Can any one tell me what determines the capacity of a hard drive. Is it the disc itself or the control board attached to it? If it is the latter then can the discs be swopped from a failed hard drive to a new one assuming they were the same manufacturer, thus not losing the stored data. I have just stripped an old one down & they are quite a simple device, mechanically. The reason I ask is that I heard an "expert" on the radio the other day saying that it cost £thousands to retrieve data lost when a hard drive failed, but physically swopping discs appears a simple task.
Hard drive capacity.
- Thread starter jj4091
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Igorian
Replacing a failed controller with an identical one will work but identical boards are often difficult/impossible to locate.
Removing the platters isn't really an option for diy.
Removing the platters isn't really an option for diy.
I would guess that hard drive capacity is dependant on the combination of drive platters, read write heads and control board. Some info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/InsideHardDrive.asp
In theory you could swap the disk platters from one drive to another assuming you had exactly the same HDD as a spare. I suspect that this could prove to be a tricky job - particularly setting up the read/write head distance to platter.
I would suggest that the "expert" quoting £thousands for recovery of lost data may have been thinking in terms of large enterprises rather than the average home user.
Data recovery firms offer services which start at around £80 with a no data no fee policy.
If the HDD can be seen in Windows but the data cannot be read it may be possible to recover the data to a new hard drive using software such as R Studio http://www.r-studio.com/ or Stellar Phoenix http://www.stellarinfo.com/ - both available as demo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2002/InsideHardDrive.asp
In theory you could swap the disk platters from one drive to another assuming you had exactly the same HDD as a spare. I suspect that this could prove to be a tricky job - particularly setting up the read/write head distance to platter.
I would suggest that the "expert" quoting £thousands for recovery of lost data may have been thinking in terms of large enterprises rather than the average home user.
Data recovery firms offer services which start at around £80 with a no data no fee policy.
If the HDD can be seen in Windows but the data cannot be read it may be possible to recover the data to a new hard drive using software such as R Studio http://www.r-studio.com/ or Stellar Phoenix http://www.stellarinfo.com/ - both available as demo
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People could save £thousands if they performed regular, frequent backups, preferably to an external HD that can be stored somewhere safe.
I use the SyncToy which is free from Microsoft and is not, as its's name claims, a toy.
http://tinyurl.com/7pdrq
It will copy files and folders either way to update them.
I use my external HD away from home at times and then plug into my PC and set it to update the files on the PC, it also has the option to check both HDs and updates files both ways.
I run it every weekend and also 'as and when' any large changes have been made to either HD.
The most I can lose is a weeks files updates.
To backup is common sense, but if you never have to use it, - - "What the heck"!
To forget to backup is NO EXCUSE.
dave
I use the SyncToy which is free from Microsoft and is not, as its's name claims, a toy.
http://tinyurl.com/7pdrq
It will copy files and folders either way to update them.
I use my external HD away from home at times and then plug into my PC and set it to update the files on the PC, it also has the option to check both HDs and updates files both ways.
I run it every weekend and also 'as and when' any large changes have been made to either HD.
The most I can lose is a weeks files updates.
To backup is common sense, but if you never have to use it, - - "What the heck"!
To forget to backup is NO EXCUSE.
dave
Unbelievably wide of the mark!
The capacity is the product of areal density and number of surfaces. The manufacturer will tell you what the capacity is.
Tricky job?
Is that some kind of joke?
Assembling the internals of a modern hard disk drive requires a Class 100 clean room.
Tricky job?
Is that some kind of joke?
Assembling the internals of a modern hard disk drive requires a Class 100 clean room.
It depends what you mean by tricky. I find it tricky getting the sim card out of my phone, I would also find it tricky to swim the English Channel.
He did say 'in theory'
Yes ok "tricky" is an understatement. I do appreciate that hard disks are manufactured/assembled in a clean room environment and amateur attempts at repair in the case stated are likely to result in failure.
The key statement as pointed out is "in theory" - I have never tried it nor would want to attempt such. IMO when a HDD fails it should be replaced (they are pretty inexpensive these days!).
Please - buy yourself an external hard disk for 50 quid and just backup to that, either manually or via something like sync toy*.
I work in IT for a very well-known uk university and the amount of times I had users home pc's die for one reason or another and they've come to us begging (most recently a baby and iron bru) and every time they never think to back anything up...
anyway I'll shut up on ranting otherwise I'll be going all night. Yes it's possible to swap the physical discs out (I've done it on a server disc years back) but you really, really don't want to be going down that route or evening thinking of relying on that as a backup plan.
Sorry if I've come across pretty hard, but I've seen it too many times...
Steve.
* sync toy - I've never had any problems with it, even on three-way syncs, but I haven't tried the newer versions of it.
I work in IT for a very well-known uk university and the amount of times I had users home pc's die for one reason or another and they've come to us begging (most recently a baby and iron bru) and every time they never think to back anything up...
anyway I'll shut up on ranting otherwise I'll be going all night. Yes it's possible to swap the physical discs out (I've done it on a server disc years back) but you really, really don't want to be going down that route or evening thinking of relying on that as a backup plan.
Sorry if I've come across pretty hard, but I've seen it too many times...
Steve.
* sync toy - I've never had any problems with it, even on three-way syncs, but I haven't tried the newer versions of it.
Shortplank, thanks for your reply. Yes I do have an ext.hd which I back everything up to as regularly as possible. I raised the question because I had the time & oportunity to strip down an old hard drive, just for the sake of it as I had never done it before & it seemed like a relatvely simple thing to do, so the idea came to me that it may be a way of recovering data as a last resort, unfortunately most people seem to disagree with you.
I don't know why you think "most people" are disagreeing with shortplank - nobody (other than you) has replied to his post.I raised the question because I had the time & oportunity to strip down an old hard drive, just for the sake of it as I had never done it before & it seemed like a relatvely simple thing to do, so the idea came to me that it may be a way of recovering data as a last resort, unfortunately most people seem to disagree with you.
In fact, nobody has said that it isn't possible - it is.
Nobody has said that it's relatively complicated - it isn't.
Nobody has said that it can't work as a last resort - it can.
Are you on drugs or something?I don't know why you think "most people" are disagreeing with shortplank - nobody (other than you) has replied to his post.I raised the question because I had the time & oportunity to strip down an old hard drive, just for the sake of it as I had never done it before & it seemed like a relatvely simple thing to do, so the idea came to me that it may be a way of recovering data as a last resort, unfortunately most people seem to disagree with you.
In fact, nobody has said that it isn't possible - it is.
Nobody has said that it's relatively complicated - it isn't.
Nobody has said that it can't work as a last resort - it can.
The answer to that would have to be "something".
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