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General discussion

Help with Hard drive death

Nov 21, 2006 11:28AM PST

Have a Fujitsu HD that had been loaded with Win XP Pro/SP2, single partition, in a basic home PC. Last activity on this HD was the latest Microsoft update. Customer attempted to access computer later in the evening, and PC was non responsive. (her words) When I saw the unit, I was able to enter BIOS, but immediately noticed the HD was not recognized by the BIOS. I tried a different HD, and the PC BIOS recognized it.
The Fujitsu will not spin up, and when I tried to access any files, by placing the drive in a "Slave" configuration in my test bench, the test bench would not boot up.
Is there anything else that can be tried to get access to the DATA?

Discussion is locked

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(NT) So ,,,not seen in BIOS and it is or isn't spinning ?
Nov 21, 2006 1:28PM PST
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NT) So ,,,not seen in BIOS and it is or isn't spinning ?
Nov 21, 2006 3:58PM PST

Not spinning up at all. Also, an update. The client says there was no odd noises before this incident.
Can a M$ update take out a hard drive? This PC is not that old, but the HD has a date on it of 2000. Probably kept the old drive and replaced everything else at some point.

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Did you notice?
Nov 21, 2006 8:50PM PST

That the drive makers write "5 years" when you read their expected lifespan? You made it past that so no quibbles about that.

If the drive isn't spinning, try it in another machine then explore data recovery costs at drivesavers.com or ontrack.com

I must ask. Isn't a backup system cheaper than data recovery?

Bob

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Did you notice?
Nov 22, 2006 3:56AM PST

Yes, the backup issue has already been discussed with the client.
No, placing it in another PC produced the same results. Not recognized, either as master or slave, and no spinning up.
Thanks for the responses, guys.

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Last chances.
Nov 22, 2006 4:48AM PST

I've salvaged a few by putting the area around the power connector under a microscope and looked for fractures in the circuit traces. My suspicion is the owner wasn't careful about stressing the connector and board. We also get out the Volt meter and see if the +12 and +5 is getting to the board.

Glad to hear a backup plan was in play.

Bob

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Sorry to hear....on to the Ontrack and perhaps a strategy
Nov 23, 2006 7:20AM PST

for backup.

VAPCMD

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dead hard drive
Nov 25, 2006 5:55AM PST

sometimes you can put the hd in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for a day or two. then reinstall and if it comes up, clone immediately.

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re:-dead hard drive
Dec 4, 2006 6:30AM PST

interesting concept ill have to remember that one ive had one fail in the past and lost a lot of work