>I just had the misfortune of having my hard drive crash on me ... it >seems like a mechanical failure ... horrible clicking noises ... Have you tried smacking it? Some of the older drives would stick, and could be brought back to life with physical agitation. I should mention that it could very easily cause more damage than you already have, so only try it when you have nothing else to lose. i.e. Just before you trash it. The same technique sometimes works for PC fans, CDroms, air conditioners, and other mechanical devices. Or at least it can make you feel better. Jeremy :) On Wednesday 03 October 2007 12:18:19 am Kevin Hinze wrote: > > Subramanya Sastry wrote: > > Hi folks, > > > > I just had the misfortune of having my hard drive crash on me ... it > > seems like a mechanical failure ... horrible clicking noises ... > > > > There is some data on there that I haven't backed up recently, plus, I > > had used this drive as a backup for data on some other hard drive ... > > while this is not catastrophic data loss, I was wondering if folks had > > any suggestions for recovering data in the face of mechanical failure > > ... or what it might cost if I paid some service for data recovery in the > > twin cities. > > > > It is a ext3 file system .. though not sure that matters ... > > > > Thanks, > > Subbu. > > Subbu, > > There seems to be a few techniques for drive repair. There's the freezer > trick (never worked for me), and swapping the controller board. I've > swapped out the controller board on a variety of brands and sizes of hard > drives. I have had very good success with data recovery. While I am no > drive expert, I have even fixed the infamous 'click of death'. You > definitely need an identical drive, eBay is a great source. Generally you > can pick up a used drive for $5 to $25. And if the controller board fixes > the problem, it sure is a lot cheaper than Ontrack. Generally the > controller boards are very simple to swap. Somewhat self-explanatory if you > stare at it long enough. > > Of course, any minute you have the drive back up and running is a gift, so > my standard recommendation is to do your recovery quickly (providing your > fix worked) and pitch that drive! > > Of the dozen or so I have fixed, all of them were fixed to the point of at > least 90% recovery. One friend continued to use the repaired drive for > years afterwards, against doctor's advice. > > Best of luck to you.