[antiRepublicrat]

nevermind files, he can't even find the partitions.

Neither could I, the disk just wasn't there. But the recovery software took care of it easily, even if it did take forever.

I pulled that rabbit out of my hat a couple of months ago, but it's not for the faint-hearted ;)

Nice trick, but I'm a safety nut and try not to alter a drive that's died. Like you said, not for the faint-hearted, but you pulled it off!

[general_re]

The trick is to be sure that the only place you write to is the MBR cylinder, so in a worst-case scenario, you end up no worse off than where you started - with a fried MBR. If you know what you're doing, and you're careful, it's not all that dangerous.

Of course, you could say the same thing about brain surgery or assembling nuclear weapons - if you know what you're doing, and you're careful, it's not all that dangerous. But that still doesn't mean it's a good idea for John and Jane Enduser to take a whack at it ;)