Hard Drive Repair

[Celvantes]

I recently had a hard drive crash on me. One of my tech buds did some analysis and it turns out the hard drive is no longer spinning. He suggested taking it in and having a forensics place scan the data directly off the drive and onto another, but said that could cost upwards of two grand.

Is it possible to get a hard drive repaired? I'd be willing to buy the tools if I could do it myself. If not, is there a cheaper option for pulling the data off? I have no idea what's on it, but it's back from my college years and it might have stuff that I can't replace. This hard drive in particular has been the bane of my existence a couple times in the past, and now it's just a point of not letting it beat me.

 

[Lucki]

You should have backed it up before it crashed the first time. Definitely the second time.

While I don't know the exact amount it would cost you to get the drive running again, it just wouldn't be worth it in the long run.

I'd just pray that you didn't have anything vital on there.

 

[Tagrineth]

You can't possibly repair it yourself. One speck of dust gets on the platters and there's no way that drive's spinning again. The whole reason it's so expensive is because it has to be done in a sterile environment.

 

[alanon]

It's a long shot, but try freezing it. I have had drives in the past that I stuck in the freezer for a couple of hours, pulled out and hooked straight up and was able to pull fiiles off of (but not necessarily boot to).

 

[Princemercury]

Buy another drive that is the same exact model, get a set of Torx drivers and fix the drive. Take lid off, controller board, remember where the screws are, this will take patience and a good deal of effort. It's a fun project, I've done it a few times (over 10) and it works as long the controller board comes from another HD that is identical to your malfunctioning one. If the drive no longer spins, it could be the motor, which is a bit more complicated but you can still take your platters out and put them in the new HD, just put them in as you took them out, etc top/bottom, side 1/2 exactly. A little dust won't hurt the disk, you'll still be able to retrieve your data off of it with no problem, just make sure you do it quickly and trash the drive when you're done. That's basically what people do for $1000 - $2000, if it's a motor issue. Most of the time it's just a faulty controller board that fails to power the spinner.

 

[Langly]

It can be so expensive because they will take your hard drive and look at it with a very high priced magnetic microscope and transcribe your zero's and one's.

Thousands of dollars. If your information is worth that much... go for it. If not... move on? Sorry to hear.