determining if a hard drive is truly dead

[Mr Downtown]

I'm continuing to consult long-distance on that PowerBook G4 that I asked the other day about installing a system on. The person on-site pulled the HD out and put it on a USB adapter cable (he's pretty PC savvy, just doesn't know what Mac calls things). He says it's spinning, but neither PC nor Mac (even using Disk Utility) can see the device. May we therefore presume it's really most sincerely dead?

[Ken Sp.]

If you need the data off, sometimes you can freeze it for 12 to 24 hours, and then try it again.

I wouldn't count on it as a usable drive after that.

[mattkime]

sounds dead.

[sekker]

"It's dead, Jim!"

[haikuman]

It should be obvious if your hard drive has turned into a floppy
you may be a Republican

The devil makes me do it *(:>*:devil:

[Lux Interior]

"I feel happy!"

[Black]

Folks here are always so eager to declare a drive dead..... the freezer trick is for seized drives and wouldn't apply here...
If it's really spinning, and they're not describing other odd noises, it sounds like it might be OK- you'd need one of the specialized drive utilities (or that vintage) to reformat it. Not really worth the effort to track one down IMO.

[SteveG]

There are a some signs you can look for. Was it running hot?

[rz]

Try Data Rescue on it. If that doesn't work, it's dead.

[sekker]

I'd double-check the cable, too.