Archive for January 2nd, 2009
Unorthodox methods for hard drive recovery
Have you ever started your PC and were shocked with a non-responsive hard drive? Most of us ran into this at least once in a life time, although there are those lucky people who ran into this more than one time. Let me share some tips with you, I learned these tips through trial and error and they are pure practical experience.
This simple technique is called freeze it, hit it and drop it. Do not laugh, this is a proven technique tried out in many cases of hard drive recovery and worked out. I have to admit, it worked out for a temporary hard drive recovery but long enough to copy all the important data from the drive. I also need to say that these tricks are last ditch solutions; I do not go for them except when I finish trying all the other standard solutions but with no significant result.
Freeze it, this old trick was used with small hard drives back in the 1980’s and 1990’s and worked out fine as a last solution. The theoretical base of this that freezing the metallic component of the hard drive can case some shrinkage in it and that will loosen any stuck parts and help aligning the track head with the track itself, leading into temporary hard drive recovery that allows you to copy the most important data into another drive. Put the hard drive into a lock back and put it in the freezer for the night, this will sort every thing out if the problem is a stuck part.
If the freezing does not solve the problem, try the hit it solution. Again, I must confirm that these solutions or tricks are last ditch solution where you have tried everything and still no results. Sometimes the writing heads of the hard disk may nudge with the hard drive platters leading into – no spin situation. If this is the case you are facing try the “ hit it” hard drive recovery technique. With the hard drive well connected to the PC, turn on the PC and when the hard drive tends to spin, hit it from the 4 sides. In some case this is more than enough for getting it back to spinning, although this is also temporary but, hard drive recovery even for few minutes would be more than enough.
The last technique is the drop it, where you are supposed to drop your PC from a 10 inch high elevation to let the mechanical parts loosen up.
How does hard drive recovery work?
There are a lot of software programs in the market now which are able to restore deleted files, have you ever wondered how these software programs really work? By knowing how these programs really work, you will be able to take the right steps, in case of data loss, in order to make sure that the hard drive data recovery is successful.
First of all, let us know how the hard drive works. The hard drive consists of several disks of storage media with several writing heads installed on them . There is a very fine mechanism that moves these heads to reach every part of that storage media. According to the hard drive model, these storage disks spin more than 5000 revolution per minute. More revolutions per minute lead to faster data access.
The hard drive contains a record called the MBR “Main Boot Record” that is where all the data is indexed in the hard drive. Knowing all of these facts can make us understand why we are able to retrieve deleted data.
The point is, when you delete a file from your hard drive, it is not physically deleted but it is removed from the main directory of the hard drive so the computer consider it as it does not exist. But, it is still located on the hard drive.
When you intend to save new information to your hard drive, the hard drive starts to find a proper location to store these data, at that point the “marked deleted files” are considered as free space. Even in case of hard drive formatting, hard drive data recovery is still possible because formatting does not mean deleting the data existing on the hard drive but deleting their index from the hard drive.
As a conclusion of all these facts, the wisest move that you could do when you accidentally delete a file is to stop using that drive till you perform a hard drive recovery process. In this way, you avoid writing any new data on the deleted ones.
Always keep a backup copy of your important files in a separate drive, preferably an external one, in order to minimize the risk of data loss. Knowing all of these information about the hard drive data recovery, makes it easier for us to determine which hard drive recovery software to use and what to do to keep our data safe.
Simple remedies for a hard drive crash.
If you have a hard drive that is stuffed with your business or family data and it refuses to work then you should consider having a hard drive recovery solution. There is more than one solution for such a situation.
First the most convenient solution is the hard drive recovery software solution. This is the best solution, assuming that the hard drive is physically working. You can get an alternative hard drive with a proper capacity and install it as a Master and install the hard drive that needs recovery as a Slave. Boot from the master hard drive then run the hard drive recovery software from the same master hard drive. If every thing goes well then you would be able to restore the information on that hard drive.
If you are willing to pay couple of hundreds or even couple of thousands to get the data on your hard drive then you can put your mind at ease and call one of the reputable hard drive recovery services to get your hard drive recovered. But even if you are willing to pay, you should always make sure that you have an agreement with the company that if the hard drive recovery process came out with nothing then you are not going to pay anything. In other words, you will pay if there are real restored data is delivered to you and nothing else.
If the first solution is not applicable and the second one is over your budget then your last chance is to try the last ditch tricks. Please remember to go for this solution if all the other standard solutions are useless. Try to freeze your hard drive over the night in the freezer; this technique is used in case of the hard drive reading head is stuck to the platters. Freezing the driver contracts the components and loosens it, leading to temporary hard drive recovery that permits copying the data to another alternative drive.
Changing the board circuit of the hard drive could be a useful option if you have another identical hard drive. Try to locate another hard drive having the same electrical information on it. Hard drive recovery in that case could be permanent if you were able to get an identical board circuit that will control your hard drive storage media in a proper way. Sometimes slightly different board circuits could be able to start your hard drive for a short period so incase you change the board circuit, do not rely on this hard drive as your primary hard drive anymore. Once hard drive recovery is completed, copy all the recovered data to another hard drive as soon as possible
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