Slightly off topic, but:
I need IT advice about my home system: One of my two 500Gb Hard drives has failed. The one with nearly all my stuff on, not the almost-empty one (which I was slowly backing up to)*. The rest of the system will not acknowledge its existence, and there's no alarming noises; making me hope it's a burnt-out board, rather than a gross mechanical failure. Now, since they have identical firmware, is it worth risking trying the trick I hear about; of temporarily swapping the logic boards to give me back access**?

* They're almost brand new, so I judged failure to be remote this early; hence I wasn't prioritising backing up, and had only completed a few directories. Fool me! I'm also a complete eejit for not using RAID or removable media backups.
** I had to reinstall vista*** on on old 20GB drive to get back online and seek answers (and to stop teh b3ta withdrawal symptoms).
*** I know, I know. I'm sorry. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Wed 30 Sep 2009, 23:13, 12 replies)

You could try the freezer method
Stick it in a sealed bag, and put it in the freezer overnight.. this should buy enough time to back it up before it stops working again.

This only works if the arm that reads the disc is warped.. if it isnt, it wont do anything..
(Inflatable Aardvark, Wed 30 Sep 2009, 23:18, closed)

What do you have to lose?
The worst that can happen is it still won't work, and you lose the other drive too. Depends how important your data is. And now that you'd had this experience you've already backed up the data on the donor drive, right?

Another possibility is look for the same model on eBay with a description that sounds like mechanical failure, and have that as the donor.
(Cloudane, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:23, closed)

I had a similar thing happen to me
My external hd just stopped working one day, the circuit board fried. I managed to find the same model hd and switched the circuit board and hey presto it worked! It you have 2 drives the same it can't hurt to try!
( bobzarkoff, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:34, closed)

Just double-check all the cables.
Plug it into connectors that you *know* work. There's a small yet significant chance that the SATA or molex connector's screwed.

Failing that, open the case, and put your ear to it. If it's not spinning up properly (you'll hear it repeatedly 'click'), try waiting for it to cool down, starting it up on it's side, or hitting it gently as it spins up (these have all worked for me at some point).

The freezer trick above is well known to work as well, but I've also heard that the drive becomes truly shafted after doing it, so it's really a last resort.

The logic board can definitely be swapped out quite easily, but 99% of the time it's either the main motor or the head that's gone, so success is usually unlikely.

Failing that, you can for a price take it to a data recovery service, who'll strip the whole thing down and move the platters onto a working drive.

EDIT: As you can tell from bobzarkoff's comment above, I made up that 99% figure. Give it a shot.
(rpozz, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:36, closed)

Aww
You reminded me of my first ever PC (I was about 10, and it was cobbled together with a few of my dad's spares).

The HDD was about 20MB, MFM standard (where you had to issue the 'park' command in DOS before turning it off if you didn't want to risk wrecking the drive). I had to rest it so that it stuck out of the 5.25" slots slightly so that I could bounce it on the case to convince the motor to spin. Fun times :) I even had to pull the lid off once and kick-start the platter spinning with my finger... I don't know how but somehow it continued to work contrary to the usual wisdom that as soon as you get a speck of dust in the head will hit it and cause all sorts of hell.
(Cloudane, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:46, closed)

I have a machine here with a 5MB hard drive.
Just about works, but sometimes makes a nasty noise.
( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Thu 1 Oct 2009, 3:32, closed)

Thankyou all for the advice
repeatedly edited: The bulk is trivial but time consuming to replace - mp3s and films. There are some documents and files that I really do need to keep, but nothing really justifying data recovery prices.

I might try the freezer thing first; since I have all the necessary kit already, and that one drive is already borked. Failing that, I'll escalate to risking the good drive and swapout the boards; as soon as I get a set of Torx screwdrivers.

(sorry I'm lagging a bit, 300Mb+ of windows updates are hogging my connection).

update: Still waiting for vista to finish patching - it's nearly eaten the whole 20Gb by itself (Bloatware indeed). I can't do anything until it finishes, the two drives in question still sitting on the bench.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:45, closed)

Any sort of sound or vibration coming out of it?
If you can hear it click as it fails to spin up, it's not the logic board. If on the other hand it does a brick impression when you turn on the computer, try the logic board swap first.

EDIT: Also, if/when you're swapping the logic board, be careful with the ribbon connector (if it has one). Make sure you very gently push the tab on the connector fully out, and the cable should slide off very easily.
(rpozz, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:51, closed)

Spinrite
Worth a try, especially if there is sector read issues, it doesnt solve any mechanical errors but you said there was no clicking.

If its in an external enclosure, then remove it and link it direct to the motherboard, with what ever connector you have. Get Spinrite (www.grc.com) or wherever, and burn the ISO off from that software, boot your machine from the ISO and get it to run a level 2 scan. If there is surface errors stopping you accessing the files then this should solve it. Once finished, re mount in your enclosure and reboot machine then see if it you have access again.
( ratman, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 0:52, closed)

I've been arsing about with the insides of computers
for ten years on a professional basis, and more as a hobby. In that time, I've seen precisely two controller boards go. It's definitely possible, but not common.

The freezer trick can work, but overnight is overkil. You're looking at half an hour or so - any more than that, and it'll just stick.

If the worst comes to the worst - swap the platters of the two identicle drives. You will definitely, 100%, kill both of them, unless you have access to a clean-room - but you'll most likely get time to remove your data.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 1:39, closed)

The freezer trick does work
One thing I would say is stick it in a sealed bag first.
(Flap Burger hasn't really got a burger made of flaps, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 9:10, closed)

hahahaahaaaa
hahahahahahahaaaa..... LOLz!!!1!!! rofl etc

heehee snort heehee

ps. Take it to a data recovery specialist. They tend to charge on how much work is needed to recover the data. If it is an easy fix, it will be cheap. If you start playing around with it, have no luck, and then take it to a data recovery specialist, it will be more expensive, because you will have made it worse.
BTW, swapping controller boards on modern drives does not usually work. The controller boards typically carry unique calibration data for the drives they work with.

Good luck!

tee hee
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Thu 1 Oct 2009, 10:55, closed)