Of course, as the legal blurb at the end of the document declares, we can't promise thatany of
These tools or tips will work. But we thought you'd enjoy reading what your fellow IT Professionals
use and had to say on this subject. Enjoy!

Tim for an update\u2026\u2026\u2026..........................................................2 Freeze it....................................................................................3 Drop it......................................................................................10 Hit it.......................................................................................... 11 The rest of the solutions............. ...........................................15

When this document was first produced back in 2001 data recovery was (and still is for many) a very expensive option. While the Freeze it, Hit it, and Drop it options are still employed by some, the current size and sensitivity of the newer larger hard drives makes these options extremely risky and definitely NOT recommended for hard drives with a capacity that\u2019s greater than 1 gig. And even then some of the operation suggested here should be approached with caution. Getting it wrong by trying to save some money will only end up costing you more if you then decide to pass on your hard drive to a data recovery company...

Where the FAT, NTFS or other file structure has been corrupted either by accident or on purpose or individual filed or folders have gone missing. The hard drive has not suffered damage to the components of the hard drive itself.

Internal damage to the hard drive, damaged platters, head crashes, damage to the motor, or head rack signal amplifier. You need a clean room and plenty of experience to have any chance of a successful outcome here.

Logical recoveries are becoming an affordable option for those people who are familiar with the risks involved with data recovery. Software tools that are now available for this task vary greatly in their capability, complexity and cost.

Careful research should be done before any work is done on the damaged hard drive. If you are able, get another hard drive and experiment. Format it, Fdisk it, delete files and partitions and learn how the data recovery software operates under these various conditions.

Before to start work on your own or your clients hard drive back it up, the backup mantra is one that you all should be familiar with by now! There are tools available to backup (or image) a hard drive that has been fdisked!! Use them. Ghost software is not suitable for this task, then perform your recovery attempts on the image not the original.

Some electronic data recoveries are also within the capability of many technically minded people who spend much of their time working around computers. Remember your static strap when removing PCB boards.

A repair of this nature can be as simple as swapping the PCB board. With a board from a matching working hard drive. Data recovery companies keep an inventory of many 1000\u2019s of hard drives for events such as this.

If a PCB swap does not work then the most common problem is that the match was not close enough. In any production run of a particular model of hard drive there could be as many as several dozen changes in firmware upgrades, components on the board, etc.

To have the best possible chance all of the code numbers and letters on the top plate of your drive and its parts donor should be the same. If you have no success then find a reliable data recovery firm near you as you has done as much as you can.

One trick I have learned as a technician, when the problem is data-read errors off the platters themselves, is to freeze the hard drive overnight. It makes the data more 'readable,' but for a one-shot deal. If this data is critical, and you have a replacement hard drive (which, if it's a drive failure, you probably do), then you can hook up your frozen hard drive and immediately fetch the data off before it warms up.

But I'll give you one for free that was a nice hero moment for me. Had a drive where it sounded like the drive motor was engaging but not getting anywhere, so we stuck it in the office freezer for an hour! I'll be darned if it didn't work. The drive was up long enough to get the data ghosted to another drive and we turfed it, even though it sounded fine at that point. I can't really take credit for it though\u2014I had heard it in some geek bull session but I thought it was some jedi-geek urban myth. Goes to show you that you know you're really screwed when you say something to the effect of "Okay, hold on tight, I'm gonna try something I saw in a cartoon once but I'm pretty sure I can do it"