[ILUG] Hard disk failure

[Niall O Broin]

On 15 Jun 2007, at 01:21, Robert Sweetnam wrote:

> codefoundry at gmail.com wrote:
>> On 6/14/07, Andres Jimenez <gandresin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2007/6/14, Michael Watterson <watty at eircom.net>:
>
>> Actually it's not. The first thing they'll do is cool the drive, and
>> set up an environment to try and run it as cool as possible while
>> attempting an aquisition.
>
> How do you know that?

I don't KNOW this, and I've no idea if Enda does or not, but I'd be  
astonished if this were NOT their first approach. Occam's Razor is as  
sharp here as anywhere really, and if the simplest solution works,  
it's going to save a lot of time.

And I imagine data recovery companies have got better cooling  
mechanisms than zip loc bags and freezers (or perhaps not) and also  
equipment to KEEP the disk cool while operating, which is where this  
often becomes a problem for the amateur because of course you're  
trying to get data off the disk, hence running it full tilt, hence  
heating it rapidly.

Of course, if the simple solution doesn't work, the data recovery  
companies have an array of tools at their disposal, ranging from a  
huge library of disk drives (to provide electronics for swaps as  
mentioned) right up to class 100 clean rooms, if they need to crack  
your drive open to prise the heads off the platters :-(

For this kind of data recovery, you are of course going  to pay  
serious money (but then, how much are the source files for an episode  
of the Simpsons worth ?)



Niall