unbootable harddrive

[davidjmorin]

does anyone know if there is an inexpensive way (under 1500) to get my info off my harddrive that is dead? It will not boot nor show up in my boot screen. I have had it for about 5 years and 3 of which it hasnt worked. Its a maxtor HD 150gb I have alot of memories on this HD and owuld love to get them off. Anyone have any suggestions?

[djr33]

Well, sure, just put it in another computer that has a second bay-- most desktops do. Or, if you must, buy an external enclosure (these aren't too expensive, absolutely under $50), and just do it that way. If may simply not work. But that's how you'd get the data off. Otherwise, if it's broken, you'll be going the not fun route of $1000s/GB, etc, by data recovery companies (ripoffs, but the only real solution) or just starting over.
If this is your only harddrive, buy a new one anyway, 'cause you won't want to be trusting this any longer.

[davidjmorin]

yeah tell me about it . ive tried all that. No luck. i cant believe they charge that much. i have 6 HDs. 4 in use. but the one that i want is family phtos and stuff from a few years ago. irreplaceable stufff. oh well i guess.

[djr33]

Anything like that should always be backed up. It seems we always forget to backup, then realize too late-- when it actually matters. We're all guilty of not backing something up (and for those few who do back everything up, we just call them insane). Yep.

Not much else to recommend. For just some photos, you might get some data recovery people to do it. That won't be so expensive. When it happened to me, I had video files, probably 15GB plus, so I just gave up. That would have been crippling financially. But for 100MB of photos? Sure. Trouble is that I'm not sure how you could tell them which files you want back.

Of course it might be good to just ask a computer friend if they can take a look. Maybe you just missed something. (Though that may be unlikely.)

[insanemonkey]

did you try switching the triggers in the back.. alot of hardrives have these...

make sure its on jumper or its another one.... make sure its not on master or you wont be able to use it... its like a little plastic peice you take out then next to it put it in...

then hook it up to a computer.

[mingssn]

does anyone know if there is an inexpensive way (under 1500) to get my info off my harddrive that is dead? It will not boot nor show up in my boot screen. I have had it for about 5 years and 3 of which it hasnt worked. Its a maxtor HD 150gb I have alot of memories on this HD and owuld love to get them off. Anyone have any suggestions?

First thing first do not try any mechanism to boot up your drive. Its dead and any further application may damage your drive as well as your data. Only data recovery services will help you in recovering your lost data. Send your hard drive to data recovery service company. They will analyze your hard drive and send you the report. On the basis of that report you will get to know what data will be recovered. If satisfied then recovery will take and will be charged accordingly. You can find lots of data recovery service company on google.

Edit: Self promotion link removed by moderator

[lainlives]

this may sound weird, but freeze it overnight then rush it into your pc, try it then

[Thanatos Erabus]

freeze it? can u xplaine that 1?

well first of all does it get past the bios screen? or say anything about failure to boot os? also does it show as connected in the bios screen?
if it says failure to boot its probably an os failure and if its xp it can fix itself without a cd if u know what ure doing and if its not you can just pop the windows(whichever) cd in and fix it that way.
if it doesnt register its hooked up then you maybe screwed i dont really know an alternative there( im sort of new to this stuff) but if you have a friend that knows what he is doing he can just ghost the info to another hard drive for you i believe. ive never tried with a possible broken hard drive but it is posible to do it i bet...

[bradenkeithcom]

well however you fix this when you get it back i suggest raiding your six HD's then partitioning out different parts for organization like you're doing now.... that way you won't lose anything again.

[lainlives]

putting it in the freezer can accully make it work temporarily, but no water that kills it obviously, if it works, it will only work once or twice

but it sounds like an electronics problems, if it is the electronics you could buy a harddrive of the same type/brand/model, and replace the board, i fixed a hdd like this