for the freeze operation for sure. If you do freeze it, put a bunch of dessicant (silica gels) in with the drive for a few days beforehand. You don't want moisture in with the drive freezing, expanding and damaging something.