Recover dropped Hard Drive Data?
- Thread starter John55
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ManagerJosh
Well-known member
I dropped my laptop. and I think I may have damaged the hard drive. Clicking noise, no drive read during boot-up...
I assume its over for the HD, so how can I recover the data from the HD?
Two possible course of actions
1) Get lucky
2) send it to a hard drive retrieval specialist.
Forsaken
Well-known member
If theres a clicking noise that means the arm has broken, and you won't be able to read the data off it.
There are a few ways to get it to temporarily run... But if they do not work, your hard drive is utterly trashed afterwards, and there is no hope of getting the data.
As ManagerJosh said, sending it to a data retrieval specialist is your best bet, however depending on the maker of the drive, it might have a warranty (Some tend to be lifetime for issues such as this), and they'll retrieve the data for free, and move it to a similar or the same model of the drive.
There are a few ways to get it to temporarily run... But if they do not work, your hard drive is utterly trashed afterwards, and there is no hope of getting the data.
As ManagerJosh said, sending it to a data retrieval specialist is your best bet, however depending on the maker of the drive, it might have a warranty (Some tend to be lifetime for issues such as this), and they'll retrieve the data for free, and move it to a similar or the same model of the drive.
Jake Bunce
Well-known member
Sometimes you can get the mechanism working temporarily by slinging and spinning the drive in your hand. That will sometimes jar the mechanism into proper action for a while. I have recovered data this way before.
Of course you should remove the drive from the system to do this. Don't sling the drive while it's on.
Of course you should remove the drive from the system to do this. Don't sling the drive while it's on.
F
Floris
Guest
grc.com > spinrite
Jaxel
Well-known member
If the arm is broken... even Steve Gibson's work of magic couldn't will it back to life.
F
Floris
Guest
I did not read him mention that though.
Forsaken
Well-known member
Thats what the clicking sound is, and because it isn't running (Sometimes a clicking sound can be something else), its 100% the arm being broken.
You could freeze the hard drive (After putting it in a ziplock), and then rush to get it into the computer and retrieve what you need off it, but theres only a 60% rate of it actually working, and its a dead drive afterwards.
gordy
Well-known member
I've had success recovering several clicking drives by opening up the case and setting the arm back to zero position, yes it's best to do it in a 'clean room', 'white room' blablabla... but i've had a laptop fujitsu drive running with the lid off just long enough to get data back/recovered.
Home Depot/Lowes has a great star driver tool that comes with various sizes for opening one up for around $7 - a handy tool especially for macs
Home Depot/Lowes has a great star driver tool that comes with various sizes for opening one up for around $7 - a handy tool especially for macs
Shelley
Well-known member
I was hearing arms mentioned in here. It's a long shot but I'm sure it's worthy of a shot to retrive that valuable data.
How about hacking an Arm off your body and try surgically moulding it to the hardrive. I think a sacrifice such as this would have to work. Ensure it's the arm that you least use but otherwise, like me I had to accept 1tb of data lost.
Anyway, goodluck in retrieving the data.
How about hacking an Arm off your body and try surgically moulding it to the hardrive. I think a sacrifice such as this would have to work. Ensure it's the arm that you least use but otherwise, like me I had to accept 1tb of data lost.
Anyway, goodluck in retrieving the data.
Forsaken
Well-known member
That is even more likely to kill the drive, and really shouldn't be done by someone who doesn't have experience with the hardware.I've had success recovering several clicking drives by opening up the case and setting the arm back to zero position, yes it's best to do it in a 'clean room', 'white room' blablabla... but i've had a laptop fujitsu drive running with the lid off just long enough to get data back/recovered.
Home Depot/Lowes has a great star driver tool that comes with various sizes for opening one up for around $7 - a handy tool especially for macs
As I said, depending on the drive, many manufacturers offers a retrieval service, and sometimes have limited lifetime warranties.
Andrew
Well-known member
I dropped my laptop. and I think I may have damaged the hard drive. Clicking noise, no drive read during boot-up...
I assume its over for the HD, so how can I recover the data from the HD?
Are you 100% positive its the hard drive clicking? it could be your cd/dvd drive a broken fan etc.
If you are comfortable with taking the bottom off your laptop then I may be able to help you.
1. Unplug your laptop and remove the battery.
2. After the power has been disconnected from ALL power sources, press the "Power On" button to drain all the electricity currently sitting in your machine. Your Power/HDD LED indicator may flash once, ignore this.
3. Start by flipping your laptop upside down and take out all the screws necessary to open the laptop case.
4. Once you have the case open it may be necessary to remove a few componets to get to your HDD and its Plugs.
5. Disconnect your HDD power source and data transfer cable (also know as IDE or SATA depending on how old your machine is).
6. Once your HDD fully disconnected, feel free to "shake your hdd like a spray paint can." Under normal circumstances you can shake your hdd all day and you wont hear any nosies (loose broken parts) on the inside. If you dont hear any noises from shaking it, you MAY still have a good HDD.
7. While the inside of your computer is exposed, further examen it for a broken mother board and other broken parts.
********************************************
****** Attempt those steps at your own risk***
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If you determine that a different part in your laptop is malfunctioning see if you can order that part and have it replaced. Once again you may or may not be able to order parts for your laptop depending on its age.
Hope this helps,
Andrew
Forsaken
Well-known member
Fans and cd/dvd drives don't click the same way when they're broken. Fans will usually have a grinding noise, and cd/dvd drives will struggle to run (They will usually spin even if broken, or attempt to spin).
Honestly, his best bet (And safest) is to send it in to get the data retrieved. Most suggestions here will either damage the drive, or are things that shouldn't be done by someone unless they are familiar with hardware.
gordy
Well-known member
nah, try it sometime, you'd be surprised
Forsaken
Well-known member
From him asking for help, you can assume he doesn't know much about hardware. Are you really going to suggest someone who possibly doesn't have much knowledge of hardware do something that could potentially damage their drive?
Dean
in memoriam
You could try to take the HD out and connect to another computer as a slave. It might be possible that while the hard drive cannot boot up, it may be able to be read. Obviously the goal is to get the data off of it, and not actually use it as a drive.
Back ups? Do you make those?
Back ups? Do you make those?
gordy
Well-known member
No. I'm telling you.
Forsaken
Well-known member
Rattling a hard drive hoping that it'll get fixed has a much lower success rate then methods I can do at my work, or even at my house
.I wasn't the one needing advice, but its nice to know you're willing to pass it on to someone who has experience with data retrieval..?
Anthony Parsons
Well-known member
Whilst I cannot answer for the data... I would suggest your replacement is an SSD, considering notebook.I assume its over for the HD, so how can I recover the data from the HD?
ManagerJosh
Well-known member
I don't recommend SSDs as once your drive dies, all your data goes with it.
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