harddrive crash

[The Ghost]

I was running xp for about 2 years and my hd has now crashed. I don't have backups of all the data, so does anyone have any suggestions I can take or recommend any software which might help get some of the data back

thanks

[aaron158]

you could try something called get data back works great

[Recondo]

Well technically..... it all depends on how "crashed" your drive is. If it's just your O/S that doesn't boot up, then you can hook your drive up to another Windows XP computer and copy the information off of it.

If your drive won't power up or is making grinding noises, and your data is extremely important, then you can bring it to various data recovery retailers and they can get it off from you.

There's also the suggestion that "Aaron158" used and purchase data recovery software from somewhere like Future Shop and do it yourself.

[woodpusher]

I haven't tried this but I hear it works. If all else fails, try the freezer trick.
Put the HDD in the freezer for a few hours before trying to retrieve the data. Be quick as the drive might not run for long.

[Athlon_9800]

I haven't tried this but I hear it works. If all else fails, try the freezer trick.
Put the HDD in the freezer for a few hours before trying to retrieve the data. Be quick as the drive might not run for long.

Lol, what? :hys:

[Bluvertigo]

Data Recovery: Data Loss and Drive Failures


You can try the “freezer trick” if the drive is acting flaky and/or not much else has really been helpful in getting data off the drive. First, let the drive reach about room temperature before proceeding. A sudden change in temperature is not all that healthy for a drive. Afterward, put the drive in a freezer bag (a Ziploc bag will do if there aren’t any freezer bags handy) and squeeze out all the air (leave a little space at the opening of the bag for the air to escape). This is so you avoid condensation while the drive is put into the freezer. Leave it in there for an hour or so. Finally, take it out and slave it to another machine and try to copy over any data you want. This process may need to be repeated a few times in order to copy over everything you need.

What the freezer trick does is cool down all the components of the hard drive. It will cool down the overheating chips on the hard drive’s circuit board (which is a known problem with some models of Maxtor Quantum drives), and as well as allow the platters contract a bit, making it easier for the heads to read the data, thus decreasing read errors. All this “trick” does is buy some time in order to recover your data. In other words, the drive will need to be replaced. If it is still under warranty, RMA it back to the manufacturer.

Full Article
http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/664/7