fwiw, these companies are based in the bay and offer recovery services. Gillware is pricy (over 400 bucks) Craigslist has a lot of computer listings but you are taking a risk with someone you don't know.

http://services.seagate.com/

...

Yeah, I think this was the Seagate site I found when looking for technical info on my defunct Maxtor. Dunno yet what they charge.

Maxtor/Seagate seems to have used an internal format on the external disk model I have that made it impossible to read by plugging in the internally mounted hard drive (yeah, I voided the warranty, but it was long past expired anyway) directly into an ATA cable (I was thinking the electronics for the USB interface was fried, rather than the disk itself), and the O/S won't recognise the disk format. Maybe I'll try Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) and see if it recognises the format, or at least can be used to read it....

If yours is an internal drive, and you have a new one (to run the OS from) and a spare ATA cable/interface, you might try on the cheap to plug it in as a second disk and use NDD and see if it can rescue it through enhanced sensitivity reading. If you do, check the jumper setting on the two drives or it may interfere with the master drive and/or not be recognised. Jumper settings for master/slave are usually on the web site for the manufacturer.

Cheers,

Should have addressed that to ondolette....

Re: hard drive recovery

My greatest fear is losing the postsecondary student unit record level data on my hard drive, and what to do if I had to face recovering data that sensitive (damn, damn, damn dissertation). I recalled that the NY Times Circuits column periodically has written about some national companies that seem able to do this when lots of other groups have failed. A quick search turned up this article:

E.R. for Hard Drives

By ERIC A. TAUB

Published: July 14, 2005

... "Eventually, every hard drive will fail," some even within months, said Todd Johnson, vice president for operations at OnTrack Data Recovery (www.ontrack.com), a firm specializing in recovering digital files.

The local repair shop referred Mr. Risdal to DriveSavers (www.drivesavers.com), another company offering data retrieval from hard drives, flash memory, diskettes and optical media. After several days' work, DriveSavers had recovered his entire photo library.

I sort of remember thse names from before. David Pogue was the columnist, although not of this particular piece. Can't hurt to ask 'em what they do, and who they've done it for. Maybe it's a place to start if nothing else has worked out for you. Good luck.

All hail the glorious Linus T!

Ummm, I started using Unix long before Torvald's stuff came out. While I put Linux on two old home computers, my main squeeze is Solaris (a/k/a SVR4 compatible Unix). I have two old (and I mean old) Suns at home, much to the dismay of my sweetie, one to use and the other for spares....

Cheers,

Ummm, I started using Unix long before Torvald's stuff came out. While I put Linux on two old home computers, my main squeeze is Solaris (a/k/a SVR4 compatible Unix). I have two old (and I mean old) Suns at home, much to the dismay of my sweetie, one to use and the other for spares....

Cheers,

-- Arne Langsetmo

I still have a Sun Ultra60 (Solaris) that works, but I don't turn it on too much as it is a huge power hog. I have dual boot on my laptop with SuSe though, and have played with linux on various platforms. I have found that SuSe does well with recognizing peripheral devices on laptops.

You might try these guys, they probably have a copy of your data sitting around somewhere: http://www.dhs.gov

"Do you know a hard disk recovery company in the Bay Area that is reliable and keeps good confidentiality? I have a disk drive with 2 years of hard work on it that isn't responding to the outside world (it may have become autistic)."

A few questions if I may:

1] Does the drive spin up when the system is powered on?

2] Does your computer BIOS detect the drive?

3] If yes to the above, does Windows (assuming you use windows) see the drive and assign a drive letter?

4] If all above is true, is it a matter of clicking on the drive or directory and windows prompts with an error?

OTOH

If the drive doesn't spin up or the BIOS doesn't see it, could be that the drive is indeed going/gone bad and recovery could be expensive.

Also, if the drive isn't being seen have someone who knows their way around a computer open the case and check the cabling - data and power. If necessary pull the cables, blow out any dirt or dust, then re-connect.

As a last ditch effort before spending big dollars for a professional recovery service, pull the drive out and put it in the freezer for a few hours. If it is a hear related issue causing the heads to be stuck freezing the drive could allow for a small time frame whenever you'd be able to then copy the data off it.

There's more I could tell you, but I may have bored the ass off you already.

KB

As a last ditch effort before spending big dollars for a professional recovery service, pull the drive out and put it in the freezer for a few hours. If it is a hear related issue causing the heads to be stuck freezing the drive could allow for a small time frame whenever you'd be able to then copy the data off it.

There's more I could tell you, but I may have bored the ass off you already.

KB

-- KB4Hire

I have heard this works sometimes. I had a Maxtor (more than a coincidence I hear) die, and it did NOT work for me. Someone I trust says he has witnessed it working, but that still comes across as an urban legend so "your mileage may vary". It is cost free to try it. Just be ready with a reliable drive when you spin-up the cold drive.