[Thinkpad] OT: Deathstar recovery (was: OT: data recovery)

[A. Kellerbauer]

Does anyone know how to extract some data from a Hitachi Deskstar (aka 
Deathstar) that has failed by way of "Click of Death"?

Alban

> Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 13:35:41 -0700
> From: RayBay <canyonlands at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] OT: data recovery (was: Re: FS: TP Memory)
> To: "Alex Austin" <circuitsoft.alex at gmail.com>
> Cc: thinkpad at stderr.org, Aryeh Goretsky <goretsky at gmail.com>,	Donald
> 	MacQueen <dmacq at erols.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<69363c910610041335x1e897936m2cf42493e9fe8cb1 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Those work. We have offered a service to rescue data frombad hard drives
> since 1997 and rescue or partially rescue an average of 2 to 5 a week.  Most
> are desktop drives, but the procedure we find works best is the same.
> 
> What works best, most reliably and completely with laptop drives is to buy a
> the gadget widely available from Geeks.com, Outpost, Frys, CyberGuys, and
> tohers, that allows the installation of a laptop drive in a desktop
> computer.  It  sells under different names, but is usually something like
> "Hard Drive Adapter" with the long name, "Notebook hard drive to Desktop
> Adapter 2.5" to 3.5".  It sells for $1.75 to $8.95 depending on where you
> go.  www.geeks.com has them for $4.95 plus shipping.  These are not fancy...
> a rack, a cable, and a raw socket at the end of the wire, along with a power
> socket that the desktop power supply can fit.
> 
> Mount the defective drive in a desktop computer with extra bays... as a
> slave.
> 
> You do freeze the drive overnight, but then let it return to refrigerator
> temperature - about 40 degrees before you try this.  Be ready as sometimes
> you only get one chance.  Keep the drive rotating once you start. Do not
> shut down. Check all your jumpers for master and slave before hand.
> 
> The extra power available from the desktop power plug seems to help get the
> bad drive going and keeps it going.
> 
> Once the drive is rotating, you can use drag and drop techniques to move all
> the critical data to the desktop drive. From there you can burn the data to
> a CD or copy to a flash drive.  Do not stop until done as you may never get
> another opportunity.
> 
> This is much more successful than a USB external, probably due to the better
> regulation of power
> 
> We can usually make this work... at least 85 percent of the time, sometimes
> by tapping the drive lightly with a padded pencil.  Some drives have class
> plates have shattered so of course nothing can be rescued there. Others have
> magnetic material on plastic plates... The leading and trailing edge have
> material that has bubbled up and flaked off... so no data is found there,
> but you can find amazing numbers of the files you need.
> 
> Other drives that have "frozen" due to bad bearings are enabled to rotate by
> the freezing and cold, but they will freeze up again if run too long or if
> the drive is turned off. Usually they will never turn again. n Do not allow
> the drive to get too warm. We spray ours with canned air periodically which
> frosts them up pretty well.
> 
> RayBay