Tech Help - Data recovery?

Anyone have any experience with this?  My external hard drive seems to have crapped out last night (turns on, but there's a slight clicking sound and my computer won't recognize it).  Any idea of how possible it is to get the files on there?  Any where's a good place to have this looked at?  Geek Squad?  Somewhere else?  I'm in Alexandria, VA, for what it's worth.

Thanks!

Just curious, what kind is it?

Have you tried to unplug it from your computer, turn it off (may need to unplug it) and then power it all up again? I've had that problem on occasion using mine with my laptop and resetting everything in that manner usually works.

Good luck!

It's an Acomdata external hard drive.  I tried that and brought it in to work to try on another computer…so far, no dice.

Jaguar wrote:
Just curious, what kind is it?

Have you tried to unplug it from your computer, turn it off (may need to unplug it) and then power it all up again? I've had that problem on occasion using mine with my laptop and resetting everything in that manner usually works.

Good luck!

the technical term for this is "not good".

try googling "data recovery freeware" and see what tools come up.  they might be able to fix the disk if the problem is logical.  if one of these tools does the job, pull the files off the drive immediately - that disk is likely to fail again.

however, if the problem is physical, there isn't much that software can do.  at that point i'd go talk to geek squad and the like, but i suspect they'll tell you to go to a data recovery specialist which who can re-build the disk, but that = $$$.

Eh, at this point, I'm ok with spending the money if we have to…to save all of the photos, etc. it would be worth it.  But I'll take your suggestion on the freeware.  Hell, it can't hurt, I suppose.

sweetcell wrote:
the technical term for this is "not good".

try googling "data recovery freeware" and see what tools come up.  they might be able to fix the disk if the problem is logical.  if one of these tools does the job, pull the files off the drive immediately - that disk is likely to fail again.

however, if the problem is physical, there isn't much that software can do.  at that point i'd go talk to geek squad and the like, but i suspect they'll tell you to go to a data recovery specialist which who can re-build the disk, but that = $$$.

yeah if there is a clicking sound, that is never good.  one thing you can try is to remove the hard drive and put it in the freezer for 30 minutes or so (make sure it isn't warm though, don't want any condensation!) then you can hook it back up and it might work for 30 minutes or so, enough time for you to grab anything you need off of it and back it up.  I've used this method several times and it does work. google 'hard drive freezer' and you will see others have had the same results

that happens when there is too much porn in there…just sayin'  :P

if it's making bad noises I wouldn't try to work with it too much longer.  try the freezer method, if that doesn't work find a data recovery firm on the www. ; Once the platters become damaged, things can snowball fast and the more you try to read it the more it gets damaged.  Be ready to spend a lot of money on data recovery, and avoid geek squad and the like.

hope something works out for you, nkotb.

recommendation for your future external storage needs: consider a drive configured for RAID 1 (or any other favor of mirroring - both drives have copies of all data, so if one drive fails there is a backup drive to take over until you can replace the failed one).  Ex: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822101086

Check out this box. Looks like someone stomped on it.

First off, there is no such thing as too much porn.

Second off, it's important to realize your drive is dead or near. So yes, try the freezer thing.  Seriously.  This has worked for me on a couple of occasions, but have another drive ready before you do it because you will only have 30-60 minutes to get all of your data off of it. 

Third, if the freezer thing doesn't work, something as simple as a quick jolt or shake to the drive can get the needles realigned if they are off the tray.  This might also buy you enough time to get your data off.

The last option is to pay someone to recover the data off the tray.  Sadly it's an all or nothing proposition and can be very expensive.  They can't just recover the folder "photos" - they'll have to do it all.  Most software recovery porgrams work to recover accidental deletion or boot sector losses and can't recover physically damaged disks, which is what it sounds like you have.

As sweetcelll pointed out, RAID type NAS storage can prevent this in the future if you know what you're doing.  They run two HDD's simultaneously and if one fails, your data is protected on the other.  I have gotten away from RAID type storage and instead use a Windows Home Server that uses Drive Extender instead of RAID as it's easier to configure.  If you're a PC person, this is the way to go.  If you're a Mac peron, the RAID NAS is the way to go.

Cool…thanks everyone!  I guess I'm taking a quick trip to Best Buy tonight.  I have had luck with realigning the needle before, so we'll see how it works.  The freezer idea if crazy…I'll throw this sucker in tonight and see what happens.

Also, I'm definitely into getting everything…it's just that the photos are the one thing that's irreplaceable.  I can always re-download the porn…er I mean the music.