[ale] HDD Locked Up - Wife business pics in it!

[Pete Hardie]

I've had good luck with a SATA2USB cable for grabbing the content off old
Windows drives, and they are not expensive


On Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 08:49 Sergio Chaves via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Hi all, it has been a long time since I last posted here. Job changed, got
> away from Linux servers setup and all the good stuff, mostly Windows stuff
> around here. Not much time to play with it anymore due to traveling
> <sobbing/choking> and the only thing left is my home gig - a couple servers
> and my personal laptop <picking myself up as "she" is looking at me now>.
>
> Windows 8.1 (Wife did not like 10). Put a Seagate 4TB drive for her pics
> only maybe 2 years ago. HDD locked up unexpectedly, with no warning signs
> whatsoever. Backups are done 3 x week BUT, "she" forgot to mention that it
> has been failing for the past two weeks - she has been very busy ;-) - and
> she has been hitting the "Cancel" button <my fault for not asking if
> everything is working fine to remind her>.
>
> For some strange reason, the OS will not boot if HDD is connected; it
> crashes hard at boot and Windows offer the Repair Tools to fix it. Removing
> the drive allows it to boot normally.
> Recovery systems as well as Live CDs shows the HDD available but cannot
> mount it and no significant error message in logs, just "cannot mount
> drive".
> Thinking about either a) Install OS on different PC and add the drive as
> "Slave" or b) Buying a SATA2USB converter and try mounting it as an USB
> device. Anything else you can suggest or is it time to throw the towel and
> send it somewhere for recovery? If recovery, any places you can suggest?
> In the old days, I used to tap the HDD a bit (or a lot) and would spin
> back to life enough for me to mount it and get what I need off of it.
> Haven't tried that yet because I do not know how these newer drives behave.
> I am not yet on desperate mode but just started to remove all the cutlery
> and potential harmful silverware from near me, just in case :-) .
>
>
> --
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