why is my hard drive making funny noises?

[Les Woods]

BACK IT UP. NOW.

Not wanting to be alarmist but when I had a drive that made sounds like that I lost tons of files. I don’t know much about fixing them but if you’ve not made a backup then you need to do it now – asap otherwise you’ll risk losing all your data.

Check out some of the removable drives from PC World etc, they’re quite reasonably priced and you can get programs which backup your data every day for a few quid.

Sorry can’t help much more – but please back up your data as soon as possible.

😮

[Robert Lambie]

i agree with les, backup now!

my main pc for running the boards has 3x 200gig hard drives and i have just bought a 300gig external with usb connection today. (just to be on safe side :-?)
my other comp for books, accounst and "backup comp" for the boards has 2x 200gig drives
maybe a bit extreme but it allows me to regularly backup what i backup, if that makes sense? :lol1:

[Micheal Donnellan]

Cant back up! gone too far. just makes start up noise and clack.clack noise before I disconnect it. Going giving "Critical Data Recovery" a phone tomorrow, not holding much hope and its going to cost. Any idea what their like or similar companies.
Personally I think I’m fecked. I am going to get drunk in a while as it feels the world is gone to shitt. 5 years of data gone to shitt I had total data loss years back and I really do not want to even to attempt to remember that total nightmare. The hard drive I could not give a dam about its the DATA! that matters. Nothing like losing passwords and accounts to really feel like the world is collapsing around you again.

[Peter Normington]

Micheal, whatever you do do not try and recover anything your self, I would disconnect the drive and get pro help
Why on earth did you not backup though? especially after it happened before?
Like Rob I got an 2 external hard drives for backup. sorry not the time to tell you, I hope you can get it sorted, dont get drunk, and then try and fix it though, it seldom works,

Peter

[Phill Fenton]

I hope you get it Sorted Michael. 😀

[David Rowland]

backup is a term i give out often and often enough it scares the hell out of me.

clack clack is the sound of the heads skipping over the surface and bouncing back and to I suspect… yeah, bad news basically… the data specialists I suspect will tell you that it will cost hundreds.. if indeed it is drive failure and the drive is intact, then it can actually be transfered to another housing but that should be done in a clean room by the pros as getting into a harddrive is not easy.

[Micheal Donnellan]

I didn’t try and recover anything as was working perfectly fine until a while a go and then when it made the noise that was it, no find hard drive so no recovery. No sign of anything wrong until it went arse up. Back ups were some thing you always say i will never need until you get fucked.
RAIDs are supposed to help in this thing. So how much does the average RAID cost gone to the stage where its fuck the cost I want my datas. Last time my computer had problems it was registry damage caused by power problems so I got a UPS, that cost. So now more bloody money to be burned up why cant we live in a more reliable world where computers don’t get screwed over. Brother has lost 4 computer/hard drive one literally with smoke out the back.

was hoping you would come along Dave, pity its too late its going to be data recovery specialists now i think ever used them?

[Peter Normington]

Micheal,

raids dont cost much, it only two hard drives set up in tandem so that they are a mirror image of each other, Yeah dave R i know its a bit more than that, but its a safe way to keep your data
Peter

[autosign]

Hard drives cost peanuts now so there is no excuse not to back up. Gone are the days of burning multiple cd/dvd’s.

You can stick another drive in your PC for about £35!

Even 250gb USB drives are only £70 now.

Have you still got the old computer you transferred the files from?

[Micheal Donnellan]

Old computer is 3 years out of date for files its the new files since I started into this sign racket that killing me. and of course I just got two new customers just as files go bye bye. They will help ease the pain of recovery (money) a bit. At least the computers main drive did not go and die just the external.
Tomorrow phone the recovery people and find out the damage to my data and my account. Then go and price RAID systems.

to Dave Rowland since you seem to know something about them, what sort of system would you recommend as I think RAID is the way to go, just don’t know much about them.

Anyone have any experience of getting data recovery done.

[Richard Urquhart]

easyrecovery.co.uk £249 down from £499
EasyRecovery, 105 Upper Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT10 0LG

[Nick Minall]

Micheal what software do you use, will there be any backup files on you computer hard drive made by the program?

You dint need to have a raid setup just fit 2 hard drives and backup files to both of them.

good luck
Nick

[Peter Normington]

"Micheal Donnellan" Old computer is 3 years out of date for files its the new files since I started into this sign racket that killing me.

Its the same as any other RACKET (not the best choice of words on the boards me thinks)
Micheal, you need to protect your own interests 😉

Peter

[John Childs]

RAIDs are only of so much value. There’s not much point in copying bad data from one disc to another. A proper back-up is the only way to avoid problems.

I’m sorry to labour that point because you’ve just learned the hard way and are probably sick of heairng it by now! 😀

There but for the grace of God, because I don’t back up as often as I should.

[Peter Normington]

I agree John but If you back up to an external hd then for double saftey a raid setup is belt and braces, is it not?

http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/en/Main/sm_biz.html
Peter

[David Rogers]

I feel for you Micheal.

It’s all too easy to overlook backups when it’s all working so beautifully….

At work I save off my sign related data on the main server – and make rolling backups of all of the data to a second drive every couple of weeks – get about 3 ‘roll-backs’ into the available space. I’d be devastated, OK – ‘highly anxious’ if I suddenly lost it all….but that is not too likely. (Oh please, oh please.)

At home, my machine WAS perfect (running solid for nearly three years)….until I upgraded some hardware (a £15 cooling fan) & it went ‘pop’ / released the magic smoke. The ensuing reinstallation (as XP freaked out because of the new motherboard etc.) took over 30 hours and £200+ to get everything as close to it was before as possible.
Backups? – nope. It would’ve made life easier though, instead of trawling through 100’s of CDs & DVDs looking for "the one with ‘such and such’ on it", and the missus freaking out at losing a bunch of Emails. Live ‘n’ learn. (Felt such a dumbass…)

Would recommend a specialist data recovery though. I’ve heard it’s not cheap by any means so try to get a quote first.

Best of luck.

Dave

[Shane Drew]

Michael, speaking as a former technician, you’ll get a good chance at backing up your drive and putting it in the freezer to cool it down. The rattle will be reduced for a while, but it will give you a good chance of backing up some important files.

You can do the freeze method a few times, but it will eventually fail altogether

[Micheal Donnellan]

Freeze the drive you serious? in this not a PC urban legend?
Would that actually work long enough to allow getting data off?
How would you stop ice/moisture getting in the drive since I generally assumed freezing equals ice/water on inside.

Should have seen one winter when I poured yes literally poured a lot of water out of the case. And no I did not switch the PC on until I cooked it dry, then worked fine until the registry problem from the messed up up power lines we had. Work was been done the entire line on the road, some one screwed someplace.

[Shane Drew]

wrap it in a plastic bag first to keep it dry. It works, most times. Also sit the drive on its side so the platter will be spinning like a wheel, not flat like a plate…. does that makes sense? And take it out of the bag before connecting it because this will generate heat and defeat the purpose..

Spinning like a wheel lets it take the weight of the bearings.

We did it many times when Western Digital drives had a bad batch in to late 80’s early 90’s. They paid for our Pool at our last house 😕

Seems evey uni student in brisbane had their 4 years of Thesis on the drives with no backup. They were prepared to pay any money to save retyping it :lol1:

[Peter Normington]

Just my bit, to backup (scuse the pun) Shane, A hard drive is a sealed unit, and does not contain any moisture to form ice, I dont know if freezing would help, but I know it would not form ice internally…so its worth a try.

Shane do you run the hard drive in the freezer, or take it out and try for a recovery before it defrosts?

Peter

[Micheal Donnellan]

I went and looked it up after you said it. I get the feeling if it fails its time for the recovery people. They are supposed to use the process as fell with really cold level of cold. No dry Ice here so in the fridge it goes triple bagged and taped to stop any moisture getting it. Going to fire it up in couple of hours and keep it in freezer while coping files. Am mainly after my password/account files (new new file) that had no print out done, it was put off until the next day when it didn’t load :-?.
The music, porno and top secret plants to take over the world can be rebuilt. Amazing when life feels sh!t and this happens you say fuck the cost and are willing to pay to get it back. I hate depression, especially when you don’t cause it. don’t worry I’m 😎 and the hard drive is going to be a lot cooler! 🙂

[David Rowland]

i think i have heard about this method before… sounds very interesting as I know it works with some types on memory batteries.

[Peter Normington]

Dont know if this guy is genuine or not, but worth a read

http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000840067578/
Peter

[Micheal Donnellan]

Outside of a clean room that’s scary 😮

problem with hackaday is comments get troll spammed a lot and seems to be full of dumbfucks at time. Some stuff is nice and interesting, tilt lens camera make nice effects.

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/0 … -data.html

He got 20mins, not bad should help recover some files.
Read the comments as some ideas are in there, like swapping the PCB when its a electrical problem rather than mechanical.

If all gos to hell I will have a go at making this assuming data recovery people send me back the drive. 😀
http://www.instructables.com/id/E5R0LEN … /?ALLSTEPS

Great site lots of dangerous and possible illegal thing to make/kill yourself. 😀

Still cooling the damm drive 😎

[Shane Drew]

quote Peter Normington:

Just my bit, to backup (scuse the pun) Shane, A hard drive is a sealed unit, and does not contain any moisture to form ice, I dont know if freezing would help, but I know it would not form ice internally…so its worth a try.

Shane do you run the hard drive in the freezer, or take it out and try for a recovery before it defrosts?

Peter

run it before it defrosts mate, but not in the freezer… I didn’t anyway 😕

[Phill Fenton]

Just a thought….Sometimes my computer freezes up for no apparent reason and I have to re-boot it. Do you think someones been playing silly buggers and stuck my hard drive in the fridge without me knowing 😕

[Rod Gray]

quote Phill:

Just a thought….Sometimes my computer freezes up for no apparent reason and I have to re-boot it. Do you think someones been playing silly buggers and stuck my hard drive in the fridge without me knowing 😕

Sounds more like they have stuck a fridge in your hard drive mate.

I`d install CCTV asap.

😉

[Rod Gray]

Do a google search for "getdataback"

Worked for me on 2 seperate pieces of sh ite Fujistu hard drives.

I think as long as the bios detects it, it works.

[Shane Drew]

quote Rod Gray:

Do a google search for “getdataback”

.

looks brilliant Rod. Might just buy it as a safety precaution anyway.

Thanks for the tip

[Micheal Donnellan]

Gave up on freezing the thing as don’t work, hard drive is too far gone. All it does is power up and go clack, clack, clack. So now defrosting, drying out and going to send to recovery people quote was for €750+ (£500+) for 250GB which was more than I thought. I think several smaller drives in future will be a good idea as cheaper to do a recovery on them.

Using "Critical Data Recovery" as apparently are only Irish company doing this, other company’s tend to just show the drive over to the main company in UK.

[Micheal Donnellan]

Backing up C: drive now as making noises sounding like barking on occasion this is NOT funny!