Replacing 2.5 in notebook drive controller.
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From: Steve S (another one) on 7 May 2008 07:38 A friend's 6-month old notebook has failed. Needless to say, she has irreplaceable files on the drive for which she has no backup. The drive apparently won't spin up. She's had a estimated price for data recovery, but this is totally outside her budget. It occurred to me that, assuming she wants the notebook working again anyway, she could buy an identical replacement drive and try swapping the controller boards over to see it the fault was on the controller rather than the mech. Would this be a reasonable thing to try? Or do the controllers have stuff like calibration info in flash that would render the idea non-feasible? Steve S --
From: Arno Wagner on 7 May 2008 09:49 Previously "Steve S \(another one\)" <somebody(a)some.where.net> wrote: > A friend's 6-month old notebook has failed. Needless to say, she has > irreplaceable files on the drive for which she has no backup. The usual comments about ignoring reality (disks fail) not changing reality apply. > The drive apparently won't spin up. She's had a estimated price for > data recovery, but this is totally outside her budget. If the files are irreplaceable, she will need to pay. Otherwise they will very likely turn out to have been replaceable after all. > It occurred to me that, assuming she wants the notebook working > again anyway, she could buy an identical replacement drive and try > swapping the controller boards over to see it the fault was on the > controller rather than the mech. Would this be a reasonable thing to > try? Yes, but the success rate is relatively low, and you need an exact match, which can be very hard to find. Also you may damage the drive further, by _any_ experimantation, which can increase the cost of recovery significantly. > Or do the controllers have stuff like calibration info in flash > that would render the idea non-feasible? That is why the success rate is relatively low. Depends also on the drive, I guess. The thing is that the "high" prices data recovery outfits ask are really quite reasonable, in relation to effort and expertise needed and the fact that they have to keep lot of spare parts in stock. Also the risk of a professional recovery outfit actually damaging your drive further, possibly beyond recovery, is pretty low. Still, there is a price range and there are cheaper and more expensive recovery outfits. There are also thos that will only charge for a successful recovery, but they may not even try more complicated cases or have to be more expensive in order to stay economically viable. Arno
From: Steve S (another one) on 7 May 2008 09:56 "Arno Wagner" <me(a)privacy.net> wrote in message news:68dqajF2sd97fU1(a)mid.individual.net... > Previously "Steve S \(another one\)" <somebody(a)some.where.net> wrote: >> A friend's 6-month old notebook has failed. Needless to say, she has >> irreplaceable files on the drive for which she has no backup. > > The usual comments about ignoring reality (disks fail) not changing > reality apply. > >> The drive apparently won't spin up. She's had a estimated price for >> data recovery, but this is totally outside her budget. > > If the files are irreplaceable, she will need to pay. Otherwise > they will very likely turn out to have been replaceable after all. > >> It occurred to me that, assuming she wants the notebook working >> again anyway, she could buy an identical replacement drive and try >> swapping the controller boards over to see it the fault was on the >> controller rather than the mech. Would this be a reasonable thing to >> try? > > Yes, but the success rate is relatively low, and you need an exact > match, which can be very hard to find. Also you may damage the drive > further, by _any_ experimantation, which can increase the cost of > recovery significantly. > >> Or do the controllers have stuff like calibration info in flash >> that would render the idea non-feasible? > > That is why the success rate is relatively low. Depends also on > the drive, I guess. The thing is that the "high" prices data > recovery outfits ask are really quite reasonable, in relation to > effort and expertise needed and the fact that they have to > keep lot of spare parts in stock. Also the risk of a professional > recovery outfit actually damaging your drive further, possibly > beyond recovery, is pretty low. > > Still, there is a price range and there are cheaper and more > expensive recovery outfits. There are also thos that will > only charge for a successful recovery, but they may not even > try more complicated cases or have to be more expensive in > order to stay economically viable. > No argument from me about the pricing of the recovery services, Arno, but just because the files are irreplaceable does not mean that she can afford to recover them. The data in question has no intrinsic value, it's photos. The photos cannot be replaced. She and her husband both lost their jobs when the factory shut down last month, so they are having to balance their priorities very carefully right now.
From: Squeeze on 7 May 2008 11:52 The other Steve S is a troll too? Steve S (another one) wrote in news:8xgUj.21058$yD2.12825(a)text.news.virginmedia.com > A friend's 6-month old notebook has failed. Needless to say, she has > irreplaceable files on the drive for which she has no backup. The drive > apparently won't spin up. She's had a estimated price for data recovery, but > this is totally outside her budget. It occurred to me that, assuming she > wants the notebook working again anyway, she could buy an identical > replacement drive and try swapping the controller boards over to see it the > fault was on the controller rather than the mech. Would this be a reasonable > thing to try? > Or do the controllers have stuff like calibration info in > flash that would render the idea non-feasible? > > > Steve S
From: Steve S (another one) on 7 May 2008 12:21
"Squeeze" <rubberduck(a)duckies.au> wrote in message news:4821ccb9$0$13870$8f2e0ebb(a)news.shared-secrets.com... > The other Steve S is a troll too? > > Steve S (another one) wrote in > news:8xgUj.21058$yD2.12825(a)text.news.virginmedia.com >> A friend's 6-month old notebook has failed. Needless to say, she has >> irreplaceable files on the drive for which she has no backup. The drive >> apparently won't spin up. She's had a estimated price for data recovery, >> but >> this is totally outside her budget. It occurred to me that, assuming she >> wants the notebook working again anyway, she could buy an identical >> replacement drive and try swapping the controller boards over to see it >> the >> fault was on the controller rather than the mech. Would this be a >> reasonable >> thing to try? > >> Or do the controllers have stuff like calibration info in >> flash that would render the idea non-feasible? > >> >> >> Steve S What? |