This could be really bad

[carbonel]

I'd been meaning to back up the external hard drive that all my music is on -- all the CDs I ripped, all the LPs and tapes that I'd converted myself, everything. I finally got a large enough additional hard drive to put it on. And now my music hard drive, the one that hasn't been backed up, seems to have totally died. The light goes on, but there are no vibrations.

Is there anything that can be done that won't be hideously expensive?

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Ouch. I do not know the answer to this.

K.

Complicated Question

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

There's a few things you can try. Do you know if it's a SATA drive or an IDE drive? How old is it? SATA is easier to work with.

I'm guessing it won't spin up. Sometimes a thump helps. I'd not try to spin it up until you have a replacement drive ready to copy it to.

[guppiecat]

Here is your process:

1) Try the drive with an external adapter kit. I have a few you can try.

2) As lsanderson says, give it a small thump. See if that frees up the platters.

3) Set the oven to 100 degrees. VERIFY THIS WITH A THERMOMETER. Place the drive in there for about ten minutes, then try it again.

4) Place the drive in two ziplock bags, and place in the freezer for about half an hour. Then try it again.

5) If none of the above works, find an identical model of drive and swap the external circuit boards.

6) If that doesn't work, swap the circuit boards back and try the identical drive (make sure it works). Then, do a platter swap in as close to a clean room as you can. What often works best is to run the shower on hot in your bathroom until things get all steamy. Then cover any sources of dust and run the bathroom fan until it's not steamy anymore. Then swap the platters and place the open drive in a baggie with some Do Not Eats for about a day. Then try the drive again.

Bays

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

If it's SATA, I also have open external bays eSATA and USB. I also have software for looking at the drive which works for either IDE or SATA. The disadvantage, if any, to an external adapter, is that I don't think you can always read S.M.A.R.T. info off the drive. If the drive's a brick, it don't matter much. Some motherboards do S.M.A.R.T. better than others, etc.

Seagate has free tools you can use to look at the drive and to clone the drive: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/ I've used Seagate's software to clone sick disks, but they do hafta spin.

OnTrack, one of the industry standard data recovery companies, is local. They're good, but they ain't cheap: http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/data-recovery-services/hard-drive-recovery/

Re: Bays

[guppiecat]

The SMART issue varies by drive. However, the drive won't even spin up, odds are that it also won't report SMART errors. SMART, really, is intended to be a testing and reporting mechanism and not a logging mechanism. In other words, it's better at troubleshooting failing drives instead of failed ones.

The ability to read SMART data off a drive via USB depends on the adapter you have and the drive. That said, what Larry says is true. An external SATA port gives you a better chance of reading that data. I've just seldom found it to be useful in a non-enterprise settings.

All major manufacturers have analysis tools. Be careful though, as some of them will wipe the drive as part of testing. (One of the SMART tests is invasive.)

OnTrack, now Altegrity, is good, but pricey. I don't know of any data recovery firms focused on consumers.

[mizzlaurajean.livejournal.com]

Beth, This does not sound like fun.

Josh, What is this, the computer equivalent of Chinese water torture, or an attempt to save a (computer) life exposed to extreme weather?

[guppiecat]

Not exactly.

Step 1 tests for over/under voltage that is causing an immediate shutdown of the drive.

Steps 2-4 test for poor lubrication and will, in some cases, temporarily resolve the issue. Once the drive starts spinning, it should continue to spin just fine until it's turned off. That should be good enough to get a copy.

Steps 5 and 6 test for electronic damage and work by replacing the parts most likely to have failed.

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

Get SpinRight from GRC and run it for as long as you can. As soon as your sectors are recovered. get the stuff off of the drive and chuck it.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's probably bad. The above advice is good. You might try simply powering it down (turning it off/unplugging it) until it's cool, then trying to restart. If this works, it's probably a power supply issue, which is expensive to fix, so replace it and transfer.

[pameladean]

Aaaaagggghhhh. No advice, alas, but plenty of sympathy. I hope thumping it helps.

P.

Edited to correct stupid spelling error.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're facing this, but somewhat amused--or maybe bemused--by guppiecat's response. If you try any of that, I'll be interested in hearing whether it works.