HELP! Dropped microdrive and can't read it now. REWARD!

[Phildate]

I dropped my 8Gb microdrive during an event, whilst in a plastic case but still to my horror it refuses to be read by the camera or my Mac. I really need to get the images off the card and would be willing to reward anyone who could help me with this problem.

More details:

Seagate 8Gb microdrive
Nikon D2X shooting RAW + JPEG (small)
Approx 4Gb used up

Now reads CHA when put into the camera.

Please email me if you think you can help or sms/call on 98483907.

 

[pacer]

Bummer. I think you may be out of luck on this one. Microdrives are real hard drives with tiny moving parts like a platter and heads. If the drop caused the head to crash against the platter there is no way you will be able to recover the data. There are places that charge lots of money and they can actually take the platter out of the drive and place it in another drive, but I don't even know if they deal with microdrives and I don't know anywhere in Singapore that does this. I hope someone else might be able to offer you better news. I know you are sweating this one. :sweat:

This is the one big advantage to just using regular CF cards.

 

[Phildate]

Thanks for your info - I figured I'm probably screwed on this since this is a hard drive type. Maybe some kind people at Seagate will help me...

 

[Feinwerkbau]

Hey Phil, I'm real sorry to hear about this. :cry:

Sincerely hope you manage to get the data you need.

 

[dEthANGeL]

If all else fails and you're willing to go with the service you can drop off @ any SingPost - http://www.cbltech.com/

 

[VR Man]

try http://www.prosoftengineering.com/

 

[enivre]

try this:

http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

worked for me when my CF card suddenly died and couldn't be read by either computer nor camera...

best of all, the software is free!!

 

[Phildate]

try this:

http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

worked for me when my CF card suddenly died and couldn't be read by either computer nor camera...

best of all, the software is free!!

Thanks but I am a Mac user

 

[Phildate]

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to post useful links - really appreciate it.

 

[toasty]

There are many ways that a HDD can stop working. One of the first things you can check, is: does the motor of the HDD spin up when you plug it in? The motor in the CF cards are normally very quiet so you need to put your ear right up against it to hear if it is spinning. If it is spinning, you might be able to recover something without sending it to professionals like CBL. If it is not spinning, then I don't any software will be able to help you get the info out.

If you've damaged the head, also, need to send it to professional (but I don't think this is likely). It's also unlikely you've damaged any of the electronics from dropping and I also doubt that you've damaged the media itself. When the HDD is not operational, normally they move the head to a park-zone where a jolt will not cause the head to knock the media.

HDD are most easy to damage when they are actually operating. If the motor is spinning, you can try plugging it into another computer, maybe a computer running windows, or Linux might have better luck? If you can recognize it in Linux, there are quite a few tricks you can play to extract some info.

 

[VR Man]

try http://www.prosoftengineering.com/

And also http://www.wiebetech.com/ for their hardware solutions.

Runs on Mac

 

[enivre]

while not advisable, a friend of mine once managed to revive his HD by giving it another jolt.. according to him sometimes the head just gets misplaced and needs to be "nudged" back to place...

but again not advisable...

 

[igpenguin]

with normal PC hard disks, some geeks have been able to revive crashed ones by freezing them. another unorthodox option.. and probably untested for microdrives.

 

[espn]

Phil, if you need the images urgently, suggest you look for professionals, it's not a simple case of corrupted card that you can recover easily like Compact Flash. Sorry that it happened to you.

 

[Phildate]

Phil, if you need the images urgently, suggest you look for professionals, it's not a simple case of corrupted card that you can recover easily like Compact Flash. Sorry that it happened to you.

Thanks ESPN. Can anyone recommend any professionals who specialise in this area? Can't risk trying any of the unorthodox methods.

 

[espn]

Thanks ESPN. Can anyone recommend any professionals who specialise in this area? Can't risk trying any of the unorthodox methods.

Try http://www.cbltech.com.sg/

 

[slaam]

if you are willing to sacrifice the microdrive (since its prob spoilt already) you can try to put the microdrive in the freezer (serious not kidding) apparently for larger harddiscs that have failed this allows the HDD to work jus for that while for you to copy the images out. but after u do this likely that condensation will occur and ur drive is pretty much gone if it isn't totally before.. you can google to verify if i am speaking the truth...

 

[Phildate]

The plofessional company quoted me $2850 for the drive recovery! :bigeyes: when I told them that was too expensive they then came back with an offer of $1000. However, my client had already decided with me that at $2850 it's not worth it so we've decided to give up on the images. If only they'd come back with $1000 first I might have gone with it. Just shows that sometimes a ridiculous quote will lose you a client.

 

[igpenguin]

that's almost 200% off the initial quote!

 

[slaam]

The plofessional company quoted me $2850 for the drive recovery! :bigeyes: when I told them that was too expensive they then came back with an offer of $1000. However, my client had already decided with me that at $2850 it's not worth it so we've decided to give up on the images. If only they'd come back with $1000 first I might have gone with it. Just shows that sometimes a ridiculous quote will lose you a client.

LOL
yeah that's abit ....

hey but the microdrive wont work at all already yeah?
u can really try my method .. not kidding.. i read that the plofessionals do that too.. since its microdrive maybe put an ice cube on it and hold ur card reader in such a way that the water wont drip into it..
u might really get some of the images back

http://www.meetmyattorney.com/slink/mt-archives/000275.html