A sorry Tale of Deskstars and Removable Drive Caddies

[Terry Pin]

This story may also be known as “When In A Hole Stop Digging”

Some weeks ago I added a SATA drive Caddy to my desktop, it already had an EIDE
caddy manufactured buy the same company http://www.icydock.com which I used to
help with system backups and archiving.

One day I installed an IDE drive (Deskstar 250GB) in the caddy booted the PC and
the drive wasn’t recognised, I tried again with a second drive same make and
size and again that wasn’t recognised not even by the BIOS.

Gave up and went to work, came back and tried again this time with my Big Maxtor
(320GB) but n not recognised. Tried again with a smaller 82Gbdrive (same
problem)

Then the ghastly truth dawned on me I’d forgotten that I’d installed the SATA
caddy and had been slotting the EIDE drives in this one by mistake. Tried the
EIDE drive in the proper caddy and it the BIOS didn’t see it, now it really was
shot. Bypassed the caddy housing and connected straight on the cable but no
better. Nearly 1Tb of storage destroyed as a result of my own incompetence
although why the manufacturer didn’t “ key” the drive caddy and it’s housing so
that different types couldn’t be interchanged I’ll never know.

So in a desperate attempt to get the drives up and running just to recover data
on them I thought I’d try and source an identical unit and swap the drive logic
boards. Tried with the Maxtor and Hey Presto it was up and running no problem
and I managed to recover everything.

Then got a new 250gb Deskstar and tried the same with the first duff unit but no
luck, swapped the new board over to the second duff unit but again no luck, put
the new board back on it’s original drive you guessed it this drive could no
longer be seen by the BIOS.

Oh yes I was now the proud owner of 3 duff Hitachi 250Gb Deskstars.

So anyone got any ideas, I can’t afford a professional data recovery service,
the drives spin up OK, with no clicking so I’m sure it’s just the board I’ve
made sure that the model numbers are identical not sure about firmware revs
though, anyone got any clues here?

All help much appreciated

Terry

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

This story may also be known as “When In A Hole Stop Digging”

Some weeks ago I added a SATA drive Caddy to my desktop, it already had an EIDE
caddy manufactured buy the same company http://www.icydock.com which I used to
help with system backups and archiving.

One day I installed an IDE drive (Deskstar 250GB) in the caddy booted the PC and
the drive wasn’t recognised, I tried again with a second drive same make and
size and again that wasn’t recognised not even by the BIOS.

Gave up and went to work, came back and tried again this time with my Big Maxtor
(320GB) but n not recognised. Tried again with a smaller 82Gbdrive (same
problem)

Then the ghastly truth dawned on me I’d forgotten that I’d installed the SATA
caddy and had been slotting the EIDE drives in this one by mistake. Tried the
EIDE drive in the proper caddy and it the BIOS didn’t see it, now it really was
shot. Bypassed the caddy housing and connected straight on the cable but no
better. Nearly 1Tb of storage destroyed as a result of my own incompetence
although why the manufacturer didn’t “ key” the drive caddy and it’s housing so
that different types couldn’t be interchanged I’ll never know.

So in a desperate attempt to get the drives up and running just to recover data
on them I thought I’d try and source an identical unit and swap the drive logic
boards. Tried with the Maxtor and Hey Presto it was up and running no problem
and I managed to recover everything.

Then got a new 250gb Deskstar and tried the same with the first duff unit but no
luck, swapped the new board over to the second duff unit but again no luck, put
the new board back on it’s original drive you guessed it this drive could no
longer be seen by the BIOS.

Oh yes I was now the proud owner of 3 duff Hitachi 250Gb Deskstars.

So anyone got any ideas, I can’t afford a professional data recovery service,
the drives spin up OK, with no clicking so I’m sure it’s just the board I’ve
made sure that the model numbers are identical not sure about firmware revs
though, anyone got any clues here?

All help much appreciated

Terry

I had a similar problem. Hitachi Deskstar. I've posted this earlier.

I had a dead HD which quit registering on any hardware I tried four months ago.
About a week ago I dug it up and tried getting it operational. Nothing. Put it in
freezer for about an hour. Tried again and it worked like a champ. Saved
everything and off to replacment.

The "freezer" method is a bit unorthodox but you may use it as a last ditch
effort to save your data.

 

[chad]

Hi Terry,

Consider sending your drive to a company like Nationwide data
recovery. Their rates are based on the actual work -- not on how
desperate you are to get your data back. Prices range from $100-$500
with no charge if data is not recovered.

Good luck,

Chad
http://free-backup.info