Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 (edited) My WD Blue 3TB drive had something smashed against it. I do not know what hit it. But put a good dent in it. I think the platters are still good, but the alignment might be off.. It can still "see" the drive, but no sectors/data are evident. Just shows up as blank disk. Anyone know a recovery place that is good, and relatively cheap? I kept all my 900GB of storage on there. Some of it is on my Dad's HDD. But if any/all is able to retrieve, I'd pay for it. Edited May 27, 2018 by Mindovermaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Global Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 Professional hard drive recovery will not be cheap. Doubt the platters became misaligned (if they are...you're hosed) ... more than likely you damaged one or all of the heads (kinda hosed in this scenario as well). Do you know that physical damage has occurred to the HDD internals (don't open it up to look). Any noises emanating from it that is abnormal (like clicking, screeching, etc). Is it just showing as a RAW file format ... or what? You could try something like Puran File Recovery (free for home), EaseUS has a file recovery program, Recuva, etc. @warwagonmay have some other useful advice. Which reminds me .... ☝️ ThaCrip 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted May 27, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2018 Seeing how it has a physical dent in the drive means the head probably made contacts with the plater so you may be looking at a head crash. Not sure if any software can help you there. Not sure i'd want to try software as working the heads might make it worse. Probably looking at a data recovery place but maybe someone here will prove me wrong. Jim K 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 (edited) It just shows that it that it has "no media". So, yeah, I guess raw. I do get ~10 quick beeps from it, then it makes that low tone for a few seconds, repeat. I'm just asking, is this recoverable? I won't know "what" damage it did until I open it up. And I do not want to do that. I would like this data back, but if not... *shrug* (I took apart a dead 10GB one once, could see a big scratch on the platter. Like, oh, that's why it can't read beyond a few MB...) Edit: Yeah, Jim, I know about that... LOL Edited May 27, 2018 by Mindovermaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Global Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 If you need to data back ... take it to a data recovery place...that is the only way to really know. I'm sure they've came across sudden impacts before and will be able to get data off the drive. It will not be cheap...hundreds of dollars. LinusTechTips recently did a video on DriveSavers ... might look into them. It appears that if they don't get your data back ... they won't charge you. https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com Anyway, it does sound like you damaged the heads and/or actuator arm. As warwagon mentioned (and with your followup post) ... I wouldn't power on the HDD anymore as you could be causing more damage (scratching the platters). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 2 minutes ago, Jim K said: If you need to data back ... take it to a data recovery place...that is the only way to really know. I'm sure they've came across sudden impacts before and will be able to get data off the drive. It will not be cheap...hundreds of dollars. LinusTechTips recently did a video on DriveSavers ... might look into them. It appears that if they don't get your data back ... they won't charge you. https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com Anyway, it does sound like you damaged the heads and/or actuator arm. As warwagon mentioned (and with your followup post) ... I wouldn't power on the HDD anymore as you could be causing more damage (scratching the platters). Yeah, I regularly watch Linus Sadly, there's no recovery center near me. Any place near me is 2+ hours away. I haven't powered it since I heard those beeps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Ship it to them, you can mail your drive to drivesavers just as you can with ontrack data recovery https://www.ontrack.com/ I can tell you from experience you are looking at more than a few hundred dollars and I wouldnt be surprised if it was over a 1000 dollars to recover that amount of data from a physical failure. Jim K 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 Well, as seen above, I can't really do anything about it. I can't use any recovery software, because the system isn't recognizing it. So it's either, repair it, or it's a door stop... Well, if they can backup "certain" files for you? Or is it pretty much all or none? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted May 27, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2018 Time to replace the drive with 2 drives 1 for backup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 I have asked for a quote from Ontrack and DataRecovery.com. I'll see what those bring up. If it proves to be too much, oh well... Just now, warwagon said: Time to replace the drive with 2 drives 1 for backup I was actually planning to do that, but never got around to it. Now I get the pipe up my butt... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKAngel Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 plenty of free data recovery apps to try out there, if the drive saws as raw it could be as simple as getting the file system back on it and running a recovery program on there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 44 minutes ago, DKAngel said: plenty of free data recovery apps to try out there, if the drive saws as raw it could be as simple as getting the file system back on it and running a recovery program on there Do not, and I repeat, do not do this. Do not power the drive up anymore. Do not attempt to run any sort of scan on it. You will only make things worse. The more you attempt to power up and use a drive with physical failure, the less likely you are at recovering your lost data. goretsky, Unobscured Vision, Jim K and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKAngel Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 6 hours ago, Circaflex said: Do not, and I repeat, do not do this. Do not power the drive up anymore. Do not attempt to run any sort of scan on it. You will only make things worse. The more you attempt to power up and use a drive with physical failure, the less likely you are at recovering your lost data. lol ive knocked plenty of hdds and lost partition info before all i did was recreated the partition and scanned and recovered the drive, backed it up then turfed it, if it powers on and smart checks out why wouldnt you give it a crack? most people wont pay the thousands it actually costs to get drives repaired to have the data saved Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted May 27, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2018 17 minutes ago, DKAngel said: lol ive knocked plenty of hdds and lost partition info before all i did was recreated the partition and scanned and recovered the drive, backed it up then turfed it, if it powers on and smart checks out why wouldnt you give it a crack? most people wont pay the thousands it actually costs to get drives repaired to have the data saved There is a difference between knocking the drive and putting a giant dent on top of the drive. Knocking it could simply cause some data corruption as it was trying to write data. Putting a dent on top of the drive means he could have smashed the head onto the plater. Mindovermaster 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 OK, I got it open. (danm allen screws...) theres a scratch on the platter. You're right, the header wasn't damaged. You can see in the upper left corner. Had to get the right angle to see it... OK, I've tried it several times. It keeps clicking. I see the headers moving like normal. But then the thing goes haywire. I fear it's dead... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted May 27, 2018 MVC Share Posted May 27, 2018 23 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said: OK, I got it open. (danm allen screws...) theres a scratch on the platter. You're right, the header wasn't damaged. You can see in the upper left corner. Had to get the right angle to see it... OK, I've tried it several times. It keeps clicking. I see the headers moving like normal. But then the thing goes haywire. I fear it's dead... LOL yes, it's dead as far as what any normal person can do to with the drive. Should probably stop turning it on and you probably should not have even opened it up. Are you going to send it in? goretsky and Jim K 1 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 Well, theres not much hope now, is there? Like all the people said above, it will cost 100s or 1000s to get the data back. I don't have anything "crucial" on there. I MIGHT be able to get my Music CD data back, if I can find my SD card that I used in my MP3 player. BUT these days, I just listen to Spotify. I have old pictures, but most of them are saved on other hdds around house. All my Windows versions are saved to CD/DVDs. I lost some of my backups, but I am sure I can get them back. (torrent) Like all the Linux distros I downloaded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Once you open a drive, you are almost never going to get the data back. Microscopic dust particles and what not have now contaminated the drive platters, if you were ever serious about recovering the data this was a huge mistake. Odom, Jim K and goretsky 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 27, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 27, 2018 2 minutes ago, Circaflex said: Once you open a drive, you are almost never going to get the data back. Microscopic dust particles and what not have now contaminated the drive platters, if you were ever serious about recovering the data this was a huge mistake. I wasn't, so this is why I did it... Kind of an assumption if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DKAngel Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 23 hours ago, warwagon said: There is a difference between knocking the drive and putting a giant dent on top of the drive. Knocking it could simply cause some data corruption as it was trying to write data. Putting a dent on top of the drive means he could have smashed the head onto the plater. which would also cause the drive to fail and make all kinds of noises, plus if the head has hit the platter its toast, i recon he has a better chance at just redoing th epartition and doing a recovery on it as quick as he could Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted May 28, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted May 28, 2018 3 minutes ago, DKAngel said: which would also cause the drive to fail and make all kinds of noises, plus if the head has hit the platter its toast, i recon he has a better chance at just redoing th epartition and doing a recovery on it as quick as he could Uh, no.... That wouldn't of helped... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted June 1, 2018 Author Moderator Share Posted June 1, 2018 OK, updates, gents. I sent my broken HDD into DataRecovery.com. They said they could get nothing off the drive. So, I owe them nothing. Was worth a try... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted June 1, 2018 Supervisor Share Posted June 1, 2018 Always nice to get closure ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted June 1, 2018 Share Posted June 1, 2018 7 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said: OK, updates, gents. I sent my broken HDD into DataRecovery.com. They said they could get nothing off the drive. So, I owe them nothing. Was worth a try... Honestly, this makes this entire thread so frustrating. You were given some great advice early on, decided to open the drive at home and say well I wasn't serious about wanting to recover the data, now we are presented with an update that they could not retrieve the data. I bet they could have saved some of your data if you did not physically open the drive, there is no way you have a clean room or that type of environment at home which essentially made this impossible to recover. Just not sure what the motive of this thread was at this point. Not to mention, you smart aleck reply here makes it even more confusing. On 5/27/2018 at 9:54 AM, Mindovermaster said: I wasn't, so this is why I did it... Kind of an assumption if you ask me. Odom, Dick Montage, goretsky and 1 other 4 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted June 1, 2018 Supervisor Share Posted June 1, 2018 17 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said: OK, updates, gents. I sent my broken HDD into DataRecovery.com. They said they could get nothing off the drive. So, I owe them nothing. Was worth a try... well that's nice of them not to charge anything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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