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Community Newsletter: Q&A: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive?
- 10/10/08 3:51 PM
Avoiding this problem...
by HwyTracker - 10/4/08 6:40 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Sorry tohear about the hard drive problem. Usually it takes a computer shop tech to salvage files from the hard drive.
My suggestion, because that happened to me, is sign up for the best recovery program I have ever seen. I learned about it from listening to the Kim Komando Show and by reading her posts on her fantastic site www.komando.com No, I do not know her or work for her or anything like that. I learn from her!
The program is Carbonite. Visit www.carbonite.com and check it out.
Your daughters puter is now protected and recovery is simple. If I can do it she could do it.
The program takes a few days working in the background to 'copy' the hard drive. Once complete it slowly copys everything you add or delete on the computer.
If files are lost, corrupted etc all you have to do is click on Recovery, find the file(s) and poof they are recovered.
As of today I have 7.0 GB or 29,165 files stored oin the Carbonites site.
Cost is about $50.00 per year. for unlimited backup.
Clean up the computers, add Carbonite's program and relax.
This backup method is safer than having an external backup wired to your computer. If there was a theft then the thief would also take the external backup. If there was a fire or water damage you lose.
With Carbonite allis saved, all is well for such a small price.
I hope everyone will listen to me and protect their info.
hywtracker
Cheaply retrieving hard drive data from a bad drive.
by wdemedio - 10/4/08 6:48 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Here is what you have to do:
1. Get some latex or plastic gloves and a small screwdriver set.
2. Remove the rubber banding seal around the old drive.
3. Ground the base plate of the bottom of the hard drive to a cold water pipe.
4. Wear the gloves. Use the appropriate screwdriver to take out all screws holding together the hard drive. Some are glued or clipped.If so,gently break the glue seal or mechanically remove the clips.
5. Now you can open the drive. DO THIS CAREFULLY! The top should come off leaving the base and mechanism exposed. You will see a sort of replica of an old fashioned record player with a laser write/rewrite arm. Under this arm is the critical piece, the hard disc. Usually when these go bad it is the arm that fails, not the disc. It is not even worth replacing the arm, put it in park and leave it alone.
6. There is normally a spring clip retainer holding the disc. Remove this with a spring clip retainer tool carefully. Do this cleanly and do not touch the disc with the tool.
7.Once this clip is out, there is an underlying bearing washer. Remove it with tweezers.
8. Now for the critical part-removal of the disc. This is where your daughter's data resides. Put on another pair of gloves and use a destaticing cloth to free them of dust and any charges. Make sure you have a good ziplock 1 qt bag nearby. Ground yourself to the same pipe as the base plate using a piece of aluminum duct taped to an ankle and using a copper wire direct from the aluminum to the pipe.
9. Remove the disc and inspect it. It should be perfectly even and have symmetric concentric rings around it, kind of like an old fashioned record but without grooves. It should not be warped. There should be no scratches or abnormal burns. If it looks fine, place it in the ziplock bag and wrap it in aluminum foil.
10. Assuming the actual disc is as described (if it is not you are taking a gamble with the next steps), we can go on to the next steps.So far we have spent nothing on parts and the tools can be gotten cheaply if you shop around. (I will assume you already have them.)
11. Go to ebay or amazon and buy a functional used hard disc drive of the same model. These can usually be had for a song. Repeat all steps above until you have the disc removed. Replace the disc with your daughter's and reverse the process until the rubber seal is in place. Keep everything clean and grounded.
12. Hook this used hard disc drive up as the master and put your new (the one you already bought new and tried)hard disc drive in as a slave. Boot the system and configure the slave drive (the one you bought new). Your Daughter's drive should be functional with all data intact. Copy all data on the master to the slave to use it as a back up. Then remove the slave and put it in the plastic anti static bag it came in and seal it. Save it in case you have another HDD failure as a spare.
13. For future reference, tell your daughter to make back up copies of her photos and important stuff on physical media eg.cd rom or dvd rom discs so if she should ever burn out her hard disc you won't have to go through the trouble of mechanical recovery.
14. Good luck and I hope the disc isn't burnt. Usually the problem is in a magnet or laser guidance system and the disc data is intact and extractible with good hardware. Hopefully this will do the job. I did it myself with success. There have been cases of recovery with burnt discs but it is less likely. Use your judgement.
Well!
by thebug - 10/4/08 6:51 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best one I've used is called Hard Drive Regenerator! Worked very well for me.
Ooh, you DO have a problem!
by Flatworm - 10/4/08 7:12 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
At this point your options are probably very limited, as are the likely results. I hate to say I told you so, but backups really ARE important, because all hard drives -- that's ALL, not "a few," not "some," not "most," but every single one of them -- eventually fail. The only question is when.
I doubt that you have the capability to do this in your own home because, well, if you did have the capability you wouldn't be asking the question.
You most likely will have to take the drive to some data recovery firm, of which you will find several in your area with any Google search on "disk drive data recovery," or if none are convenient to you, you can usually ship the drive to them via courier service.
These firms will dismantle your drive and use their specialized equipment to recover whatever data still can be recovered, sector-by-sector from the disk platters themselves. Fortunately for you, the price for these services has dropped significantly over the past several years. Where it used to cost between $3,000 and $5,000 even for a small hard drive, now some places offer to do it for $279. That's a deal and something that she or you might find affordable.
But even so, don't get your hopes up too high. If the problem is internally electrical in the head control or a physical flaw in the head itself other than its "wings," you could potentially get your entire drive contents back It is likely, however, that something has actually corrupted the surface of one or more of the platters in the drive, and because of the repeated attempts to read from it, the corruption may have spread around. In a head crash situation, every use of the disk is likely to damage more of its surface. If you spun those platters for three days you have a real problem now. In this case, you may get something back but not anywhere nearly everything.
With storage now so cheap, you can back up drives easily to USB drives. I have a 1 TB WD drive that I back up to frequently; you can get terabyte drives sometimes under $200. And to those who say that it just backs up to another drive with the same risks, I say, well, what are the chances of BOTH failing SIMULTANEOUSLY?
corrupt hard drive
by 910555549 - 10/4/08 7:17 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are some programs available, but they are very expensive, that is why those companies that specialise in this field charge prices that are out of proportion to the actual work that is done.
It is a good idea in the future to make sure you have a spare hard drive so that important documents are on the spare drive rather than the one that you use for your main operating system.
Have you tried SpinRite by Gibson Research?
by tatepc - 10/4/08 7:52 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would in this scenario.
Recovering data
by dminott - 10/4/08 8:05 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You might try putting the drive in the freezer for a while!
If that doesn't work, possible WARMING it up with a hair dryer.
If the problem is due to "stiction", this might free up the mechanism.
If not, a slight shift in head alignment might do the trick as well.
In any event, it's free. PLEASE instruct your daughter on regular backups! You can get an external USB enclosure for under $30 and add a cheap hard drive. Also, most colleges offer a deal with an offsite backup comapny for a few dollars a month. This might be the safest way to go.
Good luck,
Dave
Isobuster
by guru08 - 10/4/08 8:17 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You can try http://www.isobuster.com/ (isobuster 2.4 is free)
Try Knoppix
by alpinextreme - 10/4/08 8:17 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I was able to recovered part of my HD after people told me it was corrupt. I had a friend in IT that suggested I tried knoppix to take a look at the HD. Knoppix is a free linux-based OS that runs entirely off CD-rom. If you can see the drive, you'll need a blank external drive to copy the files to.
You can download the .iso file at
http://www.knoppix.net/
I don't know if this will work for you, but it did for me.
DATA RECOVERY
by adityainfotec - 10/4/08 8:19 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I once faced the same problem and the solution is to use a good data recovery software which is quick and easy to use. I recommend the Easy Recovery Professional ( www.ontrack.com ). This software should be loaded on the good working main hard disk and the problematic hdd should be attached as a slave by jumper setting. FOLLOW the on screen instructions and u r thru.
best of luck
Rammesh, MIRA ROAD / INDIA
Use a different OS to attempt file recovery.
by ebbtides - 10/4/08 8:21 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would suggest you attempt to read that HD by running a different Operating System (Linux-based) from your CD-Rom drive. Try running "UBUNTU," or another similar version of Linux from your CD-Rom drive to read the questionable HD. Linux can "see" Windows files just fine.
To do this, you will have to first enter the BIOS of your machine and change the boot order of your devices so that the CD-Rom drive is read first, before the HD.
UBUNTU and other similar discs are freely available off the net. When running, attempt to find those missing files and live-boat them onto the new HD or a flash memory stick.
GOOD LUCK....HOPE THIS HELPS!
recovering lost data
by Betsy47 - 10/4/08 8:22 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You may recover some or all data by putting your hard drive in the freezer overnight.
Betsy47
Hard drive recovery program
by admarr1 - 10/4/08 8:47 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
SpinRite by grc.com
http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
I have used this program myself to rescue data from three crashed hard drives. It takes quite a long time so be prepared to leave it running over night. Not free but worth every cent when the data is recovered!
Way to fix a Hard drive possibility
by Ralph60 - 10/4/08 8:49 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This may or may not work but it doesn't cost anything to try and i have seen it work once and maybe twice. Its a bit drastic but it may work enough to get the drive turning. Simply put take the drive out of the Computer and hold it three feet off the floor and drop it or just give it a good crack to jar the Hard Drive. This may jar it enough to get it working temporarily. I saw it work just by accident one time at a radio shack and the system came back on so I'm sure they cleaned off all the valuable data before it crashed again. Let me know if it works. Another thing you may try if that doesn't work is to take to some with the technology to apply a larger power Supply voltage to it, not much but just a few volts might bring it back to life. you can't do it your self because it needs data plus the proper operating voltage applied to make it start. If neither works send it to me and i'll give a try and no charge if I don't get it going.
Hard Disk Recovery
by friarchuck - 10/4/08 8:51 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Chuck,
A crashed hard drive can be serious issue. The question becomes WHY it crashed. If the hard drive has some kind of "software" failure, like a corrupt partition table, then you can recover it with utilities at home. If, on the other hand, it has a "hardware" failure, such as something blew on a circuit board, you can all but hang it up for at home recovery, because the mechanical failure has to be fixed before it can be read. This is why IT has 3 rules that they live by, 1) Back up all hard drives, 2) Back up all data you don't want to lose, and 3) Back up everything on the computer.
As to what you can do now that the failure has occurred, you can try a few things. You have already done the first, connecting it as a slave drive and trying to read from there. I have had excellent luck with two other tricks. The first is to boot the computer using a Linux Live CD (a version of Linux that runs straight from a CD) and mount the hard drive in Linux, then attempt to move files from the bad drive to a USB drive or memory stick. Linux will quite often read around errors that Windows won't. Doing this you may lose some data, but usually I tend to get about 75% of the data back if anything. If you don't know much about Linux, you may want to look for a friend with Linux experience when attempting this one, because I have always found it necessary to go command line to work around the bad spots, and the skills to do this are beyond a posting on CNET.
The final solution is a software that I have used before that tends to be the best I have found. It is called R-Studio, you can find it at http://www.r-studio.com. It will cost you $50, but I have used it before with great success.
Good luck with the data recovery, and heed my best advice. Once you get things running again, learn from your lesson and develop a backup strategy for the computer.
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