[mythtv-users] Help with a semi-busted hard drive (with all my recordings)

[Brian Wood]

On Feb 5, 2006, at 4:17 AM, Mark Oliver wrote:

> Brian Wood wrote:
>
>>
>> An impedance bridge is not something that a lot of folks have at
>> home, plus you would have to remove the component from the circuit in
>> order to measure its capacitance.
>>
>> Fortunately, most capacitors in digital circuits are not all that
>> critical in terms of value, and a lot of them are simply for de-
>> coupling. Probably anything even reasonably close in capacitance
>> would work. Be careful that you have not damaged the extremely tiny
>> lands on the PC board, and remember that a lot of those boards are
>> multi-layer, once damaged they can rarely be repaired, so be very
>> careful.
>>
> All the more reason for me to pass this along to someone who knows  
> more
> than I do.  Thanks for the info and the words of caution, though I  
> have
> no intention of doing anything other than transporting the drive
> somewhere.  The drive is still in its original packaging, so as  
> long as
> I do not drop it...
>
> I am not sure what dave (my brother-in-law) has or has access to,  
> which
> means that this may end up in the hands of one of his friends, so the
> time aspect for getting an answer may well be more like a week or two,
> if it is even possible.  I guess I will find out more later today or
> tomorrow.

The "traditional" method of getting data off a drive with bad control  
electronics (and the one most commercial data recovery outfits try  
first) is to obtain an identical drive and swap out the control  
board. In fact, most commercial recovery companies maintain a  
collection of control boards for this purpose.

This probably isn't what you want because it can be expensive and I  
think you want the drive to run again, but it probably would allow  
you to recover your recordings. It would likely be cheaper than  
sending the drive to one of the commercial outfits though.

Sounds like letting your BIL have a go at it first makes sense  
though, bet be aware that no matter how talented and equipped he is,  
a little luck is required in matters like this :-)