A computer tragedy has occurred....

[DizzyDigger]

Yep..it's true. Last Tuesday the hard drive in my Dell desktop went belly up.
It had been making some clicking sounds, so I knew it wasn't healthy, but
didn't figure that it would expire so quickly. Stepped in the house to make a
sammich and when I came back it had terminated itself. Deader 'an Custer's
pecker. Had been planning to back-up my pics and stuff but hadn't done it yet,
so might have lost it all.

Borrowed my wife's old laptop, ordered a new SanDisk 1tb SSD drive as well as
a couple 128G thumb drives in *hopes* I can get it to boot up one last time.
Tried a number of times on Tue., and it couldn't boot up, but I've read about
how, when there's a mechanical failure, that wrapping the hard drive up
and putting it in the freezer for about 12hrs. might somehow correct the
mechanical issue long enough for it to boot up one time, and then I can
back-up the data and burn a boot disk. If it works, that's awesome, but if
it doesn't at least I gave it my best effort.

Seen more "con" than "pro" for this idea, but it's my only shot, and I'm not
shelling out a a few hundred bucks to some data recovery expert just to get
my pics back. It's my own damn fault for not backing up the data, and
until the new parts get here I'm stuck with this old clunker of a laptop.

Hate it when this happens....

 

[sibbley]

You could try buying an adapter kit that plugs into the usb on the laptop and the other end plugs into the drive. I've had some luck being able to recover files doing this. I've had drives that wouldn't boot the OS but were accessible using such a kit.

Good luck...

 

[desertgolddigger]

I believe a computer repair shop can probably extract your data from the HD. It might be a bit expensive, but, if a certain government agency can take what most people think is a completely trashed computer HD, and recover the things they want on it, it probably means regular quality repair shops can do the same.

 

[sibbley]

I thought I'd post a pic of the kit I have.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I thought I'd post a pic of the kit I have.

Just ordered one off of Amazon. Bought the power adapter as well, as I also have some older 3.5" hard drives I may be able to recover some data on.

My most sincere hope is that I can get the bad unit to boot up just one more time, and
if it does I can quickly back up the images and other data (favorites, passwords, etc.), and burn
a boot disk.

 

[tamrock]

I haven’t have a computer in a long time now. Last one that fried I began doing everything on my smartphone, work and all with no toting a laptop in and out of the motels when I traveled. I now don't believe I'll ever own a computer for the rest of my life. I'm not sure how many desk-tops and laptops are stowed away in the garage now that I've kept thinking I can get some old pictures recovered someday.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I haven’t have a computer in a long time now. Last one that fried I began doing everything on my smartphone, work and all with no toting a laptop in and out of the motels when I traveled. I now don't believe I'll ever own a computer for the rest of my life. I'm not sure how many desk-tops and laptops are stowed away in the garage now that I've kept thinking I can get some old pictures recovered someday.

I do have an I-phone, but all I've ever used it for is a phone, texting and some pictures. Never even installed an app on it, and have no desire to.

Spend all my time in my shop, especially during fall/winter/spring when it's so wet out, so a desktop is perfect for me. I've got a 24" LG TV for a monitor, and it's the perfect size for watching streaming movies, etc. Had Directv for a long time, but it got so expensive I went to strictly streaming last year, which is plenty to watch and 80% cheaper than cable or Directv.

 

[Oregon Viking]

First time that happened to me.... Never again! I have an external HD just to store and back up my music (5000+ albums and thousands of pictures) I hope you can recover something.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

I haven’t have a computer in a long time now. Last one that fried I began doing everything on my smartphone, work and all with no toting a laptop in and out of the motels when I traveled. I now don't believe I'll ever own a computer for the rest of my life. I'm not sure how many desk-tops and laptops are stowed away in the garage now that I've kept thinking I can get some old pictures recovered someday.

You do have a computer. The current phones are computers. Bigger badazzer and better than anything NASA landed on any planet, moon or sent out there. The only problem is you can't get them without a cam that watches you, a mic that listens in, a GPS ping that constantly tracks your whereabouts, a constant inter webs connection, nor a battery you can pull to turn it actually off completely at will. Other than than that, you don't have a computer far as I can tell.

 

[tamrock]

You do have a computer. The current phones are computers. Bigger badazzer and better than anything NASA landed on any planet, moon or sent out there. The only problem is you can't get them without a cam that watches you, a mic that listens in, a GPS ping that constantly tracks your whereabouts, a constant inter webs connection, nor a battery you can pull to turn it actually off completely at will. Other than than that, you don't have a computer far as I can tell.

Yeah right. They're simply know as a device these days. It doesn't bug me it monitors my whereabouts. If it means anything to someone I believe they're just waisting their time. I ain't gonna buy by their suggestion or give any feedback to some restaurant I just happen to walk by. The only social media site I ever visit and post to is this one and I don't think the big brother is really all that interested in what we're all doing. We don't wanna buy stuff, we wanna find stuff for nothing.

 

[McKinney_5900]

You do have a computer. The current phones are computers. Bigger badazzer and better than anything NASA landed on any planet, moon or sent out there. The only problem is you can't get them without a cam that watches you, a mic that listens in, a GPS ping that constantly tracks your whereabouts, a constant inter webs connection, nor a battery you can pull to turn it actually off completely at will. Other than than that, you don't have a computer far as I can tell.

Scary, but a whole lot of truth.

 

[robertk]

Yep..it's true. Last Tuesday the hard drive in my Dell desktop went belly up.
It had been making some clicking sounds, so I knew it wasn't healthy, but
didn't figure that it would expire so quickly.

Once a mechanical hard drives starts making that clicking sounds, it's very quickly doomed. That sound is the heads banging against the end of their travel, which means it's getting errors it can't recover from. It's just a matter of time, and usually not much of it.

Cooling the drive might help, though I doubt I'd use the freezer. And if you get it to spin up, copy what you need as fast as possible - once it is spinning it will start to heat up and if the problem is heat-related, it will come back. It is also possible that it may come up and be recognized as a drive, but not be readable as a file system. If that happens, and you really want the files, you might have to "image" the drive (copies the raw data off the drive to a single gigantic file) and then use file recovery software on the image to extract the individual files. Either way, it's dicey once the drive is toast, which it is.

Good luck. I hope you are able to get the files back.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Either way, it's dicey once the drive is toast, which it is.

Yep...I know the freezer trick is a Hail Mary, at best, but I have to try. On the good side, I only use the computer for images, internet and streaming TV, so there really isn't much on the drive. I'll need to back up the images, save files for passwords and bookmarks, and then make a boot drive. If it does boot up and croaks before I can make the boot drive I can always make one from my wife's laptop, also running Win. 10.

Got all the parts today, including a new 1TB SSD drive and two 128 GB USB drives to save stuff on, if given a chance.

Doing the work tonight, so if all goes well I'll be back on by tomorrow AM. If not? Well, it might take me a day to get everything reloaded, and I'll be over the lost images, including a very extensive file of emoji's and meme's I've cultivated over the years.

Wish me luck!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Well, I couldn't save anything. Thought I almost had the other drive booted up, but then it just rolled over and died.

Installed the brand new fancy 1TB SSD drive (SanDisk) and wow is this thing fast!

 

[robertk]

Sorry about the failed drive -- but on the plus side, you'll love the SSD speed! Just don't forget that it, too, can fail, so still have a backup of important files.

 

[bc5391]

there is software that can recover your hard drive, I've used some to recover mine in the past, can't remember the name as it is stored on a portable HD.

 

[DizzyDigger]

there is software that can recover your hard drive, I've used some to recover mine in the past, can't remember the name as it is stored on a portable HD.

It's a mechanical failure..there's no recovering any data unless I pay big $$ to a specialist recovery company, and even then it's "iffy".

Sorry about the failed drive -- but on the plus side, you'll love the SSD speed! Just don't forget that it, too, can fail, so still have a backup of important files.

Already have a back-up plan in several 128 GB USB drives, so not only will I back it up, I'll have copies of the back-up.

 

[Jarl]

Just recently had my pc do some dumb thing...it basically shut me out...wouldn't allow me to enter my password...or, when i did said it didn't recognize it. This went on for about three days and something curative I did within the course of that time apparently worked, albeit belatedly(and on it's own terms and apparently fixed itself). So, I return home from work and try one more time to enter my password and voila...it decides to work. Well, I lost some things but all my files are still in tact. Now, as I had multiple pages up(and open) all of those were closed down in the crash process, so, had to open those back up but not without having to reset all of those passwords...utter P.I.T.A. I still can't get into FB...which stupidly tells me I am temporarily 'kicked off' for 'abusing community guidelines'...huh?? I haven't even been ON for several days...unless someone crap posted on my wall in my stead while I was locked out of my own PC! Now, as an added bonus...my 'caps lock' operates backwards now...so, trying to enter passwords and things has to be done in reverse so to speak. So glad the world is making such great strides in the advancement of technology.

 

[RobNC]

Well, I couldn't save anything. Thought I almost had the other drive booted up, but then it just rolled over and died.

Installed the brand new fancy 1TB SSD drive (SanDisk) and wow is this thing fast!

Most of the time the old click of death is not so much due to actual platter failure within the hard drive itself. It is the interface board that has a chip that fails. I HAVE in the past used an identical hard drive board from a known working drive and put that on the bad drive and got it to boot up and run.
Usually that clicking means the controller chip is the problem. Classic click of death failure. As long as the drive still spins up there is hope, even if just a spin-click, spin-click then a spin down is heard. That at least means the motor is good and the heads are capable of moving physically. It's all about that controller board.

The bad side of this is that unless you have access to another exact same drive with the exact capacity and ALSO the same firmware on the board as yours it's less than 50/50. But it CAN be done.
I usually seen these click of death failures more on Western Digital drives. Seagates can do it also but they were more the spin up spin down failures with no clicking.

It's also worth noting that while SSD is much faster it too has drawbacks. I remember some of the cheaper first gen ones and massive data corruption and data loss. Just plain unreliable. They've came a long way but still there are some cheaper ones out there today that are less than reliable.
While I'm not the IT Director for an entire government entity anymore(by choice), I did it for over 20 yrs and seen all kinds of failures. I'm never one to give up until all options are exhausted.
These days I still do IT work, but only within my own department which is a lot more critical to the general public. The work done today is more impactful to the entire state, not just the county. So metal detecting is a great escape from all the heavy burdens on my shoulders. LOL

 

[Bucket Lister]

I do have an I-phone, but all I've ever used it for is a phone, texting and some pictures. Never even installed an app on it, and have no desire to.

That's a lot of overkill for what you use it for. You can get a basic cell with phone, text, & camera for under $50.