Hard Drive Failure

[Michael Peele]

What kind of drive for what type of machine?

Try hooking up the drive using it’s native interface – i.e. not FireWire or USB, but SATA or ATA if possible. You will get better results. Then use the data recovery software of your choice – I like Data Rescue if the drive is really having trouble and other utilities like Disk Warrior or Techtool Pro have failed. Remember you will need a working drive attached to the system to dump recovered media onto. Try a variety of software if you can.

If the drive is making odd or new noises, you chances of data recovery on your own are slim. Sending off the drive to Drive Savers or the like may be your best bet – but it will cost you.

If the cost of a professional recovery is too high and your drive is making noises, and you are willing to start taking risks with the data, I would try chilling the drive – literally, in the freezer – and then seeing if the recovery software works. try to avoid letting condesation form on the drive when you pull it from the freezer, and work fast, they heat up quickly. I had good luck using plastic bags with packets of dessicant inside. In one case I would get about a minute of runtime before the drive had to go back in the freezer. Eventually I had a G4 set up next to the fridge with an ATA cable snaking into the freezer. Goofy but it worked. Remember, go this far only if you have decided that the data is not worth the cost of professional recovery.

If you start to see data available for recovery, go straight for the good stuff – FCP projects, emails, docs, pics and music – the stuff you can’t replace or reinstall. Don’t mess around with trying to recover Photoshop or other apps. You never know when the drive will REALLY call it quits.

Good luck,
Mike Peele