Hard drive shows up, then disappears! :(

M

mr_luc

Veteran X
This is sort of a long shot.

But I have nearly 200gb of stuff on a hard drive that, thanks to a huge mistake on my part, contains some code that I own the IP for ... the only copy of that code ... as well as the only copy (other than that on the machines of an old client) of the compiled binaries/libraries for the code ...

Aaaagh.

Anyway.

My computer was working, I went on vacation for 2 months, came back, and it couldn't close down -- and then wouldn't boot back up, or rather, would stall with a black screen before booting windows. (Edit: going to check it out in debian, actually; I'll post an update on that later).

I took out the HD, put it in as slave in my other computer. I boot up, fingers crossed. YES! IT'S THERE!

I double-click on it.

It disappears from the list.

AAAAAAAAAAAGH.

It's not critical, it's not crucial ... I have other options. Like, never use that code to impress potential employers. Which is a very sad option.

What are my other options, if any? :(

Much love to anyone who can help me out here. If I end up getting advice in this thread that solves the problem, no matter how trivial that advice is, I will install a permanent tribute in my sig ... and, I dunno, I don't want to sully this with money yet. I'm not that desperate.

:(
 
there are always recovery services.

you can also try freezing the drive too. (put hd in ziplock bag for about 10 minutes and the reconnect it and pull data off as quickly as possible)
 
Does the device disappear from the device manager when this happens, and when you reboot, from the BIOS detection? If so, you've got an issue. The freezer trick works sometimes. If the drive is making a clicking noise or any noise other than a standard spin up (just once, not cycling) you're looking at an electronics or platter swap. Or as iNVAR suggested recovery services ($1k minimum).

If not, chances are GetDataBack or R-Studio will let you recover from most logical/layout issues.
 
FUBAR|Ascain said:
Does the device disappear from the device manager when this happens, and when you reboot, from the BIOS detection? If so, you've got an issue. The freezer trick works sometimes. If the drive is making a clicking noise or any noise other than a standard spin up (just once, not cycling) you're looking at an electronics or platter swap. Or as iNVAR suggested recovery services ($1k minimum).

If not, chances are GetDataBack or R-Studio will let you recover from most logical/layout issues.
Click to expand...

SHIT!

That's the one.

I'm going to test it later today, make sure that's the symptom.

Out of curiousity ... this "electronics"/platter swap. What does that entail? How would I be sure I needed to do it?
 
Electronics swaps involve taking the daughterboard from an existing working drive and temporarily hooking it up to the failing drive to copy the data. You'll want to be proficient or comfortable with electronics in general to attempt this.

Platter swaps works the other way, where the drive platters are removed from the bad drive and placed into a good assembly or rig, where the data is then copied. Platter swapping requires a clean room. I did it once for shits and giggles in a buddies paint booth to see if it was possible as a DIY, and while it worked I wouldn't recommend it.

Both of these processes are generally undertaken by the recovery services folks. Most at home folks try the freezer trick. If you open the drive yourself and fail, recovery service folks will pretty much turn you away. Any failed attempts by you dramatically decreases the probability of recovery at a later time.
 
Does the drive happen to be Western Digital? I must have had at least 20 hard drive crashes on my personal computers. The one time I could not recover 90%+ of my data was a WD drive. Furthest I got with it was installing Linux on a different drive [heh just went back and read more and noticed you mentioned debian], then copying the files over at the command prompt. I still only got like 15% of my files though.

Anyways, overall I wouldn't be that worried. Especially over plain-text. One time I had to copy a massive amount of code over from a corrupted drive. It was only corrupted by a few percent, and it probably took me two weeks or more, but I got it back running. ;)

Be prepared each time you try something to do what you're going to do and do it. Booting the drive up more times increases the chance of it failing for good. I'd combine the freezer trick + your debian and try copying top priority files first.
 
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