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Recovering Data Off An Internal Hard Drive

M

meyer0095

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 25, 2008
14
0
Hey,
My iMac harddrive stopped working and Apple replaced it for me and gave me the broken internal drive. I am trying to recover the data myself. I bought a 3.5" SATA inclosure. The disk starts spinning for about 3-5 seconds and then dies. It just continuously does this whenever I turn it off and then back on.

I have heard of methods such as dropping it from a few inches of the ground onto a flat, hard, surface. Freezing it and then trying to run it before it warms up. Also hitting it softly with a mallet on all sides.

For this particular case, could anyone recommend one of these unorthodox methods or tell me if I have any chance of success with any of them?

Thanks

EDIT: Right now my computer has never actually recognized the drive in Disk Utility.
 
miles01110 said:
You really have nothing to lose, do you? I'd try the "freezing" method first... as it is the least likely to do further physical damage.
Click to expand...

I was about to say this. Let me elaborate on the method that he is referring to. Take the drive out of the enclosure. Put it in a ziploc bag. Then put it in the freezer for 4-8 hours. Then place the drive back in the enclosure. Connect the enclosure with HDD in it to your iMac. Then try to recover your data. Make sure it is cold while it is connected to your iMac.
 
miles01110 said:
You really have nothing to lose, do you? I'd try the "freezing" method first... as it is the least likely to do further physical damage.
Click to expand...

Nothing of huge importance. Nothing worth paying it to be professionally recovered. I'd rather try all the possible ways to get it back myself, and if it doesn't work, oh well.

AlphaDogg said:
I was about to say this. Let me elaborate on the method that he is referring to. Take the drive out of the enclosure. Put it in a ziploc bag. Then put it in the freezer for 4-8 hours. Then place the drive back in the enclosure. Connect the enclosure with HDD in it to your iMac. Then try to recover your data. Make sure it is cold while it is connected to your iMac.
Click to expand...

I'll try this overnight. Will this actually cause damage to the drive? I can't say I care that much, but I'd rather try any other method possible before physically damaging the drive.
 
Look for a program called FileSalvage 7.0
They have an option for recovering data off of drives that do not show up in the DiskUtil. I've never had the chance to use it for that yet but I know it's a pretty resourceful app. I've recovered data off of drives that were partitioned several times.

This app is another reason I use the 35 pass write zero's before I let go of any hdd. If it doesn't work for that it goes to the shooting range ;)
 
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