Hard Drive Crashed

[davidhelp]

Here are some photos
http://davidswebsite.com/web/hard_drive_crashed/hard_drive_crash.html

Anyone have any experience of recovering data from a hard drive like this?
I know the 1st platter (disk) is unrecoverable but the 2nd platter I think could be recovered

[Doc C]

I'm just finding it hard to believe you opened the case like that. Every dust particle and any other stuff floating in the air is now in there.

[IanS]

David, the read heads float just above the platter - less than the thickness of a human hair away. You'll be extremely lucky to get that disk drive to work again. The smallest of dust particles could be bigger than that gap, and bang goes the data.

Invest in a new drive and accept that one is dead.

[davidhelp]

You guys seem to miss the fact that half the disk was ALREADY chiseled. If you look in the upper right of the 1st photo you will see a silicon gel bag that was white but is blacken by the debris hitting it at 7400rpm

[SeaWitch]

First of all, looking at the top platter, I'm betting you had a stiction problem. Second, by opening it and NOT in a clean room, it's destroyed.

[IanS]

You guys seem to miss the fact that half the disk was ALREADY chiseled. If you look in the upper right of the 1st photo you will see a silicon gel bag that was white but is blacken by the debris hitting it at 7400rpmNo, we've not missed the fact it was broken, but we've noticed it wasn't opened in a 'dust free clean room' and know that it would never work afterwards. Data may have been recoverable before the seal was broken.

[YvetteKuhns]

You should get a new hard drive even if you are daring enough to continue to use the old one. You might be able to make the old drive a slave to the new drive long enough to copy any readable data to the new drive. Chances are slim that you can read data from that drive now that it is contaminated.

[symo]

David, the read heads float just above the platter - less than the thickness of a human hair away. You'll be extremely lucky to get that disk drive to work again. The smallest of dust particles could be bigger than that gap, and bang goes the data.

Invest in a new drive and accept that one is dead.
Sorry for swaying from topic for a moment, but the analogy I heard some years back regarding the size of the head and the distance from the disc was compared to a 747 flying at 500 MPH 6 inches off the ground.

We return you to your regularly scheduled thread. :D

symo

[rainbore]

If the data on the drive is truly valuable, there is a company that specializes in data recovery - http://www.drivesavers.com They've been around for about 20 years, since back in the days when Macs got their first hard drives and one of the principals of the company hung around in a CompuServe Mac forum. He was a good guy, very entertaining as well as helpful. I don't know what they charge, but I'm sure its expensive. May be worth a look, anyway. Good luck!

[YvetteKuhns]

here is a company that specializes in data recovery - http://www.drivesavers.com
I don't know what they charge, but I'm sure its expensive.

They ARE expensive. I saw them at the Jacob Javits Center in New York just months before the 9/11/01 incident. It is worthwhile to big businesses or other people who can afford to save their valuable files.