JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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Right, bit of a nightmare here.
I have an External Hard drive which i keep all my Photos and Graphics work on. Was working absolutely fine before the weekend, i went away for 3 days, came back and it wouldnt power up. Checked the adaptor on another device and that seems to be in working order.
So, I'm guessing something has failed and I'll need to get the data recovered. The files are massively important to me as it contains about 7 years worth of work.
Getting quotes of around £250-300 for it to be recovered by a company. Is that the going rate as I've never had this done before?
I know its limited info but could there be something I'm missing as to why its stopped working all of a sudden? My brother is a bit of an IT man and he says usually they start running slow and buggering stuff up (my non technical words not his) before they fail, whereas this was working spot on before i left, it hasnt been touched, now its dead.
HDD is a Maxtor 500GB one and is about 3/4 years old IIRC.
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
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I'd remove the HDD and stick it in a new enclosure/dock just to rule out whether its the caddy or disk.
This is the dock I have £25, probably get cheaper on ebay etc - http://www.maplin.co.uk/sata-hard-drive-usb-docking-station-222999
[random story]
In the past, one of my HDD's died (Containing A level coursework), managed to purchase an identical drive and swap logic boards. Cost about £40 
[/random story]
[Edited on 27-06-2012 by Neo]
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Nismo
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Registered: 12th Sep 02
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Maxtors  very common with them after a few years.
As Neo said if you can get the exact same model you might be able to swap the board over (as this is what lots of data recovery companies do)
Thats a pretty good price you have been quoted though.
Can you remove the drive and actually put it in your machine? Im guessing its an old IDE type drive with a ribbon cable?
Lesson here is backup your backups.
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Munchie
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Registered: 17th Jul 01
Location: I swap goats for mobile phones
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Tried data recovery software that I posted about a few weeks ago?
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Munchie
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Registered: 17th Jul 01
Location: I swap goats for mobile phones
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oh yeh it doesnt turn on does it/
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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I have absolutely no idea Nismo not very technically minded. My brother said if its the right type of HD he can plug it into his computer, or something.
Yep, lesson learned. Well it will be so long as i end up with something to double backup I have most of my graphics work still on my laptop, but a lot of my old uni work is only on there.
My main worry is my Photos as i keep nearly all of them on there as any typical shoot will be a fair few GB of data and i just dont have that room on my Macbook.
How likely is it that I'll not get any/some of the data back? Its hardly like its been smashed up or submerged in water but I'm not sure how delicate things like this are. Really hoping i havent lost anything.
I'll ask my brother about the logic boards, probably something he could do, although finding an identical model might be tricky.
[Edited on 27-06-2012 by JonnyJ]
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Nismo
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Registered: 12th Sep 02
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eBay for identical models.
You can more than likely retrieve it, just depends if your willing to pay or not
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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It has to be the exact logic board and getting the same hard drive doesn't always guarantee this.
Firstly i'd be removing the caddy and testing the drive in a system, at least then you'd rule out a dodgy IDE/SATA to USB/Firewire bridge in the caddy.
If the drive powers up then you'd probably get away with doing data recovery on it. Otherwise if it's dead dead, then i'd send it off rather that prat around swapping boards over yourself.
Either i'd start taking backups of your data; BackBlaze is who i recommend, costs a few quid a month for unlimited storage.
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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Cheers lads, will have a word with my brother see if we can go about powering it up without the caddy.
If that fails i guess I'm going to have to get the monies out. Bastarding thing! Fuck technology.
Probably invest in that BackBlaze too, looks handy and costs pittance.
[Edited on 27-06-2012 by JonnyJ]
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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This will be the worlds most untechnical description so bare with me
Managed to get the drive out and plug it into my brothers computer. The drive spun up with no clicking or dodgy noises but didnt appear on the BIOS. Said this could be due to some kind of dodgy connectors he has but he isnt sure.
Might just buy a dock.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Sounds promising but i'd personally want to get it the drive mounted on a PC and the data backed up prior to sticking it in another caddy, just incase there is an issue with the drive (still could be).
Guessing you haven't got another system you can connect the drive to?
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Sam
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Registered: 24th Dec 99
Location: West Midlands
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If you lived near me you could have brought it round, I've got HDD docks for all sorts of drive and size here
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
Sounds promising but i'd personally want to get it the drive mounted on a PC and the data backed up prior to sticking it in another caddy, just incase there is an issue with the drive (still could be).
Guessing you haven't got another system you can connect the drive to?
Nah, but he's just started working for a firm in Leeds that deals with data storage for some pretty large companies, so hes going to see if he can take the drive in and sort it there. Hopefully he can and that'll be that.
Aye shame that Sam, could've been useful
[Edited on 27-06-2012 by JonnyJ]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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If there's no clicking that's a bonus.
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adiohead
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Registered: 28th Sep 01
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Don't try the freezer trick, Steve told me to do that
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Neo
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Registered: 20th Feb 07
Location: Essex
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I'd guess his PC didn't pick it up due to some kind of formatting issue.
The fact it spins up I'd wager that sticking it in a dock will do the trick.
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Freezer is a last resort!
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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I've also had success with drives that spin up but won't show in Windows by booting into Ubuntu and accessing them that way¬!
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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The bios should pick it up even if it's formatted as HFS, certainly they do im my PC. Good shout by Pow though, a linux LiveCD might detect the drive. And if you need to access it under Windows then use TransMacs (can be had for free).
quote:
Originally posted by adiohead
Don't try the freezer trick, Steve told me to do that
Should only do this if you have head/stepper driver issues. But it works though and has saved my arse a few times.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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In the past I've noticed with fucked drives they appear for a split second in 'Computer' in Windows when you power the drive down. By using a LiveCD version of Linux (Ubuntu I use) I've managed to get them mounted and pull all the data off, Wipe them (DBAN) and start a-fresh
[Edited on 28-06-2012 by pow]
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stan_the_man
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Registered: 14th Feb 07
Location: Perth, Western Australia
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I just had the same thing happen but with my laptops hard drive. Died, wouldnt boot up.
Go the hard drive out and into a USB cradle to plug into another machine and the hard drive was clicking (click of death - Google it) and summed up that it was dead. Lost EVERYTHING.
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
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I'll mention the Ubuntu thing, he has all that jazz.
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Aaron
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Registered: 9th Aug 04
Location: Cottingham, East Riding
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Just use the copy of the data which you have as a backup.
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JonnyJ
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Registered: 23rd Sep 05
Location: Scotchland
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
I've also had success with drives that spin up but won't show in Windows by booting into Ubuntu and accessing them that way¬!
Pow you lovely man. This worked, got all the files backed up onto his media server now. Very happy, cheers for the help guys  
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Doug
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Registered: 8th Oct 03
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I have my landlords HDD in my freezer at the moment as on powering it up it was clicking like a mofo. Hoping to pull some data back but will have a Linux Live CD handy to see if that will mount it!
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