The second the NAS hard drive beeps, the power should be cut off. I have been through the water of opening quotations.

My cousin’s second-hand business property that had been powered for 40,000 hours really died last week. The computer made a clicking sound when it was turned on, like someone tapping nails on an iron sheet. His first reaction was to restart and "try again" three times in a row. After the third time, Synology didn't even report the model number of the computer. This disk is used as an independent download disk in his four-slot machine. The seeds he saved in two years plus dozens of movies. He was unwilling to give in and asked me how much it would cost to send him back for recovery. I accompanied him to two data recovery companies, and called another one to inquire about it. I roughly figured out the details of this industry - by the way, his disk was The piece used as a downloader , this identity directly affects whether he spends the money, which will be discussed in detail later.

Triage by listening to sounds first: There are three types of "death" in the chart, and the paths are completely different.

You can save a lot of wasted money by getting a diagnosis yourself before sending it for testing. There are basically three ways to die if the disk is damaged to the point of "death". You can roughly identify the symptoms by hearing and touching them.

The third kind needs to be supplemented: If you just accidentally delete, format, or delete a partition, such as "the disk is not damaged because of human hand slippage", the data recovery company will not be able to turn to it at all. The self-rescue process of recycle bin and snapshot If you go through it again, you can get most of it back without spending a penny. Data recovery companies make money on physical damage.

Bad sectors, which are half-dead, are actually What are the signs before a disk failure? I have already given you a reminder. When C5 and C6 in SMART are climbing up, you should start backing them up. If you drag them until they can no longer be read, the cost will be doubled several times.

At the moment when the click sounds, unplugging the power supply is the only correct action.

This section is the most valuable because it is free. When the magnetic head is working normally, it is suspended on the disk. The distance is measured in nanometers and there is no contact. After the magnetic head is broken, it will deform. When the power is turned on again, the disk will rotate at 7,200 times per minute, and the deformed magnetic head will scrape on the disk.

What was scraped out? Magnetic powder. The magnetic coating on the surface of the disk is scraped into powder, and the powder then sticks to the new magnetic head that is replaced - so there is a saying in the maintenance circle that engineers have the biggest headache if the customer repeatedly powers on and tests the disk themselves. Originally, replacing the magnetic head would solve the problem, but even if the disk is scratched, it may not be able to save the whole thing. The scratched circle in the data area will be in vain even if the gods come. This is the original sentence in the official DiskGenius tutorial.: Confirm that there is a problem with the magnetic head and do not try to power on again. My cousin restarted three times and stopped before the third time. The market price of this disk will be at least one level better.

By the way, I will name and criticize all the folk remedies on the Internet.: Put the hard drive in a sealed bag and put it in the refrigerator to freeze (condensation water will be directly cremated after entering the disk body), pat and knock it (the magnetic head is not jammed originally, but it was jammed by you), and try again by replacing a hundred wires (if the magnetic head fails, it will be useless to replace a hundred wires, and it needs to be powered on one more time). The same applies to a disk that has been dropped. After the disk is dropped, the magnetic head will shift and continue to be scratched when the power is turned on. The correct operation after a drop is the same as if it is broken - cut off the power, do not move, and send it for repair.

A disk that doesn't spin at all is half fake death

The second type is "like a brick", so don't cry in a hurry. Last month, my 4T Coolwolf disappeared from the storage pool. , and found out that the SATA cable costing 6 yuan was loose, but the disk was not broken at all. Therefore, if the disk does not rotate at all, first remove the cables, power supply, and disk positions to make sure it is not suspended animation, and then talk about the circuit board.

The circuit board is really burned, there are characteristics to follow: If you get closer, you can smell a burning smell, there are burn marks or bulging components on the circuit board, and the power protection will jump out when the power is turned on. This is the only one of the three ways to die that theoretically has a DIY solution - changing the board. But I made it clear that this road is much trickier than I imagined. When buying a board, you have to search by "hard drive model + PCB board number". If the board numbers are inconsistent, it is basically useless. What's even more terrible is that there is an eight-pin ROM chip on the old circuit board, which stores the disk's own head parameters and decoding table, which corresponds to the disk body one-to-one. When changing the board, the chip must be removed with a heat gun and soldered to the new board. If only the board is replaced, the ROM will not be affected. Nine out of ten cases will not recognize the disk. Some models of Western Digital are even better. The ROM is directly integrated into the main control chip, so there is no way to blow it. It needs professional equipment like PC-3000 to service it.

So my suggestion is: For games where data is not important, Xianyu can buy a board with the same board number for a few dozen dollars and play by yourself. It doesn’t matter if you practice. If the data is important, don't put the soldering iron on yourself. The temperature of the hot air gun almost destroys the soldering of the ROM. This disk has changed from "can be saved by changing the board" to "no one can save it."

If you really want to send it in for repair, first check these three places on the quotation.

The market price of running down is probably a table like this:

There are also prices based on capacity, ranging from one to three yuan per GB, and about one thousand yuan for a 1TB disk. Both calculations are normal. The key is to ask which one is calculated before sending it away. Don't wait until someone gets the item to tell you.

The pitfalls are mainly in three places. The first is to attract traffic at a low price. There is a "99 yuan recovery" on the e-commerce page. After the order was sent and tested, the caliber changed, saying that it was a physical failure and that it was necessary to open the market. The price was increased layer by layer. A company in Beijing called Butian Technology was complained about this process. Some people in the forum talked about a few thousand dollars starting from 99 yuan. The second is the inspection fee, which is three to five hundred per person. If you don't repair it after the inspection, the money will not be refunded - most serious people in this business dare to promise to do a free inspection first and then quote a price. The third is to test your words. First, ask you, "What is the data?" Is it important? 」I heard it was a company account book and I heard it was a picture of a child, the price difference could be doubled. Before answering this question, first think about whether you have already revealed your trump card.

On the other hand, a reliable store has three signs:: Test first and then quote, no charge for unsuccessful recovery, and self-built dust-free opening room. The third person can ask to see the video. The opening is done on an ordinary table. If the dust gets in, it is a double murder. Another reminder, if the disk is still under warranty, there is no problem in using the manufacturer’s after-sales service to replace it with a new one. However, the replacement disk will be an empty disk, and the warranty never guarantees data. This is written into each company’s terms and conditions.

One more layer for NAS users: A disk failure and an array failure are two different things.

This section is exclusive to NAS users and single-disk users can skip it directly. My cousin's disk is an independent download disk. If it breaks, the pool will be downgraded. The other disks are not damaged at all, and the data is not lost at all. This situation has nothing to do with the data recovery company. Just buy a new disk, plug it in and rebuild it. The RAID set of accounts has been written specifically before. .

What is really fatal are two situations. One is that two blocks fail at the same time. In a single-parity array such as RAID5, if two blocks fail at the same time, the array will fall apart. At this time, it is the word "recovery". The second is that you are mean in the downgraded state - if one disk is broken, you will not repair it, but you will continue to write to it, or you will choose the reverse direction when rebuilding, and initialize the good disk, which means you have "deleted" the second disk.

If the array is broken and sent for repair, remember one action: All disks are labeled according to their slots and sent together. Write 1 for slot No. 1 and write 4 for slot No. 4. The recovery company's calculation of the array structure depends on the disk sequence and stripe parameters. You can dismantle the disks one by one, or send only the "bad one". The platter must not be removed from the cavity. Opening the platter and changing the heads is a job done in a clean room. Tightening the screws and taking it apart by yourself is equivalent to tearing off the last trump card.

Whether it is worth it or not can be determined by calculating the value of the data.

My cousin didn't send it for repair in the end. The account is easy to calculate: There are two years of seeds and dozens of movies on the disk, all of which can be downloaded again, which will last for a week. ； The opening price started at 1,500 yuan, and if it fell, there was a risk of scratching the price and the price would increase - he spent more than 3,000 yuan on regular channels to buy two new 4T Coolwolves, and the disk was broken. I saved the SMART data for him. , as a negative teaching material. Movie library data that "can be regenerated if lost" is never worth the opening price.

Why is my home photo library not afraid of this day?: There are more than 40,000 photos, one copy in the machine, one copy on the cold backup disk, and another copy in my mother’s old DS220j. 3-2-1 principle When it comes to reality, it’s A retired disk lies in a drawer add A remote machine runs synchronization . On the day when the disk failed, I felt sorry for the 300 yuan in disk money, not the data. The cost of a backup is always ten times cheaper than a launch. This is the most practical conclusion from this run.

Give an order at the end: If you hear a clicking sound, cut off the power immediately. Don’t take any chances. ； Take a photo of the array status and the slot of each disk. Don’t rush to insert or remove it. ； First ask three companies that provide free testing. Don’t make a decision on the spot after the price is quoted. Go back and calm down overnight. ； The four words "data is priceless" are referring to photos and videos, not seeds. If you want to understand this level, whether to spend the money, you will actually have the answer the moment the disk rings.