I have a Maxtor 20gb hard drive that recently died on me. I think it might be a firmware problem, as I unplugged it, plugged it back in and it stopped working.

I went and got a WD 80gb, but I want to recover the very important files on my 20gb drive. I did some research, and this is a very common problem with Maxtor. However, all the information on recovering my drive involves paying someone a bunch of money to recover it.

Can someone help me? Link me to a good recovery program or something. Can I do a firmware flash?

Will "Spinrite" recover my hdd? Someone please help.

I can stick it into a different computer as a slave, and it will recognize it in the bios, device manager, and in windows. However, I cannot access it, and device manager thinks everything is fine.

Common symptoms with this drive. One of you pimps has got to have some helpful info!!

DAMNIT, I didn't mean to post this twice!

I have no idea whats wrong with itbut give this a shot.
Plastic babby like the kind your mom pus your samiches in and stick it in the freezer for an hour or 2, then take it out quick , hook it up and you may have time enough to recover the files.

P.S. You seen that commercial where the guy says everything twice ???
You got 2 of theese threads.

Quote: Originally Posted by NoSlak I have no idea whats wrong with itbut give this a shot. Plastic babby like the kind your mom pus your samiches in and stick it in the freezer for an hour or 2, then take it out quick , hook it up and you may have time enough to recover the files. P.S. You seen that commercial where the guy says everything twice ??? You got 2 of theese threads.

I know man, I messed up when posting.

Quote: Originally Posted by turbopsi DAMNIT, I didn't mean to post this twice!

hey, you double posted, im telling!

try turning the drive upside down, or plugging it into a diff system, of shaking it a little and trying it again...

Quote: Originally Posted by Fu3lman hey, you double posted, im telling! try turning the drive upside down, or plugging it into a diff system, of shaking it a little and trying it again...

Tried that man. I edited my first post. I tried it in a different system, it reads it in bios, and in device manager, but I can't access it.

Search for Maxtor data recovery in google, and you will find this is a common problem. My drive is the 6E series 20gb, slimline.

Is the hard drive still detected in DOS for one? If yes then try accesing that way. DOS doesnt understand what a restricted drive is these days. Is the motor in the drive still running? Also is the startup clicking sequence still heard?

Sounds like a job for the freezer bag first off but that aready been suggested. Others are knocking the hard rive (last resort) on the top not the PCB side to try and loosen tha read head from the platter.

The most intresting one I found is somthing Ive never really considered before. Either buy, or find a very similar maxtor hard drive, and (static wrist band and grounding secure) swap the controller boards over. Pretty simple, but dont go to the extent of having it all in the PC case- have the system out of the case in sort of lab enviroment as it wre - im not sure how delacate the controller boards are.

Quote: Originally Posted by nev_payne Is the hard drive still detected in DOS for one? If yes then try accesing that way. DOS doesnt understand what a restricted drive is these days. Is the motor in the drive still running? Also is the startup clicking sequence still heard? Sounds like a job for the freezer bag first off but that aready been suggested. Others are knocking the hard rive (last resort) on the top not the PCB side to try and loosen tha read head from the platter. The most intresting one I found is somthing Ive never really considered before. Either buy, or find a very similar maxtor hard drive, and (static wrist band and grounding secure) swap the controller boards over. Pretty simple, but dont go to the extent of having it all in the PC case- have the system out of the case in sort of lab enviroment as it wre - im not sure how delacate the controller boards are.

I shouldn't have to do anything physically to the drive. Swapping controller boards can corrupt it further. I cannot access it through dos either. If you read on google about the problem, you can see it is a very common one. I'm sure someone knows a utility that I can use to recover the data, I don't give a flying f*ck about the drive itself, just the data.

Anyone know of any such utilities? I know spinrite is supposed to be a great recovery program, I wonder if my friend will let me borrow it. Anymore ideas, anyone with similar problems?

TSS (The Screen Savers) just had a call about file recovery the other day. If you can ever get the hard drive to be detected try the following

Restoration (FREE) http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html

and the show notes to that episode are at http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers...PocketPC.html?

I hope that is of help.

edit by jake, in reply, not worthy of new post so im just editing.

I said if you can ever get it detected, meaning working.

Quote: Originally Posted by jake_johnson TSS (The Screen Savers) just had a call about file recovery the other day. If you can ever get the hard drive to be detected try the following Restoration (FREE) http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html and the show notes to that episode are at http://www.g4techtv.com/screensavers...PocketPC.html? I hope that is of help.

I appreciate the help man, but I'm trying to recover files from a dead drive. It's a little bit trickier.

Quote: Originally Posted by turbopsi I went and got a WD 80gb, but I want to recover the very important files on my 20gb drive

what kind of "very important files" anywho, i had a maxtor die too, but i was able to boot to a partition magic cd. run their program, it came down that it had lost the partition. but i had already thought that i was boned, as it was my 120gb storage. i repartioned it in there and when i went back into windows, it was showing back up and it still had all my "very important files"

Quote: Originally Posted by Zer0s what kind of "very important files" anywho, i had a maxtor die too, but i was able to boot to a partition magic cd. run their program, it came down that it had lost the partition. but i had already thought that i was boned, as it was my 120gb storage. i repartioned it in there and when i went back into windows, it was showing back up and it still had all my "very important files"

The Hell? what would make a Partition just suddenly disappear?
ive never in my life heard of that, well guess i learned some new today rep to yah zeros

im not making this up. this was the situation. my comp got fried, so i slapped my 120gb storage drive into another computer. it would detect in the BIOS, but as soon as it got into windows it would not show. after couple hours dinking around with it. i finally decided that i had lost all the data on the drive and i would try a reformat. well i had a bootable cd with partition magic on it. booted onto it opened the program. it saw the drive, but it labeled the whole drive as unpartitioned space. i was like what the hell. so i applied a ntfs partition to it. booted into windows, and voila, it was there. and i was alot happier.

We have had to recover customers drives all the time....and the trick with the freezer is not a bad idea...(it all has to do with over heating of the controller and bearing expansion) I hav swapped controller boards with mixed success...but if the drive still spins and is seen in the BIOS and is seen in DOS... I would use a util like recovery 2000 pro.

I couldn't even format this thing. Thanks for the Advice guys, I will try those programs out. The partition thing sounds interesting, though I don't think it's the problem.

You "Applied" a partition to it and your data was safe?? I'm going to just check that out and fool around with it a bit .

Quote: Originally Posted by Zer0s im not making this up. this was the situation. my comp got fried, so i slapped my 120gb storage drive into another computer. it would detect in the BIOS, but as soon as it got into windows it would not show. after couple hours dinking around with it. i finally decided that i had lost all the data on the drive and i would try a reformat. well i had a bootable cd with partition magic on it. booted onto it opened the program. it saw the drive, but it labeled the whole drive as unpartitioned space. i was like what the hell. so i applied a ntfs partition to it. booted into windows, and voila, it was there. and i was alot happier.

i had this happen with a 10gb. Exact same thing. 510UTH2.

Quote: Originally Posted by turbopsi I couldn't even format this thing. Thanks for the Advice guys, I will try those programs out. The partition thing sounds interesting, though I don't think it's the problem. You "Applied" a partition to it and your data was safe?? I'm going to just check that out and fool around with it a bit .

well pretty much, in partition magic i believe theres an option to put a NTFS partition on this. to be honest, i think think i would have gotten the results when i did it. i figured my data was gone. but then, there it was.