Second Hard Drive Failure In Three Months!!

[MichaelThomas]

Okay so normally I back up regularly once a week, but this time I'm pissed. My harddrive failed again on me yesterday after just completing 10 hours worth of work! This is the second time its happened to me in three months and the second time I've lost a load of work I have just finished doing. I'm sick of ringing Adobe to sort out my serial number registrations as I have to reinstall everything to another drive and last time it took apple a week to get a new drive to me.

Last time I just took it as the drive being dead but I would really like to know if there is anyway/possibility I can get my data back without spending a too much on a data-recovery company. Is there a way I can do it my self, physically or with particular software?

The first time I'd only had the drive 4 months and now this one has only lasted 3 months. Its from a 2.53ghz 15" unibody if anyone is wondering and its a 320gb, 7200rpm Hitachi drive.

Sorry for the rant and hope someone has some suggestions!

 

[sascha h-k]

i had the same with a hitachi so i decided never ever hitachi ..

take western digital or seagate or fujitsu or intel-SSD.

 

[qpid]

Diskwarrior and/or data rescue might be able to get some data off the drive depending on how dead it is

 

[MichaelThomas]

Diskwarrior and/or data rescue might be able to get some data off the drive depending on how dead it is

Well Disk Utility can't find it and when I plug it in it clips as if the head is stuck or something? I'm not to sure. When I came back to my machine originally there was just a constant clicking noise where as the first time the machine just completely wouldn't respond and when I rebooted I got the folder with the question mark.

 

[qpid]

That is pretty far gone, I hae a suggestion but it is gonna sound crazy. Put the HD in a SEALED ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for an hour or so. Then try plugging it back in, it may work long enough to get some data off.

Unfortunately it looks like you may have to go to a professional service

 

[MichaelThomas]

That is pretty far gone, I hae a suggestion but it is gonna sound crazy. Put the HD in a SEALED ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for an hour or so. Then try plugging it back in, it may work long enough to get some data off.

Unfortunately it looks like you may have to go to a professional service

That is pretty crazy!! haha is there something I'm missing with the whole freezer thing? I was affraid I might have to go to the pros just looking into data rescue now and wondering if its worth it.

 

[qpid]

That is pretty crazy!! haha is there something I'm missing with the whole freezer thing? I was affraid I might have to go to the pros just looking into data rescue now and wondering if its worth it.

Freezing it allows the metal to constrict a bit and could possibly loosen the heads. I mean if its broken already it cannot hurt

Data rescue should have a trial version that scans the drive to see what could be recovered once you pay for it

 

[Erendiox]

You should be backing up at a rate appropriate to the amount of work you do and how important that work is. If you're backing up only once a week, you should be able to shrug off losing a week's worth of files. If losing 10 hours of work is a big deal, you should be backing up every hour, or every few hours, with time machine or something similar. Otherwise you are playing with fire. Yes, it's bad luck that your HD failed so quickly, but you can blame yourself for not being prepared.

If the HD is clicking then software based solutions are probably not going to do you any good. The freezer trick might work, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The pros are probably your only option for recovering your files.

 

[MichaelThomas]

Oh well, the freezer trick didn't work.
Thanks qpid for all your help its really appreciated

You should be backing up at a rate appropriate to the amount of work you do and how important that work is. If you're backing up only once a week, you should be able to shrug off losing a week's worth of files. If losing 10 hours of work is a big deal, you should be backing up every hour, or every few hours, with time machine or something similar. Otherwise you are playing with fire. Yes, it's bad luck that your HD failed so quickly, but you can blame yourself for not being prepared.

If the HD is clicking then software based solutions are probably not going to do you any good. The freezer trick might work, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The pros are probably your only option for recovering your files.

I realise it's my fault. I don't need a lecture.

 

[Erendiox]

I realise it's my fault. I don't need a lecture.

Didn't mean to lecture. It just seemed to me like you were blaming the HD, which is what lots of people do. I work in mac repair so I see this sort of situation several times a day. Just wanted to provide some insight.