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Community Newsletter: Q&A: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive?
- 10/10/08 3:51 PM
Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 10/10/08 3:51 PM
Question:
My college daughter's 120GB hard drive recently stopped working. She didn't hear any noise--it just stopped working.
I put another hard drive in the machine and set it up with OS and applications, and then put her old drive in as a slave and tried to look at it, but a message comes up that says it's unreadable. Other attempts say the hard drive is corrupt.
I have tried a few free programs such as pci_filerecovery.exe and the drive doesn't even show up. And the pci_us_smartrecovery.exe for photos, but most of the BMPs and JPEGs recovered aren't viewable and they both run so slowly that I was only at 10 percent after three full days of running.
She's a college student and can't afford hefty professional recovery labs. Is there any good, reasonably priced software or process that will reliably recover Word documents and photos? Please help.
--Submitted by Chuck
Here are some featured member answers to get you started, but
please read up on all the advice and suggestions that our
members have contributed to this member's question.
Hard drive recovery --Submitted by waytron
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=310752&messageID=2873525#2873525
Corrupt Hard Drive --Submitted by Zouch
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=310752&messageID=2873965#2873965
50 ways to leave your lover... --Submitted by Gerdd
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-10149_102-0.html?forumID=7&threadID=310752&messageID=2873513#2873513
If you have the any additional advice or recommendations for Chuck, please click on the reply link and submit it. Please be as detailed as possible in your answers and if you have links even better. Thanks!
Recover data from hard drive
by dbrisendine - 10/3/08 7:39 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Try the following softwares: SpinRite (http://www.grc.com) or GetDataBack (http://www.runtime.org). Both are great. SpinRite is best for non technical people but can take a while to run. GetDataBack works best if you have anew drive to put recovered data on.
Try Using Acronis
by nress - 10/3/08 8:57 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
ACRONIS
Not so fast
by jsm55555 - 10/11/08 2:04 PM In reply to: Try Using Acronis by nressTerrible support - I gave up on these guys last year, took them a month to answer my technical inquiry and even then the response was impertinent. Don't wait till you really need these guys to see how bad the support is like I did...
Free Software that worked for me.
by DVDmaker - 10/3/08 8:59 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This works and is FREE....
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
bad disk recover
by kleejm - 10/3/08 9:09 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
this is happend a coppele of times to me
i have te program (get data back) i have lost all my photos end i have all back
greetz jos
yes very very bad
by m.estrada - 10/10/08 11:29 PM In reply to: bad disk recover by kleejmthis program is bad very bad
Easiest way to avoid this problem
by lhodges-iowa - 10/3/08 9:21 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have no suggestion for recovering the hard disk files. But here's how I operate, and have for many years, since the first small USB portable hard drives appeared. I bought one (I think it might have been only 20 GB at the time) and used it exclusively as my working drive for all files, carrying it back and forth between my university and home desktops, and also on my laptop computer; I could also use it on PCs I found in other places. All the files were in subfolders to a folder named "LH" and I could easily copy all the new or modified files onto my university and home desktop and laptop computers using the XCOPY command. This worked beautifully, and I never lost a file because I would backup in this fashion at the end of each workday and every evening. Today I still do this, but now with a 250GB portable drive (WD Passport), which I slip into my camera case every time I leave home: You never know when something might happen to your home!
the hard drive
by pun!$h,er28 - 10/3/08 9:21 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
connect everything up both hard drives new and old then just plug the power lead out of the old hd then switch on your pc then when its load everything go into your pc and plug just the power lead in on your old hd the ide lead should be in at all times /sata then go my computer then rigth clike properties then hardware then devicemanager then rigth clike disc drive then clike scan for hard ware changes and your other old hard drive shoul come on if it dosnt try bying an identical hd and change the mother borb on the hd because that what would have gone but i dont think you should do this on a regulare basis and i recomend 1f you have done this and it works chuck the old hd thanks 4 your time and let me no how it goes thanks
recovering data
by withak - 10/3/08 9:27 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I tried a trick that didn't work for me but may for you. The "techy dude" at the Staples where I shop the most had me wrap mine in a zip lock bagf and freeze for 6 hours. Once you take out you have a short amount of time before it "thaws" so to speak. he said ity has worked for him a couple of times, but it didn't for me.....if you come up waith any ideas I would LOVE to know. Mine crashe 3 months ago and I am still suffering the consquences!
~Withak
recoverying a crashed hard drive by freezing your drive
by agtuaz94 - 10/10/08 7:08 PM In reply to: recovering data by withakJust commenting on recovering a crashed hard drive and hearing that often but not always to freeze the hard drive in your freezer and reconnect and cross your fingers...it is worth a try since it does not cost any money
Didn't work for me
by jsm55555 - 10/11/08 2:05 PM In reply to: recovering data by withakI'd heard of this remedy, but it did nothing for me -
chuck in the past this happened and I found a tip to..;
by cvw666 - 10/3/08 9:31 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
freeze the hard drive in the freezer of the fridge and then plug it in and plug it in as a slave...it worked for me...I added "blue ice' packs and got most of the data back...chiefly text and jpg files...this was some time ago and the drive was an IDE...c
lost data
by edjsmesd2 - 10/3/08 9:43 PM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I recently made a mistake of hitting my system restore button while on my computer. I lost a lot of data and pictures in the process because I installed Office 2004 but the old office files are not readable. Whenever I try to open up the document, I get a message that says this doc cannot be open. I also lost my hot sync for my treo telephone. Can anyone help me with this problem. I am hoping that the data is still on my hard drive.
well...
by inventivemind - 10/16/08 3:56 AM In reply to: lost data by edjsmesd2if you do a system restore you shouldn't lose your data files like jpeg, or.doc Im sure all your stuff is in a folder somewhere.. do a search on the entire c:\drive for .jpeg or .doc and see if you recover your stuff.. The only way to lose data is if you do a format and complete reinstallation of your operating system.. not if u do a sys restore. About the office files.. if they won't open it's prob because your using an incompatible new application.. go to the old ones right click on them go to properties and in there you should be able to change the application that opens that document.. just change it to word doc or notepad if just need to view a file but if you need work on a file and edit it reinstall the original application you were using when it workedd fine. Hope that helps.
http://virusremoval.vpweb.com
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