Hard Drive Failed Big Time

RS_Andy · Jul 29, 2009

Hi All, does anyone know of any good data recovery programs, my Hard Drive failed in my laptop, ive tried running the recovery consol, tried repairing the Master Boot record and other bits and bobs within the Windows recovery consol to no avail. So now ive ordered a new Hard Drive,

But i want to try and recover the files off the drive, I know the drive does work because i can hear it spin up.

I bought myself a USB 2.5 external Dock

I did try plugging the drive into another windows machine to see if it appears but nothing still.

Many thanks for any help.

bodser · Jul 29, 2009

GetDataBack is the popular one........ but the same people who make CrapCleaner also have a free one called Recuva, which is very good for free.

But if your drive works and windows can see it when connect to your external caddy then just copy files off it. (obviously after you have an OS installed on your new hard drive, or if you have another pc).

techquest · Jul 29, 2009

I'd go along with GetBack, used it on numerous drives with good results.

On the drive front though just because it spins up does not mean it's ok. It could have damage to it on the sectors etc. But let's hope not.

Chimaera · Jul 29, 2009

yep getdataback and recuva both good

parker13 · Jul 29, 2009

used spinrite on my lappt recently, option two and it's been fine since.

Messa · Jul 30, 2009

I think you are probably buggered pal, its not going to work on a drive that isnt visible to the BIOS.

techquest · Jul 30, 2009

See if you can get your hands on Acronis Disk Director or Partition Magic. If these can't see it, pre boot up, then as Messa says you HD is beyond repair.

You could also get the manufacturers diagnostic utilities and make a floppy to take a look at the drive. But again if it can't be seen then same as above.

shabbaranks · Jul 30, 2009

Sometimes its just the pcb that goes tit's soup and the actual internal disks are ok. If you can get a simular disk and change over the PCB from the working to the none working you might be ok? I've done this before on IDE drives

techquest · Jul 31, 2009

skanksterman said:
Sometimes its just the pcb that goes tit's soup and the actual internal disks are ok. If you can get a simular disk and change over the PCB from the working to the none working you might be ok? I've done this before on IDE drives

The problem with that though is if you don't get the exact same pcb then you could end up doing more damage to the drive, more so the data, than you already have. The drives PCB is matched to it and the way it handles data. So you cannot simply pick up a PCB from another drive, even by the same manufacturer with smaller or larger variants of your model.

halfman halflager · Aug 2, 2009

hi just a thought if you think harddrive is ok or want to check if it is ok try running a linux live cd make sure you set to boot from cd and operating system works in ram and if your drive is ok you can transfer data to external usb just make sure it is connected at boot up i used linux ubuntu to do this when a windows download corrupted my bootloader and i did not have original copy of windows just a recovery disk.linux os is free to download as an iso image and burn to a normal cd it got me out of a prob allthough i had to wipe the drive and reinstall windows again i got my data transfered to external usb drive . just an idea for you

Messa · Aug 2, 2009

halfman halflager said:
hi just a thought if you think harddrive is ok or want to check if it is ok try running a linux live cd make sure you set to boot from cd and operating system works in ram and if your drive is ok you can transfer data to external usb just make sure it is connected at boot up i used linux ubuntu to do this when a windows download corrupted my bootloader and i did not have original copy of windows just a recovery disk.linux os is free to download as an iso image and burn to a normal cd it got me out of a prob allthough i had to wipe the drive and reinstall windows again i got my data transfered to external usb drive . just an idea for you

See this post pal.........

https://www.digitalworldz.co.uk/index.php?threads/213796/

Hard Drive Failed Big Time

RS_Andy

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bodser

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techquest

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Chimaera

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parker13

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Messa

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techquest

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shabbaranks

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techquest

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halfman halflager

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Messa

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