My laptop HD crashed(discs froze I think, as the HD won't spin), luckily a co workers old laptop is exactly the same so I salvaged his hard drive and some other stuff to get my pc up and working but I have some very important data on here that I need off. I work at a tech support place here, but we don't have the capabilities to do that.

Can any of ya'll do this kind of stuff? I'm more than willing to pay.

Interested in the answer.  I am currently shopping data recovery services for a similar dilemma.  My desktop crashed, the warranty meant we got a new hard drive, so I am trying to salvage the data off the old one.

shooter

$$$$$$$    Unless the company is going to pay for it that is.   If the disc is DOA you have to send it off and they either pull the platters and install them in a good drive or they have another process that can pull the non-corrupted data.   Last time I heard about it the cost was done on a Mb recovered basis and was quite astronomical.    Maybe someone that has had one done lately can provide more info.  

I have always found comfort (happened to me 3 times already) in the following tidbit.   "Jesus saves and so should you".   After the second time a drive went tits up I wrote a bat file that runs every night and xcopys everything I need to an external drive.    That along with a change in how i save my work has saved me a couple of times since.  


g/l

Quoted: $$$$$$$    Unless the company is going to pay for it that is.   If the disc is DOA you have to send it off and they either pull the platters and install them in a good drive or they have another process that can pull the non-corrupted data.   Last time I heard about it the cost was done on a Mb recovered basis and was quite astronomical.    Maybe someone that has had one done lately can provide more info.   g/l

What GaG said.

There is only one company that I'm aware of that does this and yes it is on a $ per MB of recovery basis.  Only you can determine if it is worth it.  Might run $250 - $600 to fully recover.

Can't rember the company name right this instant but I'll look around and see if I can find it.

Nevis

If your HD is physically toast there isn't much you can do.  You can try a recovery program but those are iffy and usually only work if the HD died because of software issues.  You could try a light tap to see if you can get the disks to spin again.  

If you really need the info, you can send it to a disk recovery shop and pay lots of $.  

You probably know now, but backup important stuff.  

So you say it wont spin haev you tried it in diferent laptops? Checked the cables? A few programs you might want to look into are MiniPE or Hirens Boot CD, UBCD for windows, XP Live CD. I have used them on different occasions and was able to pull the data off of a corrupt HD. Let me know if I can help.

Quoted: You could try a light tap to see if you can get the disks to spin again.

If you aren't going to pay for data recovery, you might as well see if the problem is related to stiction, as intimated by 7's suggestion.  If this is the problem, it can go away and be an infrequent problem, or it can cause the drive to never spin-up again.  Either gentle warming (not greater than 120 degrees) or cooling (not colder than your refrigerator) might help ... in both of the preceding cases, sometimes only after being accompanied by a firm tap against the side of the drive (e.g., with the heel of your hand).  Take your time, and try each alternative separately.  

(Your drive's OEM generally publishes the shock tolerance of the drive when the heads are parked.  Knowing this value, generally large for laptop drives, can give you an idea of just how firm a tap might be tolerated.  You can always increase the force you apply to the drive, if previous attempts were not successful.)

Do remove the drive before trying any of these potential remedies.  Don't turn-off the PC if the drive does spin-up; be prepared to copy the data to other media.  

Note that at least one wag advises are all such attempts are wastes of time.  I don't necessarily agree with his conclusion, although I agree with most of the page's information.  In my experience, drives that one day won't spin up (i.e., haven't undergone physical trauma, crashed, or been trashed by malicious software) can somethimes be revived via these actions.  

(ETA) Ontrack Data Recovery is pretty close to the top of the heap for data recovery.  This list shows that there are lots of alternatives, however.

I've tried the heating up/cooling down and light taps.

I work at the PC support for VCU, and i've done everything that I have thought of and our top techs. We just don't have the resources to pull platters out of a HD and put them on a different one.

It's definately the hard drive, you cannot here it spin at all. BIOS says no HD detected either. My co worker had an old version of the laptop that crashed(mb toasted) so he gave me the HD out of it and battery and some other stuff.

I don't want a lot off of it, the mp3's and video's are of no consequence. The information I want probably isn't over a couple hundred megs(and most of those megs are because of pictures, I just want emails, word doc's and pictures)

This is my 1st post, but I think I can provide a lead.  

*DON'T DISASSEMBLE/OPEN UP THE HD by yourself under any circumstance.
*Try to make sure it is not a software/Windows problem by installing it as a secondary drive to a computer.  If you have access to a drive enclosure, you can essentially make it into an external hd and connect it to any computer by USB.  Many times the problem is in the boot sector or some other software reasons, and the hd is physically fine.  SW can be easily and cheaply dealt with (there are many data recovery software out there that works pretty well for recovery data from any sw drive problem).  Once you recovered the data, then just reformat the drive, then you be set.

*If the problem is hardware related, i.e. the mechanical working of the hd is bad, then get professional help.  Once you suspect that the problem is hardware, stop trying use the hd, this will make the problem worse as you may further damage the media.  Ask yourself if the data is worth $500+ to you.  Remember your cost include shipping and handling, not just the data recov service.

I personally recommend this place http://www.gillware.com/

I have a HD physically gone bad before, having the classic terminal syndroms such as clicking and scratching noise.  I cannot even get it to work as a 2nd drive, nor can I use any data recovery sfotware no matter what I do.  Send the hd to this company and they did a masterful job.  
1) If the hd cannot be used anymore, they will put in on a disc for you.  
2) The price is pretty reasonable compare to the other data recovery services.  Do research and you will sure to see that their price is pretty good.  
3) I can personally testify to their quality of work and service.  Their turnaround time is excellent.

No matter which company you choose, keep a couple of things in mind.  
1) make sure they have a clean room (no dirt, no static) with professional equipment
2) get an quote estimate first with a max ceiling.

let me know how this works out for you.

Quoted: Once you suspect that the problem is hardware, stop trying use the hd, this will make the problem worse as you may further damage the media.  Ask yourself if the data is worth $500+ to you.

If you have determined that the data is worth the price of attempting 3rd-party recovery, then leave well-enough (or bad-enough) alone.

If you're not going to pay the money, here's another thing to try .... while risking your colleague's presumably still serviceable laptop.  Reassemble the sacrificial PC with the bad hard disk.  Power the PC on.  Leave it for 24 hours or so.  If it has not booted, firmly tap the bottom of the laptop, directly under the disk drive.  Wait a couple of minutes, and if there is no change, firmly tap the bottom of the laptop under the drive rapidly, 15 or 20 times, or until you hear the drive spin.  "Firm" will be a function of your laptop's design specs.  They generally are designed to survive a 40-inch drop (i.e., desktop height) ... but the LCD display is not part of this equation.  The point force is generally between 20 and 60 Gs (gravities) in a very short time (ca. 0.2 ms).  The drive's specs are generally higher than that of the laptop.  If stiction is the culprit, then the force of the firm taps must overcome the laptop's/disk drive's shock-insulating measures before there can be any hope of effect.

The fact that the BIOS doesn't report the presence of the drive is to be expected if the drive won't spin-up.  Generally BIOS must read the master boot record of the drive (MBR) before the drive is 'sensed.'

I have used OnTrack several times for my comapny. If you call them they will e-mail you the form to fill out. It is $100 for the eval of the drive. After the eval they will tell you what files can be recovered and what can not. The price is fixed, they do not do it on a megabyte basis. They will recover all or nothing, they told me it costs the same amount to recover 1 file or 100 files. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info on Gillware and welcome to the site dobiet!  

Quoted: This is my 1st post, but I think I can provide a lead.   *DON'T DISASSEMBLE/OPEN UP THE HD by yourself under any circumstance. *Try to make sure it is not a software/Windows problem by installing it as a secondary drive to a computer.  If you have access to a drive enclosure, you can essentially make it into an external hd and connect it to any computer by USB.  Many times the problem is in the boot sector or some other software reasons, and the hd is physically fine.  SW can be easily and cheaply dealt with (there are many data recovery software out there that works pretty well for recovery data from any sw drive problem).  Once you recovered the data, then just reformat the drive, then you be set. *If the problem is hardware related, i.e. the mechanical working of the hd is bad, then get professional help.  Once you suspect that the problem is hardware, stop trying use the hd, this will make the problem worse as you may further damage the media.  Ask yourself if the data is worth $500+ to you.  Remember your cost include shipping and handling, not just the data recov service. I personally recommend this place http://www.gillware.com/ I have a HD physically gone bad before, having the classic terminal syndroms such as clicking and scratching noise.  I cannot even get it to work as a 2nd drive, nor can I use any data recovery sfotware no matter what I do.  Send the hd to this company and they did a masterful job.   1) If the hd cannot be used anymore, they will put in on a disc for you.   2) The price is pretty reasonable compare to the other data recovery services.  Do research and you will sure to see that their price is pretty good.   3) I can personally testify to their quality of work and service.  Their turnaround time is excellent. No matter which company you choose, keep a couple of things in mind.   1) make sure they have a clean room (no dirt, no static) with professional equipment 2) get an quote estimate first with a max ceiling. let me know how this works out for you.

The HD is toast, it is not a software issue. We've tried it in a second computer, we've tried everything it will not spin.

My co-workers old laptop is trash, the motherboard in it was toasted from some bad home brew soldering. But everything else in it works which is why he just gave me the parts.

Personally, as much as I want the data there is no way on God's green earth I can't afford $500. I'm a broke ass college student, if it wasn't for my co-worker's laptop i'd be up the creek sans paddle and canoe as there would be no way for me to even afford another computer.

Thank you guys for all the information, but i just can't budget that much money on some data recovery when I have tuition and books and stuff i'm still trying to pay off.