Deskstar down! Deskstar down!

[khan]

I came home this afternoon to see that my computer had rebooted itself and was hung between the BIOS loading screen and the windows boot screen. It was giving me some sort of drive error. The drive (a 60 gb IBM Deskstar, I know these things have a bad track record) was making a whirring sound, with a ticking sound. I listened to a sound sample of the so-called "click of death" but I don't think that's what it is. What is the best way to go about attempting data recovery?

[Straight_Man]

THAT description sounds like a possible head crash. RECOVERY??? VERY Expensive, no 100% guarantees. But, before giving up, replace the cable to HD (the data cable).

[khan]

I have a USB drive enclosure. I'll try sticking it in there to rule out any cable/IDE controller problems.

[Kwitko]

Get yourself a file recovery program. I've used PC Inspector (http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm) with much success, and best of all, it's free. If the Deskstar is the only drive in that PC, get it into another PC and install PC Inspector on the good drive.

[khan]

Update: drive is functioning in my enclosure dealy and I'm backing up my important stuff to the laptop that I'm on now. Thank god for having more than one computer around. Next question is, what the hell was going on when I was trying to boot earlier. I will put this drive back in and see what happens and let you guys know how it goes. Thanks!

[profdlp]

If you have the same drive, go to this site:

www.ibmdeskstar75gxplitigation.com

and make sure you're on the signup list for the settlement. They are offering $100 to each <s>sucker</s> unlucky soul with a dead drive. If you RMA it you'll just get a remanufactured drive.

I had two of the stinkers croak on me, plus two more that were sent as RMA replacements. I'm looking at the third pair and wondering if I'm really going to get $200 out of them.

Good luck, man. :)