Computer Hard Drive Question

[cytech]

Your options? Send it to data recovery folks, who can probably get everything off of it. This can cost a few hundred bucks. Just google for data recovery. Ontrac is pretty reputable.

You are a bit off on your price for data recovery, unless you know of some place that does the recovery's at a super discount. The place I send drives to for my customers if needed would cost you a min of $600 up to $3000. Depending on the exact problem they find it to have.

 

[pulse]

To recap and verify, yes, you would just need a hard drive case, which you can get for like 10 bucks. However, if it is making clicking noises as was said, then it sounds like the drive is bad in which case you may not be able to recover it even if you connect it to another machine. Finally, I've always seen hard drive recovery options to be more than a few hundred bucks also. Is getting your tax return off of the drive worth it?

You can get old tax return info from the IRS here:

Need a Copy of Your Tax Return Information?

 

[San Francisco Cy]

To recap and verify, yes, you would just need a hard drive case, which you can get for like 10 bucks. However, if it is making clicking noises as was said, then it sounds like the drive is bad in which case you may not be able to recover it even if you connect it to another machine. Finally, I've always seen hard drive recovery options to be more than a few hundred bucks also. Is getting your tax return off of the drive worth it?

You can get old tax return info from the IRS here:

Need a Copy of Your Tax Return Information?

Thank you for that. Yeah, I guess I'm going to try an external hard drive case for under $50. If that doesn't work, then I'll go this route. There are other files that I'm sure I could use, or at least would like to have. So, hopefully it works!

 

[TykeClone]

Sounds to me like the drive is dead. The clicking is the motor not turning the platter. Either the motor is shot, or the head is touching the platter. Neither is good. An external enclosure isn't going to help one bit (unless it was the laptop power supply that was the problem, which is very unlikely).

Your options? Send it to data recovery folks, who can probably get everything off of it. This can cost a few hundred bucks. Just google for data recovery. Ontrac is pretty reputable.

Your other option is to call the IRS and ask for a copy of your return

If he can get the drive into an external reader, there's a chance that he will be able to read enough of the drive to get that data that he needs - not a great chance, but a chance. I usually have pretty good luck doing it that way when a drive is too screwed up to boot.

 

[jumbopackage]

You are a bit off on your price for data recovery, unless you know of some place that does the recovery's at a super discount. The place I send drives to for my customers if needed would cost you a min of $600 up to $3000. Depending on the exact problem they find it to have.

I've never tried these guys, but they charge a $279 flat fee for everyone.

Aero Data Recovery Services

 

[cytech]

I just did some basic research on Aero and it seems they can't do all repairs.

The ones they can't handle they forward to another company. Which will charge you standard rates of $1000 or higher.

From the sounds of it, if the drive is not physically damaged they can help you for their flat fee. If not you have to pay the real money.

 

[c.y.c.l.o.n.e.s]

You are a bit off on your price for data recovery, unless you know of some place that does the recovery's at a super discount. The place I send drives to for my customers if needed would cost you a min of $600 up to $3000. Depending on the exact problem they find it to have.

Unfortunately, I agree with this. The clicking noise means that your drive has mechanical problems. That means they will have to remove the disk, etc. to get to the data. I would be surprised if you could get it done for anything less than $1000.

 

[San Francisco Cy]

I'm looking at the external cases and it seems like this one would work for me? GMG Inc. -> Home

Is there any that would be better than any others? Remember, all I want to be able to do is put my hard drive into the case and take a couple of files from the hard drive and put it on to my new computer's hard drive. The two things I'm unsure of is 1.) Will the case fit my HP Pavillion ZV6000 hard drive? And 2.) Which one should I choose to for this operation?

Thanks all for your help!

 

[TykeClone]

I'm looking at the external cases and it seems like this one would work for me? GMG Inc. -> Home

Is there any that would be better than any others? Remember, all I want to be able to do is put my hard drive into the case and take a couple of files from the hard drive and put it on to my new computer's hard drive. The two things I'm unsure of is 1.) Will the case fit my HP Pavillion ZV6000 hard drive? And 2.) Which one should I choose to for this operation?

Thanks all for your help!

Is the existing drive SATA or EIDE? Those cases will handle EIDE (the big ribbon cable) and are fine if that's what you want. If you have a SATA drive (kind of a narrow cable), then you'll need to find a SATA case.

 

[San Francisco Cy]

Here is the hard drive...

 

[TykeClone]

Here is the hard drive...

Cables To Go - USB to IDE and Laptop Drive Adapter This is more like what you'll need. It's not an enclosure, but it will connect your hard drive to a USB port.

 

[San Francisco Cy]

Thanks! I'm going to give it a whirl. I don't want to spend too much. I went to newegg.com and found one that is cheaper. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and I'll just get my refund info from the IRS. I just don't have a lot of faith that anything is going to work, with the way it acts.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[cytech]

if that seagate is a 7200.11 then they have been known for having issues as a fyi

 

[TykeClone]

if that seagate is a 7200.11 then they have been known for having issues as a fyi

Isn't the 7200.11 a new SATA drive? This hard drive had taxes back through 2004, so it's not likely that it is one of those.

 

[cytech]

pretty sure they are on series 12 now, but yeah I imagine 11 is a bit to new for his.
Only brought it up because of all the recent issues with larger segate drives.

 

[San Francisco Cy]

Isn't the 7200.11 a new SATA drive? This hard drive had taxes back through 2004, so it's not likely that it is one of those.

Actually, this was the first year that I did taxes on that laptop. I got it in late 2005, and it shelled out early 2008. I had been doing my taxes on an older desk top, copied the previous years onto a disk, and did them on the laptop for the first time for 2007's taxes...