[chrisbell17]

Hey,

Thought id tell you about what my drive did to me last night. I have four in my pc but this one had all my vids and pics and music on it. I turned my pc on and it had a horrible noise like a fan was hitting a cable or something but only worse. Then it stopped so i thought it must have moved but when i booted up tht drive wasnt there.

I checked the cables on it and everything and it still didnt work so i took it out. Then as i moved it i can hear a clanking sound. It was the drive which had made all the noise! When you shake it you can hear bit moving around inside which shouldnt be.

For anyone wanting to know what the drive is its a 250GB Westen Digital

[philthomas]

Sounds like the the most dreaded scenario a "Head Crash".

I recall reading somewhere that the read/write heads ride on a cushion of air between the spinning disks, which can travel at speeds up to 150 mph. If they come into contact with the disk, that is normally "curtains" for the drive, as they collide and gouge out chunks and debis goes everywhere wrecking the disk(s) surface.

Did the PC get any physical knock prior to this ? or was it just out of the blue.

[chrisbell17]

Nah it wasnt moved i just turned it on one day. Gonna take it apart to see what it looks like inside

[serverguy]

If you want to recover any of the stuff it is probably best to take it in to a data recovery shop. They will be able to get your stuff back.

I doubt you will be able to do much but it will be interesting to see what it looks like.

I have heard of the thing that if you put it in a freezer overnight and then power up when it is cold you can get some data off it but I don't know if that works.

[chrisbell17]

Had all the stuff on it back up here and there on other machine so ive just put in onto a new drive. Gonna get the electronics workshop where i work to rip it apart

[grush]

The freezer trick does work but I doubt it would in this case, it'll only work if the drive is still in one piece as in no loose bits rattling around.

[serverguy]

Do you know why the freezer trick works? I have always wanted to know the logic behind putting it in a freezer

[grush]

From what I can make out and I'm not 100% it tightens the loose bearings etc up and allows the drive to track without skipping for a short time. it definitely does work but I think a lot depends on just what has gone in the drive. I've used it ok but it doesn't always work.

[serverguy]

Thanks for that. Next time I have the chance I will give it a go and post my results.