Data recovery from clicking hard drive

scamartist · 9 Oct 2008 at 15:40

Hard drive started clicking last night so am now in a bit of a predicament.

Need to get data recovered ASAP, yep I should have backed up

Can anybody recommend a company that does data recovery from broken hard drives at a decent price.

Was also considering trying to buy an identical hard drive and stripping the new one and swapping platters between the new and damaged drive.

I have access to a clean room for the above but not sure if any specialised tools are required to strip the drive.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

helmutcheese · 9 Oct 2008 at 16:48

1 section is enough m8, I replied in that section.

jongeeone · 9 Oct 2008 at 17:00

Put it in the freezer.

Snakedoctor · 9 Oct 2008 at 17:02

jongeeone said:
Put it in the freezer.

+1 does work sometimes.

scamartist · 9 Oct 2008 at 17:44

Will give it a go.

Failing that I will look into sending it off to some professionals to sort it out.

helmutcheese · 9 Oct 2008 at 17:46

Cost crazy cash but PC (PLANET) have a 1/2 price deal on now for HDD recovery.

scamartist · 10 Oct 2008 at 09:59

Froze the hard drive last night and gave it a shot after a couple of hours of freezing.

No joy whatsoever.

Might still have a go at swapping parts from a working model of the same drive.

Might be a good experiment.

EvilOne · 10 Oct 2008 at 13:17

jongeeone said:
Put it in the freezer.

Hmm, i have 2 old hard drives which this might help recover data off, is this safe to do? (ie it wont blow up lol).

One was an extrnal hd that tried to fly, the other one just got too old and stopped working (after clicking for a few weeks).

r0undb0y · 10 Oct 2008 at 13:23

scamartist said:
Might still have a go at swapping parts from a working model of the same drive.

this probably won't work as HDD are hermetically sealed as dust on the platter = bad

scamartist · 10 Oct 2008 at 15:04

It shouldn't be a problem as I work in a semiconductor plant.

Will use the cleanroom at work if required.

Got a quote for recovery this morning for £500, laughed when they said they would throw in a hard drive for free to transfer my data to.

helmutcheese · 10 Oct 2008 at 21:26

scamartist said:
Froze the hard drive last night and gave it a shot after a couple of hours of freezing.

No joy whatsoever.

Might still have a go at swapping parts from a working model of the same drive.

Might be a good experiment.

2 hours is nothing, it can take up to 12-24 hours but it could still be buggered.

Try it for at least 6 hours.

Pneumonic · 10 Oct 2008 at 22:35

No idea why the freezer works! but had a couple I have put in overnight and they have worked just long enough to get everything I wanted off!

scamartist · 11 Oct 2008 at 07:57

Will have another bash at freezing it tonight.

This time I'll leave it in overnight and try it again Sunday morning.