drive recovery

[Technomage Hawke]

On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 1:54 PM, Craig White <craig at tobyhouse.com> wrote:
>
>  On Wed, 2008-04-30 at 13:48 -0700, Charles Jones wrote:
>  > Technomage Hawke wrote:
>  > > ok guys, I am in immediate need of some help here.
>  > >
>  > > I just had a western digital WD500ks fail on me. it started with some
>  > > filesystem errors about 3 hours ago and after I restarted the machine,
>  > > it failed to be detected in BIOS and makes a loud clack on startup
>  > > (this indicates a possible electronics package failure).
>  > >
>  > > what I need to do is this: I need to get my data off the drive and
>  > > onto a backup.
>  > >
>  > > does anyone happen to have a spare electronics package laying around
>  > > or know of a place here in town that can help me?
>  > >  all my personal data is on this drive.
>  > >
>  > > HELP!!!!!!!
>  > >
>  > It may sound like snakeoil, but if you get desperate enough, try putting
>  > the drive in the deep freezer overnight, and then see if it will spin
>  > up. I've actually had this work in the past when nothing else would. If
>  > it is indeed the electronics and not mechanical, sometimes a component
>  > is overheating which you can temporarily relieve with a blast of canned
>  > air. Once you get it spinning be prepared to do everything you can to
>  > get the data off.
>  ----
>  freezer...I've done refrigerator but never freezer.
>
>  also, I like to run it upside down (thinking lubricants might come back)
>  but if it's clacking, it sounds like the heads are stuck and a sharp
>  slap between your hands sometimes can help...desperate times call for
>  desperate measures.
>
>  Craig
>
nope. the heads are not stuck. I can hold the thing in my hand when I
power it up and I can feel it pulling to the CCW when it moves the
heads. it sounds like its ramming them against the backstop..