DATA RECOVERY: (HDD Repair) Are you a 1337 H4X0R?

I am trying to rescue the data on a 2.5 hard drive.
(See Video Below)

1. I have a 100GB 2.5 hard drive that I installed it in a Mad Dog external UBS enclosure.
2. When I plug it in, I am prompted to initialize the disk and it does not show up in My Computer.
3. However, on my Macintosh, I have a program called Data Rescue II and on that app, it does show up under the list of drives, but it won't recover anything. It freezes on Block 0.

I really need to know my options before I do something stupid.

Should I try a PC repair program?
Should I buy the exact same HDD and swap the platters?
Throw it in the freezer? (lol)

Watch the video and please tell me what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/v/coHqxQj4_zE

Thanks! D

 

I heard some clicking and believe it or not the freezer trick works. What would be ideal is if you could use a laptop and actually run the drive while its in the freezer. If you do, put the cover back on and seal it up, preferably in a anti static bag. There are programs that are expensive if you really need this data. Spin Rite comes to mind.

 

Was it really necessary to take the cover off the drive? I mean, if you don't touch it, nothing horrible will happen but you're most likely gonna end up with some problems (a few... hundred bad sectors). One of those problems would be not being able to start reading from the drive may be the first one)

As weird as this situation is, I'll try to answer your questions

1. A repair program would be helpful, if chkdsk doesn't work
2. Unless you have a clean room and you have the tools (and the experience), I wouldn't recommend it, you'll most likely ruin both sets of platters
3. That's only for drives that won't spin up, yours' doing fine but hard drives don't like having the cover off so I would put that back on.

Btw, you also voided whatever warranty was left on the drive by opening it so you're not going to have any luck with the disk manufacturer.

 

You totally destroyed that drive. You are not supposed to take the cover of the drive off. The cover is sealed, so that their is a vacuum inside the drive, and thus no dust or particulate matter.
Since you removed the cover, you just destroyed the vacuum, and may have destroyed all of the data on the harddrive.
You really should not have taken the harddrive apart.
You cannot swap platters with another drive, you basically killed the drive by opening it.

Your only option to get data off, is to pay the ridiculous sum of money which acronis or another data recovery system charges.

The drive is dead, I hope you backed up your data.

K-TRON

 

I think this is a joke, because even if he did manage to successfully swap platters with another drive, that wouldn't recover his data, that would just give him an empty drive.

 

why? isn't the platters where the data is stored?

K-tron, I only took the cover off for a second. Did I totally destroy the drive?

 

What did you hope to achieve by opening the drive?

 

Once the vacuum is lost, the disks are subject to the force of gravity, dust and any micro particles in the air. Their is a label on the drive which states do not take it apart, and it is there for a reason. You can bolt the drive back together, but it will not ever work again. Yeah the drive will spin up, but it will most likely never work again.
If any moisture from teh air, even the slightest amount gets in, you are going to have tons of problems.
You must realize that the heads do not actually touch the discs. Data is recorded with electromagnetic impulses, so when that head touches a small micrometer piece of dust, that piece is going to get stuck onto the head of the actuator arm, becuase dust carries a negative charge, as do the discs. The actuator arm holds a positive charge created by the electromagnets in the drive. These electromagents are located on the tail end of the drive, where the actuator arm rotates from.

Good luck man, at least you know now never to take apart a harddrive.

K-TRON

 

^^
Don't forensic specialists open hard drives? You sound like you know a lot, do you know how to put the vacuum back in it?

what would a data recovery specialist do now?

 

When you opened the case...dust got in. Simple as that. And dust in near/on a plater going at 5400RPM or 7200RPM...well, bye-bye data.

The data might still be there, but the problem is that if you use the drive you are guaranteed to damage it even more and you'll just lose it.

They say "do not break seal" for a reason.

 

Uh what? I didn't know a vacuum nullified the effects of gravity. But yeah the dust particles are going to kill the drive.

 

They work in a negative pressure and clean room. They don't fix the drive though, they just recover the data from the platters.

 

Forensic specialists have million dollar machines. I'm sure you could hire one, but they would charge a few grand.

 

The data specialist actually use a machine which works in the opposite way as a harddrive.
The drive is put into basically an inverted centrifuge. A pump is used to pump the air out, and pump in argon gas. This will help simulate a vacuum. The machines are complex and extremely expensive. We have two of them in the RPI computing center, and its amazing to just hear the thing work. If you think a harddrive is loud, this thing is like a blender.

You can try putting it back together, but as we said, you will be destroying the harddrive more by doing this.

K-TRON

 

Gravity is always there. Vacuums don't cancel it out...

 

Those guys have massive facilities and equipment...I can guarantee you can't afford it or build it.

Recovery services cost $1000 or more for a reason.

 

can i find one of these places in Louisiana? i want to become an apprentice and become a specialist.

 

Very few industries take on apprenticeships these days. Especially in this type of field. You should consider college for this. However, if you are looking for what is out there, take a look at this:

http://www.doleta.gov/OA/eta_default.cfm

 

You'd need a degree in computer or electrical engineering.

 

I understand that part.

Do you know how i can find one of these places in Louisiana? Google gives me spam.

Also, I think I'm ultimately going to hire a specialist. Can anyone recommend someone who is cheap but is also good?

 

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/

They recovered data from a hard drive from the Space Shuttle Columbia. They have free quotes, but anyone that recovers things from the platters themselves is going to be in the multiple thousands.

 

^^^ dude, that is one-three-three-seven!

i didn't know it was this serious!

 

I think technically that would make it not a vacuum. But regardless it was fried for all the reasons said above.

Yes he does (K-T). If they do they at least at some level must have a "clean room". I don't think it is a vacuum per se.

Pray to God. And fire the tech who did as OP. Seriously if the data was that important, say National Security, ours or theirs or criminal. Likely scrub (remove particle contamination in a "clean room") and hope some data is recoverable. At this level it is not such common knowledge. I do not believe private sector to the public business offers this. Government is, well classified.

 

i have a connection at the usss

prolly wont do me much good, though.

 

If that is the US department of Treasury. Ain't no way going to do anything. One way to keep out terrorists is to keep out friends of friends. I have a cousin who protects the Vice President and President. And well I got a sweat shirt and that likely is going to be the extent of it. It is cool having a USSS sweat shirt I must say.

 

Question: I have a laptop, so i cant really connect an IDE cable to the drive, (im stuck with usb). if i was going to use data recovery software, what should i use, SpinRite?

 

Forgetting about the hard drive being toast from opening it...

I have used TestDisk in the past and had great results. I have recommended it to others who loved it as well.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Many people have recommended Recuva:

http://www.recuva.com/

I found them here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=206289

This is not professional software. Just basic free tools that can get the job done (sometimes).

However, I wouldn't be surprised if you find that you can't recover anything... Due to everything that has been mentioned.

 

Lol, a vacuum has NOTHING to do with the effects of the force of gravity. The platters in the drive were ALWAYS subject to gravitational acceleration, regardless of what medium (if any) is in the drive.

 

Yes the platters is where data is stored, but hard drives with multiple platters have the data on the platters synced so precisely that rotating the platters even a tenth of a millimeter apart from each other will cause complete chaos on the software level because the drive won't know where everything is anymore. I'm not sure about hardware-level recovery but you'll never be able to read the data off the drive by connecting through the drive interface again.

I just don't understand why you would take the cover off the drive in the first place, a simple search on google will tell you never to open a hard drive. You could've bought a fairly good data recovery program for under 100 dollars but as everyone here has mentioned, now you have to send the drive in and it's not gonna be cheap.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm venting, I just want you to realize that computer components are becoming smaller and smaller and most repairs today will require perfectly calibrated machinery; when something has "Warranty Void if Broken" seals all over it, it usually means that you shouldn't open it yourself.

 

Unless you are a physics major the only one LOL more than you is me and the others who are likely ROFLOL.

No one ever talked about gravity? Why you bring it in I do not understand?

Did you notice no mention of gravity? I am glad we amuse you but consider interjecting something thoughtful or insightful or educational to all of us. If not I don't understand your prior post? It lacks cognizance?

 

I'm wondering, honestly, what DID you hope to do by opening the drive?

I'm not trying to sound insulting, we all make silly mistakes. I go asking for trouble all the time! I take random stuff apart and hope it works when I put it back together, but that's only because I'm (somewhat) experienced with them. I'm not trying to sound insulting, but what DID you expect to do by opening the drive???

 

powerpack, read the entire thread. KTRON said that when you open a drive, air gets in and the platters are subject to gravity. I'm saying (as others did) that this is not true............

READ!

 

Let me tell you first off if I read everything I would barely have 2,000 posts! But I will reread, I only caught the vacuum part. So OK, OP should of never opened? we all agree?

 

Lol sorry I was a bit angry when I replied,especially with the READ! part, sorry I didn't mean to be so AHHHHHHH! We all make mistakes, you missed the post that KTRON said about the vacuum, and OP shouldn't have opened the hard drive, lol, no hard feelings, let's forget about this and move on.

 

I'm with you, but lets not be mean to the guy. He made a mistake. Like you said it happens to us all sometimes . He just lost his hard drive, let him mourn in peace .

I remember when I was a little kid and took apart my sisters disposable camera, trying to figure out how it worked. I was able to put the used up disposable camera back together fine, but little did I know I ruined the film! Same thing, different story.

He's right Powerpack, K-Tron mentioned gravity. But I think it was just a bad choice of words. K-Tron clearly knows his stuff. Just worded it awquardly .

 

Get an external USB IDE/SATA adaptor. It's a gadget that IMO every savy computer user/builder should have.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

Amazing how easy it is to just plug and play into a hdd with this device and search for files on a hdd that is not bootable.

There are many "Data recovery" applications out there. But most them don't work very well.

I have tried a few demos of powerful data recovery applications and they work very well with the IDE/SATA adaptor.

The software is very expensive though.

http://www.data-recovery-software.net/

 

Of course we're just conveniently forgetting that the drive was opened as has been damaged . . . most likely beyond repair now.

 

Thank you Greg, I did acknowledge I do not really read before I post. unknowntt knows it was my mistake. But thank both of you, Greg I dropped something off for you today, did you get it? And unknowntt I will send you a package tomorrow, you got me!

 

That is rather convenient isn't it...

oooo nice present! I'll get one back at ya after I "spread some [presents] around".

 

hells yeah, we get presents, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

What did you get for me?

 

Yes. The drive, as stated, is sealed to keep particles of dust and dirt out of the drive.

Your drive is completely gone, yes.

They range from $800 to $1,800, where I work, for the initial work. The service agreement, which we have yet to use, states that the company will contact the customer with a quote for the recovery fee.

My manager said they once had a customer tell them they were quoted $6,000 for a "small" hard drive, personal data only.

Can't say that's a direct quote (since it's only word of mouth), but I know it's very likely that's the true cost, due to the amount of work it takes to get the data off drives damaged in such a way.

 

My Dad paid like $2,800. It is expensive but if you have documents or photos. It is worth it. I went here to learn of what software might work. Greg (MOD) gave good input. But like many people Dad wanted to pretend it was beyond him. He does have the money to pay that so he did. But Dad never opened the case! And he has the data and they made him a nice external drive to back up! Their idea not Dad's!

 

Best idea, people: Back up your information, whether onto other drives, DVDs, or even an online drive.

Or better yet, all three, for maximum security from data loss.

 

Okay guys, sorry I mentioned the wrong thing on gravity. I thought gravity does not exist in a vacuum. Well I did some research and now I know that gravity does exist in a vacuum.
However that was not my main point, I was just stating what happens when you break the seal on the drive, and all of the consequences which occur from opening teh drive.
Gravity was not my main point, dust and particulate matter from outside of the vacuum sealed drive was, and I stated that pretty clear.
I am sorry for the one false statement on gravity.

Thanks for keeping me in check, I am feeling a bit sick today

K-TRON

 

k-tron: You are a very wise guy. After managing to elaborate that interesting idea with “gravity disappearing in vacuum”, you still believe that there is a vacuum in the hard drives. The research you deed was not very good. First you should take a hdd in your hands and study, study, study… And after you study a little bit more than maybe you can explain why is a small hall in the box of each hdd. That hole is there because the pressures (outside and inside) must be equal. And, if you open a hdd, will not be ruined. You must be carefully not to have dust in that space and DO NOT TOUCH THE PLATES. You can find on the internet cases like this, to open the drive and push a little the heads because were stuck. And the data can be recover like this, some times also the hard disk . But this should be the last solution!!!

 

And, not to forget. That hole has a very good particle filter.

 

damn he's right, I just realized that. What the hell was I thinking? There isn't a vacuum in there, the whole is to filter out stuff and maintain constant pressure.

 

Either way, it's "sealed" by a filter, so opening the drive would indeed introduce particles that would not have otherwise gotten in there.

 

And I mentioned on page three?

And am I not the only one who does not read before posting? I think not. Don't worry I will still send your gift, but I mean this is a lot.

 

Just FYI, there is no vacuum in the drives, they are specifically designed to have small pin holes to allow for air to be present (equalization isn't actually necessary, but is easier to avoid problems, main thing you wants is a lack of pressure build up and also not enough air present).

A vacuum would be counter productive to the operation of the drive heads.

You can open them, but you must be very careful, and you do increase your risk of failures / data loss.

Moding HDDs (especially to add a window) was around long before the Raptors added the see through case.