[olug] Rescue CD

[Jeff Hinrichs - DM&T]

On 3/19/07, Daniel Linder <dan at linder.org> wrote:
>
> On Mon, March 19, 2007 18:54, swanpoint at cox.net wrote:
> > thanks for the replies; after putting a full day into this it looks like
> > if the data is to be recovered, it will have to be at the expense of some
> > real $$$. Any experience out there with "clean room" professional
> > services? I hear $500 -- $4,000 estimates being thrown about. These iMac
> > OEM Maxtors have a reputation.
>
> The clean-room costs can be prohibitive for most people.  Before you go
> that route, check out "Spin Rite" (http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm).  It's
> only $89 so even if you still have to send it to the clean-room, it's not
> much more.
>
> Over Christmas I was able use it to resurrect an in-laws HDD just long
> enough to get the data onto the replacement drive.  I wouldn't recommend
> running it any longer than necessary to "refresh" the data (or whatever it
> claims to do).  After the data was rescued I put the HDD into another
> system and continued to run SpinRite to see if I could get the two
> remaining files.  After letting it run all night on the highest level, the
> HDD was completely toast and the BIOS couldn't even talk to it reliably
> anymore.
>
> Dan
>
> - - - -
> "Wait for that wisest of all counselors, time." -- Pericles
> "I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them." -- Isaac Asimov
>
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Cold is your friend.  take you drive and mount it in an external USB
case.  Put the entire usb case/drive in your freezer with the data and
power cables hanging out to be connected later without opening the
door and let it cool for about 30 minutes.  Then connect the USB cable
to your working computer, mount the drive read only and start sucking
everything you can find off of it.  Work as quickly as you can because
the heat exacerbates the drive problem.  Be complete as the trick may
not work a second time on the same drive.  Chilling the drive will
contract the metal parts ever so slightly -- it's worked the past 4
out of 5 times for me, just enough to get your data, maybe not
everything, copied off.

Once you get the most important files off and then the secondary, then
you can try and copy the drive image to a file.  I wouldn't start
there first as heat builds up and you are going to hit every sector on
the disk with a dd.  I only attempt that as a last measure after I've
got what I needed and am ok with the idea of possibly having flying
shards and shavings of metal go flying around in the drive.  You still
face that possibility when you are pulling off key files, but I've
been lucky in that regard.
-- 
Jeff Hinrichs

jeffh at dundeemt.com