Dead drive desperation in NYC (hd, how to, working, connected)

[Cece77]

My very, very old Dell computer with a very, very old Word Perfect program crashed disastrously, and I'm trying to coax it back to life. The current repair guy is running out of options, and I don't know how to determine if there's someone around with other options. By any chance, does anyone know a brilliant computer repair place in NYC (preferably Manhattan) or - worst case - data recovery?

[Radek]

Can you give us more details as to what happened to it?

[Tek_Freek]

data recovery in manhattan - Google Search

Buncha places. Hope you enjoy spending money. The best ones will tear the drive apart in a clean room and read the data (if they can) directly off the discs. Figure a few hundred dollars at least. Most don't charge except for shipping if they can't recover any data, and no guarantee that what they recover is what you want. Most should offer to return the data on a new drive and ship back/destroy the old.

[Cece77]

Thanks, Radek - the latest news is that the problem seems to be the hard drive controller. I haven't talked to the computer whiz today yet, but from the message I got, it seems that the HD itself would be fine, if we could find a replacement for the hard drive controller - in case you know of any source (we could buy it from elsewhere in the country, I suppose?) for old parts. Other than that, I may have to bankrupt myself on data recovery.

TekFreek, I can use Google, too - I was hoping for recommendations from people who'd had experience with any of the places.

Any suggestions?

[Rickers]

Maybe it's time for a new computer ? !

[Brian.Pearson]

I read a hint that said it might be possible to get the thing going by unplugging the wires connected to the controller and plugging them in again. Simple but iffy.

[Nomander]

Originally Posted by Cece77

Thanks, Radek - the latest news is that the problem seems to be the hard drive controller. I haven't talked to the computer whiz today yet, but from the message I got, it seems that the HD itself would be fine, if we could find a replacement for the hard drive controller - in case you know of any source (we could buy it from elsewhere in the country, I suppose?) for old parts. Other than that, I may have to bankrupt myself on data recovery.

TekFreek, I can use Google, too - I was hoping for recommendations from people who'd had experience with any of the places.

Any suggestions?

I am assuming it is the controller interface on the drive itself you are referring to, not simply the built-in controller on the mother board? If it is merely the MB, that is simple as most likely the drive will work in another system, though a controller card may be needed depending on how outdated the interface is.

If it is the controller interface on the drive itself, the easiest way would be to search eBay or other online resources that might carry an exact match to that drive (even some slightly different models of the same brand may work as well if the parameters of the drive match). All you do at that point is take off the bad controller interface on the hard drive and replace it with the one you found.

It is actually much easier to recover from a drive in this type of scenario than if the drives mechanical workings were failing.

[Radek]

OP, Thanks for the additional information.

Nomander's advice is where I'd head if the data is that critical.

[sterlinggirl]

This happened to me a while ago with an external drive. The fix was to go buy a new usb drive case. I just swapped the drive from one box to the other, and it fired right up.

If you can buy an external drive case that it fits, you could get it running for $25.