Old HDD failed (mechanical) -- repair/specialist recs?

[pakopako]

I've been sniffing around data-recovery specialists, quotes, and DIY kits...

DTIdata: $450-1000
DataRecoveryLabs: $199~1499
HarddiskRecovery.net: No reply yet
SecureDataRecovery: No reply yet
Recovery-Experts.com: No reply yet
OnePcbSolution: $60 + S/H DIY kit if PCB matches (I need to get a TORX screwdriver set, another $10)

...I'm just wondering if I need DIY repair or data-recovery (and which company anyone else has used).

My problem is mechanical failure (I can hear the clunking heads) which is most likely PCB failure, less likely actuator arm failure. The HDD is about 12 years old, a WD desktop 8 GB 1999 model.

I've got another 8 GB lined up to ghost to, and a free spot on the IDE cable. Anything else I might need?

[Hobie-wan]

Unless you're prepared to pay $1000, it's pretty much gone man. Without a clean room, as soon as you open it dirt will contaminate the platters and start making things worse. PCB swaps only help if you have the same model drive and the PCB died on yours. It's a little more likely to happen with an old drive than recent ones that keep a bad block map in storage.

Pretty much the only people that use data recovery are companies that weren't keeping backups and had irreplacable data that will cost them eve more money to try and recover from.

[Jontendo]

Clicking & clacking are indications of mechanical failure, so I'm sorry to say a PCB swap would likely just waste your time & money.

If it's super-crucial and you must recover it, leave it unplugged in the meantime to minimize damage. Additional click/clacks risk additional media damage.

[CRTGAMER]

DO NOT USE ANY DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE. Any additional attempted writes to the drive will wipe data that you might be able to extract.

If the drive is really bad this might not work, but something to try. Just maybe the Operating system will not boot. Remove head banger drive and set aside. Add a new drive and install your operating system. Make the old drive the secondary D drive by setting the jumper to slave, new drive to master jumper. You can also go with a USB external drive enclosure, but internal may be a better route to extract data. Let BIOS auto select the D drive and cross fingers for a directory. Transfer whatever important docs and family JPGs over to the new drive.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

What was on it? Being that old and small it couldn't have been much.

I hope everything works out for you but learn from this. Always back up your data multiple times

[Hatta]

Did you actually keep valuable data on a hard drive for 12 years without backing it up once?

[pakopako]

Not mine (way to paranoid), but my father was part-way through editing an encyclopedia last year (the only non-backed up data) through a foreign OS. I finally got him to use a flash drive a few months ago instead of the failing floppy drive (because floppies aren't fun), but he's still picky about using it.

As for repairing the drive, I'm still itching to fix it myself. I was given a $75 budget so I'll get a PCB replacement (tracked one for under $40) and some TORX screwdrivers ($10) off Amazon and will come out ahead.

What I really want is to ghost the drive so I don't have to install all the OS' over again -- which is incredibly time consuming.

[Ziggy]

If you can locate the same exact model drive in working condition, you could attempt a platter swap (take the platter out of the broken drive and put it in the working drive). Being 8GB, it's probably just one platter. The problem with that, as Hobie already stated, if you don't have a clean room to do it in then you might not have good results.

What kind of OS's were on there that would be so difficult to install again on a new drive? Surely reinstalling an OS wont take more time and effort than trying to get the drive working and ghosting it.

edit: first Google result lol: http://www.wikihow.com/Swap-Hard-Disk-Drive-Platters

I didn't watch the video, put read the brief guide. They suggest a controller board swap first, I guess because that would be a less dangerous maneuver.

[CRTGAMER]

Not mine (way to paranoid), but my father was part-way through editing an encyclopedia last year (the only non-backed up data) through a foreign OS. I finally got him to use a flash drive a few months ago instead of the failing floppy drive (because floppies aren't fun), but he's still picky about using it.

As for repairing the drive, I'm still itching to fix it myself. I was given a $75 budget so I'll get a PCB replacement (tracked one for under $40) and some TORX screwdrivers ($10) off Amazon and will come out ahead.

What I really want is to ghost the drive so I don't have to install all the OS' over again -- which is incredibly time consuming.

I doubt the Hard Drive PCB is bad, the mechanical side of a drive will usually fail first. Ghosting or mirror imaging to a new drive will not work with a non bootable drive. Attempting to hardware repair the old drive may damage it, swapping platters will definitely lose ALL the data. Fixing thru software recovery may rewrite sectors causing more loss of data.

Really, try the method I described first in my previous Reply. It is the least riskiest method to prevent further damage and a chance to salvage any personal data. Installing a fresh OS on the new drive is no big deal.

If you can't pull a directory from the old drive as a slave D drive, at this stage install Recovery software on the NEW C drive. A last resort, then attempt a repair or extraction from the old bad drive in the D slot.

[Hazerd]

Sorry but this is kind of lol to me, 12 year old 8gb hdd, o man....