A "dead computer" plea.

[Taxloss]

My computer is dead, and short of sending the hard drive (which is dead) to a professional data retrieval company (which will cost far more than I can afford), I have lost everything.

I doubt that anything can be done, but I will ask anyway.

I posted on this in the Lounge, and said:

" The fan started, but nothing else happened. No boot beep, no sounds of hard drive activity. Just the fan. I tried again, the same happened, I unplugged it, left it for half an hour while I had a cup of coffee, and then tried again.

"Nothing. The whirring fan beat the flames of total panic.

"I tried again.

"By lunchtime, I was a gibbering wreck. I am careful with computers. I have virus protection up to the eyeballs. I know about spyware, and have programs to remove it. I called my wife-to-be, whose brother runs tech support for a large company, and asked her to ask him to come round.

"At 7pm he arrived, and we dismantled the computer. Result - motherboard fried, and hard drive possibly retrievable.

"So we take the harddrive round to his (£9/$18 taxi fare), and he hooks it up in another enclosure. Nothing happens. Even when powered, not a sound emerges.

"Long story short: It could probably have the data pulled off it by a professional firm if they remove the Hard disk itself from the drive casing and place it in another drive. That will cost, at a minimum, £250 (c. $450) and possibly £600 (c. $1100).

"I can't afford that, especially since I now need to buy a new computer."

For the record, the computer was a build from a British department store (John Lewis), and the hard drive is a Maxtor.

Other than sending it away at crippling expense, can I do anything?

[bemildred]

1. As stated, no.

Any possibility of working with the drive would require that
one is able to spin it up and get the heads to work (read).

How did this come about? No screwdrivers poked around in the
insides, it just puked out of the blue? Just curious.

[Taxloss]

2. Completely out of the blue.

No screwdrivers, no blocked air vents. I shut it down at bedtime on Sunday, then started it up at 9am on Monday. Nothing. Once, during my tests, I got the faintest boot beep and a single splutter of hard drive activity. Only once, out of dozens of tests. And nothing else happened.

[bemildred]

3. It's odd.

For the drive and MoBo to die like that, while it's off, without
any outside frobbing around. I think I'd get a second opinion on
the situation.

[democracyindanger]

8. Definitely worth a 2nd opinion, but a power surge or faulty supply

could've been the culprit.

[bemildred]

9. Well, I thought of a bad PS or bad cable alignment or something,

But he says the disc still failed to come up in a different
"enclosure", and he says he never touched it, and a power spike
should not affect anything when it's off ...

I spose if he left it on all night, but that didn't sound like
what happened.

[welshTerrier2]

4. save the drive

data can usually be retrieved from the disk whether the drive functions or it doesn't ... it is, of course, more expensive if the drive does not work ...

i would recommend saving the hard drive ... perhaps when you have more funds available, you could retrieve any very valuable files ...

also, there are all sorts of used computers available so you might be able to save a little money there ...

and finally, it probably won't help much, but many people keep copies of all the email they send ... once your new computer is up and running, you could ask people to resend email they previously sent to you ... perhaps some of them contain file attachments you could then recover ...

btw, this really makes an excellent argument for performing some kind of backup of your hard drive ... either periodically write your key files to a CD or find some disk space (e.g. internet hosting service, email attachments, second computer) and copy your important stuff there ...

well, sorry to hear about the problems you're having ... still, it is kind of nice getting a new machine and a really clean, fresh start ...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Have you checked the power supply?

Just because lights lightup, does not mean that it has not lost its way, as regards 5 and 12 volt output.

[Taxloss]

12. The hard disk LED goes on

I that should mean the power is reaching it, shouldn't it? And as I said we did try the disk in another enclosure ... presumably if it was a power supply problem it would be inside the casing itself.

Thanks though.

[kaitykaity]

6. Maybe Maxtor can help.

Here's a thread from another forum, a guy with your
problem. Maybe something there can help you.

http://www.xpforum.co.uk/forum/archive.php/o_t__t_530__hard-disc-drive-0-crashed.html

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

There's a lot more in the search results for do it yourself
recovery of data from a dead hard drive.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=DIY+dead+hard+drive+retrieve+data&btnG=Search

[Taxloss]

11. Good plan

I'll ring them now.

[bemildred]

7. It wouldn't chance to be a SCSI drive?

SCSI drives do not necesssarily spin up when power is applied.

[Taxloss]

10. 'Fraid not

I should spin up

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. There's a simple 'last gasp' trick you can try

-- it works for me on a regular basis, and I recommend it be tried as the last step before removing the platters.

Put the hard drive in a ziplock baggie, seal it up, and put it in the freezer over night.

When you remove it, hook it up to a good computer and power it up before it has a chance to 'defrost'. If there's any life at all left, this has a good chance of waking it back up temporarily.

If it works, be ready to copy your vital files to another drive as fast as possible. If it doesn't work, then the next step is to go the hardware-based retrieval route.

(I own a small computer repair company, and I have used this method successfully.)