How do I recover from a burnt out HDD?

[Raion]

Windows does not detect or recognize the drive anymore. Even when connecting it properly, not through the USB2 Caddy.

It is a Western Digital, 80gb, 5xxxRPM (from memory) drive. I don't have it with me at the moment, it's at the suppliers of the thing which blew up.

I don't know the board is burnt out, i'm assuming. There were no scorch marks.

I don't think it would have been a bearing seizing, if it is, it was a lot of bad lugk, since it all happened at once.

When I get it back, i'll do the freezer thing, but since these problems coincided with the power source malfunctioning, I really do think that something somewhere would have burnt out or melted.

Either way, this is a bitch of a problem.

According to this response, you CAN turn your computer on and load into windows xp. So more than likely I'm going to assume that your mobo ISN'T burned out since (so far) it's working properly.

I wonder how long it'll be till this happens to me

[nihil]

Hi Raion our cobber is using a HDD caddy, which means that he is connecting it as an external drive via USB. The computers he connects to should be just fine, as this is a peripheral device problem.

definate Please don't try the freezer trick just yet. It does work, but the success rate is only about 50% or less and it will not work for large volumes of data as you only get about 30 minutes at it...............also, it is for mechanical failure NOT electronic, and it sounds to me as if your failure is electronic.

By the way, if the failure is mechanical, replacing the control card won't work. Hopefully the caddy manufacturer will be able to tell you what the HDD problem is.

Incidentally, I have a pair of 80Gb Western Digital Caviar drives in this box, they are 7,200RPM. I would expect yours to be 5,400RPM?.................I run a RAID1 array, and use R/W/RW CD or DVD drives and use rewritable media. This is what I build for students and SOHO users. It is a bit more expensive but worth it for the "insurance" factor in my opinion.

The only external drives I have are USB ("thumb") and an LS 120. Although I do have several removable drives in my machines (that is because they were cheaper than the cooling fans, and have them built in )

I wish you luck, and please don't rush at this, if the worst comes to the worst I will look for a dead/second hand one over here.............we need the exact details though.

Cheers

Johnno

[definate]

Raion:
I can turn on the computer and boot windows, but only off another drive.

I cant boot off the broken drive. The BIOS doesn't detect it.

Nihil:
The supplier has my drive and dead caddy and such, they are going to check it, if they can't fix it, i'm hoping they will get me a new caddy, new hdd and pay for the data recovery service.

I didn't think it was a mechanical problem, but i'm desperate to try anything. When I get it back if they are going to screw me, I might think of replacing the boards.

[nihil]

Hi definate the fact that the BIOS does not detect it is generally an indication that you have an electronic failure. If it is the motor or heads, the drive is generally detected, you just cannot do anything with it.



Good luck mate!

[definate]

Excellent! That's the best news i've had.

That I may not have to pay thousands to recover my data.

Hopefilly this will be over within the week.

[definate]

Came across this explaination of various hard drive failures:
http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=503&page=3

I've almost definately have an electronic failure, since it is spining and there are no grinding sounds.

Also came across this how to on hack-a-day:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/