Laptops Forum
by pfng772004 Accepted solution
by oh smeg Accepted solution
Though it's by no means the cheapest it will be the fastest and most reliable recovery method.
I personally prefer Ontrack but there are numerous other Data Recovery Houses out there that may suit your needs better.
Col
by pfng772004 Accepted solution
Thanks for your reply... however, I wonder:
1. can the Data recovery Houses guarantee on 100% data recovery?
2. is there any other cheaper method?
by link470 Accepted solution
The data houses usually will charge anywhere from 50 dollars to 5000 dollars, and typically have a 95 to 98% recovery chance. Those guys have recovered hard drives that have literally melted in fires. Basically what they do is take the disk platters out of your hard drive, the part holding the data. But they only do that in a professional clean lab where there's absolutely no dust exposed to the drive platter. Then they clean and repair the platter, and move it to a different hard drive casing where they reassemble it and attempt to get your data back. Don't try to do it yourself of course :P The suction caused by opening the hard drive takes any surrounding air containing dust into the platters and destroys them.
Another thing, you said this was an external hard drive? Do you hear any clicking when the drive is powered on or any really distinct difference in noise coming from your drive? Clicking is the worst, your drive is pretty much done if it does that and has to be sent off to recovery.
However, if the drive sounds ok, I'd try taking the hard drive out of the external enclosure, and loading it as a slave into one of your machines, or trying another enclosure. You never know, maybe the enclosure just took the hit. Good luck!
by pfng772004 Accepted solution
Thank you very much for your info. and it is pretty much helpful.
Talking about the sound... sad to say that I heard something like "tak tak tak" coming from my dropped hard disk. When I tried to shake it, it seemed like something inside the said hard disk is broken. So, does it mean that I have no choice but to send to the data recovery houses?
Last but not least, is a drop cause such a bad damage to external hard disk?
Thank you!
by link470 Accepted solution
Ah yes, that's usually not a good sound to hear unfortunately :( Most likely what's happening when you hear that ticking sound is the arm that reads the data on the platter has actually snapped off of its motor mount. So the sound you're hearing is the disk platters spinning like normal, but the reading head arm is skipping overtop of it as it spins. Thus causing more damage to your platters. Unfortunately there isn't much you can do but send it off for repair from a data recovery company.
A drop can be damaging in a few different ways. From an external enclosure, you of course have a bit more shock resistance. Some enclosures are padded on the inside to help if it drops. But some are just screws mounted tightly to the enclosure which wouldn't provide much shock resistance at all. It depends how the drive hits the ground, which pretty much nobody is paying attention to at the time of which it dropped. It's not like they were expecting their drive to drop. But if the drive falls flat down, as in, on its side if its in an external enclosure, the drive usually suffers more damage because the reading needle would come right down on top of the platters and slam into it. Hard drives are so prone to failure because they're the main mechanical component to data and as if that weren't enough, to give you a better idea of how prone they are, the drive needle never touches the drive platter when it reads. It's using electrical megnetic current to alter the 1's and 0's, and is [get this] around 3 one millionths of an inch above your drive surface. If it touches the surface, your hard drive risks damage.
However, if the drive falls on it's side or on the corner of the drive, it usually has a chance because the reading head isn't being forced into the drive platters, it's being forced to the side like normal operation.
I hope this has provided you with some better understanding of your hard drive. I'm sorry I couldn't help you further! I know how hard it is to lose a hard drive.
Best of luck!
by pfng772004 Accepted solution
Well, even though I may not do much but to send to the data recovery house. However I really appreciate your time taken in providing such a comprehensive info.
Last but not least, as for my case (where I can hear the clicking sound from the said hard disk), how much percentage do you think I can retrieve back my data? Of course, you are not committed to the percentage... :-)
by oh smeg Accepted solution
If you can hear a clicking sound there are really 2 possible explanations 1 the Read Write Heads have broken off and are flaying about being picked up by the platters and flung back into them or the Read Write Heads are flicking from Stop to Stop and are not doing any real damage.
If it's the first you may destroy a lot of the Platters Surface and make recovery very hard. However if it's the second it's possible that the Recovery Place will just need to fit a new Circuit Board on the Bottom of the HDD and then be able to recover 100% of everything.
From Past Experience I've had recovery rates of around 95% on every drive that I have sent away to have the data recovered but as I only use On Track other Data Recovery Houses may not have such a good recovery %. Really it is all [b]Suck It and See[/b] as until you know what is wrong with the drive it's anyones guess as to how much you can recover.
The only thing that you can say with any certainty is [b]Don't use the Drive[/b] as if there is something broken inside it you will do more damage and make it more expensive to recover your Data. In a case like this it's best to tread with caution and hope for the best rather than thinking that everything is OK and destroying the Platters in the Process.
Col
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