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      08-04-2011, 09:48 AM   #1
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Hard Drive Dead - Anyone know a Toronto Company that Can Recover Files?

Hey guys,

The hard drive in my desktop died on my last night. It makes a clicking noise and is unreadable. In boot up, the motherboard reads it as a BAD driver, and says to back-up and replace.

I took it out of my desktop and inserted it into an external hard drive, and plugged it into my laptop so I can try and get my data...but its not showing up in "My Computer".

I found some software that can recover data, but the hard drive needs to show up in "My computer" before the software can recover anything.

Further online research indicates that the pop noise and clicking noise is a hardware issue with the hard drive which is why its not showing up in "My Computer".

Does anyone know of a company in Toronto that can fix the hard drive so I can get my data back....or that does data recovery?

Any help would be appreciated.
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      08-04-2011, 10:04 AM   #2
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Damn...I know how you feel. My situation was worse, the back of my HDD caught fire (power supply crapped out taking my hdd). I was lucky though to have taken a full backup of the drive the same day in the morning :-)

Hope it works out for you.
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      08-04-2011, 11:18 AM   #3
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First, dont go to a data recovery service or it'll costs you LOTS of money. (worked in one of those shops before) What they do is that your hd dies mainly because or electronics. So most of the time, they have to find a identical hd, bust out your disks and put them into the new hd. So its a lot of work and those companies charges big time. I would say if no business or no major school project depends of this hard drive, consider letting it die. Or at least find a place where they give estimates before doing anything. Software doesnt give any results usually; they're good for corrupt files under the windows environnement, but not for the hardware side of the issue.

You tried the usb external way, but did you plug it into another computer?

Is this your primary hard drive in your actual computer? If so, find another working computer and try putting it in slave and see if it can be detected in slave. It happened to me twice and I was able to detect the HD once. So its a 50/50.

Let me know what happens and maybe i'll think of something else. Maybe I can call my ex workers too to see how they would approach your situation.
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      08-04-2011, 11:32 AM   #4
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Believe it or not, but try throwing it in the freezer overnight and then try it again in the morning. I had my HD die on me and i read online that throwing it in the freezer will help prevent the HD from dieing faster. Its worth a try...worked for me!
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      08-04-2011, 12:04 PM   #5
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^^ You will fry other components by throwing it in the freezer and then powering it on.
Havok, send me a PM. I can probably help you retrieve and restore all your important data but I will need the hardware specs. i.e. the harddrive make/model, the machine it came from, the OS.
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      08-04-2011, 01:36 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaximusJ View Post
First, dont go to a data recovery service or it'll costs you LOTS of money. (worked in one of those shops before) What they do is that your hd dies mainly because or electronics. So most of the time, they have to find a identical hd, bust out your disks and put them into the new hd. So its a lot of work and those companies charges big time. I would say if no business or no major school project depends of this hard drive, consider letting it die. Or at least find a place where they give estimates before doing anything. Software doesnt give any results usually; they're good for corrupt files under the windows environnement, but not for the hardware side of the issue.

You tried the usb external way, but did you plug it into another computer?

Is this your primary hard drive in your actual computer? If so, find another working computer and try putting it in slave and see if it can be detected in slave. It happened to me twice and I was able to detect the HD once. So its a 50/50.

Let me know what happens and maybe i'll think of something else. Maybe I can call my ex workers too to see how they would approach your situation.

I read up about what you are saying in regards to finding an identical hard drive and swapping the parts. I was thinking of seeing if I could find another one to do that.

I have some work files on the computer that I would hate to lose, but its not the end of the world. Would also lose all my emails, contact info, passwords, and music archives. It would hurt not to get this info back...but if it can't happen then so be it.

I am not willing to spend hundreds to a thousand dollars for a company to fix it thats for sure, so ill look around for quotes first.

Thanks for the input!

How hard do you think it would be if I found another hard drive and did a swap myself on the parts?

It was my main and only hard drive on my home desktop, so I havent tried it as a slave drive. I think ill bring it to work tomorrow and give it a shot on one of the computers in the office!
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      08-04-2011, 01:37 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoolin335 View Post
Believe it or not, but try throwing it in the freezer overnight and then try it again in the morning. I had my HD die on me and i read online that throwing it in the freezer will help prevent the HD from dieing faster. Its worth a try...worked for me!
I read up on this last night as well.....it may be a last ditch effort if i am at the point of throwing it away. At that stage, its cant hurt....but lots of people say it could do more damage than good.
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      08-04-2011, 01:40 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 99three View Post
^^ You will fry other components by throwing it in the freezer and then powering it on.
Havok, send me a PM. I can probably help you retrieve and restore all your important data but I will need the hardware specs. i.e. the harddrive make/model, the machine it came from, the OS.
I'll send you a pm with all that info once I get home and can check! Thanks!



Thanks for all the help guys.....On a side note, I do have an external hard drive that I keep the majority of my work files on.....thank goodness...I would have lost my mind if i had lost all of that data.


On another side note, I blew a fuse on Sunday in the house, and on Monday my washing machine died....

WTF!.....Im staying away from my car until this curse passes me by.

Last edited by Havok_2011; 08-04-2011 at 02:25 PM..
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      08-04-2011, 01:49 PM   #9
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If you do swap the disks, dont forget to put latex gloves and work in a 100% dust free environnement. You will have to do some soldering too.
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      08-04-2011, 02:04 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoolin335 View Post
Believe it or not, but try throwing it in the freezer overnight and then try it again in the morning. I had my HD die on me and i read online that throwing it in the freezer will help prevent the HD from dieing faster. Its worth a try...worked for me!
^^ this, I work for a company and deal with hard drives all day long.
This method has worked a few times for me, however i put it in the freezer for about 10-15 min, then (from when i have done it) you only have 1 shot to get it up. So take it out let it sit for a min or so, then fire it up. It will either fire up, or not. If it does back everything up ASAP if not then yoru shit out of luck.

Good luck.
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      08-04-2011, 02:09 PM   #11
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yes this is really a last resort option.
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      08-04-2011, 03:18 PM   #12
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If you are comfortable with DIY, Spinrite is the best software in reviving dead HDDs. Developed by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research. He has a show on the TWiT network with Leo Laporte.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
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      08-04-2011, 04:35 PM   #13
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I used this company while back when I was in IT operation http://a-data.com/ they are good and have provided me with good results, cost of these services is very high.
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      08-04-2011, 04:45 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Havok_2011 View Post
I read up about what you are saying in regards to finding an identical hard drive and swapping the parts. I was thinking of seeing if I could find another one to do that.

I have some work files on the computer that I would hate to lose, but its not the end of the world. Would also lose all my emails, contact info, passwords, and music archives. It would hurt not to get this info back...but if it can't happen then so be it.

I am not willing to spend hundreds to a thousand dollars for a company to fix it thats for sure, so ill look around for quotes first.

Thanks for the input!

How hard do you think it would be if I found another hard drive and did a swap myself on the parts?

It was my main and only hard drive on my home desktop, so I havent tried it as a slave drive. I think ill bring it to work tomorrow and give it a shot on one of the computers in the office!
Have you heard of ontrack data recovery software?

If you can slave the drive to another computer, run ontrack and see if it can read/detect the disk.

The drive may not be bootable, but the files should be still written in memory. Of course this only applies if the software can detect and read the data from the cylinders etc.
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      08-04-2011, 04:45 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spoolin335 View Post
Believe it or not, but try throwing it in the freezer overnight and then try it again in the morning. I had my HD die on me and i read online that throwing it in the freezer will help prevent the HD from dieing faster. Its worth a try...worked for me!
put the hd in the freezer for 6-8 hours but have a paper/foam plate to rest it on when putting it in the freezer. when you take it out let it sit for about 30mins. have your external hd ready and power it up should boot up and then start copying everything over for your dear life lol. i have used this method for lots of my friends and has worked fine for me.
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      08-04-2011, 05:09 PM   #16
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This thread just reminded me to back up all my files! Doing it right now.
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      08-04-2011, 05:32 PM   #17
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I could try to do it.
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      08-04-2011, 10:10 PM   #18
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So I got home a few hours ago from work, and just wanted to release some stress by playing some Call of Duty. Was kicking ass at 40 kills and 3 deaths, racking up the points with still 6 minutes to go...and then boom....XBOX froze. Restarted it....and nothing...XBOX 360 is dead lol.

WTF!!!! (runs around screaming like a lunatic)
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      08-04-2011, 10:15 PM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by farbmw View Post
I could try to do it.
I am more than happy to receive your help! Let me know!!


I just realized I also lost all my photographs. Had my photography album on the drive for the past few years...
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      08-04-2011, 10:25 PM   #20
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sighs i know how you feel, I had a collection of sex videos and naked pix of my hot asian gf's. Now if i need to picture them naked again to fap to im like shit...i cant anymore...siiiighs.
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      08-04-2011, 10:39 PM   #21
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sighs i know how you feel, I had a collection of sex videos and naked pix of my hot asian gf's. Now if i need to picture them naked again to fap to im like shit...i cant anymore...siiiighs.
thankfully i have an external hard drive for all my porn
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      08-04-2011, 10:53 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by Havok_2011 View Post
thankfully i have an external hard drive for all my porn
I know right?? so i bought a NAS dedicated for special porn only and I would turn it off after the fapping is done. After about 30 on and offs (faps) all of my porn disappeared and only left with some mp3's. Reason I turn it off is just in case my shit gets hacked? I dont want my sex tape scandals all over the internet??? I guess those NAS arent made to turn on and off all the time??? fuck me....why god whhyyyyyy
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