Crashed hard drives -- question

dolfan · Postby **dolfan** » February 17th, 2009, 11:19 am

Okay, so, both of the hard drives on my computer crashed. The smaller of the two I'm not really concerned with so much as far as the content. The larger ---- serious problems if I can't recover the files. Major, major hassles. So, I'm told if it doesn't spin, it won't be recoverable. All I want is my MS Word and Acrobat files. I'd like to have all jpgs too, because I'm afraid some things from our camera may be lost (although, I'm pretty sure I've got 90% of that on CD).

Any thoughts???!!!!

jinjer · Postby **jinjer** » February 17th, 2009, 11:27 am

If you don't get help here, call Jeffery tonight, he can help you. We had this happen to us a little while back.

Jinjer

Pianoman · Postby **Pianoman** » February 17th, 2009, 12:07 pm

Do you know if it's 2 separate drives - or 1
drive that is just partitioned?

It would be somewhat unusual for 2 separate
drives to crash at the same time (unless it's a
single partitioned drive).

I'm preaching to myself to some extent with this
(so don't take it personally) - but external hard drives
are large enough & cheap enough that a person is
almost crazy to not have one to keep everything backed
up on. Now that I've seen this - it reminds me that I
need to take a tad from my tax return & buy one.

I've got a smaller 250 GB portable model that I keep all my
music, photos, clip art, etc. on and actually swap between
my laptop, home computer, & work computer - but I think
I am going to get a larger model to back up my laptop &
my desktop regularly.

I do our church bulletin & copied all my clip art to the portable
drive so I wouldn't have to keep swapping CD's all the time between
computers. Absolutely love it!

Sounds like you may need to contact the Geek Squad!

Paully_44 · Postby **Paully_44** » February 17th, 2009, 12:10 pm

If they are not spinning have you popped the boxtop and made sure the cable that plugs into the back is secure or replace it?

If it is 2 separate drives and they fail to spin, I would first look at the power to the drives.

TW · Postby TW » February 17th, 2009, 12:39 pm

Warning - Warning

Prepare for the Mac Attack!

:lol:

TW

beckrl · Postby **beckrl** » February 17th, 2009, 1:30 pm

"both of the hard drives on my computer crashed"
If that's what has happen....

If not spinning up then it's dead. Big $$$$ to get recovery.
Bios will be unable to recognize the drive.

Tips: Try to unplug and replug the hard drives power also reseat the ribbions to see if bios will then recognize them.

You can check the drives with something like "smart" or "Seatools"or one of these:
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
Check the Drive Fitness Test and make a bootable cd.

MacUser · Postby **MacUser** » February 17th, 2009, 1:56 pm

Paully_44 wrote:If they are not spinning have you popped the boxtop and made sure the cable that plugs into the back is secure or replace it?

If it is 2 separate drives and they fail to spin, I would first look at the power to the drives.

Excellent Advice. This would be the first thing I would do.

Unless Did you hear the "clink of death"? The hard drive spinning up and attempting to access information etc. Clink to kaclunk.. repeated etc. If you did hear this.. don't worry about the plugs... :cry:

Wow TW.. feeling a bit inadequate are you? :lol:

RamboPreacher · Postby **RamboPreacher** » February 17th, 2009, 3:05 pm

data recovery places are out there, but are all going to be very costly. many of the HD manufacturer's themselves have data recovery places or suggestions.

it is interesting, that two separate (assuming they are two drives and not one with partitions) drives aren't spinning up, though. this nearly never happens without warning (except in the case of disaster - lightning, physical damage, etc).

jinjer · Postby **jinjer** » February 17th, 2009, 3:27 pm

Jeffery can probably help you with the data recovery. He recovered nearly all of ours when ours crashed.

Jinjer

jinjer · Postby **jinjer** » February 17th, 2009, 3:48 pm

I forgot to mention, he would probably do it pretty cheap for you!!! :wink:

Jinjer

dolfan · Postby **dolfan** » February 17th, 2009, 4:24 pm

MacUser wrote:
Paully_44 wrote:If they are not spinning have you popped the boxtop and made sure the cable that plugs into the back is secure or replace it?

If it is 2 separate drives and they fail to spin, I would first look at the power to the drives.

Excellent Advice. This would be the first thing I would do.

Unless Did you hear the "clink of death"? The hard drive spinning up and attempting to access information etc. Clink to kaclunk.. repeated etc. If you did hear this.. don't worry about the plugs...

Wow TW.. feeling a bit inadequate are you?

that's exactly it

jinjer · Postby **jinjer** » February 17th, 2009, 4:28 pm

Tim,

Jeffery said call him tonight, he has some help for you.

Jinjer
721-9950

MacUser · Postby **MacUser** » February 17th, 2009, 4:36 pm

dolfan wrote:
MacUser wrote:Unless Did you hear the "clink of death"? The hard drive spinning up and attempting to access information etc. Clink to kaclunk.. repeated etc. If you did hear this.. don't worry about the plugs.

that's exactly it

Like this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WD_ba ... _death.ogg

Bummer. Still check the cables to be sure it's getting full power as a last resort. I was able to once quickly backup 90% of the drive before it's Clink of Death took the ship down. :cry:

dolfan · Postby **dolfan** » February 17th, 2009, 6:08 pm

Jinjer, I'll try on Wednesday. I had to close the store tonight with Charlcie in tow (wife had to teach a class for work, late), all after her dance class. So, I'm late getting home (it's 10:08 right now, and we're closing up).

Thanks!!!!! (Keepin' my fingers crossed).

Jude 2