Community Newsletter: Q&A: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive?
- 10/10/08 3:51 PM
Recovering data.
by willisjohn - 10/4/08 8:56 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have done this several times with great success. Shop around and find the cheapest hard drive that you can find that is the same drive that does not work. Usually less than a hundred dollars for 120 gig drive, more likely 50-60 dollar range. remove the electronics from the new drive and replace on the drive that is not working. your dirve will then be readable. If not change the electroncs back and you have a new drive for your computer. I Have done this on many PCs with about 90 percent success rate. Only a few drives acually crash.
There are several tools to recovery data.
by kcasey001 - 10/4/08 9:09 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Most noteworthy is rstudio from r-tt.com. The demo version will allow you to determine if the product will work for the drive. Cost of the software to buy if it is able to recover data is around $50.00
Re: Answers for Chuck-- Ways to recover data from a corrupt
by burnto - 10/4/08 9:11 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Another option would to boot your computer with an Ubuntu live cd and see if you can access the drive within linux.
Corrupt Boot Sector
by nitromerk - 10/4/08 9:21 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This sounds typical of a virus that got into the Boot Sector of the HD and now the OS can't see it. I had this problem back in the days when we used to use FAT32 for the file system. I have a HD Utility that would then redo the boot sector and then windows would see the drive again. I paid $10 for the Utility CD and the program was PART.exe.
My suggestion would be to scan it connected to an OS or better yet....make a set of floppy Virus scanning tools that you can boot to and then scan the drive. Then get on the web and find some HD Utilities That will handle [I'm guessing you used NTFS for the file system on the HD] an NTFS file system and rewrite the boot sector. Windows should possibly see it again and you will be able to recover your data.
Good Luck.........Nitromerk
It all depends...
by Backup Bob - 10/4/08 9:27 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hold the drive to your ear and listen to it. You should hear the motor spinning. If not you may be very much out of luck.
Listen for any repetitive noise such as click-a-click or squeak-clunk. If you hear one of those, and if the disk is not spinning, shut everything down and ensure there is power to the disk drive.
If the disk is spinning and making those noises you may not be able to do much more except to contact a recovery service (see below).
If the disk is spinning and not making any noises, go to Disk Manager and see if the disk is mounted. Right click My Computer, click Manage, and look for the Disk Manager. Just remember that this also be a Disk Mangler if you don't know what you are doing.
If you see an unidentified disk that may be the one you are trying to fix. If it is there that is a good thing. You may be able to save your data.
Try a utility program to see if the disk can be read at all. There are a number on line that will read the disk and tell you what is on it. If it seems to work, you pay them perhaps $35 and they will send an unlock key that lets you extract the data. The last such program I used came from O&O Software in Germany. The product I bought rescued a file that by all rights should have been long gone.
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/
Another possible fix is to download Ubuntu or Knoppix. You will get an ISO file which you need to copy to a CD. This is not the same as copying the file; you need to copy it as a "disk image". It will become a bootable Linux CD.
Put the Linux CD into the drive and boot from it. It takes time to load but you should see a desktop that is similar to Windows in many ways. Find your hard drives. One of them should be an NTFS or FAT32 drive.
See if you can read the drive. If you can, get a memory stick and start copying files.
If you get a good hit with the utility or the Linux disk, do NOT turn off the computer or the drive until you get what you need from the drive. There is no guarantee you will ever get that drive up again.
If you are really desperate for the data there are companies that will either fix the drive or put the platters into another drive and recover the data. The bill for the pile of CDs you will receive may have a comma in it so this is not to be undertaken lighty.
for knoppix and instructions - try this site.
by kcasey001 - 10/4/08 9:28 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Data Recovery
by bkspeck - 10/4/08 9:31 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Firstly, I'm sorry to hear about your hard drive issues. Now, onto something that might work for you...
Depending on where you live, you may find an independent consultant willing to attempt recovery of your data. Ask around, or try to look a few people up. I do data recovery in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
If you're unsuccessful in finding reasonable help, then you could try to recover it yourself. I use OnTrack's EasyRecovery Pro software. It's not cheap, but as long as there isn't any physical damage to the drive, this software will read the data. I do not have any experience with the software you mentioned.
If you're having trouble getting the drive to "spin" then you need to go to Plan F. The "F" stands for Freeze. I have done this numerous times on drives that wouldn't spin. Your batting average may vary, but I've been successful a bit more than half the time with this technique. SEAL the drive in plastic to reduce the chance of moisture getting on and into the drive. Place it in a freezer overnight, and then quickly install it into a computer, and immediately try to read the drive. The theory here is that when the parts get cold, they contract. When they're contracted, they get tighter, and it might be enough to get the drive to spin. I have even had stubborn drives that get very hot very fast stay in the freezer, sealed in plastic, wired to a computer on top of the freezer in an effort to keep them cold! Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do!
The above tips do work sometimes, but the BEST advice is to prevent data loss in the first place. How?
- Backup your data. I'm as guilty as the next guy when it comes to doing regular backups, but you must have at least one copy of the data that is important to you. CD-R's, writable DVD's, flash drives and external drives are all cheap solutions to copying and backing up your data.
- DEFRAGMENT Your Drives! I cannot stress this enough. A fragmented drive leads to poor performance, more wear and tear (the drive has to work harder to find your data) and eventually, drive failure. When data recovery is attempted on a severely fragmented drive, the process is slowed considerably. This is critical, because time is the enemy when you're trying to get a drive to keep spinning in order to read it. At a minimum, use the Defragmenter that comes with Windows. Spend a few bucks on Executive Software's Diskeeper, and you'll never have to worry about fragmentation again! It has a "set it and forget it" mode that keeps your drives running smoothly 24/7.
I strongly suggest to all that read this to DEFRAGMENT Your Drives NOW! Look into a good defragmentation program, or at a minimum, run the Windows Defragmenter at least once a week. My clients who keep their drives defragmented are much less likely to encounter data loss.
I wish you luck in your data recovery efforts.
Use Linux Live CD
by LinuxOne - 10/4/08 9:32 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Try using a Linux Live CD, when my Seagate 250gb HD died, I put a new 250gb HD in and put the old one in slave, then I booted from the Live CD and it found all of my old files and everything from the old HD and transferred it to the new one. That worked and I recovered all my files that way. Try that.
Recover data, images, documents etc
by jvgrago - 10/4/08 9:46 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best an easiest (also free) way to recover data from a corrupt drive or a hard drive that has bad sectors is to use a "live cd". One of the best that I have found is The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. It boots into a windows type environment, then allows you to view the bad hard disk in question. There are also utilities to backup, scan for viruses, malware, internet and more.
While this boot cd requires that you have a registered version of windows handy to build the cd, its really not that difficult to create the image and then burn it to cd. Once burned, boot up and you can choose one of many tools to recover your data.
Good Luck!
Jim Grago
Pulling info from a corrupted drive
by phil hammond - 10/4/08 9:53 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Chuck,
You don't have to spend a ton of money anymore to save your data from a damaged or corrupted drive. There are two things you can do inexpensively to try to solve the problem.
1. Pick up an external hard drive enclosure into which you can plug your hard drive. Samba's SATA or PATA Enclosure is a good one and will only set you back $30. Plug the now external drive into your computer via the USB connector. If you can read it from there, you are golden. If not, go to step two.
2. Go online and download a free copy of File Scavenger. You can google the name and get it from a variety of sources. It will read your drive and tell you what you will be able to recover. Chances are, you will see everything you want to recover. If you like what you see, pay the $50 for the software and you are back in business.
This $80 remedy is the best deal in the computer business.
If File Scavenger can't pull off the data, chances are you have real structural damage to the drive. In that case, you will have to send the drive off to a company that will carefully tear apart the drive and pull off the data. They should tell you what they can recover before you pay. I have used On Track Data Recovery in the past and they pulled off all my data on a frozen and scratched disk. Be prepared, however, to lay out some serious cash. It's not cheap, but you have to determine what your data is worth.
Good luck to your girl in school and to you, her dad whose hope is to keep her there.
Ultimate Boot Cd Url
by jvgrago - 10/4/08 9:53 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I forgot the url to the ultimate windows boot cd...
http://www.ubcd4win.com/
Jim
Not always simple or cheap....
by TMT904 - 10/4/08 10:11 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Unfortunately, it sounds as if the HDs solid state circuitry has gone bad...as evidenced by the drive not making a sound. With that being the case, you won't be able to plug it into another port or put it in an enclosure to retrieve the data. To make a long story short, the only way to get the data off of it (relatively cheaply) is to find another drive of the same model.
By that, I mean the same Model #, Part #, and same date. You can find this information on the back of the drive. If you could find one with the same revision number as well, you should be good to go. That can be a tedious task of calling around. Once you have it, technically, it's a matter of replacing the circuit board on the bad drive with the new one. I would recommend taking it to someone knowledgeable in this process as it could ruin both drives if done incorrectly.
The only way I know of other than this would be to send the drive to a steril lab to have the platters removed.....in excess of $700 would be my best guess. Good Luck.
-Joe
Acronis Disk Director.... It really works!!!
by exflkid - 10/4/08 10:20 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've used Acronis Disk Director on 2 separate occasions to restore data from a bad hard drive. Try the free trial, it can't hurt. Although, if the hard drive heads have dropped, you'll have to send it in to a professional to get to the data. This can run you a few hundred dollars depending on the data size you want to recover. Good luck!
Acronis Disk Director inquiry
by p_fancy - 10/11/08 10:37 AM In reply to: Acronis Disk Director.... It really works!!! by exflkidWith my hard drive, I'm thinking the head might be bad or something. I hear it trying to run, but my computer, as master, slows down and will not load. Does that mean this slave (bad hard drive) has physical damage. Or is had bad mechanical part? My working computer can't load while the bad hard drive is hooked up as secondary.
Backup Backup Backup
by mkoehne - 10/4/08 10:26 AM In reply to: Ways to recover data from a corrupt hard drive? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The answer to this problem is to LEARN A LESSON FROM IT. Buy a large external USB hard drive (preferably 3 times the size of your data drive) and back your data up to it faithfully. Perform full backups weekly, including the System State. On the 4th week, delete the oldest existing backup before performing the new full. Test the backups by performing a restore on a regular basis. If any of these terms or concepts are unfamiliar, search the Web for more help.
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