HD problem - Please HELP

[mke]

Hello techspot people and enthusiasts. I have a very big problem with my hard disk and I am literaly going mental, as it contains 30gb worth of data that i need somehow to rescue asap.

The drive (sata 250gb seagate) was fitted within my case and recently i placed it on a external usb enclosure to have it with me on a gig. However all hell broke loose and when the drive was active and reading/writing, the enclosure and disk within fell from the table i positioned it and hit the ground, about 50cm. Since then the disk was unplugged, brought home to test and seemed ok, though with some minor clicking, but still all accesible. When i started a test of the disk i was surpised to see the laptop shutting down unexpectedly as dumpass me didnt notice the laptop running on battery.
Since then, i have tried starting the disk from the enclosure but with no luck, it does not get recognised anymore, altough the usb mass storage device shows up as a controller thing, no disk though apparent on it. If i connect the disk as it was normally placed on my desktop, in its sata bay, the system when started, halts on the post screen and restarts 100 times over and over. Windows do not load cause of this disk.
I have read about hd regenerator and spinrite and get back data, amongst many other softs, but i have no luxury trying them anymore as my disk wont show up in any way, not even on admin tools, devices...
the disk makes a click slow spin, and again clikc thing which drives me mad.
I have contacted ontrack to request a quote for repairing this disk, but i doubt they will offer a cheap service that i would be able to afford.

My question to you is what do u recommend in order to access the disk, even for a little while somehow, in order to restore the 30gb worth of valuable data tome. any ideas much appreciated, but please do not remmind me of the backup thing, as never ever will i not backup. already have 3 new disks on order for raid 5 build, for future preventation.
the problem is now what i can do to save this data somehow.

thank you

 

[mke]

hello again,

i run chkdsk on another disk i have as external usb2, and chkdsk with flag /F and /R reports at stage 5 the following.

CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.
An unspecified error occurred.

Any ideas what this could be? under events nothins is showing up. the test took 24 hours to complete, a damn long time.
also anyone to recommend anything about my other drive ?

thanks

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Try putting it in a regular PC and see if you can access it that way, laptops and external enclosures don't give you many options...

 

[mke]

if i place the disk on a desktop on any sata port, or pci controller, the system wont go beyond post screen. it restarts all the time and never boots up. no bootup disk either helped this. thats one of the main problems aswell like

 

[RealBlackStuff]

One trick many people suggest, is putting it in the freezer for a while.
Wrap it up properly so no moisture can get in!
Then, when it is thoroughly cold, stick it in your desktop and keep all your extremities crossed after you have danced the 'Hokey-Pokey'.
Also worth a try: put it in as your ONLY harddisk, and try a Repair if Windows is installed on that drive.
Have you checked all the brand-specific utilities as listed in the Read: Diagnostics... post at the top of this forum?

 

[mke]

One trick many people suggest, is putting it in the freezer for a while.
Wrap it up properly so no moisture can get in!
Then, when it is thoroughly cold, stick it in your desktop and keep all your extremities crossed after you have danced the 'Hokey-Pokey'.
Also worth a try: put it in as your ONLY harddisk, and try a Repair if Windows is installed on that drive.
Have you checked all the brand-specific utilities as listed in the Read: Diagnostics... post at the top of this forum?

hi there and thanks for the reply. Firstly i have heard of this freezing method but have not tried it on this drive as to my knowledge there is no way that moisture will not get in, and then when the drive is slowly getting back to room temp, it will create someform of liquid moisture or something within the drive, or atleast thats what am afraid. It will be the last resort if i decide to do this to the drive, as afterwards it will be 100% dead, i think.
As for the hd tools for seagate, eg, seatools.. is useless. otherdisk tools have proven to do something, like hd regenerator but not in this drive, seems like dead spin click needle. dunno. All of these tools i have tried, plus many more found of a cover disk of pc extreme, containing like 30-40 different tools to save/repair disk. however none worked on this disk. hence my dissapointment on this drive and the contents it has within.
if there is anything else one could recommend i am more than glad to hear, especially a way to make windows recognise the drive in order for me to access it from within windows with other tools.

thanks again

 

[raybay]

The reason for the cold drive is that it will often, but not always, allow the drive to turn as a Slave in another machine long enough for you to drag and drop valuable data to the master drive. We have been doing this for nearly 20 years, and have probably done this on 500 drives in our shop in that time. It is not a panacea for all drives... You should do this as a last resort to save data. Water will NOT get in if you use any common sense, but there is some condensation in some humid climates.
Drag all the data quickly as sometimes the drive will turn for only 10 minutes before it fails permanently.... but it usually lasts an hour or two.
Do not plan to reboot later... it is good for one last shot.
Some drives fail because the plates crack. Some fail because the magnetic media on the plates curls up. Others fail because the bearings go bad... and these are the ones that the cold helps.
After removing the data, try to reformat and reboot, but don't count on many of them being rescued.
Sometimes you must use the same or very similar brand of hard drive to access the data... so look at such things as the LBA, rotational speed, and type of drive... sometimes a Google search helps.