Good morning all,

I recently posted about doing a fresh install on a new hard drive of Windows XP. See: http://briskoda.net/tech-shed/xp-reinstall/127207/#post1487079

The other thing is that the old hard drive contains quite a few memorable photos. She has resigned herself to losing these but i thought it would be nice if i could possibly try and save these. Now i have tried all combinations to read the disc but it is seriously broken.

I have read about changing the hard disc platters ( as long as they are not badly scored/broken ) to enable temporary reading of the disc contents. I know this is regarded as being a specialist area and cost a forutune to retrieve data but i would just like to know if anyone has tried this and if so what success they had.

TIA.

TBH it depends on why the original drive failed. I have taken failed drives apart for a laugh, and found in some cases that the entire surface of magnetic particles has been wipped off the platter and all that remained was dust inside the drive itself.

TBH it depends on why the original drive failed. I have taken failed drives apart for a laugh, and found in some cases that the entire surface of magnetic particles has been wipped off the platter and all that remained was dust inside the drive itself.

I can only assume its failed due to being punted left right and centre about the world. When you switch the computer on all you hear is the head crashing, it does sound pretty terminal. Suppose will just have to open up and see.

Be interested to hear from anyone else that has attempted this.

I've only read about it. I'd say it is very unlikley to work, and you'll need another identical drive.

Hard drive resurrection - Hack a Day

How to Swap Hard Disk Drive Platters - wikiHow

Have you tried putting it in the freezer?

If you're going to do it you need a clean room.

Since you don't have one, go and get a large clean antistatic bag and have a go inside of that in a room with a hard floor and minimal air movement.

You will almost certainly lose the data and make both the donor and recipient discs unusable due to data loss on platters with dust on.

Chances are if you're hearing the heads crashed your data is toast anyway since the fluid coating on the disk platter surface will be destroyed. This is a good reason to have backups.

If the heads are toast you're unlikely to get anything from the freezer trick. That is usually for momentarily making a dead IC work or freeing up sticky bearings IIRC.

If you've nothing to lose and you can afford the disks give it a go.

I have heard of it working but not on the more recent very high density disks.

Have you tried changing the circuit boards off an identical model. I'd do that before I opened the disk.

In addition that that mentioned, you might want to use surgical gloves to stop your hands shedding skin or leaving grease on the disk

If you've nothing to lose and you can afford the disks give it a go.

I have heard of it working but not on the more recent very high density disks.

Have you tried changing the circuit boards off an identical model. I'd do that before I opened the disk.

In addition that that mentioned, you might want to use surgical gloves to stop your hands shedding skin or leaving grease on the disk

I havent looked into changing the circuit board of the drive. I guess its a catch 22 situation that might not be resolved whichever way i do it.

Thanks to all for your replies so far.

As mentioned above she has resigned herself to losing her photos. I just thought it might be a nice gesture to try and resurrect them from the dead.

Unfortunately she hasnt got a full back of everything. She only carrys out incremental backups every now and then, but at least she hasnt lost everything.

Thanks again for your posts.

If you've nothing to lose and you can afford the disks give it a go.

I have heard of it working but not on the more recent very high density disks.

Have you tried changing the circuit boards off an identical model. I'd do that before I opened the disk.

In addition that that mentioned, you might want to use surgical gloves to stop your hands shedding skin or leaving grease on the disk

Dust is significantly larger then the data on the high density disks IIRC.

As for gloves, if you go that route get a pack of non powdered nitrile gloves rather than latex or similar. Powder would mean a quick death for the drive.

Whatever you do don't touch the platter surface. It isn't solid as most people think.

Also on the IC swap, if you can hear the heads in the platters it's too late for that anyway IMHO.

ive recovered data off a dud hdd before by putting it in the freezer. sounds crazy but does work, google it, i tried an IC swap before but youll need the same model drive (obviously) but the board will need the same firmware as the original otherwise its a waste, the fimware version is usually written on the drive label.

ive recovered data off a dud hdd before by putting it in the freezer. sounds crazy but does work, google it, i tried an IC swap before but youll need the same model drive (obviously) but the board will need the same firmware as the original otherwise its a waste, the fimware version is usually written on the drive label.

For the reasons stated before by myself the freezer trick is for certain scenarios and this isn't one I think it will work in. In this case it's potentially going to cause more problems by the contraction of what sounds like an already crashed head.

The IC swap might work, but the firmware on the label might not be the firmware on the drive. The firmware upgrade can be done through the SAS/SES layer and as such can be updated by special software. The only way to know is to check.

It's all well and good saying I read it on the internet so it works, but unless you understand why it works or doesn't work I really wouldn't go trying it on a disk where you would like to have any chance of getting the data back.

before stripping it appart try "hirens boot cd" thereare a few disk recovery programs on there #

it might not work but its something to try before you remove the platters

before stripping it appart try "hirens boot cd" thereare a few disk recovery programs on there #

it might not work but its something to try before you remove the platters

If the head has crashed no software will help.

Another point on the trying to change the platters more modern drives don't run with air in them as the molecules are too big and if they get under the head they will disrupt the flow and can cause a head crash.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help on this topic.

Over the past few days i have stuck it in the freezer and tried other methods. Unfortunately, and as suspected, nothing has worked. The only option now would be to try and change the platters but myself and my friend have decided that its probably not worth the time, effort and expense.

Lesson to be learned: BACKUP YOUR DATA!

Cheers again.

If you've decided to take the data as dead you could try removing the drive cover inside a stat bag and pulling the damaged head that has impacted a platter away from the platter so the disk can spin up correctly.

Then put it back together and if you're really really lucky you might get somewhere with this.

If you've decided to take the data as dead you could try removing the drive cover inside a stat bag and pulling the damaged head that has impacted a platter away from the platter so the disk can spin up correctly.

Then put it back together and if you're really really lucky you might get somewhere with this.

I am just going to let the owner decide what she wants to do. Think she maybe want to put the drama of it all, all behind her now.

Cheers again.

If she really wants the data back then you need a data recovery specialist like Vogon. It won't be cheap though.

If she really wants the data back then you need a data recovery specialist like Vogon. It won't be cheap though.

Regardless of the OP's case it should be noted that no matter how good any of these services is, they can't get the data back if it's not on the disk any more, say from platter damage.

Also the more damage there is, the more it costs to get less back and just because you can get 10% of the data on the disk back, that doesn't mean you're geting 10% of the files, just 10% of the bits on the disk.