Over the years, I have encountered numerous dead hard drives and of course there are many different ways a drive can die.
There are some deaths from which recovery can be achieved, and some may be surprisingly easy.
How did it die?
If the death was loud and noisy and grinding, it is probably really dead.
These are indications of a nasty internal mechanical failure.
Without proper facilities, actual internal repairs are highly unlikely.
On the other hand, if the death was quiet and with little or no prior notice, there may be hope.
The externally visible PC board(s) can also fail, effectively killing a drive. When these components fail, there is seldom any advance notice (power surge is a common cause).
Most of these boards are actually quite easy to obtain and moderately easy to very easy to replace.
As long as you locate a matching drive, within close range of the manufactured date of your drive, the parts will be interchangeable and will frequently revive a dead drive.
I have found eBay to be a very reliable source for old, working, matching drives.
You’ll want to match drive info as closely as is reasonably possible.
Here is an example:
Dead Drive:
Western Digital
WD1200
MDL: WD1200JB-00CRA0
DATE: 08 NOV 2001
DCM: HSEHNQ2AH
S/N: WMA8C1142195
Replacement Drive:
Western Digital
WD1200
MDL: WD1200BB-22CAA0
DATE: 30 NOV 2001
DCM: HSEANQ2AA
S/N: WMA8C1220579
As you can see, none of the numbers are exact matches, but they are very close in terms relative to the range of available items.
What makes this so remarkable, and what has prompted me to write this, is that this particular one was so insanely easy to do.
Literally ANYBODY with a #8 torx screwdriver could do this!
I have had some drive that you may need a magnifying visor and some very fine tweezers to manage the ribbons, and even a few (a long time ago) that required some soldering. However this one required none of that. All the connections to the main body are achieved through pressure contacts. Simply remove 4 screws, lift the old board off, replace it with the new board, replace the 4 screws, and shazam, it is done.
Even though this drive spun right up and has been working ever since, I did some advance preparation to ensure successful data recovery.
I suggest that you:
1. Refrigerate the drive for 24 hours after attaching the replacement board. If an internal part led to the failure of the external board, starting off cold may extend the life long enough to retrieve extra data.
2. Prepare enough space on the location where you intend to copy the data.
3. Install the drive to an already functional computer as an extra drive.
4. Set BIOS to make sure it does NOT try to boot to the repaired drive.
During POST and when booting (to the OS on the main drive), you may be able to feel or hear activity from the repaired drive.
If you see the drive in Windows, immediately locate the desired data and commence the copy process.
Do NOT begin testing and checking it out; do NOT consider the drive “fully functional” and postpone it; immediately commence the location and copying of data.
During one of my early attempts, when the drive came up, I started a diagnostic and the drive died again 10 minutes later. 10 minutes would have been plenty of time to get the data, but when it died again, it never came back up with third board. Stay on focus and get the data. If it lives long enough to do that, then run a diagnostic and play with it.
Not all drives will have pressure sensitive contacts. But the premise remains the same.
Some may have very thin ribbons with tiny receptacles, but these can be managed as well.
Good luck! |
