Hard drive help please. It's still under warranty

[Mouser X]

I'm already pretty sure the hard drive in question can't be fixed in its current condition. Here's the problem(s):

If I hook the dead drive to my PC, the orange "reading HDD" goes on, and never goes off. Doing this causes my PC to lockup for a few minutes. When it unfreezes, the orange light is still on, and no drive appears. Note: The drive is already plugged in through an internal SATA port. However, it's powered externally. Thus, I can turn it on, or off, as needed. I have *never* turned it off without first turning off the PC.

None of my SATA drives show up in the BIOS, but my 300 GB drive shows up in the RAID controller. My 280 GB (which is the one that's not working) doesn't show up in the RAID, or any other devices or programs.

I'm fairly certain that if I could get a new hard drive controller board, that I'd be able to get the drive working again. However, I don't know where to get a working controller board. Also, the drive is still under warranty, but I'd really like to get the data off of it first, if possible.

My overall questions are these: Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to retrieve the data on the drive? Any suggestions on getting it working? Any suggestions on who to call, or what I can do, or who to contact, for data recovery? Any suggestions on who I can call/contact for more information/help?

Any useful information anyone has to offer would be helpful, and greatly appreciated. I'm now wishing I had bought more DVDs, and put them to use. Anyway, thanks in advance for anything that might lead in a good direction. Mouser X out.

[Katsurugi]

That's not a good sign if BIOS can't detect it. At first I thought maybe you put the jumper on the wrong pins, but if it's not being detected at all, it means it's most likely dead(?). Since it isn't being detected at all, then there's no connection between the OS and the hard drive at all. Considering this, it doesn't matter if you turn off the hard drive before you turn off the computer. As a last resort, what I would do is use another OS. I'm assuming you're using a Windows machine. But in any case, I find that any Linux client is pretty reliable at detecting hard drives and other hardware. Grab a live cd of Ubuntu or something like that and see if it detects the HD. If you can't seem to get it started like that, then I would probably forget about any data recovery. From their site you should be able to order live cds and the like for free. You'll just have to wait for it to arrive at your house via mail.

[Mouser X]

I called some local places, and the first place I called had a $100 charge just to bring in the drive, and have them look at it. The second place may be charging the same way, but they didn't say they were. Either way, minimum is $100. Hopefully, that'd at least get me a filetree of what's on the drive. Most, if not all, of the data is replaceable. In other words, if I'm patient enough, I could redownload most of it. The question is, is it worth the minimum payment of $100? I'm beggining to think it might be. At least that way, I know what it is I'm going to be looking for to replace it all.

The suggestion to look at it under Linux is a good one. I'll see if I can do that, before I take the drive in. It certainly won't hurt, anyway.

Thanks for the reply. I'm glad someone finally did. Mouser X out.

[Katsurugi]

It's only worth 100 dollars if you think the data is worth it. Personally, I think that $100 dollars just to LOOK at it is ridiculous. The estimate should probably cost you like 20 dollars and then maybe they can jack up the service charge if it's a real hassle. But I think that generally, hard drive problems are relatively easy to solve and that they charge that much upfront because they know it's not a lot of work to fix it.

Don't you know anyone that might have another computer where you can test it out? I really think that the drive is more or less shot and spending a hundred dollars to verify that is kind of redundant.

[phill]

It's only worth 100 dollars if you think the data is worth it. Personally, I think that $100 dollars just to LOOK at it is ridiculous. The estimate should probably cost you like 20 dollars and then maybe they can jack up the service charge if it's a real hassle. But I think that generally, hard drive problems are relatively easy to solve and that they charge that much upfront because they know it's not a lot of work to fix it.

Don't you know anyone that might have another computer where you can test it out? I really think that the drive is more or less shot and spending a hundred dollars to verify that is kind of redundant.

You have no idea just how much work it is to get a dead drive working again do you. It is a pain in the ass just to determine what the problem is (dead controller, head contact, dead motor, etc) let alone fix it. Plus its not like they take it to a work bench and swap out the plates, they use clean rooms which are expensive to maintain. There are a lot of reasons it can costs thousands of dollars to get data of a dead drive.

As for the OP, if Windows doesn't see it and the BIOS doesn't see it, then theres a good chance Linux won't help much at all. You can always give it a try in another computer, but I am thinking that won't work either. You can try the freezer trick (put it in a plastic bag, push air out, toss in freezer for an hour) and if you are lucky you can get 10 minutes out of the drive. But really, you pretty much screwed unless you are willing to shell out the cash for data recovery.

[Mouser X]

The drive is trying to work. I can tell that much by how the drive, and the computer, respond. I have no doubt that the platters, and therefore data, are unharmed. Something on the control board burned out. At least, that's my guess. If I knew where to get a replacement controller board, I'd do it. In other words, based on what I can currently see, and how the drive died, this should be on the "cheap" end of data recovery. Replace the board, all is well and fine. That is, if my observations are correct.

I've never heard of the "freezer trick." Honestly, considering what's on the drive, a file listing would be the most useful thing I could get right now. 10 min. should be enough to get that. Anything past that is icing on the cake, pretty much.

I did write out a response already, but I think phill did a decent job of summing it up much better than I did. Essentially, it's hardware failure. Software failure I can deal with (bad file system, corrupt segments, ect.). That's not hard, and I've done it a few different times for different reasons. Still though, I think data recovery places are overpriced. The thing is, as I've said, the drive basically doesn't exist, as far as my computer can tell. It's trying (thus the HDD reading light and such), but it's not getting anything.

As for the data on the drive, it's not necessarily worth the $100. However, the time spent to find and redownload it all might be. I can't be sure on this, without a file listing of what's on the drive. If I knew with 100% certainty what was on the drive, I would probably not bother with data recovery, since most, if not all, of it was downloaded off the internet in the first place.

On a positive side, I found out that my old 150 GB was never cleaned out. Thus, much the missing data in question (Captian N, Ducktales, Beyond Good and Evil...) is backed up on it. I am, however, missing Gargoyles, Freakazoid, Tiny Toons, and Animaniacs. Those are just examples. There's plenty more, but I don't remember everything that's on there. With my current job, $100 is within a "reasonable" limit, though it's definitely on the high-end of it.

I'll need to check the warranty stuff first. If I'm *really* lucky, I can get them to simply replace the controller board, and send me my drive back, otherwise untouched. I doubt that will happen, but it certainly won't hurt to try. Once I've contacted them, depending on their decision etc., I may or may not try the freezer trick. It certainly can't be much worse than I am now.

Anyway, thank you very much for your help. It's certainly given me an idea of where I'm going with this. Mouser X out.