Dead hard drive - recoverable?

M

Mark Blunden

My PC was working just fine up until I shut it down yesterday morning. In
the evening when I switched it on, my C: drive would do nothing but emit low
grinding noises - "grn-grn-grn-grn....grn-grn-grn-grn". It's an IBM Deskstar
60GB model, a standard ATA/IDE drive, probably about 3-4 years old now.

There's nothing absolutely essential on it that wasn't backed up, but there
are some files - recent e-mails, mostly - that I'd like to recover if it's
possible without spending a fortune. What are the chances that the fault is
something that can be repaired fairly cheaply? (I'm not really holding out
much hope).

Also, are there any models or manufacturers I should particularly avoid when
buying a replacement drive?
 
A

Andy Lee

My PC was working just fine up until I shut it down yesterday morning. In
the evening when I switched it on, my C: drive would do nothing but emit low
grinding noises - "grn-grn-grn-grn....grn-grn-grn-grn". It's an IBM Deskstar
60GB model, a standard ATA/IDE drive, probably about 3-4 years old now.

It's dead I'm afraid lept off this mortal coil, it is an ex hard
drive.
There's nothing absolutely essential on it that wasn't backed up,

good job to..
but there
are some files - recent e-mails, mostly - that I'd like to recover if it's
possible without spending a fortune.

Depends I can name companies that will offer a service starting from
£600 but maybe that's still too much for you. Of course for that price
they make no promises and the costs can quickly escalate in several
thousends depending on the effort involved in the recovery
What are the chances that the fault is
something that can be repaired fairly cheaply? (I'm not really holding out
much hope).

Don't blame you chances are it will not be "repairable" recoverable
maybe.
Also, are there any models or manufacturers I should particularly avoid when
buying a replacement drive?

Not really. All makers can produce the odd duff drive although the
deskstar series of 2 or so years ago did have something of a
reputation for self destructing. I lost 4 out of 10 at work in a very
short period of time which has been way more than any other brand we
use here. However Compaq had a shit load of problems with WD 20Gb
drives some 3 years ago in certain desktop machines they sold us(they
admitted to a bad batch of drives when pressed on the issue) so it
appears as I said that any maker can and will experience problems at
one time or another.
 
S

Svend Olaf Mikkelsen

My PC was working just fine up until I shut it down yesterday morning. In
the evening when I switched it on, my C: drive would do nothing but emit low
grinding noises - "grn-grn-grn-grn....grn-grn-grn-grn". It's an IBM Deskstar
60GB model, a standard ATA/IDE drive, probably about 3-4 years old now.

There's nothing absolutely essential on it that wasn't backed up, but there
are some files - recent e-mails, mostly - that I'd like to recover if it's
possible without spending a fortune. What are the chances that the fault is
something that can be repaired fairly cheaply? (I'm not really holding out
much hope).

Also, are there any models or manufacturers I should particularly avoid when
buying a replacement drive?

The description would match a drive with bad sectors, which attempts
to boot. If that is the problem, files can probably be recovered by
copying them to another disk using recovery programs.

If the disk is not detected by BIOS recovery programs generally will
not work.
 
B

Brian

Mark Blunden said:
My PC was working just fine up until I shut it down yesterday morning. In
the evening when I switched it on, my C: drive would do nothing but emit low
grinding noises - "grn-grn-grn-grn....grn-grn-grn-grn". It's an IBM Deskstar
60GB model, a standard ATA/IDE drive, probably about 3-4 years old now.

There's nothing absolutely essential on it that wasn't backed up, but there
are some files - recent e-mails, mostly - that I'd like to recover if it's
possible without spending a fortune. What are the chances that the fault is
something that can be repaired fairly cheaply? (I'm not really holding out
much hope).

Also, are there any models or manufacturers I should particularly avoid when
buying a replacement drive?

Your recent e-mails might still be on the server you receive e-mails
from.

Regards Brian
 

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