Hello nerds,
I thought I should seek some expert assistance on a pressing computer problem I have. A laptop hard drive appears to have crashed (yeah, I was too lazy to keep up-to-date backups). It all started when said laptop told me there was a boot error or something and since then I have not been able to access the drive by any means. There are no unusual rattles or sounds or other obvious signs of physical damage. I have tried two USB external enclosures on two desktop machines with no luck. It just freezes. I just tried a program I googled for this problem (Recuva) and it too just froze, so do any of you have suggestions on what hardware or software might be helpful in this situation? Thanks a lot, if so.

-Z

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15761/recover-data-like-a-forensics-expert-using-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

what if you have the hard drive out of the computer? My laptop crashed

months ago and they put in a new hard drive and gave me back the old

one, so now i have this little green circuit board thing that they said they

could not recover but i wonder about that.

i dont care about it, just wondered.

It's your BF, Refton! .. SURELY you recognize his nasty response
to you!!? ... lol ...

=-O .. ;-D .. *cackles*

lol my bf :P

I dont think he would want me to die so im not so sure it was him :)

Or maybe it's Warrior.

sometimes if you freeze the drive it will work again till it thaws. put it in the freezer for a few hours then try hooking it up.

ya, you should put it in an airtight ziplock bag when you freeze it...

i fink you will have to go for hirens boot cd and the will be no problem retreiving your data

you need to reboot your computer and fix the CMOS.

need a hiren's boot cd or a driver pack to restore your files.

ohhh god just send me a mail lol

The CMOS battery has got nothing to do with hardware issues in the drive. And for all of you who are suggesting CD's, tell me what your answer is if the spindle motor has stopped functioning?

I'll bet the high majority of you have never taken a drive apart before in the first place.
http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/images/hd_lables.jpg

If you've only got inexperienced short-sighted advice to give, don't give any.

"freeze the drive in a bag".. your just a moron with no clue to the world.

Before you proceed with this article, you should receive some real advice. I'm a data recovery engineer with over 15 years' experience, and this is patently bad information. Freezing your hard drive will cause condensation to freeze on the platters, causing irreversible damage.

And please, anecdotal evidence does not count. There is nothing inside a hard drive that would react to temperature within its operating range, either in theory or practice. Many engineers have experimented with controlled freezers and heating units, and gotten no results.

If you suspect logical damage to your hard drive, do a sector-by-sector copy of it, then try software tools such as R-Studio. If you suspect physical damage, or if your hard drive won't turn on, don't attempt to put it in an external case, run Spinrite on it, or whatever else. Find a local professional or try one of the big recovery houses like OnTrack or i365.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Save_Your_Hard_Drive_by_Freezing_It

Just move along. This thread has no reason to be alive that's why I didn't want to post on it to begin with.