Do I Need A Data Recovery Specialist?

[Mulsiphixx]

I turned my PC off, went to bed, started it in the morning and it stopped at the BIOS POST screen. It stated there was some sort of S.M.A.R.T error, that data loss was imminent and I should backup my data immediately. The drive no longer would boot into Windows. I plugged the drive into another PC to see if I could access it as storage. The PC started, there was no BIOS POST screen shown, and the monitor was on but displaying a black screen. I turned off the PC, unplugged the drive, turned the PC back on, and the computer POSTs and behaves normally.

I just read about Hot Plugging and it turns out my Motherboard has settings for it. So I thought I would give that a try. While I was down there plugging it in, I could hear a repeating sound that almost sounds like beeping. I assume this indicates a mechanical issue of some sort. I have turned off my drive for the time being. Hot plugging did not cause the drive to show up in Windows. I am thinking it isn't even operational at this point. I have turned of my drive for the time being.

No idea what is up with this drive. I don't need much data off of it, maybe 100MB. Do I need to take it to a specialist to do this or is there something else I could try on my own?

 

[TheELF]

You could post the smart error the drive shows, maybe there is a clue in there.
Some systems bios have an option to skip the smart test maybe that would let you boot.

 

[SamirD]

If I was in your shoes I would do the following. Put the drive back in your system and have another good drive there as well. Boot parted magic off the ultimate boot cd and see if the drive appears there. If so, quickly copy off your 100MB of stuff to the other good drive in the system. Then you can run some smart tests on the suspect drive. If it passes the short test and fails the long, you can see the exact error messages and see what's going on as sometimes it's just a patch of bad sectors.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

I broke down and contacted a specialist to have my drive looked at. The read-write heads have settled on the platter surface and have become stuck to it. The beeping sound I described is the motor trying to turn, but is being stopped from spinning. This is the most expensive type of hard drive repair because it requires opening the drive. It is also possible the drive will require repair before the data can even be retrieved. He said it would be $500 if the drive didn't require repair and $1,000 if it did. So at this time I am just accepting my losses and learning a hard lesson. In the future I might have the data retrieved but that kind of expenditure is simply beyond my capability at this time.

 

[mindless1]

If you've given up on having a pro take a go at it, there's this urban legend floating around that sometimes you can get a drive working again, for a short period, by putting it in an airtight bag in the freezer for a few hours, then hooking it up while still cold, but you should keep the bag on it, only open enough for the connectors, sealing as much external air out as possible to keep condensation from forming on the PCB.

Otherwise, you have learned that you must make a backup of important data. There are apps out there to automate this, on a schedule or when you plug in a USB drive for example. If this data was on the same partition as the OS, you can make an entire partition backup which also guards against OS faults, malware, and total system downtime too, allowing getting a replacement drive up and running the system in a few minutes.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

I've heard of the freezer trick but am too scared to try it. I really need the data off eventually (family pictures) so I don't want to take any unnecessary risks with it at this point. Thank you for mentioning it though. It is definitely time for me to start implementing regular backups into my life. Thank you mindless1 =)

 

[mindless1]

Maybe it's a long shot but... where did the pics come from? If they were on your camera or phone, and that space wasn't overwritten yet, you may be able to undelete recover them from that device.

Personally, I just leave pics on phone or camera mSD/SD cards AND copy them elsewhere. Memory cards are so cheap now, and take up practically no storage space for a stack of 'em.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

Sadly these pictures are the culmination of two and a half years of dumping. My phone has 16GB storage (old Nexus 6) so I have to empty them out a lot. My wife has one too and it is the same story for her. On top of that, both phones died within the last six months. One was dropped and the other had a battery issue I couldn't fix.

It is a really good idea though. I wouldn't have even thought of that

 

[SamirD]

I've heard of people lightly whacking a drive with a hammer to free stuck heads like this, but since your data is important I would most definitely not try this and leave it to the pros. And $500 isn't bad as most quotes I've gotten for recovery start at over $2k.

 

[TheELF]

The read-write heads have settled on the platter surface and have become stuck to it. The beeping sound I described is the motor trying to turn, but is being stopped from spinning.

This means you already have physical damage on your disk, the more you have tried getting it to run the more damage you have.
You might get super lucky with your photos being in different parts that haven't been affected but in general don't be too hopeful.
Even if you give them $1000 they can't reconstruct the data if the data is not there anymore.

What Does Hard Drive Platter Damage Look Like?

This post shows a few severe cases of hard drive platter damage and explains a basic process for data recovery.

datarecovery.com

 

[mindless1]

If this diagnosis of stuck heads was done remotely based only on a beeping sound, it's not necessarily true that the heads are stuck on the platters. It's possible but there are other causes like motor or PCB failure.

Regardless if the cause is beyond the ability of the owner to resolve, the result is the same, that the best chance of recovery is to not do anything more with it, not power it on again, instead have a pro look at it.

 

[jmagg]

I've mounted drives in Linux that wouldn't boot in windows. ymmv

 

[mindless1]

On top of that, both phones died within the last six months. One was dropped and the other had a battery issue I couldn't fix.

Use phones with a mSD card, put this type of thing on it. If you run out of room on the card, swap in a different one. If you run out of phone, swap mSD card into new phone, but of course this is not the only copy of the data. Redundancy... 100MB is so little by modern standards that it is a small amount of time and money spent to have multiple copies.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

Ouch, I hope my problem isn't that bad. Thank you for the article TheELF. I am definitely going to wait to have a pro look at it. The place I who quoted me those prices said they have a "no data, no fee guarantee." So at least I won't be paying for nothing. Seems like a win/win once I get the expendable income. Thank you very much for all of your feedback guys

 

[TheELF]

The place I who quoted me those prices said they have a "no data, no fee guarantee."

Ask more about that, what if they get you a few hundred MB of whatever else was on the disk but no pictures at all?!

 

[Mulsiphixx]

Ask more about that, what if they get you a few hundred MB of whatever else was on the disk but no pictures at all?!

Wow, that completely slipped my mind. What a good thing to ask about. I went ahead and shot them over an email this morning and this is what they said:

Once the data is recovered, we will send you a list of the files so that you can make sure that your critical files have been recovered and let us know if you approve the recovery, at which point we will complete the process and save the data to whatever target drive you specify (i.e. you can supply a new drive or we can supply one at additional cost). If we are not able to recover the data that you want, then there is no charge.

Basically you’re in charge of whether or not the recovery is deemed successful or not. You are not obligated to accept the data if you decide that your critical files have not been recovered.

Looks like I am dealing with reputable people

 

[TheELF]

Looks like I am dealing with reputable people

Awesome, at least you will be sure what you will get.

 

[SamirD]

Wow, that completely slipped my mind. What a good thing to ask about. I went ahead and shot them over an email this morning and this is what they said:

Once the data is recovered, we will send you a list of the files so that you can make sure that your critical files have been recovered and let us know if you approve the recovery, at which point we will complete the process and save the data to whatever target drive you specify (i.e. you can supply a new drive or we can supply one at additional cost). If we are not able to recover the data that you want, then there is no charge.

Basically you’re in charge of whether or not the recovery is deemed successful or not. You are not obligated to accept the data if you decide that your critical files have not been recovered.

Looks like I am dealing with reputable people

This is great to hear! Please update when you've got your data back and any other notes as well as the company name as they sound like they have real integrity.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

That is a good idea. I will definitely make sure to do that. Until then, take care everyone <3

 

[mindless1]

Although the cost difference is small compared to total data recovery cost, if you only need a few hundred MB worth of pics, you might ask them if they can put that on a CDR or flash drive or card, or cloud, instead of your having to buy a HDD for them to mail you more than you need recovered.

Might seem like more of a burden to them but in some cases it might be less of one to just dump the pics on something that fits in an envelope or put on a cloud instead of pick/pack/mail a HDD.

 

[Mulsiphixx]

Another great idea worth exploring. Thank you!