A hard drive literally died, in my hands, onsite, while transferring data.

thecomputerguy

thecomputerguy

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Story time!

So I was onsite today and I seriously almost had a mental melt down. I go onsite to replace an old Dell XP desktop with a new HP Laptop. I spend about an hour and a half getting this new laptop setup, installing her programs, setting up an office 365 account, etc. The job was quoted at $125 an hour so this was a pretty cushy job, especially since I was able to up-sell her on a backup drive, wireless mouse/keyboard, Kabuto+AV at $99, and a few cables. The job quickly turned from a simple plug and go to a $500 cakewalk, or so I thought.

I get the new laptop completely setup and hadn't yet touched any data on the old XP machine. I carry a USB 3.0 Hard drive enclosure which is great for this exactly type of job where data needs to be transferred to a new computer, it makes it especially nice when the new computer actually has USB 3.

So after finding out that I needed to move about 80GB of data from the old computer I knew a flash drive wasn't going to be realistic so I pull the side panel off and pull the drive. The drive is mounted in the computer somewhat abnormally ... like this ...

Dell_Studio_XPS_8000_inside.JPG


I plug the drive into my enclosure happily thinking I could get this data over in less than 10 minutes or less because of USB 3. I turn the drive on and after a 3 second boot up I hear loud screeching coming from the drive (Oh #$%!). I immediately turn it off. Thinking it was a fluke I turn it on again, same thing, loud screeching.

At this point my stomach dropped. I've been transferring data like this for the last 10 years and this has never ever happened. How am I going to explain to the client that even though I didn't do anything wrong their drive is dead and their data is gone and their backup that hasn't backed anything up in a year is our only hope.

I think to myself, maybe it's the enclosure. I put the drive in the case dangling, and fire up the computer. Sure enough ... SCCRREEEEEEEECHHH. I'm starting to lose it at this point. I'm thinking of any excuse to get out of her house and take her computer with me when I think, maybe it's how it was mounted? I remount the drive as shown in the picture and wouldn't you believe it, after a short screech, the computer boots. I explain to her what happened (she was sitting with me the whole time), and how her computer is basically in the process of dying. I tell her we have to do it the slow way by transferring the data to an external from the old computer. She mentions, "Well can't you mount it in your enclosure like it's mounted in the computer?" I'm like "Ma'am I honestly don't even want to touch this thing anymore, it's going to have to be the slow way".

I immediately attach an external and begin the 8 hour process of transferring 80GB's (including a 15GB PST) with a remote follow up to have her swap the external to the new laptop so I can put the data in place.

Crisis averted. Beer to come.
 
Why don't you have a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter that you can just connect to the drive while it's still in the machine. I thought everyone knew that old HDDs don't like their orientation changed. I would have never removed it from its location.

That kinda looks like the inside of a Dell Studio XPS and I see lots of HDDs mount that way.
 
Mercenary Roadie said:
Why don't you have a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter that you can just connect to the drive while it's still in the machine. I thought everyone knew that old HDDs don't like their orientation changed.
Click to expand...

It's too late now, but it would have been worth just turning the external enclosure on its side.

The whole "drives only work in the orientation in which they were formatted" thing is a bit of a myth - at least for the past twenty years or so - but there's a big enough grain of truth in there to make it a trick worth knowing.
 
Mercenary Roadie said:
Why don't you have a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter that you can just connect to the drive while it's still in the machine. I thought everyone knew that old HDDs don't like their orientation changed. I would have never removed it from its location.

That kinda looks like the inside of a Dell Studio XPS and I see lots of HDDs mount that way.
Click to expand...

Yeah well I probably should pickup a SATA to USB3 adapter. I see how an old HD may not react well, hence what happened but I've been doing it this way for over a decade without any issues at all, and normally I will remove the hard drive, transfer the data, then give them back the drive in an Anti-static bag, tell them to label it and store it so they can get rid of the tower but keep the drive for 6 months, a year, or forever, just to know they have it in case anything was missed.

Anyways I can see how your way is probably safer but the end result is probably the same since I like to remove the drive from the system anyways. I can't say from memory that I've ever had to get more data after the initial transfer but eh..
 
Computer Bloke said:
It's too late now, but it would have been worth just turning the external enclosure on its side.

The whole "drives only work in the orientation in which they were formatted" thing is a bit of a myth - at least for the past twenty years or so - but there's a big enough grain of truth in there to make it a trick worth knowing.
Click to expand...

Well the end result was successful after re-mounting the drive in the original system so I'm happy. I know it might have been worth a try but I wasn't about to continue experimenting on a drive that was clearly on it's way out and once I was able to get it to boot in the old system I was ready to GTFO.
 
Yeah so this is what I use because I need something that does 2.5 and 3.5

http://a.co/4bIim7V

I guess the equivalent would be this in a smaller form factor. Thing is in many cases even the small adapter wont fit in a case and the drive will have to be removed anyways. So I'll probably buy on just to have it on hand but I don't really see myself changing my method very much.

http://a.co/ekGjaEV
 
Well, you did get lucky...though I'm somewhat horrified that you would continue to power on a squealing drive and even go so far as to boot it back up. What would have happened if your last power on attempt resulted in the final head crash, making the data unrecoverable, even by a data recovery professional?

As I see it, the initial drive not responding is easily explained to the client where you can then explain that if their data is of any value at all, it should be passed to a data recovery professional before any further damage is caused. If and only if the client says that it isn't worth a minimum of a few hundred bucks for a data recovery pro would you get them to sign off on understanding that anything you do might be the end of the line...and then try the steps you took.

Yes, had you gone to a lab like mine, it would have cost you about $220USD for us to recover the data as compared to your doing it for free. But, had you completely killed the drive, how much value would your client put on the data?

All the same, good on you for getting their data saved off that drive.

By the way, those 7200.11 and 7200.12 drives are crashing pretty bad these days. It is amazing that it was working in the first place.
 
You dodged a bullet there for sure! Those sinking feels and knots in the stomach suck. Had that happened before on other issues in the past. Almost feels like your all alone in this.
 
You did it backwards I always get the data transfer going first on site as it can take a long time
then start setting up new computer by that time it done
And never mess with old drives better to take longer than screw up
I have had the same thing happen to me luckily it was my own drive and not much on it

80 gigs does not take that long from drive to another drive as long as your not sat there waiting
 
Last edited:
Hard drives are technology. Things change and so do they. They are becoming increasingly more complex and difficult to handle, especially when near failure and failing. Furthermore, they are becoming increasingly specialized, per type of use/application, power management & utilization, mobility, host hardware requirements, etc, all in light of cost. These specializations not only show in the hard drive's physical design, but also in complex firmware and other design factors that make some components almost unique, while other completely unique.

So, have to be mindful of changes and follow the best and safest course of action. Why? Because the recovery solutions are also becoming increasingly specialized. In essence, a recovery solution for one drive model won't work on another.
 
If I'm transferring data from an HD on a machine that boots it gets transferred from the working machine. Why bother introducing more variables. Just pop it on the network with the new machine, file sharing setup and your off to the races. As mentioned that is the typical mounting on many Dell desktops, especially consumer models. One can even see HDD0 stamped on the frame.
 
thecomputerguy said:
Yeah so this is what I use because I need something that does 2.5 and 3.5

http://a.co/4bIim7V

I guess the equivalent would be this in a smaller form factor. Thing is in many cases even the small adapter wont fit in a case and the drive will have to be removed anyways. So I'll probably buy on just to have it on hand but I don't really see myself changing my method very much.

http://a.co/ekGjaEV
Click to expand...

This is what I was talking about.

http://tinyurl.com/gsyqm28

No need to do anything but unplug the drive, plug this into it and your new computer.
 
Computer Bloke said:
It's too late now, but it would have been worth just turning the external enclosure on its side.

The whole "drives only work in the orientation in which they were formatted" thing is a bit of a myth - at least for the past twenty years or so - but there's a big enough grain of truth in there to make it a trick worth knowing.
Click to expand...

It's not the formatted myth I was talking about. Drives can wear so it only wants to spin freely in one position. It's just a friction thing.
 
Personally, 80G of Data, I would have cloned it using Parted Magic and Clonezilla on a thumb drive and another drive in an external enclosure. This usually takes less than an hour on a slow computer for me and if the old drive dies on me after the clone, I've still got the clone :) I've just always done this for safety precautions due to what you have just experienced. I hate touching equipment before backing up anything because we techs always get the blame, even if it's not our fault.
 
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