I have a 60G Maxtor HD. It was manufactured in 2000 and it says on the HD "Warranty ends 2004"!

Anyway, for a while, it has been not starting up (not main drive) when I first turn on the computer, but starting a little later (disk would suddenly start spinning after 15-45 seconds, sometimes a few minutes).

Now, it just doesn't start up, no spinning whatsoever.

It's probably just dead, but I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to resurrect it other then taking it to a shop.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Marc P.

There is not much you can do.

Unless the data contained is extremely valuable there is no use in trying to fix it.

You could get 20 new drives at least for the same price.

If the data is priceless you could get a professional shop to extract the data.

Again you are talking about several hundred to thousands of dollars.


As far as a "try it for what it's worth" idea (assuming the data is irrelevant) try putting it in the freezer for a day (inside a sealed bag).

I agree with Jephree - unless the data is critical and you MUST have it, your best bet is to simply buy a new drive. There are several 320Gb drives for less than $90US. Obviously, this illustrates the need to perform regular backups.

Note the freezer trick is just that, a trick that sometimes (though rarely) works. If the problem is caused by worn and seized bearings, freezing will sometimes temporarily unseize them. What it does, if it works, is allow the drive to spin up so you can immediately copy the critical data off of it to another drive - so you must have a PC and cables all set to go when you pull it out of the freezer. But once the bearings heat up again, which they will start doing immediately too, they will seize again and you will no long have access - assuming the condensation that immediately starts to form on the circuit board does not short out the electronics. Freezing will not help if the problem is damaged platters, damaged read/write heads, or the electronics in the drive's circuit board.