data recovery outfits

Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
 > On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler DeleteThis @charter.net> wrote:
 >
 >
  >>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
  >>no noises or other indication it was failing...
  >>
  >>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
  >>$500 and up...
  >>
  >>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
 >
 >
 > What does "bios x see it..." mean?
on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
say about this problem drive.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Previously Hjmler <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote:
 > had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
 > no noises or other indication it was failing...

 > checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
 > $500 and up...

 > are there any more reasonably priced options ?

Actually $500 is a _very_ reasonable price.

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Arno Wagner <me.TakeThisOut@privacy.net> wrote in message news:<c01app$11t939$3@ID-2964.news.uni-berlin.de>...
 > Actually $500 is a _very_ reasonable price.

It depends on about what country we speak. At us $500 - it is a
complex work with RAID, difficult cases of replacement of head
assembly and centering platters etc...

Leonid<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

"Hjmler" <hjmler.DeleteThis@charter.net> wrote in message news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
 > Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
  > > On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.DeleteThis@charter.net> wrote:
  > >
  > >
   > >>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   > >>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   > >>
   > >>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   > >>$500 and up...
   > >>
   > >>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
  > >
  > >
  > > What does "bios x see it..." mean?
 > on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
 > info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
 > the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
 > say about this problem drive.

You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.

Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?

What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Rod Speed wrote:
 > "Hjmler" <hjmler.DeleteThis@charter.net> wrote in message news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
 >
  >>Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
  >>
   >>>On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.DeleteThis@charter.net> wrote:
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   >>>>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   >>>>
   >>>>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   >>>>$500 and up...
   >>>>
   >>>>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>What does "bios x see it..." mean?
  >>
  >>on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
  >>info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
  >>the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
  >>say about this problem drive.
 >
 >
 > You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.
 >
 > Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
 > about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
 > screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?
 >
 > What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
 > Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?
 >
 >
hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate way is that
it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>

running win2k pro...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 13:07:49 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote:

 >hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate way is that
 >it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>
 >
 >running win2k pro...

There may very well be a problem with the disk, but we have to read
what we read, and cannot make assumptions about what the user did and
know.

In my system as example, I guess that only drives set to auto type
will be listed during boot. If the disk cannot be detected by BIOS
auto detect or similar, it is another issue.

Also, if the disk is not listed in the Windows 2000 device manager
with the other disks, it is a sign that there can be a hardware
problem.

One should also remember that if an IDE port accidently is disabled in
BIOS, the disks cannot be seen.

You can try if the disk can be detected in another system using
another cable.

(All this because we or I cannot answer your original question).
--
Svend Olaf<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

In article <1027omtlgft5d72 RemoveThis @corp.supernews.com>,
Hjmler <hjmler RemoveThis @charter.net> wrote:
 >Rod Speed wrote:
  >> "Hjmler" <hjmler RemoveThis @charter.net> wrote in message
news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
  >>
   >>>Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
   >>>
   >>>>On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler RemoveThis @charter.net> wrote:
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   >>>>>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   >>>>>
   >>>>>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   >>>>>$500 and up...
   >>>>>
   >>>>>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>What does "bios x see it..." mean?
   >>>
   >>>on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
   >>>info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
   >>>the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
   >>>say about this problem drive.
  >>
  >>
  >> You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.
  >>
  >> Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
  >> about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
  >> screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?
  >>
  >> What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
  >> Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?
  >>
  >>
 >hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate way is that
 >it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>
 >
 >running win2k pro...
 >

If you have a second PC move the disk over to it and make it a
secondary drive. See if it can look at your data (the operating system
must be equal or later version and patch level to avoid file system
problems. Don't write on the disk, if you can see your data. Copy
your files off, reformat and build your system from scratch.

-OR-

Burn yourself a Knoppix (Linux) CD (download from
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.linuxiso.org/" target="_blank">http://www.linuxiso.org/</a>).

Knoppix boots from the CD and lives in memory. It has NTFS and FAT32
drivers and will try to mount your hard disk, read-only. If you see
your windows files it tells you something, and gives you a chance to
copy the files off the C drive to something else.

It recognizes most network cards and USB devices. In principle
you can burn your data into a USB CDR device but if it makes
temp files it's limited to RAM size. You need something like 256MB
to run Knoppix.

A USB-connected disk drive should work fine. I've FTP'd user data
from windows machines that became unbootable (most recently when
Windows Update gave me a new driver that ruined my day)

I've had clients that paid $4000 to recover data from a dead server
disk because they were too lazy to put tapes in the tape drive. $500
sounds cheap.



--
Al Dykes
-----------
adykes RemoveThis @panix.com<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Al Dykes wrote:
 > In article <1027omtlgft5d72.TakeThisOut@corp.supernews.com>,
 > Hjmler <hjmler.TakeThisOut@charter.net> wrote:
 >
  >>Rod Speed wrote:
  >>
   >>>"Hjmler" <hjmler.TakeThisOut@charter.net> wrote in message
 >
 > news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
 >
   >>>>Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
   >>>>
   >>>>
   >>>>>On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.TakeThisOut@charter.net> wrote:
   >>>>>
   >>>>>
   >>>>>
   >>>>>
   >>>>>>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   >>>>>>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   >>>>>>
   >>>>>>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   >>>>>>$500 and up...
   >>>>>>
   >>>>>>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
   >>>>>
   >>>>>
   >>>>>What does "bios x see it..." mean?
   >>>>
   >>>>on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
   >>>>info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
   >>>>the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
   >>>>say about this problem drive.
   >>>
   >>>
   >>>You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.
   >>>
   >>>Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
   >>>about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
   >>>screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?
   >>>
   >>>What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
   >>>Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?
   >>>
   >>>
  >>
  >>hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate way is that
  >>it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>
  >>
  >>running win2k pro...
  >>
 >
 >
 > If you have a second PC move the disk over to it and make it a
 > secondary drive. See if it can look at your data (the operating system
 > must be equal or later version and patch level to avoid file system
 > problems. Don't write on the disk, if you can see your data. Copy
 > your files off, reformat and build your system from scratch.
 >
 > -OR-
 >
 > Burn yourself a Knoppix (Linux) CD (download from
 > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.linuxiso.org/" target="_blank">http://www.linuxiso.org/</a>).
 >
 > Knoppix boots from the CD and lives in memory. It has NTFS and FAT32
 > drivers and will try to mount your hard disk, read-only. If you see
 > your windows files it tells you something, and gives you a chance to
 > copy the files off the C drive to something else.
 >
 > It recognizes most network cards and USB devices. In principle
 > you can burn your data into a USB CDR device but if it makes
 > temp files it's limited to RAM size. You need something like 256MB
 > to run Knoppix.
 >
 > A USB-connected disk drive should work fine. I've FTP'd user data
 > from windows machines that became unbootable (most recently when
 > Windows Update gave me a new driver that ruined my day)
 >
 > I've had clients that paid $4000 to recover data from a dead server
 > disk because they were too lazy to put tapes in the tape drive. $500
 > sounds cheap.
 >
 >
 >
the drive doesn't even seem to power up - it does not spin - makes no
sounds at all ...

i'm just looking for an outfit that might try to get some of my photos
that are stored on that disk back for me...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

"Hjmler" <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote in message news:1027omtlgft5d72@corp.supernews.com...
 > Rod Speed wrote:
  > > "Hjmler" <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote in message news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
  > >
   > >>Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
   > >>
   > >>>On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote:
   > >>>
   > >>>
   > >>>
   > >>>>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   > >>>>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   > >>>>
   > >>>>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   > >>>>$500 and up...
   > >>>>
   > >>>>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
   > >>>
   > >>>
   > >>>What does "bios x see it..." mean?
   > >>
   > >>on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
   > >>info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
   > >>the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
   > >>say about this problem drive.
  > >
  > >
  > > You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.
  > >
  > > Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
  > > about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
  > > screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?
  > >
  > > What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
  > > Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?

 > hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate
 > way is that it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>

OK, that must be what 'bios x see it' was supposed to mean |-)

Either the drive has just died or its not getting power anymore.

Try one of the power connectors off one of the optical
drives as a quick check of the power connector.

If that makes no difference, its just another dead drive.

 > running win2k pro...

That only matters if the drive was listed on the black bios
screen. The NT/2K/XP family can stop listing a drive if
they dont like what they see in the partition table etc.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Rod Speed wrote:

 > That only matters if the drive was listed on the black bios
 > screen. The NT/2K/XP family can stop listing a drive if
 > they dont like what they see in the partition table etc.
 >
 >
YEah, it's in the black bios screen where it doesn't show up and I
didn't want to try fiddling with any bios setting because I know nothing
about that stuff...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

"ray" <ray DeleteThis @ray.com> wrote in message news:1027rt31fb0sdce@corp.supernews.com...
 > Al Dykes wrote:
  > > In article <1027omtlgft5d72 DeleteThis @corp.supernews.com>,
  > > Hjmler <hjmler DeleteThis @charter.net> wrote:
  > >
   > >>Rod Speed wrote:
   > >>
   > >>>"Hjmler" <hjmler DeleteThis @charter.net> wrote in message
  > >
  > > news:1027k4dcmke3042@corp.supernews.com...
  > >
   > >>>>Svend Olaf Mikkelsen wrote:
   > >>>>
   > >>>>
   > >>>>>On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler DeleteThis @charter.net> wrote:
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>>had an ibm 41gb deskstar 2001 drive just stop working - bios x see it...
   > >>>>>>no noises or other indication it was failing...
   > >>>>>>
   > >>>>>>checked a few drive recovery outfits and they all want huge $$ ... like
   > >>>>>>$500 and up...
   > >>>>>>
   > >>>>>>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>
   > >>>>>What does "bios x see it..." mean?
   > >>>>
   > >>>>on boot up, the bios "sees" all the drives on a system and displays that
   > >>>>info on the screen before the windows boot sequence begins... in my case
   > >>>>the bios reports on the other 2 drives in the system but has nothing to
   > >>>>say about this problem drive.
   > >>>
   > >>>
   > >>>You've got one hell of a cryptic way of saying things.
   > >>>
   > >>>Are you attempting to suggest that there is anything different
   > >>>about how the bios lists that particular drive on the black bios
   > >>>screen at boot time to the other drives or not ?
   > >>>
   > >>>What happens once Win has booted with that drive ?
   > >>>Is it visible in My Computer or not ? Which version of Win ?
   > >>>
   > >>>
   > >>
   > >>hmm ... what i'm trying to say in my stumbling half-literate way is that
   > >>it isn't visible at any time by anything... <g>
   > >>
   > >>running win2k pro...
   > >>
  > >
  > >
  > > If you have a second PC move the disk over to it and make it a
  > > secondary drive. See if it can look at your data (the operating system
  > > must be equal or later version and patch level to avoid file system
  > > problems. Don't write on the disk, if you can see your data. Copy
  > > your files off, reformat and build your system from scratch.
  > >
  > > -OR-
  > >
  > > Burn yourself a Knoppix (Linux) CD (download from
  > > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.linuxiso.org/" target="_blank">http://www.linuxiso.org/</a>).
  > >
  > > Knoppix boots from the CD and lives in memory. It has NTFS and FAT32
  > > drivers and will try to mount your hard disk, read-only. If you see
  > > your windows files it tells you something, and gives you a chance to
  > > copy the files off the C drive to something else.
  > >
  > > It recognizes most network cards and USB devices. In principle
  > > you can burn your data into a USB CDR device but if it makes
  > > temp files it's limited to RAM size. You need something like 256MB
  > > to run Knoppix.
  > >
  > > A USB-connected disk drive should work fine. I've FTP'd user data
  > > from windows machines that became unbootable (most recently when
  > > Windows Update gave me a new driver that ruined my day)
  > >
  > > I've had clients that paid $4000 to recover data from a dead server
  > > disk because they were too lazy to put tapes in the tape drive. $500
  > > sounds cheap.
  > >
  > >
  > >
 > the drive doesn't even seem to power up - it does not spin - makes no
 > sounds at all ...
 >
 > i'm just looking for an outfit that might try to get some of my photos
 > that are stored on that disk back for me...
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler DeleteThis @charter.net> wrote:
 >are there any more reasonably priced options ?

If there was important data on the drive, the best option of course is
to restore your most recent backup.

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10 for email.)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits 

Roger Blake wrote:
 > On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 10:41:45 -0600, Hjmler <hjmler.RemoveThis@charter.net> wrote:
 >
  >>are there any more reasonably priced options ?
 >
 >
 > If there was important data on the drive, the best option of course is
 > to restore your most recent backup.
 >

because of the way my drive failed I'm suspicious it could be the
controller board on the drive that failed... I'm thinking about buying
another, identical drive if I can find one and moving the controller
board from the known-good drive to my failed drive... for $60 ~ $80 to
get a new, identical drive it's a lot better than $500 for openers to
have a lab try to recover stuff...

on further investigation it turns out that there could be MANY silent,
with no warning, failures in a lot of integrated circuit products... and
that controller cards on hdd's have indeed been failing...

here's a link to more info
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/nea/200212/manu_219463.html" target="_blank">http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/nea/200212/manu_219463.html</a>

here's an excerpt
"In about June 2001 a rumor began circulating through the industry that
certain Fujitsu HDDs were failing at an unusually high rate. One after
another, 3.5-inch HDDs mounted internally in desktop and other PCs were
failing to spin up. The cause was a failure in the drive controller, the
CL-SH8671 (codename: Himalaya 2.0) from Cirrus Logic, Inc of the US. The
failure was caused by a short between pins within the integrated circuit
(IC) package."<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: data recovery outfits