hard drive died.. recovery ideas?

S

siliconcenturion

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 14, 2003
Messages
423
ok, i was backing up my external hard drive enclosure's drive (IBM 180GXP 120gig). i took it out of its enclosure and put it in my desktop, but it wouldnt load in windows or the bios, and i eventually discovered it wouldnt even power on.

i tried a variety of power connectors, i put it back in the enclosure, but it still wouldnt power. when its plugged in and on, i can hear a faint clicking if i put my ear to the drive.


i took it out, looked at it and found some kind of broken circuit that i didnt notice before.
180ded.JPG


the data on this drive is of unspeakable value to me, and i will do almost anything (within reason) to recover it. any advice?
i want to know if there are any cheap professional recovery services out there

or my other idea is to buy another 180GXP and just swap the circuit board out.

ideas, please?
 
How about the freezer trick? :D

But seriously, I doubt anyone here has ever used a professional services like what you need. Google will turn up some, so you can start getting pricing quotes from them.

Anyway, once you get this data back I would develop a regular backup schedule of the drive. I guarantee that if this were my drive and the data was that important, I would not try to replace the controller board myself. I'd just suck it up and pay a professional to do it.
 
see, the thing is i didnt have enough space to backup this drive anywhere, which is why i bought the new bigger drive to back it up to.

regardless, i would rather spend 70 dollars trying to replace the circuit board than 300 for professiona service
 
I doubt you're going to be reviving that drive anytime soon. At least not without a replacement controller board. I have a DTLA-307030 right here in front of me, and the chip says on it

33.3M
TDK T

I'd pull my other two (yes, two) DeskStars and check what the chip says on it, but I have to get my ass to work here in a bit.
EDIT: Okay, so out of curiosity I pulled the 40 and 70GB HD's. Both have a similar chip in that same spot. One just said "33" on it and the other said "SM" whatever that means.

You may want to see about getting that little chip replaced. If you know anyone experienced with soldering microelectronics then that would be a good route. Or else see if a PC nut near you has an opened 120GB 180GXP and swap the controller boards for a bit. Doing a controller board swap is not that difficult. Quite possibly if you went to a local mom-and-pop shop and gave 'em a story of woe they might hook you up with at least cheapo data recovery. Heck, I'd do the board swap for you... It's not that hard.

What happened? Did the little IC blow up? Or did you hose it up and crack the thing off? Either way, good luck to you. I know it's hard coming to terms with losing your pr0n collection, but as soon as you do you'll feel much better.
 
Pro Services for $300? Thats bloody reasonable...when my HDD died i was getting quotes of double that...for a 14day service...for 2 day i was being quoted £2500:(

But...the swapping the PCB trick sounds like it might be worth a go...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top