i have a critical problem, need advice

Sean · 2011-02-23T09:43:51+00:00

Okay... Ilse had back to back weddings to shoot over the week-end, one on Saturday, one on Sunday (anyone guess where this is going?) Friday night she falls ill. Saturday she is away all day, 09H30 and gets back 22H00. She is in pretty bad shape but she managed to do the shoot, she needed to get into bed to try to recover a little for the wedding on Sunday. She downloads all the photos onto her laptop and in her state/haste does not back them up on her external ? (now you should know where this is going) She clears the cameras memory cards and goes to bed. Now after the second shoot she switches on the laptop and it starts making noises, then she starts getting messages "Boot device not found" "Hard disk (3FO)" etc etc, on subsequent start-ups, things like "Hard Disk does not exist" . It asks to run system diagnostics and to test the hard drive (Press F2), however nothing happens when she follows this. It sticks there, F2 does nothing, no other options, nothing else happens. I assume the Hard disc has crashed. The laptop is barely 3 months old, an HP Notebook i7 etc etc . The hard drive is 1 terrabyte. Is there anyway at all that data can be recovered from this thing if it has crashed (or whatever worst case scenario there is) Any company out there that can pull the drive apart and recover data that might be the first weddings photos? You can obviously imagine the fall-out if the client hears there are no wedding photos from the hired photographer. The laptop has a 5 year on-site warranty (although this will not have anything to do with data recovery, only hard drive replacement). I called the help-line this morning and I'm told the technician will come to us within 1 to 6 days. I tried all I could to speed this process up, but was unsuccessful. So I'll not be able to do anything it seems until this technician shows up. But when he does, and if he tells me the hard drive is terminal, what can I do with that hard drive once I have it in hand? Guys, advice is desperately needed. I have to be able to recover this data somehow. Anything I can try now that won't possibly damage the hard drive even further that would make data recovery later even more difficult?

RobK

Warren wrote
Sean wrote Now my question is, can this dude make it any worse by just removing it?
Probably not Sean. If the drive is already physically damaged (heads against platters) then the physical shock of removal might make it a tiny bit worse, but it's not like you have a choice. He just needs to be gentle when he removes it.

Just re-reading the first post makes me thing this isn't a head crash. Possibly the motor that swings the arm is done. With a head crash, the drive will still spin and there'd also posibly be a high pitched whine (singing hard drive ? ). So, I think the posibility of recovering the data is very good. I hold thumbs. This is something that could damage (if not ruin) a reputation and a business.

RobK

Norman86 wrote
RobK wrote
Sean wrote Okay, I called them. It's really difficult talking to these guys :-\ . Seems the best they can do is this: The technician will have to come out himself (1 to 6 working days), he will only remove the hard drive and replace with a new one. I can then take the drive to wherever I want. Now my question is, can this dude make it any worse by just removing it?
You don't need a technician to remove the drive. You can remove the faulty one yourself and just ask them to courier a new one to you. Plug the new one in and, in theory, it should be ready to go, like it was when you frst started the pc up - just a basic setup and the pc was running. The old drive is toast anyway, once the data is recovered, you can, and should, toss it.

Depending of course how the drive is located in the laptop..
some are easy to remove, others, you need to remove the keyboard and sometimes other things too...

Not always an easy fix...

And yes, make sure the battery is removed before working on the laptop...

Well, I know some models of Dell, HP and Lenovo are pretty simple, just a screw or few to remove a panel. ?

Norman86

RobK wrote
Well, I know some models of Dell, HP and Lenovo are pretty simple, just a screw or few to remove a panel. ?

Some yes!
My stupid Dell Vostro on the other hand needs to be almost completely apart if the hard drive, disc drive or something similar needs to come out or be replaced.
only the Ram and battery are easily accessible on my machine!
Oh, and the backlight for the LCD, which was just recently replaced after giving up the ghost after 3 years!
Thankfully though, i have had VERY few problems with my Dell!

Sean

...mario... wrote Aslong as he removes it while there is no posibility of a slight electric charge going through it and you keep it away from all the obvious things that will further damage it, it shouldn't have a prob, have you phoned one of the recovery companies and asked them whats best to do?

Yes I've just spoken to a chap at Tecleo. He says what you guys have already stated, the tech can remove it. They'll send a courier to pick up the hard drive and do what they do ?
He's sending me a quote

RobK wrote Just re-reading the first post makes me thing this isn't a head crash. Possibly the motor that swings the arm is done. With a head crash, the drive will still spin and there'd also posibly be a high pitched whine (singing hard drive ? ). So, I think the posibility of recovering the data is very good. I hold thumbs. This is something that could damage (if not ruin) a reputation and a business.

Thanks Rob. I suppose if it is the arm, the tech should pick that up, the drive should then be fine anyway?

Norman86

Sean wrote Thanks Rob. I suppose if it is the arm, the tech should pick that up, the drive should then be fine anyway?

Sean, a problem with many tech's is that they arent very tech savvy at all!
They just pitch up and replace without really knowing what they're really doing!

shaundtsl

Thats a tough one man, sorry to hear about that!

RobK wrote Try http://www.datarecovery.co.za/

I have had to use these guys twice a while back when I was still doing desktop support, they managed to get the data back on both occasions.

RobK

Sean wrote
Thanks Rob. I suppose if it is the arm, the tech should pick that up, the drive should then be fine anyway?

He can guess, like I did ?. He won't open the hard drive itself, and he shouldn't. Should be done in a clean room of sorts. The drive is toast (though the data should still be intact). Once you get the data off - toss the drive.

PeteM

Thanks for the heads up. I've just backed-up all my important files to a second hard drive... just saying. I doesn't help you though, but your unfortunate situation has jolted me into action. Apologies for the hi-jack.

RobK

PeteM wrote Thanks for the heads up. I've just backed-up all my important files to a second hard drive... just saying. I doesn't help you though, but your unfortunate situation has jolted me into action. Apologies for the hi-jack.

The forum seems to have gone quiet - wonder how many are scrambling, trying to find a suitable external drive to backup to ?

Norman86

Nah, i think people are just doing some work for a change ?

Sean

PeteM wrote Thanks for the heads up. I've just backed-up all my important files to a second hard drive... just saying. I doesn't help you though, but your unfortunate situation has jolted me into action. Apologies for the hi-jack.

You're welcome Pete. The real lesson here is back-up immediately every time you have new data on the drive that you can't afford to lose. Ilse has a habit of doing so after every shoot and before she clears her memory cards. It just takes one tiny error, and you end up with an expensive lesson. Got the quote, yep, it's not cheap.

Norman86

Sean wrote You're welcome Pete. The real lesson here is back-up immediately every time you have new data on the drive that you can't afford to lose. Ilse has a habit of doing so after every shoot and before she clears her memory cards. It just takes one tiny error, and you end up with an expensive lesson. Got the quote, yep, it's not cheap.

Good luck though... Hopefully you get all your data back!

Sean

I must thank you guys for the help and advice, I really appreciate it. You're all good okes ?

Warren

Any news on this one, Sean?

Sean

Warren wrote Any news on this one, Sean?

Sent the hard drive in yesterday to Tecleo.

Sean

What surprised me was that the hard drive was Toshiba ? Why would HP used a Toshiba hard drive?

IceCreamMan

Sean wrote
What surprised me was that the hard drive was Toshiba ? Why would HP used a Toshiba hard drive?

Not unusual ....few drive manufacturers .... sent out to tender ....

My HP elitebook probably put tpogether from bits na pieces everywhere ....

Warren

Sean wrote
What surprised me was that the hard drive was Toshiba ? Why would HP used a Toshiba hard drive?

IceCreamMan is correct. Many people don't realise that, component-wise, many laptop brands are more similar than you'd think. My Mac, for example, has a Matshita optical drive, Intel processor, ATI graphics chip etc. Whole thing is branded Apple, but most of the internals are not manufactured by them.

shaundtsl

Coincidently, I was talking to a guy at work this morning about your problem, he said that there is also a chance you can get the data off the SD card still. I dont know if it is possible or was already mentioned, just putting it out there.

Sean

shaundtsl wrote Coincidently, I was talking to a guy at work this morning about your problem, he said that there is also a chance you can get the data off the SD card still. I dont know if it is possible or was already mentioned, just putting it out there.

I was under the impression that if the cards were just wiped clean and not used again it would be possible to recover the previous pics, but if the cards were used again it would not be. Anyone know if this would be possible?

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