Bringing a dead hard drive back to life - if only for a little while...

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Just a quick note...

If you have a hard drive die and you need to get data off of it, try throwing it in the freezer overnight. Many times the drive will fire up and work long enough for you to make a bit copy or copy the files to a replacement drive.

RJ

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Segate drives used to suffer from a problem called stiction. Which would make it look like the hard drive was dead.

The heads would for various reasons not retract. When the drive next went to start up the friction of the heads or on some drives the very fact that they were not parked would not allow the drive to start up.

This could sometimes be corrected by placing the drive flat on a desk but wired to the PC then giving the drive a very quick sharp spin to the right (clock wise) while at the same time starting the computer. This quick twising motion would bounce the heads enough that the drive would spin up. The clockwise motion if repeated enough would move the heads back to a parked state and the drive would start up ok.

Once the system spins up it is recommended to backup and replace the drive. Some people have corrected a problem then run for years and never had the incident repeat itself however for the cost of drives today i would also advocate the replacement route.

Some people have advocated picking up the drive about 3inches and dropping it on the desk. You do not want to do this as this could cause the heads to be damaged by hitting the platters or potentially damage a section of the disk.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

All hard drives sufer to some extent from this. Isn't it to do with the motor spinning up?

Joe

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

It has been a known fact between techies in
the the PC industry that to regain/retrieve data for
a customer from a old HardDrive that read
intermediatly ;

Place it in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Immediatly copy files from HD.

Works....90 % of the time...

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I've used the freezer method too...it does work sometimes.  I do remember a few drives that we were instructed to smack on the back to get them going.  The first time I did this at a customer site was very amusing.  I figure it couldn't hurt and the Compaq rep on the phone assured me that this was indeed what they wanted me to do with that particular drive...it did work.  (I wouldn't recommend this with newer drives...but if it's toast any way...what have you got to loose).

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Ah yes... the old "resurrect the Seagate" trick from the Mac Plus/SE/SE-30 days.

The ST-251/N 40Mb SCSI drives had that issue. You drop the computer about 1" and it spins right up and runs. Copy the data to a new drive then replace the old one.

Those were the days.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I use to "jump start" those.  I would touch the power connector with the power plug just enough to make contact two or three times would kick start those old seagate ST225/238/251/296 drives.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I use to "jump start" those.  I would touch the power connector with the power plug just enough to make contact two or three times

    All I can picture in my head is a paramedic with tiny shock padels over a hard-drive going LIVE damn it...LIVE   

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

It worked about 75% of the time.  I made a lot money recovering data that way.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I am gonna try this on a hard drive that has some word files that I have assumed are lost for good.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

The jumpstart method only works with drives that don't spin up.  The current on/off cycles nudges the stuck platters into spinning up.  If your drive spins up, this will not help you.  You might want to try the freezer method.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Older segate drives used to suffer from stiction where the head would not unseat from its locked spot.

If you put the drive on a table. Add the power to drive and give it a right hand spin. This often releases the heads.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

Ok my hard drive is not dead (YET) but i got a new one and took out the old one(which i would have like to destroy). I'm not very computer savvy(so Ive learned LOL). What i want to accomplish is this: I want to completely wipe the hard drive(no OS, files, etc...).
What is the best way to go about doing this? I would eventually like to put it back in my tower as extra storage but right now its so unmanageable(ad-ware, possible viruses, stupid stuff i downloaded) i don't want it corrupting my new hard drive(if thats even possible IDK).
The new one is working like a dream. Once the old one is clean I can partition it and reformat it in XP(learned that last night). Any suggestions for a kill hard drive freeware would be greatly appreciated.(Being a moron proof software would help me also LMAO)

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

If you are going to be putting it back into your own machine vs disposing of it. A simple format will do.

Slave it to your other machine so it is not your boot drive and format it.
Since you are not booting from the drive there is no risk (because nothing is active) that the infected files are going to magically infect your new drive.

If you were going to give the drive away. Ie donate with an old computer then I would use wipe disk or secure wipe which does a military type of wipe by writing all 0000's followed by all 1111's and repeating numerious times across all partitions and such. A straight format kills off the partition table and header so that the drive appears new but its contents is still intact and can potentially be recovered. SInce you are keeping the drive I wouldn't waste your time.

If you are disposing it - by pysically tossing it out. I would not only do the full wipe but I would run a couple of screws through the drive (electric screw drivers are great).

If the drive is not functional - which means you can't do the wipe. The contents still can potentially be recovered. You can take the screws out tear it apart and break the platters with a pair of linesman pliers. Some have gone as far as dropping parts into the trash over a series of different weeks to prevent recovery. It depends on just how parinoid you want to be.

 

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

OK so technically i can go ahead and put it back in the tower and pull the files i still want( i left a few on there, my mistake). Then partition and reformat? Will it let me partition with info already on there?

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

I use a tool called Partition Magic to re-partition my drives - but you can simply right click the drive under my-computer and choose format.

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

OK so technically i can go ahead and put it back in the tower and pull the files i still want( i left a few on there, my mistake). Then partition and reformat? Will it let me partition with info already on there?

just make sure you set the jumpers so it's the slave drive and you will be able to access it through My Computer just like your other drives.  the formatting will completely erase all data on the drive so make sure you recover any still wanted data before you right-click then format.  g/l

[SAT (aka GANDHI)]

OK so technically i can go ahead and put it back in the tower and pull the files i still want( i left a few on there, my mistake). Then partition and reformat? Will it let me partition with info already on there?

Format first, then partition it however you want.

Beware, though, about transferring files from the old hard drive to the new.  You said you had concerns that files on the old hard drive might have viruses, adware, etc.  The last thing you want to do is transfer an infected file to your new hard drive, and have that file infect the new drive...