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Fried Hard Disk Drive, help!

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 Toby S 10 Jun 2009
Has anyone got any experience replacing the logic board of a Hard Disk drive? I’ve got a 500Gb external drive that has failed, I removed the drive and hooked it up to a caddy and the drive doesn’t spin up. However I think the problem is with the board rather than the drive as it gets very, very hot when I plug it into the caddy. My thought is that the board has fried. Is it worth trying to replace it? I’ve had a look on Google and it looks a wee bit hit and miss.
 Tree 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S: Get the data extracted then destroy it- safest bet if its your backup.
OP Toby S 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Tree:

That's what I'm trying to do!
 wilkie14c 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:
Does it work when when hooked up to a PC internally?
OP Toby S 10 Jun 2009
In reply to blanchie14c:

Nope, nothing doing. To be honest the board gets that hot I wouldn't to try that again and knacker the PC!
 Null 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:

Buy a new drive and ....

kiss your data goodbye

 sutty 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:

Contact the maker, they may help.
In reply to Toby S:

Only option is to use a data recovery company who will strip out the disk surfaces and place them in another drive. This is a rather specialist process and is done in a safe dustproof environment.

Expect to pay somewhere between £300 - £1000 for it.
OP Toby S 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Stevo_the_pirate:

Most of the data is saved over a few other drives so it's not a total disaster. I'm sure as hell not paying a data recovery company to do it. I've got about 60Gb of data on that hasn't been backed up anywhere else though. More of a pain in the arse than anything else as I should be able to get copies of the music back over the next few weeks using other avenues.
 dek 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Stevo_the_pirate:
Or ive heard the 'clinic' in PC world can tell you for around £20, if the Data is lost forever or not?
 rossowen 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S: I might be able to get your data back - I've done it for some of my clients. If it's important to you email me and I can give it a go.
 dread-i 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:
>Has anyone got any experience replacing the logic board of a Hard Disk drive?

We've done it with Netapp disks (from a big raid device, with their own unique logic on the disk). Not that hard to do, but I wouldn't want to do it with a drive with my data on it.


This may help
http://www.wikihow.com/Recover-a-Dead-Hard-Disk
I've used this to recover data, if the drive spins up, but is not visible to the OS.
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk/file-recovery-software/
 tallsteve 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:
Use your nose! Pass your hooter over the components and sniff for that tell tale burnt electronics smell. Eyeball the area if you find it. A fried chip will have a blackened area - usually in the middle. If this is the case then you are probably knacked. Drives change so fast these days that getting another board won't work unless its exactly the same model. Take the model details and google, your best bet may be to buy a new or second hand equivalent and replace the board. Extract the data, then put the board back on the "new" drive.

If its really well fried I recommend chips and a white wine sauce.
 dread-i 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:
>I should be able to get copies of the music back over the next few weeks using other avenues.

I really wouldn't worry about music/films/warez etc. Photos and personal docs are the things you'll want. Sit down a make a list of all the unique data on there. If it's all you photos from the last 5 years then your actions will be different than if it's just a load of films and tunes.
OP Toby S 10 Jun 2009
In reply to dread-i:

Aye it's the photos that I was most concerned about. Fortunately the missus has got the best ones stored on her Mac, so I may just flatten the bloody thing and put it down to experience. Having worked in IT long enough I'm sufficiently paranoid to have a few backups spread about the place. It's the non critical stuff like films and TV that I'd like to get back. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it though.

Anyone use this btw: http://www.idrive.com/ One of the guys at work swears by it.
 rka 10 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S: Try Trinity rescue kit - including fridge stuff worked a few time for me http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=59&front_id=12
 TobyT 11 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:

Not an answer, but online backups is something I keep thinking about but never gettting round to.

Here's a list I found
http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/Storage_backup_2216_index.html

Has anyone got personal recommendations?

The top couple seem to be US based, which will slow the connection - but it probably won't be significantly noticable; and of course your data is leaving the UK so not so good for those international terrorists trying to evade US authorities attention.
 rogersavery 11 Jun 2009
In reply to Toby S:

what is the make and model of the harddisk?

if you can find someone this the same make and model then swapping the logic board is simple
In reply to TobyT:
> Not an answer, but online backups is something I keep thinking about but never gettting round to.

I'm amazed that anyone would trust an online company to store all their most personal data. Apart from taking days or weeks to upload it all in the first place, how likely is it that the company will be around in a couple of years time, and how do you know their security is any good?
 TobyT 11 Jun 2009
In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

The security side I don't trust. That's why I would be encrypting my files.

Are they going to be around in a few years? Possibly not, although the leaders seem to have been (and one would think that BT Vault would be). Doesn't really matter though; even if they only last a year, that's a years worth of offsite backups I'm not doing at the moment.

The days/weeks upload time is a pain but my low power server is on overnight anyway.
 dread-i 11 Jun 2009
In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
>I'm amazed that anyone would trust an online company to store all their most personal data.

I think that in a lot of cases just having an off site backup is good enough.

If you have a RAID device, a removable HD and backups to DVD, but your house burns down or you are burgled then it does you no good. An off site backup will guard against that. If the company goes bust after a year or two, but you are aware of that, then you can move the data somewhere else as you still have the original data. Treat it like an insurance policy and hope you never have to use it.

For small amounts of data you could rent webspace but just use the space for data storage and not a web site. Its not the ideal solution for sensitive data, but for your family photos it may be ok especially if the hosting company back up that data as as well.

The data security issue is also an interesting one. You can encrypt it all, but then you need to keep your keys in multiple, off site places.

I don't know if this still works, but if it does, it may provide an interesting alternative to formal off site back ups.

http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

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