broken hard disk drive

chrissiemac

I tried the WD Data Lifeguard again. This time it recognised the HDD but said it was a cable fault. I tried a different cable. Same response.

ianian99, thanks for your picture. I took a photo to show you mine, but I can't insert it here. It's different from yours - it has ATA connections. I don't think it's on its own ide slot, but I'm pretty sure I know how to connect it correctly to the motherboard. I don't know how to change slave/master and I'm not certain of how to properly negotiate my way through BIOS. Sorry!

Mr_Oink

There are some presentations and tips here depending on your knowledge level:

http://www.myharddrivedied.com/

aardware

The above is certainly worth a try, but be aware that if it's still under warranty, when you are done, you can't get a replacement if you've dismantled it.

I'd be extremely wary of any data recovery guy who says they can definitely get your data back without having examined the drive. Even i365 won't get it everytime!

Also, any decent data recovery guy will do it on a no win no fee basis. For anyone else you'll probably be better off shelling out for stellar Phoenix or Seagate data recovery for windows. At least that way, if it's non recoverable you have some software for your £100!

aardware

If it's a sata drive and you're getting cable errors from either software it's probably the onboard controller. Download the Seagate trial as the stellar one didn't work. I'm afraid it's more than likely going to be toast very soon. Try the Seagate one. There is a freeware recovery tool I think mentioned earlier (someone uses it at work?) in this thread too. I'm on my iPhone so if not, I'll look when I get home and post a link

Richie-from-the-Boro

aardware wrote: »

Excuse me for trying to help with the information to hand.

For the record, seatools for dos will do exactly the same things for any make of hard drive, not just seagate. It is not the "incorrect" piece of software.

I suspect, and will check when i get home, in much the same way that seagates "diskwizard" is just oem rebranded acronis (the same piece of software acronis use), that "data lifeguard" is just a rebranded version of the same software the seatools is.

Your Excuse me comment .. .. .. don't be silly, the correct software I was referencing was the precise DFT for the O/P's model number from the drive manufacturers site. If you had clicked on the link I gave instead of having an emotional moment you would know that.

Your For the record comment .. .. .. how old are you my friend ?

aardware

You patronised me for not having specified the "correct" software using information that was not yet known. I recommended software I know to work on all drives, including the one in question. Responding to your intentional attempt to patronise me is not emotional, especially considering that I'm not the only person who took it that way. It's people who post in your fashion that make people thing techies are unapproachable in the first place.

I fail to see what age has to do with it, although the fact you brought it up at all speaks volumes about your own maturity levels.

Richie-from-the-Boro

aardware wrote: »

You patronised me for not having specified the "correct" software using information that was not yet known. I recommended software I know to work on all drives, including the one in question. Responding to your intentional attempt to patronise me is not emotional, especially considering that I'm not the only person who took it that way. It's people who post in your fashion that make people thing techies are unapproachable in the first place.

I fail to see what age has to do with it, although the fact you brought it up at all speaks volumes about your own maturity levels.

I don't claim to be a techie, I may be one but I have never said I'm one, never listed my company, never listed my qualifications, and I certainly do not have a three deep tag line espousing the fact that .. HEY .. I am important look at me.

I spent decades employing, and frequently have to fire people like your good self. One thing I have learned in the 25+ years of managing operations that employ your skills group is that individuals who need to explain to others via a tag line how good they are .. .. .. rarely are.

There are many industrious and diligent people [MSE ] also employed and qualified in your industry who respond on these boards, none of whom feel the need to advertise their accreditation

Now if chrissiemac want's to determine if the drive is totally US or repairable, your best chance is to do it in DOS at BIOS level. If you feel it may be of help to you, just make a post here, aardware or one of us will walk you through what you need to do.

tronator

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

I don't claim to be a techie, I may be one but I have never said I'm one, never listed my company, never listed my qualifications, and I certainly do not have a three deep tag line espousing the fact that .. HEY .. I am important look at me.

LOL, had to enable displaying signatures to see it. He isn't a "Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Expert" though...

Switching signatures off again...

Richie-from-the-Boro

tronator wrote: »

LOL, had to enable displaying signatures to see it. He isn't a "Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Expert" though...

Switching signatures off again...

Hiya tronator :beer::beer: beers all round lookie #32

- and no he / she keeps bumping into them at every post

googler

I tried Seagate tools on CD to analyse a drive once.... but I found that it wouldn't analyse anything but the primary (C:) drive on my machine.

What I wanted to do was analyse a non-bootable slave drive, with a non-windows, non-Linux, non-Mac OS, either attached as a slave to an IDE channel, or in an external HDD enclosure.

Does anyone know of any downloadable disk utilities that will do this?