Though you opened the HD case and apparently didn't notice damage, it maybe there, just not readily "visible". Since, you done all that can be done on your own, its a "hard error". It maybe even be electronics related as the speed isn't ramped-up and it can't recover data as it should either to a physical error or electronics holding it back. The noise maybe from a bad bearing and nothing to do with the insides. In these cases, a spot of oil on bearing "if" exposed and inverted for
oil to migrate overnight does work. As this is a 20gb size HD, suggests its pretty old and time to pitch it regardless. The problem is not only recovering data, but any spare parts maybe nil. The service is doing abit more to recover, IMHO and cost is justified. Since the system doesn't see the HD, then you've done all you can as any s/w needs a semi-working HD to attempt data recovery. You can google for other HD recovery services from other vendors and see if cost is less.
tada -----Willy ![]()
Hi, I have a big problem with one of my hard drives. A while ago, he started to make strange noises (it could be the head scratching the spinning disk, but I'm not sure). I had a backup of all my very important data, but I connected the drive as a slave on another computer to transfer what had not been backed up. The weird noises increased and file transfer became very slow until I received an error message. After that, I was not able to revive my hard drive. It seems to be still spinning when I start the computer, but it doesn't make the same starting noise as a functional drive. When I boot my computer, the drive cannot be detected by the BIOS. I tried all the easy tricks like quickly spinning the drive a quarter of a turn or freezing the drive or hitting it gently. It still could not be detected (I tried on different computers with the same result), so I decided to find a similar drive with the same model number. I tested that new drive on the same PC and it worked perfectly. I tried to swap the electronic boards, with no luck. In fact both drives don't work when I swap the electronics. This is strange: if the old board has a problem, then the new board should fix it, but it doesn't, which suggests that the problem is inside the drive, so the old board should work with the new drive, but it doesn't. Would that mean that there is a compatibility problem even if the model number is the same? If the electronics is ok, wouldn't the BIOS be able to at least detect the drive (it does take longer to look for it, but after a while it just gives up)
Anyway, being out of ideas, I opened the drive inside a class 100 cleanroom to check if I could see scratches on the disk or something like that. There are no scratches on the top part of the disk, but I cannot see the bottom part. The spindle turns very easily by hand. The arm can be moved with a finger easily. To make sure that I wouldn't do more harm, I closed the lid of the drive after carefully blowing it with dry nitrogen. I know that some people would suggest to transfer the old disk (platter) into a working drive. I didn't try it yet, because I wasn't sure if that was really the only way left. Also, it seems quite difficult to remove the disk because the arm is in the way and it's held with strong magnets and I'm not sure if the alignment of the whole thing is really important.
Would somebody have any idea to solve my problem? I called a few data recovery companies and they told me that I should expect to pay over 2000$. I would really like to recover the data on that drive, but I wouldn't be willing to pay that much for it.
Thanks
System info:
- IBM Netvista
- Celeron 600 MHz
- Windows 98SE
Hard drive info:
- IBM Deskstar
- model DTLA-305020
- 20.5 GB
- 5400 RPM

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