Diagnostic Summary of the harddrive is:

new heads are being fouled by surface damage caused by the initial failure. Further attempts with additional parts would be futile.

-

How do I retrieve the data from this thing. just a regular laptop harddrive.

11/9/2007 6:10:48 PM

if it is physically damaged you are most likely out of luck

11/9/2007 6:13:14 PM

Put the drive in the freezer for a night, had some friends tell me it worked. Shrinks the parts enough to make everything work for a short while to copy files off it. Might wanna google it first and if you do try probably should put it in a ziplock bag or something.

Good luck

11/9/2007 6:33:46 PM

^ this worked for my busted harddrive

i couldn't believe it. i was able to recover about 1/3 of what was on the drive

11/9/2007 7:53:58 PM

^what about the microwave?

11/10/2007 1:29:21 AM

Quote :

"Put the drive in the freezer for a night, had some friends tell me it worked. Shrinks the parts enough to make everything work for a short while to copy files off it. Might wanna google it first and if you do try probably should put it in a ziplock bag or something."

This usually does work if the cause of the failure is drive motor fatigue. If there really is surface damage then that is a different case entirely and this is unlikely to help any. I would recommend contacting a data recovery company if the data is critical. Be warned though, it won't be cheap ...

11/10/2007 3:59:13 PM

Quote :

"Be warned though, it won't be cheap ..."

It's so expensive that most companies will not post billing schemes on their sites. They want you to call them for a price quote but don't usually publicize their hourly rates and/or typical material costs.

Some companies will give an example of their "flate rate" costs like this:

http://www.ecodatarecovery.com/

The thing is, this quote only applies to a 40GB desktop drive. Obviously a 160GB drive is likely to cost more as it will take MORE TIME. At least they're saying the guarantee a price before starting though. Still 800 bucks and that would likely be the low-end of the cost spectrum since it's a relatively small amount of data.

[Edited on November 11, 2007 at 2:37 AM. Reason : ]

11/11/2007 2:33:41 AM