Your hard drive has stopped working, and you've turned to the Internet for help.
There is no shortage of home remedies and recovery myths floating around along with the sound and effective advice. What is good advice and what is bad? Today, we'll discuss one of the bad ideas, actually one of the worst!
To put a drive in the freezer or not, that is the question.
Well, let's think about it for a minute; what benefit will I get from cooling the drive, what problems can I create by cooling the drive?
"My drive is hot to the touch. Maybe that heat is causing my drive to not work. If I freeze it, the drive will be cooler when I try to use it and maybe, just maybe it will work."
We can see the initial logic here: eliminate heat as a potential cause of your drive not working. If you want to rule out heat as part of the problem, just turn it off for 30 minutes, then try your drive again. The case will have cooled to room temperature as well as all the internal components of the drive. The real problem that heat can create is a change in the performance of a drive as it heats up or overheats. So, the real solution is to keep the drive cool using an ice pack in a plastic bag. You need to make sure that the drive stays dry, don't let any condensation or melting ice contact the drive. You are risking an electrical short otherwise.
So what could happen if you do freeze your drive? 
Well it is a common misconception that a hard drive is a sealed unit. Actually, there is a small amount of airflow in and out of the spinning platters. So, if you put your drive in the freezer the water particles in the air will condense onto the platters when is warms back up. The platters in a hard drive are manufactured and installed in a clean room environment - zero dust or particles in the air. If you introduce water droplets onto a drive platter you have contaminated the platter. Any contaminants can render the drive irrecoverable. As water forms on the platters it interferes with the heads and how they read information from the platters. See the following page and video about -How do Hard Drives Work.
If you are going to try and recover your own data, cool the drive down by either directing a fan to it or insulate the drive with some plastic and wrap it in a cold pack. If the drive doesn't initialize or work properly after this has been done, please contact us (800) 625-6451, for a free evaluation.
We all have done it. Install software then lose, misplace or otherwise not have access to the installation files when you need them. Most Windows applications and some Mac applications can not usually be recovered from a damaged drive and then transferred to a new hard drive. Even if it was possible, it is always better to reinstall applications from the original media.
We just recently had a client in this predicament. Fortunately, his Windows operating system and applications were contained in a Bootcamp volume. For those of you unfamiliar with Bootcamp - it is one of the technologies that allows you run Windows or Linux operating systems on a Macintosh computer.
After getting a successful clone of the failed drive, we were able to restore the Bootcamp volume onto a new partition of his new healthy hard drive. A little editing of the Boot.ini file and he was up and running with Windows and his applications just as they were prior to the hard drive failure.
So it just goes to show, you never know what is possible until you ask. Ask us about your data recovery situation, you might be surprised by what we can tell you.
The most frequently asked question we get is "How much will it cost to have my data recovered?" And then, sometimes, we'll get the comment, "... but, my computer is not even worth that much!"
The answer to that objection is a great way to evaluate what kind of company you are dealing with. It is simplistic and rude to point out that the recovery is going to cost more than you probably paid for the computer. Helping a customer remember that the computer was just the tool they used to create important business files, a place to store irreplaceable pictures of family and friends, and communicate with places across the world is the message that accompanies all of our recovery estimates.
As in all industries, the cost of any service is dependant on the tools necessary to provide that service and the expertise to use those tools efficiently. We tailor our recovery pricing to match the set of tools required to overcome the particular type of failure your drive(s) has experienced. No one should have to pay to rebuild the Golden Gate bridge if you can just jump across the stream. Having a quality set of tools does require a significant investment. The tool set for data recovery is vast and wide, it has to be to cover the various types of failures hard drives tend to suffer.
So how much does data recovery cost? It depends on which company you are dealing with: Company A - that has a flat rate $299 recovery, Company B - that has a flat rate $1499 recovery, or Company C - that will take the time to investigate the failure, and give you an honest price that reflects the amount of research, clean room time, and investment Company C will bring to solve your issue.
Your computer is down!
All your data seems to be gone...
Is it:
- a hardware problem
- an operating system problem or
- a hard drive problem
Having your computer go down is a terrifying proposition. The first thing to do is to take a deep breathe and relax. Rushing through your troubleshooting steps will only lead to further confusion or worse yet bigger problems.
Hardware Problem...?
Try to determine if the physical hardware of your computer has failed you. Do you get any lights or LED's indicating power to the box? Can you hear any fans running? If not, then you probably have a power supply issue and your data is most likely just fine.
Operating System Problem...?
If you have working lights and fan's, but you are still not seeing a standard log in screen or your desktop - then you might have an operating system failure. The operating system is the software that runs your computer. Sometimes is can become damaged or fail to work properly. When this happens your computer won't behave normally and it can appear that your data is gone. There is a small chance that your data will be effected by the operating system failure, but it is minimal.
Hard Drive Problem...?
Another possible explanation of a machine failing to boot up normally is a hard drive failure. If all other parts of your computer are working normally, but you see a blank grey screen or the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)"if might be that your hard drive has stopped communicating with your computer.
What can you do from here...
Depending on the type of computer you have and your proclivity to take things apart, you could pull out the hard drive and try connecting it to another computer using and external case. If you can access your data this way, you might have a bad cable or power feed to the hard drive.
If pulling a hard drive out of your computer is not feasible or just not up your alley, then I suggest finding a reputable data recovery firm in your area. A quality company will provide a free evaluation and estimate. By letting a technology professional review the situation you are giving yourself the best chance of getting your data back in a timely manner.
A - Always turn your computer off if you hear your harddrive making any kind of unusual noises; do not attempt to run your computer again as this may cause irreparable loss of data.
B - Be cautious of attempting to run any type of hard drive data recovery software; if your harddrive is experiencing a mechanical failure, this will likely hinder attempts at a successful recovery.
C - Call Data Recovery Link at 303-649-1181 as soon as possible to discuss your data recovery options. We can help you determine if your harddrive needs a professional data recovery service or if you are ok to continue running the drive.
It's bound to happen sooner or later, its the nature of all things mechanical. No matter what you do there is always a chance that your harddrive may crash; and when it does it is usually a veryinopportune time. At Data Recovery Link we have more than 20 years of industry experience. Our technicians are highly trained in most forms of software and hardware recoveries. With a success rate of over 95% and a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee, we can help you during this stressful time.
We offer a no cost evaluation for your data recovery and we will quote you a firm price so you know your cost up front. If we are not able to retrieve your data, there is no charge to you. Even if another company has tried and failed, we can often still recover your data.
Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The surprising circumstances surrounding the hard drives brought to us never cease to amaze. "It was stepped on...", "I knocked it off the desk...", "My laptop fell off the roof of the car as I drove away" are how some of the more mild stories start.
We received a drive to be recovered the other day that had very little information regarding ownership and exactly what kind of information we might find on the drive. The customer was "surprised" to find out that the drive's contents were encrypted (all the bits of data are scrambled to protect against theft).
We contacted our client to obtain the encryption credentials so that we could extract the data he had requested. He was unable to provide any credentials, hmmm...?? While trying to determine which encryption solution was protecting the data (we thought that might jog his memory), we discovered a splash screen that referenced private data from a state agency could be on the drive. Now this is getting interesting!
So we have a client with little history about his drive, unclear about what his wants, data that is encrypted, and no encryption credentials from the client. To me that all adds up to a hard drive that was not "obtained" through standard channels.
Our next step was to contact the state agency. They couldn't confirm that they were missing a hard drive since it was delivered to us out of it's laptop enclosure, but they surely wanted to review the data on it. So, off the drive goes to this unnamed state agency.
We will have to wait and see what happens with this case. At least I know this, data recovery is never boring.