| The short answer to this question is probably no, | | | | Spindle Motor Spinning |
| unless you are feeling lucky or have some experience | | | | Sometimes a drive will fail because the spindle motor |
| dealing with computer hardware. However, there are a | | | | refuses to spin, or it sticks. This can commonly be a |
| few things you can try to do yourself to recover data | | | | problem with old hard drives. If the spindle motor sticks, |
| from a hard drive that has failed. You never know | | | | you can actually open up the drive and try to spin the |
| what you might be able to do. | | | | disc manually. |
| Keep in mind that none of these techniques are a | | | | After opening it up, spin the hard drive disk a few |
| good first option. They should only be attempted if you | | | | times manually and then see if it fires up and works. |
| want to risk losing or destroying the drive, and your | | | | This will compromise the cleanliness of the hard drive |
| data, further than it might already be destroyed. | | | | altogether, but hey, this is a last resort technique, right? |
| Recovery Preparation | | | | Repeated Booting |
| To prepare for recovery, you'll want to connect your | | | | If a hard drive is suffering from problems that might be |
| broken hard drive to your computer and also have | | | | sporadic, you might be able to get it running just by |
| another hard drive ready and connected. Connect the | | | | trying to boot from it repeatedly. Yes, this might sound |
| broken drive to your computer only after you make | | | | kinda ridiculous and simple, but it can work. If you |
| the necessary modifications to it in your recovery | | | | manage to get the drive booted, hurry up and copy as |
| attempt. The other drive (a working one) will be your | | | | much stuff as you can while it's running. |
| data dumping drive, the one that you will move your | | | | Freezing the Hard Drive (ha!) |
| recovered files to if you actually manage to pull off a | | | | It's long been a rumor that freezing dead drives can |
| recovery. | | | | get a little more life out of them. This has been |
| Your secondary hard drive could also be your internal | | | | somewhat proven to be true and many people will |
| drive in your computer, just make sure you have | | | | swear that it works. |
| enough space on your extra drive to store the data | | | | The idea here is that if the hard drive is physically |
| you might recover from the dead one. Always | | | | damaged to the point where internal parts are pressing |
| consider that there are risks involved with hooking up a | | | | against each other, causing it to not work, freezing will |
| bad hard drive to any computer. | | | | contract the metal and other materials to free |
| One Chance | | | | everything up and get you a few minutes or more of |
| In most cases, you'll probably only get one chance to | | | | use. |
| recover the data if you use the hard drive recovery | | | | Please note that this will probably not permanently fix |
| techniques discussed in this article... so keep that in | | | | a drive, but it might repair a "clicking" drive momentarily |
| mind. | | | | so that you can retrieve critical files. Ask around, you |
| Controller Board Swapping | | | | might find that others have actually been able to make |
| This technique consists of removing the controller | | | | this work! |
| board from a working hard drive of the same make | | | | When All Else Fails |
| and installing that controller board onto the drive that | | | | Of course, the best option is to seek professional help. |
| has failed. | | | | If you are not finding yourself wanting to take these |
| If it is indeed the controller board that has failed this will | | | | risks, that is probably a good thing. For the |
| give you an avenue to work around this particular | | | | do-it-yourself type of person, these hard drive |
| failure issue. If this swap is unsuccessful, you very well | | | | recovery techniques could get you started in the right |
| could ruin both hard drives, so consider that | | | | direction. But, remember, they should all be attempted |
| circumstance. | | | | only as a last resort. Good luck! |