[REQUEST] A Quick Data Recovery Question

microtech

microtech

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Client dropped a laptop, turns on but completely unresponsive. Pull the HDD and get it onto a cradle - it powers up, you can hear it spin with no beeps or clicks, but the OS never recognizes the drive. Switched cradles and switched OS (to linux) and same result. Spins fine, but host machine has no idea its there.

Is this thing completely bricked? Am I missing something in my early morning stupor? TIA
 
Are those cradles USB or SATA?
May want to try a direct SATA connection if they are USB.

Does disk management show it's there?
 
I prefer to connect directly via SATA (internal connectors) with problematic drives.
Be patient some controllers are so damaged that it takes quite a few minutes for the receiving machine/OS to stabilize and fully detect the drive.
 
I switched to an internal sata connection and am booting the host from a linux USB. Still no dice, but I'll give it some time.
 
If all else fails try this trick, it has worked once for me. Put the HDD in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours then try it. I would only do this as a VERY last resort.
 
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Before you try anything with freezer tricks, chicken blood, flipping it, spinning it, whacking it on a table a few times to get it unstuck, whatever, talk to the customer about data recovery options and talk to @lcoughey or @DataMedics about them as well. If it powers up and spins without noise but isn't recognized, I'd suspect a logic board problem. It may be worth talking with each of them and providing the EXACT drive information (probably as a photo of the label(s)) - either or both may have a compatible "donor" board that could be used to recover data.
 
XFalloutX said:
You may think I'm joking but I have had this actually work for me once. I've only tried it twice though.
https://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux
But I say again ONLY AS A LAST RESORT!
Click to expand...
Its like the "rice trick" for liquid damaged phones. It never works, but people swear they've had it work for them. The problem is that a different factor lead to the device finally working, and people draw a correlation that doesn't really exist.

For liquid damage for example, people dump their phone in rice. 1/10 people get a working phone out of it when they pull it out of that bag. Did the rice do anything? Nope. What actually happened is that the liquid did not end up in a spot causing significant corrosion or instantaneous component death like the liquid did on the other 9 cases. So when the water evaporated, the short circuit was removed, and the device worked again. But this would have happened whether it was sat in rice, or on the living room table.

You were lucky to recover that data, and the reason why you were able to do so was not because of the freezer but because of another factor. By putting it in the freezer, you simply risked deteriorating the drive further without any potential benefit.
 
Porthos said:
Should be sent to a data recovery lab. Never put yourself in a position to make a clients drive worse than it already is.
If the client does not want to pay that fee dont do the work.
Click to expand...
As I said "LAST RESORT" I've only known of one client willing to pay to have their hard drive sent to a data recovery lab. The price is so high to do that, that most people can't afford it.
 
XFalloutX said:
As I said "LAST RESORT" I've only known of one client willing to pay to have their hard drive sent to a data recovery lab. The price is so high to do that, that most people can't afford it.
Click to expand...
How many data recovery places have you reached out to? The guys on this forum have very reasonable pricing, many at ~$300 for many cases with good referral/outsourcing pricing coming out even lower for techs like us.
 
Krynn72 said:
You were lucky to recover that data, and the reason why you were able to do so was not because of the freezer but because of another factor. By putting it in the freezer, you simply risked deteriorating the drive further without any potential benefit.
Click to expand...

No there is an actual reason why it worked. But doing some reading newer HDD are made different than say 10 years ago that the freezer trick won't work.
 
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