Hard drive mechanical failure

David G. Smith

David G. Smith

Steak Knife Member
One of my best friends is editing a documentary with quite a lot of footage and is having problems with one of his external firewire drives. According to my bro, it sounds like it is trying to spend, but can't. He is sure that it is a mechanical problem. He checked with a data recovery service and they quoted $500 to $4000 for repairs. He is the LA area and I was wondering if any of you Hollywood folks knew of a reliable, relatively inexpensive place in the area where he can have this problem resolved?

He is on a Mac, editing with FCP and I think he said that the drives were VSR drives(?).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.



BTW, the doc is for a relatively well know action/horror film actor who just published a book about sex his way. I would like to help him out, cause I can't wait to see the flick.
 
David G. Smith said:
That was mean, especially when they are full of footage. :cry:
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What did he shoot on? If it's DV and he backed up his project files, it's just a matter of recreating the project on another drive by recapturing.
 
Oedipax said:
What did he shoot on? If it's DV and he backed up his project files, it's just a matter of recreating the project on another drive by recapturing.
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I think that is the option he is trying to get through now. I think that the problem is getting the original footage, which his client has, but lives two states away (they just swapped HDs, I think). Just wanted to save him a pile of work.
 
I know this sounds very very strange indeed... anyway. I had a failed hdd (internal) and data recovery was going to cost me $1800. I noted that the HDD would spin up for about 10-15 seconds on start up.. but once it hit operating temp it would die. Solution? I put the hdd in a ziplock bag containing a desacant and in the freezer it went. About two hours later I connected the very cold hdd started up and was able to recover my data in the few minutes it then took to get to a higher temp. It took two attempts to get everything but it worked.
 
If the drive works sometimes he should move everything to a new drive. I just had a drive die on me. It'd been crapping out this past week and I moved everything to a new drive and as soon as I finished the move the drive died. Sounds like getting the original footage might be the easiest and cheapest way to fix things, cheaper than data recovery.
 
David,

Sorry to hear about the HD woes. Make sure to try out another HD enclosure as well. I've had a few drives go bad that turned out to be faulty FW controllers. They would exhibit the same symptoms your brother is seeing. I agree with ncje's comments about cooling (the freezer seems a little extreme but if it works then rock on!) as a way to get a finicky drive over the hump. If your brother is in the habit of unplugging a drive while the machine or drive is powered then I would definitely suspect the fw interface in the enclosure. The 6 pin FW cable carries power as well and can short out the controller when plugging and unplugging. Lacie drives seem particularly susceptible to this problem in my experience.

BTW I just used a great piece of software called getdataback to recover a drive of P2 data with a corrupt file table. Worked like a charm (took 3 days worth of scanning) but it worked!

Best of luck,
David C. Smith
LA / OC D.P.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will pass them on. The freezer solution is interesting.

BTW, David, when I said that this was for my "Bro", I meant that we are brothers by different mothers. I know you got one too.
 
Gotcha, hey it's all in the family right! Actually my brother by the same mother lives out your way. He's in Richmond, I grew up in Va. Beach and Fredricksburg. I do miss the seasons and the trees. How is the work in Virginia anyway? My folks always send newspaper clippings talking about the "Mid Atlantic Production Region" and Milenium Studio to try and coax me back. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

-David C. Smith
(your brother with a different initial)
LA / OC D.P.
 
filmstox said:
Gotcha, hey it's all in the family right! Actually my brother by the same mother lives out your way. He's in Richmond, I grew up in Va. Beach and Fredricksburg. I do miss the seasons and the trees. How is the work in Virginia anyway? My folks always send newspaper clippings talking about the "Mid Atlantic Production Region" and Milenium Studio to try and coax me back. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

-David C. Smith
(your brother with a different initial)
LA / OC D.P.
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Well, there is alot of production in Virginia. I happen to live a tad bit west of there and It is hard to get anything going here. I moved back here to help take care of my mother who was very ill and recently passed away. I am now more able to get out and get back in to the swing. It is beautiful here and the cost of living is so low, that I have become spoiled. We'll see what happens. I may move closer to Richmond or D.C./NOVA.... Or may head to the left coast and learn how it is really done!! :thumbsup:
 
So sorry to hear about your mom. I hope you're out and about and in full swing soon. As for how it's done out here... throw money at it, and if that doesn't work... throw more money!!! :)

-David C. Smith
LA / OC D.P.
 
What worked for my girlfriend was ordering an RMA and when I got it, I carefully replaced the old HD's curcuit board with the new one. Only downside is getting a drive thats different. The chips have to be the same make and number. But either way, if the drive is fairly new, go and buy another, it should exactly the same. So it's either RMA or cost of new drive vs. that 1k fix.
 
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