Dropped my hard drives

[JordanPlayer]

Like others have said as long as the drive wasn't on/spinning you shouldn't worry too much about it. You should run the Windows error-checking ScanDisk, CheckDisk, whichever it is on your OS to verify disk integrity.

how hard is it to repair/recover a hdd that was dropped when on?

i have the same problem with my laptop hdd... windows cant recognise it. the bios can see it, restore programs can see it, but as soon as it tries to read/write, it just loops forever and nothing happens. is this a typical symptom of a dead reading/writing head? if so, is a diy swap do able if a do it in a dust free room?

its got about 500gb of data i dont want to loose but im not wanting to spend 600 plus to get it back.

You could attempt to plug this hard drive in as a secondary hard drive on another machine to see if you can access it. If you can access the hard drive you can attempt to back up any files that you need. However, if it is not recognized by Windows I'm not sure if there is a cheap way to get your data back.

[RCBH928]

Well, thank god, i did a backup , then i ejected the HDD and i was carrying it to the drawer
it slipped. I guess I will be fine then.

Who would drop an HDD when its on? shouldn't you place it on a flat surface before using it?

maybe if you pushed it off the table by mistake?

[avrame]

Well, thank god, i did a backup , then i ejected the HDD and i was carrying it to the drawer
it slipped. I guess I will be fine then.

Who would drop an HDD when its on? shouldn't you place it on a flat surface before using it?

maybe if you pushed it off the table by mistake?

Well, in my fiancee's case, she has a laptop with a small hdd on it, so I bought a external HDD for her to put her TV shows on. She was watching on her laptop, laying on the couch with the HDD on the coffee table, cord got snagged and off it went.

how hard is it to repair/recover a hdd that was dropped when on?

i have the same problem with my laptop hdd... windows cant recognise it. the bios can see it, restore programs can see it, but as soon as it tries to read/write, it just loops forever and nothing happens. is this a typical symptom of a dead reading/writing head? if so, is a diy swap do able if a do it in a dust free room?

its got about 500gb of data i dont want to loose but im not wanting to spend 600 plus to get it back.

For the incident I mentioned above, I read a accepted solution is to freeze the HDD in the freeze and pop it into the comp while it's still cold. Theory being the metal will contract (thermal expansion anyone?) and reset the discs in the HDD back to their neutral position (along with the reading arm). I tried it, it worked for like 10 mins, then it died again. Forum posters said to repeat the process over and over again, slowly backing up the information off the HDD.

[Ivo]

The freezer tactic is not necessarily a good idea as it may easily damage the thing more and destroy the data for good. Think well about it before you decide for yourself if you want to try it.

Ivo.

[CRTGAMER]

For the incident I mentioned above, I read a accepted solution is to freeze the HDD in the freeze and pop it into the comp while it's still cold. Theory being the metal will contract (thermal expansion anyone?) and reset the discs in the HDD back to their neutral position (along with the reading arm). I tried it, it worked for like 10 mins, then it died again. Forum posters said to repeat the process over and over again, slowly backing up the information off the HDD.

Freezer tactic? Condensation will surely finish the hard drive off.

king, did you Scan Disk/Defrag to verify that your drive is okay?

[brendanraymond]

I thought the freezer tactic was for old drives? for condensation a sealed plastic bag is used.

i've read that even a single partical of smoke, if gets between the disk and head while spinning will damage the head.

I will try the freezer trick... but I wont hold my breath... I think the head needs to be replaced or something :S

[RCBH928]

no i didnt scan or defrag , I am using a mac, but i will look into some equivalent software

[CRTGAMER]

no i didnt scan or defrag , I am using a mac, but i will look into some equivalent software

There is a Disk Utility right on the OSX disc.

[jeffro11]

Finder>Application>Utilities>Disk Utility.

Select your drive and click First Aid.

[RCBH928]

Well I did a verify disk in disk utility
and I got "The volume store appears to be OK" on 2 partitions
and in one partition it said
"incorrect number of file hard links"
and it needs to be repaired

so , am I ok or what?

**update**

OK, I did a disk repair, and everything says its ok now.
I looked at SMART, and it says "NOT SUPPORTED"

now what?