Disk recovery companies?

[mithrandir]

Anyone know of a reasonably priced disk recovery company? Preferably around Sydney.

I have one that won't spin up but was working when I went to bed. I've looked and I don't have a good backup for it. Hopefully then can put the platters in another case to copy the data to a new drive.

[Colin_Fraser]

The problem is not that bad. If it was okay before you went to bed, then maybe it just was not dismounted correctly.
There's a couple of ways of fixing it depending on the OS, type of drive, physical size and whether it's internal or external.
It happens to me when I neglect to dismount the drive before removing it.
If it's in a laptop, you can remove it and put it in a usb drive case and retrieve the data on a different computer.

Hope it helps.

[mithrandir]

It's not that simple Colin. I'm fairly sure it is the boot disk on one of my Linux systems. It has 3 disks. root is ext3 but everything else is in LVM. It sounds like it is not spinning up. There are head movement noises but it's hard to identify which disk is making them.
I just tried booting it from DVD and that's not working either. I'll take it up to the local shop and let them test the hardware. It could also be a failed rail in the power supply. This is the only disk on that controller. Normally I'd look at it myself but I don't have spares.

[badabing82]

HI Andrew,

If it was just the the boot drive and your lvm data store is onthe other drives you should be able to reinstall nix on a different drive boot from it then scan for other attached drives using lvdisplay create a mount point and mount the volumes.

or was there actual data you on the boot drive you wanted?

i've used these guys before on a a 2 failed drive raid 5 array on a HP DL320 running a database server they got it working and we where able to recover the mdf files clean out the corruption.

http://www.elcotronics.com.au/

raid recovery + copy was around 2k

i've had other use them all with sucesss in getting back about 95% of files at betwen 600-800

[mithrandir]

There are multiple filesystems in the LVM partition, including /home :(. I've dropped the whole box off at the local computer shop. They have names of a couple of recovery companies. If they can get it to the point where they get the lilo menu we'll see if any of the partitions (2 Linux, 1 Windows) will boot. One of the Linux and Windows are on another spindle.

A good start would be if it would boot from a Slackware DVD.

[midnight]

Andrew,

1stly sorry I don't have Linux experience nor tried any recovery companies but I have successfully recovered 4 hard drives in the last 2yrs (out of 9 or 10 from memory) by replacing the little control PCB on the bottom depending on the model and availability to disconnect the PCB (all Windows based systems)

1. Obtain model number from failed HDD
2. Search ebay or local store for an identical model HDD
3. Assuming the price is good, buy it and when it arrives, remove the control board
4. Do the same on the failed HDD and replace it with the donor board.
5. Boot up.

Obviously this can only work if the root cause of failure is the electronics and not the internal head/platters etc. And also the type of HDD and whether removing the control PCB is easy or not (sometimes a little bit of desoldering/soldering required). Finally, this is no guarantee of success as even discrete changes to the HDD electronics/firmware may not make this possible.

I hope you find some success.:thumbsup:

Darrin...

[ourkind]

I've been keenly following this thread as I had the same thing happen with my HDD this week.

Darrin, by the same model do you know if it needs to be the same GB size too? I have several HDDs by the same manuafacture and (at my own risk of course) would like to try what you have suggested.

Many thanks!
Carlos

[midnight]

Carlo, yes. I can only speak about my experience with a WD model as I found the model had to be the exact same one (size, type etc).

For example a recent HDD did the "click click click" noise and was inaccessible. The bios could not even recognise it. The model was a WD5000AAKS but I accidentally purchased a 2nd hand WD5000AADS model off Ebay and did the transplant & it did not work. I went back out on Ebay and found a AAKS model and paid $75 and got the drive going saving a lot of data for a friend of mine.

The specs change depending on how much cache memory, speed etc so to maximise your chances of success, you need to chase down the exact model. Firmware changes, slight physical differences etc may work against you achieving success.

It really depends on how far you're prepared to go to get the data back. Changing platters is the last resort and I have never succeeded in this.

I am finding more and more today, that many things fail because of the electronics. My HP C7280 came up with an error and after stripping down, found the same problem that has dogged many electronics in recent years - bulging capacitors and replaced these and the printer was fine. Also found a CR2032 battery inside ("No user serviceable parts inside"!!) most likely for the memory of the settings including Wifi access.

Good luck!

Darrin...

[badabing82]

Agree with Darrin,

The usual issue is the PCB, you can do a donor but as stated you really need the exact same drive even better get the same part number and revision on the PCB it should have it. Then you have a good chance.

Outside of this it's going to the pro's to do anything as opening a hard drive your almost 99.9% of the time going to screw it further.

For those that are interested.

I've seen the recovery process taking place.

they usually start by opening the drive in a clean room / device.
They then look at the heads if this is the problem area they either order the exact model or they have emulators that can be programmed to the required specs.

They then inspect the platter under a microscope

If it's the platters they usually replace the heads and then basically read the platter block by block at a very slow rate and copy anything off the drive stopping and bypassing the damaged section.

You can then do a recovery on the recovered data on the other drive.

Other methods can be used and i'm sure google is your friend lol!

and as much as people sometimes say you can put the hard drive in the freezer and it will spin up one last time! i tired it, it doesn't work! :P:P:P:P

[RAJAH235]

Go to grc.com & get spinrite.
All 180 k of it & all for $89.00 US.
Best disc maintenance & recovery program out.

Regs, L..

[Dooghan]

I agree. I've recovered a couple of HDD's with Spinrite.

[mithrandir]

You will be pleased to hear that most of the problem was a failed bus in the power supply. That meant insufficient power to spin up the disks. A bad sector in one of the inode tables means I've wound up with a few hundred files in /lost+found but the box boots and DNS, DHCP, Apache all run.

It must be time to upgrade Slackware 9 to Slackware 13.37 and mirror all the data. Or even invest in a new box with hardware RAID.

[Colin_Fraser]

Well that's a bonus for you. Glad it worked out okay :thumbsup:



That's a good move for anyone who has critical data they do not want to lose.

[midnight]

Sounds good Andrew!! Lucky you were able to get something back.

Cheers,
Darrin...