[NLRS] OT: Hard Drive recovery?

[Bruce Richardson]

Thanks NLRS reflector readers, you've come through with some great
suggestions.

Most of you replied to me directly. I will summarize some of it.
And Scott, KB0NLY sent along a fascinating description of some
super-human efforts he's gone to in order to conquer similar
situations.  I think you all would enjoy reading his email. I'll
copy and re-post it only with his permission.  And W5LUA's guru
son-in-law was similarly helpful.

Summarizing;
One of the most common failures is loss/corruption of the boot
track 0.  Yes, often it's viruses, but there can be other reasons.
Another common failure is degradation/corruption of the file
system (format and sectorization).  Assuming that the drive spins
ok and the heads seek ok, then there are a couple of things to be
tried.
First, to access the drive now as a "D:" drive and not need/use
it's boot features. Several replies pointed out the "USB-to-hard
drive adaptor" solution. For $25-$50, access to the drives files
may be regained.  If it's a file system, sectorization problem,
there are some software tools (above my head) that can be tried.

If the drive won't spin up properly, it's either a control thing
or a mechanical thing.  Now things get tougher.  Scott KB0NLY and
one other mentioned that hams and computer hobbyists have enough
skill to swap control boards with an identical drive as well as
swapping platters (for one final read).

I was also given the two following commercial firms to explore.
http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/
http://www.gillware.com/

I've since learned that my sister had already tried the External
Drive access trick (via some local assistance).  Donn WA2VOI
steered me towards the 2nd link above (Gillware) which is out of
Madison, WI.  Their website lists much more reasonable prices. For
her size HD, it would be just under $700 even if it does go to the
clean room.  I'm sending all the replies to her for her
consideration but Gillware is looking viable at the moment.  Roger
on all the other backup strategies. She now has a Network Attached
Storage drive.  That should help in the future.

I think we all had this discussion about 18-24 months ago and that
led me to my own Network Attached Storage (NAS) at that time.

Thanks again NLRS reflector readers for your helpful and
interesting replies.  You've come through very helpfully for me.

73
Bruce W9FZ


"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S.
Thompson