Data Recovery from a Bad Hard Drive

[stuwage]

I have a bad hard drive here with some important data on that that I'd like to retreive if possible. I can't read from the drive no matter what I try.

I know there are companies out there that provide data recovery, but I'm wondering if anyone knows any that are especially good, or especially bad.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[micker377]

I can't read from the drive no matter what I try"

What all have you tried? Post a list, someone may reply with something else. Does BIOS see the drive on boot? What OS? Did you try the drive in another computer(as slave)?

 

[garebo]

getdataback is the program i hear about most often, though I dont have a lot of experience with it.

Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[mainegeek]

stuwage,
Posting back with some info as micker377 has suggested would be most helpful. If the drive is picked-up by the bios and just simply can not be read then GetDataBack as garebo has mentioned may be the solution.

I use this software often.

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

 

[stuwage]

Thanks for the replies. Here is more info, as requested.

The drive is a slave drive, not bootable.

The BIOS does recognize the drive, and it shows up on POST. However, when Windows XP loads, the OS slows down to a crawl. There's no hint of a drive letter for that hard drive under My Computer (which takes forever to come up), and the system won't run long at all if this drive is connected.

I've tried accessing it as a slave drive, and putting it in an external hard drive enclosure hooked up with a USB cable. I can't read from the drive, period. No error message, it just brings the system to a stand still as soon as Windows loads.

I'd love to get it working, but if I can't do it here, the user is ready to shell out the cash to a 3rd party company for data recovery.

 

[stduc]

You could try running the manufacturers diagnostics on the drive. You could download SpinRite from

http://www.grc.com

(you have to pay for it) and see what it has to say about the drive. Sounds to me though like the controller board may be failing.

 

[garebo]

If the controller board is bad you can simply buy the very same drive and swap controller boards to get the data off the bad drive, then swap controller boards back and you have a good drive to work with. If you wanted to go that way then the best, cheapest way to get one of these drives is to join a forum that has a for sale\trade forum, such as at anandtech, tech imo, etc. There are quite a few. But you need to join for free and contact someone there who has a lot of replies to their name, been there a while, and ask for their help.

So you have a few different ways to do this.

Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[stuwage]

Thanks guys.

I've downloaded the seagate diagnostic tools, and so far I've only run the quick tests. Going to run more full tests later, but it looks like maybe the only thing wrong with it is that the FAT is messed up.

Is there a way to repair the file allocation table without losing data?

 

[garebo]

Not sure if that would help, but it may not hurt to try the fdisk /mbr command.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[mainegeek]

stuwage,
GetDataBack should be able to retrieve it for you.

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

 

[stuwage]

I want to say thanks to everyone. This issue has been resolved.

Just to let you know, here is what ended up doing it for me. I didn't even try getdataback, because the description of the program said it runs from Windows. This drive locks Windows up every time if it is connected, so anything that runs from Windows is worthless to me in this case.

I will remember that program for future reference though.

The solution was pretty simple once I found out it was the FAT table. I booted from a 98 CD, and ran scandisk on the drive. It repaired the File Allocation Table, and had to rename quite a few files and directories. Once it did, I was able to access all the information, and it looks like everything is there. Windows no longer freezes with this drive connected.

 

[garebo]

Good for you!

Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[mainegeek]

stuwage,

"This drive locks Windows up every time if it is connected"

That would have been useful info ......


Either way it is good that you got it sorted out. If it were me I would get any/all needed data off the drive and not rely on it for future use. It has probably developed bad sectors and will probably continue to.

 

[garebo]

Another thing, check your bios and see if you have "S.m.a.r.t listed in your bios. If you see it in your bios then enable it. What smart does is tell you when your drive is going to fail, it has technology built into it, it reads the drive and knows when its going bad and tells you in advance. But it has to be enabled in the bios. It wont do any harm to your h drive or your computer, its good to have it enabled.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips