[Hidden-tech] Retrieve data on external hard drive

[Robert Heller]

One thing *I* have discovered is that USB <=> [SP]ATA interfaces seem to over
time 'go bad' (for some reason), especially self-powered ones (I *think* the
problem might be power related -- something goes bad in the USB power circuit
and the disk is not getting enough power to spin up and/or stay spun up). The
*physical* drive can be perfectly OK. Note: contrairy to 'popular' thought,
there isn't any such thing as a USB disk (asside from the little silicon ones,
known various as 'thumb drives'). All USB 'external' USB disks consist of a
USB <=> [SP]ATA interface and a 'convential' [SP]ATA disk (large / modern ones
are usually SATA disks) in some kind of enclosure. It *might* be posible to
open up the *enclosure* and expose the 'convential' [SP]ATA disk, which can
then be connected using its 'native' interface (SATA or IDE) to a desktop
computer and the disk will likely be just fine.


At Thu, 24 Oct 2013 23:27:36 -0400 Jean Haley <jeanhaley32 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
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> 
> 
> 
> If the External Hard drive is spooling up and then shutting down the
> problem is most likely due to some kind of internal motor failure. If that
> is the case, data recovery becomes much tougher; now you have to open the
> hard drive up and expose the super sensitive platters inside of the
> enclosure  to the outside world. Not a good idea outside of a controlled
> environment and also one of the reason why that level of data recovery,
> although very possible, is super expensive.  If it's Logical failure i.e.
> corrupted format or boot sector stuff, then data recovery is alot easier.
> If not, then you're going to have to send it out to someone who has a
> controlled and dustless environment to work in with access to the proper
> tools. You definitely don't want to over use the hard drive while it's
> damaged. You have a much higher chance of physically damaging the platters
> and making it so your data is irreversibly damaged. If  lucky enough,  you
> may be able to crack the case open and use an alternate external encasement
> to test and see if perhaps the issue deals with some problem with the
> current case(most portable or wall powered hard drives actually contain
> either a laptop hard drive or standard desktop hard drive). The lesson to
> be learned here is that redundancy is the only way to protect you from data
> loss. I like the idea of having both once a week backup hard drive and then
> another  once a month back up hard drive for that one. This is also one
> reason why cloud backup is so popular(If you're not afraid of some
> mysterious government entity possibly parsing through your data). Anyways,
> good luck.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 7:55 PM, Sarah Meikle <sarah at sarahmeikle.com> wrote:
> 
> >    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
> >    ** If you did, we all thank you.
> >
> >
> >
> > I have had great success using Data Rescue by Prosoft <http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php> on
> > multiple drives that wouldn't boot for me.
> > Totally worth the money.
> >
> > It has saved me on many occasions and, at $99 (on sale right now) is far
> > better value than the huge cost many data retrieval places can charge (up
> > to $1000).
> >
> > It has never failed to save the day for me.  Hope it works for her too.
> >
> > Good luck.  That's rough.
> >
> > Sarah
> >
> >
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Sarah
> >
> > _______________
> >
> >
> > Sarah L. Meikle
> > *Creative Business, Design & Technology Consultant
> > *P : +1 914.484.2902
> > sarah at sarahmeikle.com
> > www.sarahmeikle.com
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 5:30 PM, Tom Kopec <tek at acm.org> wrote:
> >
> >>    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's
> >> area.
> >>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>  She needs to STOP POKING AT IT RIGHT NOW.
> >>
> >> Rule #1 of drive recovery (assuming it is not making grinding noises) is
> >> to image whatever you can from the drive off to another medium, so that
> >> your recovery efforts don't make things worse.
> >>
> >> Assuming she is not very tech-savvy and doesn't know how to take an image
> >> and then work on it, she should pack the drive off to Kiernan or somebody
> >> so they can make a best effort.
> >>
> >> Just MHO.
> >>
> >> ...tom
> >>
> >> On 10/24/2013 5:56 AM, George Forman wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>  Dear Hidden Tech Community,
> >>
> >>  A colleague of mine who works in Honolulu cannot open a back up drive
> >> that contains 3 years of work.  She is absolutely undone by this lost.  The
> >> drive contain 3,000 video clips of a demonstration preschool that presents
> >> an innovative approach to early childhood education.  The drive will boot
> >> then crash.  The standard attempts to repair the directory have not worked.
> >>  She was told by a company in Honolulu that it would cost $700 to retrieve
> >> the data.  Doesn't that sound like way too much money?  Does anyone know of
> >> a reliable service that can retrieve the data for less?  She has a Western
> >> Digital, 2 terabyte drive that is about 75% full.  I would then call your
> >> recommended service to learn what is involved in retrieving data (dust free
> >> room, manual retrieval versus batching it, etc.) and communicate this
> >> information back to my colleague.
> >>
> >>  Thanks,
> >> George Forman, President
> >> Videatives, Inc.
> >> Amherst, Massachusetts
> >>
> >>
> >>
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-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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