[carusoracer]

Hello,
I have heard a hard clicking sound on my DeskTop Home PC. I could never really understand what the sound was other than the hard drive.

Well, it turn out it was my Hard Drive as it will not boot itself up. I keep getting DOS  Boot failure device error message. I know that the HD is done but can anyone offer a work around to retrieve all my Music files,pictures,files etc.  

One person offered that if I take the HD and put it into the freezer it may get past the Dead Spot on the drive and work for a short time? Unfortunatly I neglected to back up any info on my HD

[chosenhandle]

if your system allows you to boot from CD, that should get you going. Once booted up, you MAY be able to pull data off the drive. It all depends on what is failing on the drive.

I recently had a friend take a bad disk of mine and hook it up to his linux system. He was able to pull off all sorts of info that windows was not able to extract.

[Double Ugly]

I recommend Spin Rite from the Gibson Research Corporation.  

Running its maintenance programs regularly helps prolong your hard drive's life, and it's a world-class data recovery program.

Highly recommended.

[Jon L]

If I don't know what I'm doing, I take it to a local computer shop, whom I trust.  

I had a near-scare, and luckily it was the motherboard that blew up, not my hard drives, and the shop fixed it for me.  

Since then, I got the incentive to back up everything.  I picked up a Western Digital 320 Gig HD for $100 and a USB2.0 external HD enclosure for $20.  Use one of the freeware sync program, and you're DONE!

[jqp]

I recommend Spin Rite from the Gibson Research Corporation.  

Running its maintenance programs regularly helps prolong your hard drive's life, and it's a world-class data recovery program.

Highly recommended.

DU - what does this cost? Is it the guy who does Zone Alarm? (I like that guy)

[EProvenzano]

If I don't know what I'm doing, I take it to a local computer shop, whom I trust.  

I had a near-scare, and luckily it was the motherboard that blew up, not my hard drives, and the shop fixed it for me.  

Since then, I got the incentive to back up everything.  I picked up a Western Digital 320 Gig HD for $100 and a USB2.0 external HD enclosure for $20.  Use one of the freeware sync program, and you're DONE!

...and it's a very good idea to keep your external back-up stored off site.
God forbid your place should burn down....

[powderific]

What I usually do in this situation is burn a copy of Slax or similar linux live cd to get the files onto a new disk. Or, you could install windows on a new disk and just try to access the files from there. In either situation you are going to need a new hard drive to transfer the stuff to.

I've found that one of the best ways to backup music is to just give copys of your library to friends. Unlike other data, they can actually use, and will probably appreciate, the music, and with enough versions out there you virtually guarantee it will be available in the event of a hard drive failure.

[Double Ugly]

I recommend Spin Rite from the Gibson Research Corporation. 

Running its maintenance programs regularly helps prolong your hard drive's life, and it's a world-class data recovery program.

Highly recommended.

DU - what does this cost? Is it the guy who does Zone Alarm? (I like that guy)

Sorry jqp...I completely missed your reply.

You've probably lost interest by now, but the info in on the link provided in my post.  I think it costs $89, and no, I don't believe Steve is the Zone Alarm guy (though I could be wrong about that).  He *is* some sort of computing security expert, though, and has several really cool free downloads on his site to help determine the vulnerability of your computer/network.

-Jim