Linda wrote:
>Can the data on the drive still be retrieved somehow?>>


The short answer:  Yes.

The longer answer:
There are companies which specialise in this type of work. The results will 
depend entirely on how much you want to spend and how badly damaged the 
drive is. I imagine the platter(s) would be intact, so it should be 
possible to remove it and mount it in a machine which could retrieve your data.

You could first try it in another computer to see if the HD will work at 
all.  There is plenty of software which will attempt to recover data, some 
free, some expensive, as long as the drive can spin and the read heads are 
not too badly damaged. Results are variable.

If the data is really valuable, and the drive won't readily work in a 
computer, I think I would take it straight to a specialist company rather 
than try to tamper with it.

Others on this forum will no doubt be able to point you in the direction of 
specialists in your area, and make specific recommendations.  A Google 
search will no doubt turn up plenty of these firms. Try searching for "Data 
recovery" or "Data retrieval" or "Hard drive retrieval recovery".

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

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