Hard drive Problem/Data Recovery

Hello

I recently experienced a hard drive problem, my hard drive (IDE) which
is a Hitachi 250 GB 7200rpm after carrying it to a friend's house
stop working properly ..is not recognized by the bios and even though
that at the start spins normally and makes the normal sound after a
while it makes a clicking noise,
The drive contains 160 gb of data of which 50 gb (pictures and
documents) are really important .
The shop that I bought it from can refund it or exchange it
alternatively I can return it back to Hitachi and get a replacement one
..
"But they cannot recover my data or repair the hard drive."
(I don't know how legal is that and I question it)
The problem is that the hard drive contains vital data for me and I
cannot pay more than =A3100 for it.
The cheapest company that I found http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/ will
charge me about =A3250 to recover the data.
One guy in a pc shop that looked at my drive said that it might be the
chip board of the drive and if I could find a similar one he can change
it...
I don't want to loose my data and I can't afford to pay to much,
Please if anyone can recommend something , a cheaper company ..or any
shop,person that can fix it in the U.K ...or even a guide to try to fix
it my self as a last resort I would appreciate it a lot .
Please reply to this forum or e-mail me at

Thanks Peter

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello

I recently experienced a hard drive problem, my hard drive (IDE) which
is a Hitachi 250 GB 7200rpm after carrying it to a friend's house
stop working properly ..is not recognized by the bios and even though
that at the start spins normally and makes the normal sound after a
while it makes a clicking noise,
The drive contains 160 gb of data of which 50 gb (pictures and
documents) are really important .
The shop that I bought it from can refund it or exchange it
alternatively I can return it back to Hitachi and get a replacement one
..
"But they cannot recover my data or repair the hard drive."
(I don't know how legal is that and I question it)
The problem is that the hard drive contains vital data for me and I
cannot pay more than £100 for it.
The cheapest company that I found http://www.easyrecovery.co.uk/ will
charge me about £250 to recover the data.
One guy in a pc shop that looked at my drive said that it might be the
chip board of the drive and if I could find a similar one he can change
it...
I don't want to loose my data and I can't afford to pay to much,
Please if anyone can recommend something , a cheaper company ..or any
shop,person that can fix it in the U.K ...or even a guide to try to fix
it my self as a last resort I would appreciate it a lot .
Please reply to this forum or e-mail me at

Thanks Peter

Just my 10p worth

Option 1. As you have already been informed, buy a similar drive with
exactly the same circuit board. Change boards and run up. You MUST have the
same spec board. If its a new drive, which it sounds like then you should
have no problems in getting another. Cost £80

Option 2. Buy Acronis TrueImage 8 and have a friend or the shop make an
Acronis Boot disc. Put this disc in the faulty comps flopy and boot up. See
if Acronis finds the drive/data. If it does then the data on the drive IS
still accessible and recoverable. The only problem here is that you will
then need another drive to save that data to. An external USB drive being
the preferred hardware. Cost Acronis £30 Exteranal USB drive and case £90
(you could try borrowing one mind)

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello

I recently experienced a hard drive problem, my hard drive (IDE) which
is a Hitachi 250 GB 7200rpm after carrying it to a friend's house
stop working properly ..is not recognized by the bios and even though
that at the start spins normally and makes the normal sound after a
while it makes a clicking noise,

One guy in a pc shop that looked at my drive said that it might be the
chip board of the drive and if I could find a similar one he can change
it...

I can't offer help regarding repairing or recovering, but I would say that
if the fault occurred after transporting the drive, I would assume it
received a knock or static electricity. If it received a knock, then the
platters may be damaged inside and replacing the circuit board would be a
waste of money. However if the damage is from a static shock, then it could
be the board. My money would be on physical damage after transporting it
about - perhaps it had not finished spinning when it was moved.

Originally Posted by GT

ups.com...
Hello

I recently experienced a hard drive problem, my hard drive (IDE) which
is a Hitachi 250 GB 7200rpm after carrying it to a friend's house
stop working properly ..is not recognized by the bios and even though
that at the start spins normally and makes the normal sound after a
while it makes a clicking noise,

One guy in a pc shop that looked at my drive said that it might be the
chip board of the drive and if I could find a similar one he can change
it...

I can't offer help regarding repairing or recovering, but I would say that
if the fault occurred after transporting the drive, I would assume it
received a knock or static electricity. If it received a knock, then the
platters may be damaged inside and replacing the circuit board would be a
waste of money. However if the damage is from a static shock, then it could
be the board. My money would be on physical damage after transporting it
about - perhaps it had not finished spinning when it was moved.

I like to suggest stellar phoenix hard drive recovery software which is non destructive and read-only utility which also helps you recover data lost due to accidental format, software malfunction. This software is very cheap and effective in recovering data from a dead hard drive. gud luck
http://www.hard-drive-recovery-software.com/