When your hard drive dies, you are apt to panic and think your data is gone for good. Luckily, there are several computer data recovery tricks that can be used to recover files that you thought were lost.
It's important to have an external hard drive, like a FireWire drive, so if your primary hard drive fails, you can retrieve the data from the secondary drive. If you don't have a secondary, external hard drive, remain calm, there's a chance you can get your files back.
Just because your drive is bad enough that you can't boot from it any more doesn't mean you won't be able to pull your important files. Pull the drive out of the computer and hook it up as a secondary drive in another machine. Computer stores sell USB hard drive adapters that can help you accomplish this. If the drive is readable, it should show up as another drive letter in My Computer. Copy your files onto the good drive as fast as you can, in case the bad drive dies completely. You may need to use Windows to check for errors if the copy stops halfway through the process.
Sometimes reorienting the drive itself will help it to work better, so you can attempt to execute data backup and recovery. If it's not working flat, try tipping it on its side or on end.
Often times a drive will work fine when you first power it up, but as it heats up things expand and problems start to develop. Place the drive in front of a fan or air-conditioner to extend the amount of time you have to copy your data.
When a drive won't spin up at all it can sometimes be caused by a condition called "stiction". The bearings in the drive have gone bad and don't move as freely as they should. Try giving the drive a gentle smack on the desk. Many times this can be enough to overcome the friction in the bearings and once the platters start spinning they keep going. Just make sure you copy all your data before you remove the power again.
Sometimes the drive and data are fine but the drive electronics have gone bad. If you can find a drive that is identical to the one you are trying to recover files from, try swapping circuit boards. The boards are generally held in place by a couple of screws and are connected with connectors so no soldering will be necessary. If this fixes the problem, copy all your important files off of the drive just in case it does have other problems.
Try sealing the drive in a plastic bag and placing it in the freezer for several hours. Remove the drive, power it up and see what you can get off of it. Act fast because you may only have until the drive warms up and the trick may only work once.
If you have another identical drive you can try opening up both drives and trading platters. Only try this with single-platter drives, though, because if there is more than one, you'll never get them to line up right again. Also, only attempt this operation if you feel you have the technical skills to pull it off as the platters and heads in these drives are very easy to damage. Don't worry about not having a clean room when you do this, since you only need the drive to last long enough to recover files off of it.
If your data is worth more than $1000 or so it might be time to bring in the pros. Drive Tech PC offers data recovery New York services. They can be extremely expensive, however, so you need to decide if it is worth the money. Also, if you use a professional data recovery and backup service, you should probably send them the drive before you try some of the more destructive tricks in this article (freezing, taking the drive apart, etc.).
It's important to have an external hard drive, like a FireWire drive, so if your primary hard drive fails, you can retrieve the data from the secondary drive. If you don't have a secondary, external hard drive, remain calm, there's a chance you can get your files back.
Just because your drive is bad enough that you can't boot from it any more doesn't mean you won't be able to pull your important files. Pull the drive out of the computer and hook it up as a secondary drive in another machine. Computer stores sell USB hard drive adapters that can help you accomplish this. If the drive is readable, it should show up as another drive letter in My Computer. Copy your files onto the good drive as fast as you can, in case the bad drive dies completely. You may need to use Windows to check for errors if the copy stops halfway through the process.
Sometimes reorienting the drive itself will help it to work better, so you can attempt to execute data backup and recovery. If it's not working flat, try tipping it on its side or on end.
Often times a drive will work fine when you first power it up, but as it heats up things expand and problems start to develop. Place the drive in front of a fan or air-conditioner to extend the amount of time you have to copy your data.
When a drive won't spin up at all it can sometimes be caused by a condition called "stiction". The bearings in the drive have gone bad and don't move as freely as they should. Try giving the drive a gentle smack on the desk. Many times this can be enough to overcome the friction in the bearings and once the platters start spinning they keep going. Just make sure you copy all your data before you remove the power again.
Sometimes the drive and data are fine but the drive electronics have gone bad. If you can find a drive that is identical to the one you are trying to recover files from, try swapping circuit boards. The boards are generally held in place by a couple of screws and are connected with connectors so no soldering will be necessary. If this fixes the problem, copy all your important files off of the drive just in case it does have other problems.
Try sealing the drive in a plastic bag and placing it in the freezer for several hours. Remove the drive, power it up and see what you can get off of it. Act fast because you may only have until the drive warms up and the trick may only work once.
If you have another identical drive you can try opening up both drives and trading platters. Only try this with single-platter drives, though, because if there is more than one, you'll never get them to line up right again. Also, only attempt this operation if you feel you have the technical skills to pull it off as the platters and heads in these drives are very easy to damage. Don't worry about not having a clean room when you do this, since you only need the drive to last long enough to recover files off of it.
If your data is worth more than $1000 or so it might be time to bring in the pros. Drive Tech PC offers data recovery New York services. They can be extremely expensive, however, so you need to decide if it is worth the money. Also, if you use a professional data recovery and backup service, you should probably send them the drive before you try some of the more destructive tricks in this article (freezing, taking the drive apart, etc.).
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