Re: Need help with a totally avoidable problem

"Kenneth Brody" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
| Frog Prince wrote:
| [...]
| > *SYT:     'so you got it to quit making that horrible noise?'
| >
| > FP:    What noise?
| >
| > SYT:  Sounds off and on, just like the '75 VW junker Bug I had when I
was in
| > school. (does an impression of the noise -- rancus but still cute)
| >
| > Light goes on:  Makes a lot of inquires, basically this 'noise' has been
| > getting worse for about 6-8 weeks.
| [...]
| > I carried the HDD home, going to play with it a bit.  Any ideas at all
on
| > how one might recover the data?
|
| Does the drive no longer spin up?  I've had some experience with drives
| like that, which can actually enter Lazarus Mode by giving it a gentle
| (but firm) twist along the same axis as it normally spins just after you
| power up the system.  This applies enough torque to allow the drive to
| get unstuck, and once unstuck, will continue spinning up as normal.  If
| this procedure works, _immediately_ back up whatever you need from it,
| as you never know how long the drive will last, or if Lazarus will visit
| you again.
|
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | WARNING! DISCLAIMER!  ETC ETC ETC!                                   |
| |                                                                      |
| | Entering Lazarus Mode with the above method may make things worse if |
| | you do it wrong!                                                     |
| +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|
| Of course, if it's simply "dead", then you may be SOL unless they have
| the money to hire a company that specializes in recovering data from
| dead drives.
|
| Given the noise issue, I would say it's more likely mechanical than
| electrical, so you may luck out with the first method.

Money is not an option as these folk take a lot of small contributions
coupled with sheer force of will and a lot of volunteers make it do
multiples of  what one would expect.

frankly I did find a back up of the needed file but that was the end of
September so some poor volunteer is going to have to finger bone the data
from Sept forward.

Seems to spin up but unable to access the data on the drive.