HDD dying, HELP

Born_2_Kill_83 · 8 Sep 2014 at 21:06

My Spinpoint F3 is on its way out after 5 hard years.

I need to try and save my data.

The HDD struggles to power up but after a couple of reboots and a bit of time it finally jumps into life. I am able to view and open all my files on the HDD but when it comes to copying them onto a different source to backup the transfer stops and hangs after a few seconds.

What can I do?

bainbridge · 8 Sep 2014 at 21:22

Overnight in the freezer (in a sealed bag) is worth a shot.

Surveyor · 9 Sep 2014 at 00:55

If it's a fault with the electronics then swapping the circuit board with one from an identical drive (make, model and firmware) may do the job.

Odds are it's more likely mechanical which is where the freezer trick comes in.

postmanfw · 9 Sep 2014 at 01:19

Try using a linux based usb/cd operating system...i have had good results getting them to read faulty drives when windows would just not play ball with it.

Freezer trick is def a last option.

Presuming that you have it installed as a 2nd drive not running the os?

Born_2_Kill_83 · 9 Sep 2014 at 09:56

Ok the freezer trick, cant say I've heard of this before, how long do I leave it in for and how long when its out do I test it?

FamousCFC07 · 9 Sep 2014 at 19:52

Leave it in over night.
It gave me about 20 minutes to save some data from my last broken drive.

darael · 9 Sep 2014 at 23:23

bainbridge said:
Overnight in the freezer (in a sealed bag) is worth a shot.

Surveyor said:
If it's a fault with the electronics then swapping the circuit board with one from an identical drive (make, model and firmware) may do the job.

Odds are it's more likely mechanical which is where the freezer trick comes in.

Please don't do either of these. :eek:

If you put a harddrive in the freezer and bring it to a cold temperature, you're going to get condensation on the platters when it quickly comes back up to operating temperature.

Swapping PCBs without swapping ROMs could destroy your data as the ROM holds crucial information which tells the harddrive's controller information specific to your harddrive. If you do swap PCBs, swap the ROMs too.

If it were me, I'd find some fans and point them in all directions at the harddrive to keep it as cool as possible while you try to retrieve your data.

Edit: Here is a link to somebody who tried the freezer trick:- http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28897 - use those forums if you are serious about getting your data back.

Surveyor · 10 Sep 2014 at 08:37

darael said:
Swapping PCBs without swapping ROMs could destroy your data as the ROM holds crucial information which tells the harddrive's controller information specific to your harddrive. If you do swap PCBs, swap the ROMs too.

Oops.

It's a lot more complicated than when I last looked into this.

Doogles · 10 Sep 2014 at 09:57

Sorry to hear that OP, I don't have any advice to give you but next time back your stuff up

Born_2_Kill_83 · 10 Sep 2014 at 10:11

I used my Spinpoint F3 as a backup hard drive instead of using the SSD, might as well guess I'm the only one to experience failure the other way round.

I managed to plug into a windows 7 system which allowed me to skip the corrupt files on the drive so I've managed to receive 90% of my files so all is good now.

Thanks for your help

bledd · 10 Sep 2014 at 10:26

Easy, restore it from your backu...

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With drives like this, I've found it's best to boot up, not browse them, and use unstoppable copier to copy the data to another drive.

Once Windows itself browses them, it causes instability.

Saved a few people's skins using unstoppable copier

DaleTheWhale · 11 Sep 2014 at 16:15

bledd. said:
Easy, restore it from your backu...

---

With drives like this, I've found it's best to boot up, not browse them, and use unstoppable copier to copy the data to another drive.

Once Windows itself browses them, it causes instability.

Saved a few people's skins using unstoppable copier

This is interesting to know, thanks.