[Novalug] Hard Drive Data Recovery

[Ed James]

In a similar vein, I hadda use IBM PS/2 machines long ago, and several
had drives that eventually had spindle jamming problems.  The machine
would fail to boot because the drives couldn't spin up fast enough -
you could actually hear the difference between a normal drive and a
failing drive.  The quick fix was to remove the drive, put it in one
hand, and smack it with the other a couple of time. Sounds nasty, but
it usually jarred the spindle enough to get it booted and recover
anything that needed recovering, although the fix usually was good
enough for several months.

I learned that trick from my supervisor, who retired from the Coast
Guard.  Lord knows what kind of equipment *he* used to have to fix.

Oddly enough, I've never had this slow-start problem anywhere else.
Oddly enough, I've never had to use a PS/2 anywhere else, either.

Ed James


Quoting Mark Smith <mark at winksmith.com>:

> there are two things you can do yourself (neither of which i have tried).
>
> if you suspect the controller is bad, find another exactly the same
> disk drive.  swap the controllers.
>
> if you suspect a heat related problems.  stuff the disk drive in the
> freezer and read what you can as quickly as possible.  i know someone
> who was successful using this method.  this is listed as a "myth" on
> the page you specified so ymmv.
>