Seagate Hard Drive, old stock (3yrs)

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nononsene

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#101003 22-Apr-2012 20:25

I know I shouldn't be posting without the full information, but if I dont, I may forget, so I will update with the serial info and size etc... when I know, just wanting to catch some people who can point us in the right direction, or want to help us out.

Insurance replaced the hard drive on our Toshiba Satellite with an old Seagate model. A year later, the control board within the seagate hard drive fried and died.
No dramas... all of the photos are backed up right?? wrong... hubby thought I did it, I thought he did it... that old story.... freaking out to say the least, there are birth, marriage, and other sentimental photos on there that I can't even think about losing just yet as I start to hyperventilate.

Two people now have told us we wont be able to get another hard drive to get the board off and switch it over to power up the broken hard drive, its an old model, can't replace it, etc etc...
I'm not accepting this, and would like to know if anyone out there is up for the challenge to help us to a solution. I will not quit. There is a possibility that its the hard drive itself that is fecked but again, not accepting that just yet.

I will update this as soon as possible with serial numbers and any information that is required, I think that I will be the only one passionate enough about this to try and source the replacement, so far its been filed in the 'too hard basket' for those we have dealt with....

help??

sampler

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#613335 22-Apr-2012 21:03

Well at least you will have a better time trying to find spares and doner items for a Seagate Drive. Other brands (in particular Western Digital) have seemly a much looser parts allocation system.

I have a range of drives available so when you have had the chance to confirm the numbers I maybe able to help

Cheers

Lee

CYaBro

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#613337 22-Apr-2012 21:05

If the data is that important I would be sending it to a professional data recovery company than trying to recover it myself.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Lias

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#613457 23-Apr-2012 08:29

CYaBro: If the data is that important I would be sending it to a professional data recovery company than trying to recover it myself.

This.

I recommend these guys, they did a recovery for mew a few years ago and I had no issues with the service or price.

http://www.datalab.co.nz/

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gzt

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#613586 23-Apr-2012 11:57

A professional data recovery service will have no trouble getting your data back from the dead drive.

But definitely go with a specialist (like the above).

nononsene

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#614272 24-Apr-2012 12:22

Thanks everyone, the drive is a 250gb momentus which apparently needs a new logic board. defenitely not something i was going to attempt myself, but more so source the parts for a professional ;)

Never even occured to me to go to a data recovery company, spoke to one of the techs and he said he had used one which cost an arm and a leg and only provided file names rather than files themselves.. I am going to see for myself and contact datalab now

Thanks for the great help/advice

Lias

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#614323 24-Apr-2012 14:00

nononsene: Thanks everyone, the drive is a 250gb momentus which apparently needs a new logic board. defenitely not something i was going to attempt myself, but more so source the parts for a professional ;)

Never even occured to me to go to a data recovery company, spoke to one of the techs and he said he had used one which cost an arm and a leg and only provided file names rather than files themselves.. I am going to see for myself and contact datalab now

Thanks for the great help/advice

They do cost an arm and a leg, but I found datalab quite reasonable (cost $1000, vs other quotes of 3-4 times)

surfisup1000

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#614326 24-Apr-2012 14:08

nononsene: Thanks everyone, the drive is a 250gb momentus which apparently needs a new logic board. defenitely not something i was going to attempt myself, but more so source the parts for a professional ;)

Never even occured to me to go to a data recovery company, spoke to one of the techs and he said he had used one which cost an arm and a leg and only provided file names rather than files themselves.. I am going to see for myself and contact datalab now

Thanks for the great help/advice

A few years back I bought 2 seagates , same model, about the same time.

The logic board fried on one of them, and I just used the logic board from the other drive to recover my data. Swapping them was very simple. I wasn't sure it would work since even the same model could have differences in the logic boards.

A Data recovery company is recommended, I believe (at least some) they keep a stock of logic boards for data recovery purposes.

Actually, you are quite lucky, a failed logic board is better than damage to the magnetic surface/internals of the drive.

Why do you think it is the logic board at fault?

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dolsen

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#614338 24-Apr-2012 14:27

surfisup1000:
A few years back I bought 2 seagates , same model, about the same time.

The logic board fried on one of them, and I just used the logic board from the other drive to recover my data. Swapping them was very simple. I wasn't sure it would work since even the same model could have differences in the logic boards.

A Data recovery company is recommended, I believe (at least some) they keep a stock of logic boards for data recovery purposes.

I thought some most of the later hdd's have calibration data stored in the controller / logic boards that means that even the same type / size etc hdd brought at the same time could have different data in their logic boards that would mean swapping them may not work (and could cause damage).

trig42

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#614360 24-Apr-2012 14:58

+1 to Data recovery company.
I have used one in Hamilton (may have been Datalab?) a few times and they were awesome. From memory it wasn't quite $1000, but for my clients it was money well spent.

You supply a good drive and the donor drive, and they will try and copy everything from the donor to the good drive. I managed to get windows back up and running from the recovery by just doing a repair install once.