[raiden9988]

Recently the power supply on my computer flipped out and went into overdrive. Seems like it surged most of the things hooked up at the time. The CD and Hard drives don't turn on when hooked up to a different computer anymore.

One of the hard drives had ALL the information and things I've downloaded for the past year or two. Is there ANY way to recover this information? I was hoping maybe if I just replaced the circuit board on the bottom of the HD it would be okay?

Not sure because I have no experience with this kind of stuff, any advice would be appreciated. Let me know if you need any additional info. Thanks.

 

[TheTechIsIn]

Welcome,

Short of sending it to a repair specialists that have a "clean room" your pretty much out of luck on this one Im affraid.

 

[Zvalkor]

Give DriveSavers a try. I have used them in the past. They are very professsional. Their prices are not bad compared to other recovery places (it will still be at least a few hundred dollars). If you want immediate turn around it will cost alot but if you can wait a week or 2 the price drops alot.

 

[Pseudocyber]

A lesson about backing up

raiden9988, I am sorry to hear about your ill fortune.

This post is more to those of you who have been asking about RAID (redundant disks) and back ups.

In this case a RAID solution might not have made any difference. Power surges and lightning are very strange. Lightning will basically follow the path of least resistance to ground. And the path can be very, very strange. Some things can get fried while leaving others untouched. A power surge could have hit all the drives or just one.

But, a tape backup would save your data in the case of a power surge. The backup could be a full system backup - all OS, software, and data or just data.

I think fault tolerance, redundancy, and data backup are areas that are frequently overlooked by the home user in favor of more glamours peripherals - such as DVD drives, top of the line sound cards, flat screen monitors.

But when you've lost years of photos, or hundreds of songs that took you hundreds of hours to download, or your 1000 pages of your novel, which would you rather have in your hands in the end - a cool, flat screen monitor, or a DLT tape with all of your data in it?

 

[themlruts]

put it in freezer for a while then try to run it
i read it in a pc magizine
mike

 

[Doonz]

dont laugh the freeze thing worked....once out a few tries...last resort though...and make sure you protect it from the elements....:winking:

 

[Zvalkor]

put it in freezer for a while then try to run it
i read it in a pc magizine
mike

I remember that. I saw it in Maximum PC. The only computer mag I read.

 

[themlruts]

I remember that. I saw it in Maximum PC.

yea that is the mag, thats the only one i read
mike

 

[Doonz]

check out CPU -Computer Power User...great read and less $$

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/

ok back to our other thread already in progress

 

[Pseudocyber]

Want to second Doonz - CPU is cool! I think I'm going to subscribe.

 

[raiden9988]

That freezer thing might work even for a drive that doesn't even turn on? How long do you leave it in? Might as well try. Is there any chance that if I swap the electronic board on the bottom of the harddrive with another one it would work? Thanks for the advice

 

[johnwill]

One solution that is frequently overlooked for "cooked" disks is finding an identical drive and swapping the HDA assembly to the working circuit board. Since the power surge usually takes out the PCB, this will frequently allow you to recover any data. YMMV...

 

[Doonz]

dont recommend playing with things I dont know...but since the drive is fried any way go for it...and post back how it works