Magnets...

[K'Tesh]

FYI. Magnets and laptops don't mix.

While moving the weekend before last, I accidentally had a magnet fall on the palm area of my laptop, then I got to watch as it zipped itself across my HD. The computer won't boot up, and I'm currently between my apartment and my new home (bunking w/my sister's family).

I have very limited access to a computer (and a slow one at that). So, don't expect much from me over the next few ________(insert longer period of time).

[q`Tzal]

Get a copy of Spinrite.
Unless you managed to cause actual physical damage to the drive and its internals OR you somehow performed many oscillating polarity cycles of the magnet against the hard drive all of the data will be recoverable.

[scaryseth]

How strong of a magnet was it? A normal refrigerator magnet should not do anything through the laptop case and other shielding. A stronger magnet though, you never know. I have some strong nr 52 magnets that could probably do some damage (a field test sounds in order).

Anyway, good luck with the rest of your move and laptop. Guess crossing paths will be less likely in the mornings

[K'Tesh]

The magnet involved was one I pulled out of a dead hard drive. I have a long history of collecting rare earth magnets from HD's. This includes one that was part of a $250,000.00 5Mb Hewlett Packard HD from the 1970's (SOSC was throwing it away, as 5Mb HD's had shrunk from the size of a lawnmower to that of a Walkman.)

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by q`Tzal

Get a copy of Spinrite.
Unless you managed to cause actual physical damage to the drive and its internals OR you somehow performed many oscillating polarity cycles of the magnet against the hard drive all of the data will be recoverable.

I second this recommendation... SpinRite is a great utility...

although if there's nothing too terribly important on there then it's a good time for a fresh install anyway... (:

[q`Tzal]

On a whim, being a experimental scientific geek, I tried to damage a cassette music tape one day with a very powerful magnet.
The first try produced nothing.
I made a control (copy) tape with the same brand of cassette to which I would compare after attempts at purely magnetic damage.
Neither long term exposure nor quick magnet movement produced any significant damage. Audio tapes have analog signals which are much less prone to minute detail damage.

Later, when assigned to decommission some computer equipment for an employer, I tried some broken pieces of klystron magnet that rate up around N35 or N40 on some of the hard drives before disassembly and destruction of the magnetic platters. I got the same results with the permanent magnets that I did with the tapes short of the fact that the metal drive casing was ferrous as well. I expect that the mild steel drive casing is capable of providing some field shielding. The drives' data did not stand up to my 1950's era TV repair degaussing coil .

Seeing that you have actual boot problems I suspect physical damage.
If CMOS recognizes the drive correctly and there are no SMART errors then odds are it's boot area surface damage and SpinRite has been reported by users to solve even violent (earthquake related) physical damage.
Of course if you are hearing new noises out of the drive than odds are that the actuator arm took some impact damage. In which case you can either spend over $1000 for a company to recover the data or you can disassemble it for new cool magnets.

[K'Tesh]

Originally Posted by q`Tzal

if you are hearing new noises out of the drive than odds are that the actuator arm took some impact damage. In which case you can either spend over $1000 for a company to recover the data or you can disassemble it for new cool magnets.

I heard odd noises out of it after the event, and it did boot up a couple of times for a few minutes (took long periods of increasing length to do so, and the "up" times got progressively shorter until it won't boot up anymore.

I have a friend who's pretty good w/computers who can try to help me coming up soon.

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by K'Tesh

I heard odd noises out of it after the event, and it did boot up a couple of times for a few minutes (took long periods of increasing length to do so, and the "up" times got progressively shorter until it won't boot up anymore. .

prepare for the worst because it sounds like a head crashed into the platter... you probably won't be able to recover it... noises are never a good thing... sometimes you can stick it in the freezer and get it to work long enough to get your data off...

Originally Posted by K'Tesh

I have a friend who's pretty good w/computers who can try to help me coming up soon.

I bet there's a lot of people on here that could help as well... I'd offer but I'm not in Beaverton except to watch it pass by on the MAX during my commute...