- External hard drive crash
- Posted by pbl on May 2nd, 2008
Hi, I have a firewire/USB2 external combo drive, which is my main backup
drive for my laptop. Tonight it was working fine as normal and then it just
went dead. I have tried both the USB and firewire connections on two
different computers. The computer recognises the device after plugging it in
and swtiching it on and then My Computer window freezes and the disk drive
makes a rythmical clicking sound that I haven't heard before. Please don't
tell me there's no way to recover the files. Half of them are backed up on
another external drive but I hadn't quite finished this secondary bacup
process. Any suggestions as to what may be causing this and any solutions??
Thanks.
- Posted by Malke on May 2nd, 2008
pbl wrote:
The clicking indicates with almost 100% accuracy that your hard drive has
physically died. As you request, I won't tell you that there's no way to
retrieve your data - because there is. It is just quite expensive. This is
exactly why the "belt-and-suspenders" backup strategy is A Good Thing. Had
you also burned your files to DVD-R, you would not be this distressed. Hard
drives are mechanical objects and they die eventually, some sooner than
later. It's a fact of life.
The only way to retrieve data from a physically dead hard drive is to send
the drive to a professional data recovery company like Drive Savers (my
preference) or Seagate Data Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on
up. Drive Savers recovered all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of
my clients and it cost $2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you
know what your data is worth. I understand that some insurance companies
are now covering data recovery charges so check with yours.
Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/
Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
- Posted by M.I.5¾ on May 6th, 2008
"pbl" <pblnews@internode.on.net> wrote in message
news:uHjw6gErIHA.1228@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
The drive sounds like it's died.
I won't tell you that there is no way to recover your files as you request
(at least not within any budget you are likely to have).
A back up isn't a back up unless it's backed up.
