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Dead Hard Drive; Help!

doctorf

left footed right winger
I would be very grateful for advice.
I shall be brief;
Returned from holiday to find my 3TB Seagate Sata drive was not showing up on my pc (windows 10)
Drive C is an SSD and works fine so boots up etc.
My backups may be usable although my Outlook PST files may not be backed up properly.

I have ordered a new 4TB drive to arrive today and of course the easiest option would be to recover the data on my old drive.
I have opened the drive and it looks fine. The heads are not stuck on the disc.
On firing up it spins but then I get a crunching noise and it stops.

I am happy to continue life without Outlook and just use backups to restore all my docs and programs but any advice re data recovery would be useful, although I really do not want to spend hundreds of pounds for the pleasure.

Any suggestions??
 
Annoying when that happens.

Install the new drive and start recovering what you can from backups.

Segate do a recovery service, it is expensive https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/services-software/recover/in-lab-recovery/

Although you opened up the faulty drive, rarely a good idea.

When you do get a working system look at your backup method so you don't get caught out again.

Backblaze is wonderful for this. https://www.backblaze.com/
The latest version of your outlook pst would have been on backblaze for download if you had it installed.

Good luck !
 
"On firing up it spins but then I get a crunching noise and it stops."

Doesn't sound to me as if there's much hope for that disc even being readable, let alone having data that is recoverable.

"I have opened the drive and it looks fine"

I've worked as a PC technician for years and there's no way I could tell the state of a drive by looking at it.:)

You've kind of lost some options by opening up the disc - I doubt any recovery service would touch it now though worth a try if you have the cash.

Should we assume you have no external backup? If you have there's no real problem other than the time involved.
 
Did you open up the drive in a clean room? With filtered air?

If not, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for anything.
 
Did you open up the drive in a clean room? With filtered air?

If not, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for anything.

yep we use a clean room for this. If the drive wasn't entirely knackered before the OP opened it - it will be now!
 
Thanks for all your replies.
Annoying when that happens.

Install the new drive and start recovering what you can from backups.

Segate do a recovery service, it is expensive https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/services-software/recover/in-lab-recovery/

Although you opened up the faulty drive, rarely a good idea.

When you do get a working system look at your backup method so you don't get caught out again.

Backblaze is wonderful for this. https://www.backblaze.com/
The latest version of your outlook pst would have been on backblaze for download if you had it installed.

Good luck !
Thanks a lot. I'll have a look.
It's archive.pst which will not back up so not the end of the world.

"On firing up it spins but then I get a crunching noise and it stops."

Doesn't sound to me as if there's much hope for that disc even being readable, let alone having data that is recoverable.

"I have opened the drive and it looks fine"

I've worked as a PC technician for years and there's no way I could tell the state of a drive by looking at it.:)

You've kind of lost some options by opening up the disc - I doubt any recovery service would touch it now though worth a try if you have the cash.

Should we assume you have no external backup? If you have there's no real problem other than the time involved.

I do have external backups of everything apart from the archive.pst outlook file.

Take a look at
https://www.dq-int.co.uk/portsmouth-data-recovery/

They may well be a good solution for you. I have seen them present at a computer club in the last few years. Read the web site for details of their heritage.
Thanks a lot. £300+ isn't worth it for me.

Did you open up the drive in a clean room? With filtered air?

If not, I wouldn't hold out too much hope for anything.
I didn't & I don't!
 


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