In Geneva, there's a place somewhere along the line of Tram No. 15 where they restore data.

Moreover, maybe you can even do it urself. U may need special (free) applications.

Good luck.

The problem is I cana't start the drive...

I had a similar problem. Try connecting it directly to the Tower PC's motherboard which has a USB socket. In my case, it didn't work otherwise (I've tried it with 2 laptops and 2 tower pcs)

second, it might be that the readingf/writing header got stuck (f.e. due to sudden turning off). This was a case with my another external hdd. So, my friend opened it, manually put the header into the right place and that's it (however, few sectors were lost forever, so he had to block them with another application). Let the professional do this job.

Professional service is provided by http://www.pctop.ch/pSociete.aspx in Renens.

No cost if the data cannot be recovered - when the data are recoverable but the drive is damaged, they propose you to copy the data to a new hard drive - and the cost will be about 100 SFr (depends on the time spent).

Good luck

I propose you let Zonker have a look.

Otherwise, you can buy an external drive bay sans drive and try putting the drive in that, in case the problem is in the old bay. Note, that when a drive is failing mechanically, you may get only one chance at recovery, if that much, after which there is only the more expensive professional recovery options left (thousands).

If the drive does start in the new bay, you might want to look into www.spinrite.com

In any case, the drive should be erased and scrapped, when the data is recovered to another drive.

It might be worth giving a different interface a shot (e.g. USB), but I most emphatically advise against popping the hood! Unless you have a clean room hidden in your basement :)

HTH

Mike

Can you be more specific about how you put your data on to the disk (i.e. was it with a backup utility, a straight file move?  Something else?) and what happens now when you try to access the disk and the data?

You should try to connect your hardware, and insert "Hiren Boot CD Recovery" or old version of Linux, and do not install Linux, just try the desktop version and you can acess to the Partition and Data.

Or if you just deleted some file or folder you can try Recuve from Piriform.

Good luck