Recently had this happen to a notebook drive as well.  In my quest
for recovery, I found out a lot.  Can't give you a firm answer, but
perhaps some tips/info might help...

- You shouldn't open it up unless you have a SUPER CLEAN room.
   With all else done right, the smallest spec of dust/hair will foil the
   recovery procedure.
- Data recovery can be has for as little as $200 if  I remember correctly.
- What they generally do is to locate and purchase a drive that is identical
   to the crashed one and reinstall the platters into the new drive, again
   in a clean room.
- Wiha Tools have all the little tools you could possibly need for this.
- I believe file tables are generally backed up, and backup SW
   generally knows where to get the backup tables.
- Check the web for some free/trial backup software.

So it sounds like you're (note I didn't use "your" :-) mostly on the right
   track.

Cheers,
-Neil.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Richards, Justin P" <Justin.Richards@TEAM.TELSTRA.COM>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2002 10:17 AM
Subject: [OT]: Hard Drive Crash Recovery


> G'day Folks,
>
> I have just had a 2 G hard drive crash. :(   Pulled it apart and found one
> of the heads has well and truly crashed into the outer cylinders of one of
> the disks.
>
> I really would like the data back but cant afford the $ for the proper
> people to have a go.  I am going to buy an identical drive and attempt a
> platter change.
>
> I heard some time ago that hard drives keep a table of good and bad
sectors
> so thought that my plan may fail due to this and perhaps for many other
> reasons.
>
> Anyone had a go at doing this sort of thing.
>
> And yes, I do back up and as it turns out this is my backup disk but it
> crashed while doing a reformat reload windows thing on my other drive and
> did not get the chance to copy the important stuff back.
>
> Would dearly love to get at all my old data.
>
> Any help, experience would be warmly received :)
>
> Justin
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
> mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu
>
>
>

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu