kink friendly hard drive recovery? (12)

Open box and remove it.

Check model number, google to check whether drive is EIDE or almost certainly, SATA type drive.

Go to maplins and buy something like this

http://www.maplin.co.uk/sata-usb-hard-drive-dock...

or maybe one of these

http://www.maplin.co.uk/3.5-inch-hard-drive-encl...

this should mean you can treat your old drive as a usb removeable, find all needed files and copy to safe place.

Destroy no longer needed drive with sledgehammer and ebay device 1 or use device 2 as a safety backup for main external hard drive you are going to have to go and buy

You ought to be kicked out of the contractors union!

Fingers crossed you can get your stuff back. I had a drive fail on me a few months ago and even taking the drive out and putting it in a new caddy failed to revive it.

There's no way to stop this movie now.

I know, need a right flogging. I'm normally very, very good at keeping key files backed up in 3 places. Am kicking myself. And I teach clients about good backup and DR procedures!

You say Ouch like it's a bad word.
They say Pain is in the mind, as if you could discard your mind and be rid of the pain. I don't know about you, my mind is pretty integral to who I am.

Hi, and thanks for the detailed advice. Probably worth explaining that I've been in IT for 15 years or so. The drive in question has been being used as an external drive on a USB connection as described. The problem is, the circuit board is smoking when plugged in, so the platters won't even spin. So no way to get the data off. The only thing I could possibly do is buy an identical drive and swap platters, which I might do.

Destroying with a sledgehammer isn't really safe and I wouldn't recommend it. I used to have a friend that worked at Rockwell International in the States. He used to pick up hard drives from them that they disposed of, that were hit 3 times very hard with a sledgehammer then tossed into a bin. About 30% worked fine afterwards.

I've used high end degausers to wipe data with 90% success or so. The best way is to shred hard drives, is the only way to be 100% sure. DOD/MOD data wiping software that does 7 passes is good too. But what I like to do is remove the platters and buy clock hands, and turn them into pretty clocks. If they are hanging on my wall telling me what time it is, I'm pretty sure no one is going to get the data off.

Pen

You say Ouch like it's a bad word.
They say Pain is in the mind, as if you could discard your mind and be rid of the pain. I don't know about you, my mind is pretty integral to who I am.

Anything for a flogging eh?

There's no way to stop this movie now.

No, absolutely not!! What kind of girl do you think I am!!

Sheesh!!!!

Anything for a caning.

You say Ouch like it's a bad word.
They say Pain is in the mind, as if you could discard your mind and be rid of the pain. I don't know about you, my mind is pretty integral to who I am.

Apologies I assumed you meant the board in the box not the actual interface board on the drive itself. Good luck stripping and rebuilding a drive successfully, I had forgotten you were a masochist

LOL - excellent reply.

You say Ouch like it's a bad word.
They say Pain is in the mind, as if you could discard your mind and be rid of the pain. I don't know about you, my mind is pretty integral to who I am.

We've gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero.