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Hard drive failure

i_got_a_mohawk

i_got_a_mohawk

Feb 9, 2005
17,483
505
40
Edinburgh & Dundee, Scotland
#1
One of the drives in my computer has bitten the dust.

When the computer is booting up there is a knocking noise coming from one of the drives and it is missing from the my computer list of drives.

From a quick read on the internet, the knocking sound means it could be saveable (well, the data).

Anyone have any recommendations on what to do?

I've read about sticking the drive in a freezer overnight :eyebrow:


Either way, won't be able to do anything in the immediate future. Finals are coming up, and I dont have enough space on my other drives to back it up.

Anyone have any ideas on how to save what was on the drive? It was a 250 Gb drive and pretty full.
 
#4
Take it out of the computer and set it aside till you have time to work with it. Make some space to back stuff up onto then toss it in the freezer overnight tightly sealed then toss it in a backup as quick as you can and hope it all makes it.
 
#6
HEIST said:
I just want to know who's brilliant idea it was to put a harddrive into a freezer to fix it. Or is there science to this? I'd like to know.
Click to expand...

It's a proven technique, I've used it myself a few times, with success. It won't work on all busted hard drives, but on some, it does. It doesn't fix the drive, it just gets it functional for a brief period of time, usually long enough to get a bunch of data off of it. You can repeat the process a few times to get all your data. As for why it works, I imagine it only works on drives that have thermal problems. If there's a physical problem with the head or one of the platters, well then you don't have many options. You can send the drive to a professional that will disassemble it, and install the necessary parts into a temporary, functional, hard drive, to retrieve your data.
 
#7
The data on it isnt drastically important.

As far as I can remember that drive was mainly software, so it is all things that can be reinstalled. However, I can't be totally sure, so I want to double check!

The HDD is still in the PC, but I disconnected it last night. I think that sitting in the case is probably still the safest place for it to be.

Good to hear there has been some success with the freezer method, will give it a try in a few weeks, fingers crossed it works :)
 
#9
Oh i know to back up. Learnt the hard way many moons ago (But thankfully managed to get the data off that drive).

That drive was origianally a backup, but ended up being used just for software. Only problem is, I cant remember if it was just software or not that was on it.

Quite gutting really, as im getting the parts for a new computer in about 3-4 weeks (to mark the end of my exams), if only it could have lasted a bit longer!
 
#10
With the new PC im going to go from the originally planned two independant 500Gb drives to two 500Gb drives running in Raid1, (probably partitioned into a few seperates too). And a couple small drives running in Raid0 with windows and software present (increased risk, but increased speed, and all data which is replaceable).
 

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