Problems with my external HD

[peter_400]

Hi I have a problem with my external hard disk and was wondering if anyone here could help?

My PC is a Packard Bell imedia 5064, 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 with 700MB of ram.

The hard disk I'm having problems with is a 200 GB Maxtor Diamond Plus 9 which is connected via USB 2.0. It has been working fine since I got it but all of a sudden it's not working. It's is not recognized by windows, it slows down my system to a standstill when I switch it on and the one time I managed to get windows to recognize it was there a "I/O error" message popped up.

There are some truly irreplaceable files on it so any insight you could offer would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Fushigi]

I think you need to isolate where the problem is occurring to see if it's the drive, the enclosure, the enclosure's power supply, the USB cable, or something on your PC.

Things to try without spending any money:

1. Plug it in to a friend's PC to see if it has the problem; if so it's the drive or the enclosure and not your PC. If it's fine on the other PC, then your PC is where the problem lies.
2. Install the drive in your PC as an internal drive vs. external in an enclosure. If if works, the enclosure/PSU/USB cable is at fault.

Things to try that involve cost:

3. Try a different USB cable.
4. Replace the enclosure's power adapter.
5. Install the drive in a separate enclosure.

 

[peter_400]

I think you need to isolate where the problem is occurring to see if it's the drive, the enclosure, the enclosure's power supply, the USB cable, or something on your PC.

Things to try without spending any money:

1. Plug it in to a friend's PC to see if it has the problem; if so it's the drive or the enclosure and not your PC. If it's fine on the other PC, then your PC is where the problem lies.
2. Install the drive in your PC as an internal drive vs. external in an enclosure. If if works, the enclosure/PSU/USB cable is at fault.

Things to try that involve cost:

3. Try a different USB cable.
4. Replace the enclosure's power adapter.
5. Install the drive in a separate enclosure.

Yeah I've tried all this but it seems to be impossible to access it. Maxtor's tech support told me that it represented a "serious fault" and that I'll need to replace the disk. So now it's really a data recovery problem. How can I get the data back if I can't access the disk? I've looked round some data recovery places but the prices are so high. Does anyone know any alternatives?

 

[Tannin]

Hi Peter. There are, I am afraid, just two alternatives. (1) Pay the money. (2) Say goodbye to your data. I don't think that there is anything else you can sensibly try.

Data recovery specialists are very, very good at what they do (or at least the ones I've sent people to are). They can usually get stuff off very sick drives. But they are also very expensive.

You could try some data recovery software for yourself, but that's almost certainly a bad idea. Chances are that you will spend quite a bit on the software, screw up the drive beyond what even a data recovery pro can rescue, and still have no data. It might work, but there are long odds are against it.

My advice is to take a hard decision: pay for expert help (budget on around $1000 US, give or take 50%), or start recreating that data.

One thing I have learned about hard decisions over the years is that they never get any easier, no matter how long you spend making them. You can sweat and worry and have bad dreams all night over a decision for a week, a year, or an entire lifetime, but at the end of all that sweat and worry, you still wind up in exactly the same place you started: still trying to make a tough decison, and it's just as tough a decision today as it was yesterday or the day before.

Gather your evidence, then decide it. Today. Right or wrong, make your best call, and implement it. Once the decision is made, you can move on.

There is nothing you can do to make such a horrible decision easier. But you can get it over and done with. Not very pleasant advice, I know. But if the drive is as sick as Maxtor says it is, then it's the best advice I've got.

 

[time]

Well, there's also the outside chance that replacing the drive's circuit board will make the data accessible, but you'd need to find an identical drive to scavenge one from.

 

[peter_400]

Thanks for the input. I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that if I want my data back I'll have to pay. Most of it I can replace but there's work from my university course and songs that I'd half finished that would be completely lost. I've already contacted a few data recovery places so I know how much I'll be facing. It's so tough as I basically just spent any spare money I had on a synth a couple of weeks ago.

Ah well I've just got to be philosophical about it really. Lesson learnt and all that. I'm definitely going to have to get a DVD writer so that I can back up EVERYTHING from now on. I'm kicking myself for not having done it before though.

 

[Buck]

Peter,

If you do go down the data recovery path, the best companies in and around the U.S. are Action Front, Data Mechanix, and Ontrack. I have personally work with all of them; Data Mechanix is local for me, which makes them convenient and it helps that they're nice blokes (don't be fooled by their lackof website design). Action Front has a much better presence nationwide and in Canada - they're communication with the customer is superb. Ontrack is good too, but they're normally not my first choice. In my opinion, they're similar to purchasing an Asus motherboard, you're paying more for the name and not necessarily service. Although it should be noted that if you can recover your own data with software, Ontrack has some nice options.

http://www.actionfront.com/
http://www.datamechanix.com/
http://www.ontrack.com/

 

[peter_400]

Peter,

If you do go down the data recovery path, the best companies in and around the U.S. are Action Front, Data Mechanix, and Ontrack. I have personally work with all of them; Data Mechanix is local for me, which makes them convenient and it helps that they're nice blokes (don't be fooled by their lackof website design). Action Front has a much better presence nationwide and in Canada - they're communication with the customer is superb. Ontrack is good too, but they're normally not my first choice. In my opinion, they're similar to purchasing an Asus motherboard, you're paying more for the name and not necessarily service. Although it should be noted that if you can recover your own data with software, Ontrack has some nice options.

http://www.actionfront.com/
http://www.datamechanix.com/
http://www.ontrack.com/

Thanks, I'm in the UK though. I've e-mailed a few places and recieved some quotes. If I'm going to have to pay through the nose I'll need to shop around a bit but there's no finer incentive to do a bit of research than a severe lack of funds.

 

[Buck]

You may want to try Ontrack UK or Disklabs.

http://www.disklabs.com/
http://www.ontrack.co.uk/