Laptop hard drive broken
Dodgy Dave
of my programs stop working so i re-installed it. Then my pc started
re-booting constantly. Stuck in a loop. As this drive is partitioned (my
main documents etc are not on the same partition as the operating system) i
decided to re-format & re-install XP. When i tried to format it, it let me
get to the stage of creating a new partition but when it was verifying the
drive it got stuck at 35% and the hard drive was making a clicking noise but
would go no further. I tried booting up with the XP disk as this can format
the partition for you. It seemed to work but obviously with the fault at 35%
it didn't complete the installation. When i boot into dos and try to use the
dir command it cannot find the drive. Fdisk doesn't work as it just boots me
out. So i decided to put my laptop hard drive into an adaptor to use on my
main pc in order to extract the stuff that was on there. No luck. It just
doesn't detect that there is anything there. The main thing i want to
extract are my zipped up package of internet favourites from the past 3
years which are on the partition. Can anybody suggest anything that i can do
to get this drive in any sort of working order so i can extract this very
important file. Any help whatsoever would be gratefully received.
Dr. Harvie Wahl-Banghor
22 Aug 2004 15:53:45 +0100, "Dodgy Dave"
<davewallace1R...@REMOVESPAMTRAPlycos.co.uk> screamed from
behind the mulberry bush:
Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
will only last a few minutes.
Bob
> one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
> drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
> your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
> gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
> everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
> up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
> will only last a few minutes.
>
Possibly one of the more stupid suggestions I've heard: a cold metal object
brought into a warmer environment attracts condensation - water - which, as
soon as it comes into contact with electrical circuitry, will cause untold
damage to the laptop and could pose a physical danger to you.
If you're concerned that the hard drive might be damaged and you are anxious
to retrieve data from it, I suggest a google search for hard dick data
recovery. There are a number of companies which offer this service with
varying degrees of success. Your best bet is to have a look through them
and see which offer a service which suits your needs and the circumstances
of the hardware failure.
Pennywise
wrote:
|>> Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
|>> one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
|>> drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
|>> your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
|>> gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
|>> everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
|>> up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
|>> will only last a few minutes.
|>>
|>
|>Possibly one of the more stupid suggestions I've heard: a cold metal object
|>brought into a warmer environment attracts condensation - water - which, as
|>soon as it comes into contact with electrical circuitry, will cause untold
|>damage to the laptop and could pose a physical danger to you.
Na, this is a ligit way of getting a hard drive to work again even if
for just a short while.
a quicki search http://tinyurl.com/4e5p8
Dropping it seems to work as well :)
Danger? how much condensate you figure flows off of it?
-Lone_Wolf-
Have you tried running fdisk and re- (low level) formatting the affected
drive? You might even have to delete all the partitions and create them
again for good measure.
If you skill set is challenged with this type of task, I would suggest you
take it to a friend or computer shop.
How long did you allow it to hang up clicking? Although I do not believe the
newer drives of today map the bad sectors the same as in yester-year, I
distinctively remember having to wait literally hours for a drive to map out
some bad sectors. This is why (back then) we used to manually enter the
known bad sectors when doing a low level format.
Dr. Harvie Wahl-Banghor
from behind the mulberry bush:
>On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 17:05:12 +0100, "Bob" <inv...@invalid.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>|>> Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
>|>> one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
>|>> drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
>|>> your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
>|>> gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
>|>> everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
>|>> up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
>|>> will only last a few minutes.
>|>>
>|>
>|>Possibly one of the more stupid suggestions I've heard: a cold metal object
>|>brought into a warmer environment attracts condensation - water - which, as
>|>soon as it comes into contact with electrical circuitry, will cause untold
>|>damage to the laptop and could pose a physical danger to you.
>
>Na, this is a ligit way of getting a hard drive to work again even if
>for just a short while.
YM "legit"
>a quicki search http://tinyurl.com/4e5p8
>
>Dropping it seems to work as well :)
Sometimes it will break the armature or the disk. Best to try the
freezer first.
>Danger? how much condensate you figure flows off of it?
A waterfall, apparently to Fuckhead Bob.
How quickly Fuckhead Bob is to criticize with out checking out the
facts.
Eat my shorts, Fuckhead Bob.
Dr Harvie Wahl-Banghor
Dr. Harvie Wahl-Banghor
from behind the mulberry bush:
>> Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
>> one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
>> drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
>> your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
>> gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
>> everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
>> up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
>> will only last a few minutes.
>>
>
>Possibly one of the more stupid suggestions I've heard: a cold metal object
>brought into a warmer environment attracts condensation - water - which, as
>soon as it comes into contact with electrical circuitry, will cause untold
>damage to the laptop and could pose a physical danger to you.
You're a fuckhead Bob. It's a legitimate trick to get the drive to
temporarily work. Besides that, if you had any reading comprehension
skills, you would've read that he was trying to access it from his
desktop. He wouldn't have to install the fucker, just lay it outside
the case connected to a port with a ribbon cable and plugged into the
power supply. Have you ever worked on a PC, you doddering prick?
>If you're concerned that the hard drive might be damaged and you are anxious
>to retrieve data from it, I suggest a google search for hard dick data
>recovery. There are a number of companies which offer this service with
>varying degrees of success. Your best bet is to have a look through them
>and see which offer a service which suits your needs and the circumstances
>of the hardware failure.
The minimum those guys charge is about $200 to $300 and it's a month
turn around. Is getting your favorites folder off a dead drive worth
that? If you want ASAP, like in a week, it's usually about $1000. This
is why backing up data you really want to keep should be burned to a
CD or DVD and stored in a safe place. BTW, you're a dickhead.
Dr Harvie Wahl-Banghor
Bob
The problem is that this kind of advice in isolation is very risky, and the
consequential loss could be much greater than the original problem.
Freezing hard drives is occasionally recommended, but only in limited
situations: the densities of the different metals in the various components
react in a slightly different way to each other and the consequent
microscopic difference in size, relationship attitude might serve to free
two components which are stuck. If the problem is mechanical - one of
damaged, stuck or jammed drive platters or heads - then this might be an
approach worth considering after one has taken all the precautions necessary
(none of which were discussed in the earlier post). Hitting or dropping the
drive is a potential solution for the same problem - the jarring might work
loose a jammed element.
The volume of water condensing on the surface is irrelevant, but where it
might appears is not. The risks from even a single drop of water on an
electrical circuit could do as much damage as dropping it into a bucket.
Personally, I don't think it's worth it. And I certainly wouldn't follow
this kind of advice form an anonymous newsgroup - go to a professional.
Hamman
"Bob" <inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:2orujfF...@uni-berlin.de...
> > Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
> > one trick I was told that may or may not work is that you take the
> > drive and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Then you put the drive into
> > your refrigerator's freezer for about 5 or 6 hours to make sure it
> > gets thoroughly cold. When you want to extract your data from it, get
> > everything ready and after you get the drive out of the freezer, boot
> > up and try to get your data ASAP, because the drive, if accessable
> > will only last a few minutes.
> >
>
> Possibly one of the more stupid suggestions I've heard: a cold metal
object
> brought into a warmer environment attracts condensation - water - which,
as
> soon as it comes into contact with electrical circuitry, will cause untold
> damage to the laptop and could pose a physical danger to you.
>
It does work, the temperature drop makes the drive components shrink,
enabling a stuck / dodgy drive head to move freely.
You dont really get *that* much condensation, and coputers are low voltage
so theres no immedite danger.
hamman
Mellowed
Your points are valid. However, in this situation, the HD is Kaput. The
freezing suggestion was just to recover data that was otherwise
unrecoverable. I always save my variable data on a CD weekly. The OP might
consider this on the next go-around.
"Bob" <inv...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:2os7g6F...@uni-berlin.de...
Rôgêr
> recovery. There are a number of companies which offer this service
I've been Googling up a storm and you're right. There's a number of
companies offering this service, but not labeled exactly as you put it.
Dr. Harvie Wahl-Banghor
from behind the mulberry bush:
>> |>> Your hard drive has died and you might not be able to get into it. The
You're a melodramatic fuckhead, Bob.
Dr Harvie Wahl-Banghor