Recover data from a dead hard drive by physically changing platters and saving thousands in per GB professional recovery charges
Your hard drive though seemingly tough is in fact pretty
delicate and contains precious data. HDDs have plenty of mechanical parts and
the more there are, the more things can go wrong. One fine day you’ll come
across this….
Operating
system not found
The most probable cause for this is a hard drive failure.
During the numerous restarts that you’ll perform after this happens, there is a
likelihood that you drive may be detected again. Immediately take a backup onto
any other drive you may have connected to your PC. However, when all else
fails, and you desperately need your data you can swap the platters of your
current drive to a hard drive with similar make and hope to recover it.
Before you go about doing so, you’ll have to figure out
where exactly the problem lies. If it so happens that your logic board on your
hard drive is wrecked then you’ll have to find a similar logic board and
transfer it onto the drive. Depending on the severity of your problem, you may
have to perform a live swap, which requires you to swap the PCB after
connecting it and the OS has initialized the drive. This may work and if it
does, keep an extra drive nearby to backup all your data. There are few
criteria that need to be satisfied in order to get a matching PCB. Check box.
You can buy a spoil HDD and use its PCB. If you can’t find the needed PCB
easily then there are specialty stores that stores that stock just PCBs and
with any luck you’ll find the one you need, for about Rs.2000 – 5000.
We found 2 drivers of the same make, one of which went
kaput a few years ago. After a round of diagnostics, it was fond out that we’d
have to swap platters to extract the data from the spoilt disc.
The PCB here shows you the Micro-controller (MCU) and
Flash BIOS chip. There in combination with information stored on the platter
tell the MCU how to read/write data across the platter. So it is absolutely
essential that you retain the flash BIOS chip. Often swapping the platters
along with the PCB does the trick and will allow you to read the data via the
OS. In case your OS ask you to initialize the HDD again, so not do so. Instead,
boot up in a Linux distro and install ddrescue, it’ll copy your data bit-by-bit
onto another drive.
All these operations need to be followed in a clean room,
which is a room with very few particulate matters and has continuous air flow.
The air is filtered to such an extent that there are barely 12 particles
(<0.1um) within a cubic meter of air compared to 35 million particles which
is present in a cubic meter or room air.
We remove the HDD covers, take out one half of the magnet
and then the actuator limiter. We insert a small piece of rolled up paper in
between the head armature to separate it from the platter surface, slowly slide
the head away from the center while rotating the platter counter-clock wise.
Remove the metal ring holding the platters in place and
transplant this platter into the donor casing. Do not touch either surface or
bring any magnetic devices near it. Put back the metal ring and secure it. Slide
in the head while rotating the platter counter-clock wise and remove the rolled
up paper gently so that the head rests easily on to the resting area and
doesn’t slam on to the platter. The heads are very sensitive and proper care
must be taken. Insert the limiter and the magnet. Secure the magnet and close
the HDD casing. Flip the HDD and swap the PCB on to the donor drive. Connect
the drive and check if your OS can access your data. You have a very narrow
window to copy all your data over, especially if you performed the entire
operation outside a clean room. If your OS cannot read the data but asks you to
initialize the drive. Use ddrescue to perform a bit-by-bit copy.
SIGNS OF A DYING HDD
1.
Clicking sound
2.
Frequent BSODs
3.
S.M.A.R.T. Data
4.
HDD Intermittently disappearing from the BIOS
screen
5.
Grinding noise
6.
Abrupt OS hangs
CHECKING FOR PCB
COMPATIBILITY
1.
Same PCB type
2.
Same PCB revision
3.
Is WD, match the DCM (Drive Configuration
Matrix) till the 4-5th character. Interpreting the DCM –
a. Motor
b.
Base
c.
Latch
d. Bottom
VCM
e.
Media
f.
Headstack
g.
Actuator – Preamp
h. Top
VCM
i.
Separator
Posts
Very much informative. :-)
ReplyDeleteNice, Good and Excellent.
ReplyDeleteDileep