nospam
Sat, 21 Apr 2018
04:47:28 GMT in alt.windows7.general, wrote:

In article , B00ze
wrote:

Got a 15 years old WD IDE hard drive, that was showing ZERO
problems in SMART data, suddenly can no longer calibrate (i.e. it
can't read anymore.) NOW the SMART data is showing something's
wrong.

what specifically is smart showing? do you have more than a
pass/fail?

Hard drive
"clicks" (heads go back and forth full disk) then quits trying.
Have another of the same model, but hesitant moving the platters
myself; apparently platters are not really "stuck" together and I
could mis-align them (rotate them in relation to each other)
rendering the whole thing un-readable.

swapping controllers (which is what i assume you mean by moving
platters) won't make a difference and risks making things worse.

First hand experience tells me otherwise. Swapping the controllers if
they're identical and the controller is at fault can result in
regaining access to his data. I wouldn't perform any writes on a
drive using a 'borrowed' controller, but I'd certainly take full
advantage if it regains access to the drive and copy data over.

Taking the drive apart physically to gain access to the platters
though would be a very bad idea and will almost certainly result in
further damaging the drive.

It's pretty clear by his descriptive theory that he was thinking of
physically opening the drive and moving things around. Not swapping
out the controller.

Now need a data recovery company; anyone have good experience
with one and can recommend?

without question, drive savers:
https://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com

they aren't cheap (none of the good ones are), but if for some
reason they can't recover the drive (possible, but highly
unlikely), you don't pay anything.

Your actual experience with the company is?



--
To prevent yourself from being a victim of cyber
stalking, it's highly recommended you visit he
https://tekrider.net/pages/david-brooks-stalker.php
================================================== =
It's not that they die, but that they die like sheep.