getting data off an old HDD

blackswan2

Hi there,

My old Dell PC died recently after about 10 years of poor service! It had the "blue screen of death" and checkdsk couldn't get all the way through to completion.

I have bought a Dynamode HDD enclosure but when I put the disk in (SATA cable) and USB connect to computer/laptop nothing recognised and there is no sound of spinning in the enclosure (blue power light is on).

Any help on how to retrieve as much of my data as possible would be much appreciated!

Thanks ... Simon.

System

do you have any recovery software? (can't remember the program I used before, sorry)
Sometimes it will be better to connect the old hdd into the motherboard directly rather than usb, then use some recovery software to see the drive volumes and copy the data to your hdd (or another one) - windows won't always see the hdd if it's corrupted, had this with a couple of drives i've recovered for friends...

closed

Does the machine still attempt to boot into windows, ie see the hard disk, if so, a boot cd might get at the data.

macman

If the drive won't spin up, then nothing can read from it, so it's almost certainly terminal. The only possibility is forensic recovery, which will start about £350.
But seriously, you had a 10 year old hard drive, and didn't back up? That has to be the ultimate definition of an optimist.

Im_just_careful

I have one of those dynamode cases and it worked fine for me.

Checking the basics, you are using the supplied "brick" PSU I take it. Also switched it on (!)

There are 2 leads to the disc, power and data, have you connected them correctly ?

Did it do anything when you plugged it in ? (like a memory stick does when first plugged in).

I'm surprised you don't see the drive in any way but I've not tried a faulty drive in the case.

dispossessed

I have known some disk drive / drive caddy / PC-Laptop combinations just refuse to work together for no obvious reason (probably hardware level conflict). So try the drive & caddy on another PC - you have nothing to lose by trying.

Another trick that is always worth a try - put the drive in a plastic bag and place it in the freezer overnight. Then try the process again.

Having said that I am inclined to agree with Macman that it sounds like the PCB has failed.

If the data is important to you and you do need to go down the professional data recovery route then I would recommend CBL. They have the equipment and expertise to read the disk platters directly.

closed

cbl would not advise the freezer "trick"

macman

Agreed, especially if you are going down the forensic recovery route. If you aren't, nothing to lose really.

closed

It was seemingly working a little before it went into a caddy, if that's still the case, freezers could make potentially recoverable, completely unrecoverable

blackswan2

thought the power lead was the IDE lead :embarasse
so assumed SATA cable provided power as USB leads do/can
Connected and have access to old HDD thanks :-)