data recovery question

[ripcord2k2]

I've got a 100GB western digital IDE drive (NTFS partition) that has just died (running winxp and it disappeared from explorer, although it still shows up in the device manager). The drive is detectable in the bios, but I can't install anything too it or read the contents. I've contacted several data recovery labs and all are saying it's anywhere from $500 - $5000 to get the data back. I have seen some software that claims to work, and I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with it, or thinks I'm just out of luck and my only option is to either give up or pay the insane amount of money. I have tried a couple of demo releases of software claiming to recover data from drives that were otherwise unreadable (but not physically damaged) and they all recognize my drive at least. So far though, none recognize any partitions, and all recognize there are errors. Right now I'm running a program that's taking quite a bit of time analyzing the drive (in about 24 hours it's at 7% so far). Anyone have any tips or experience with something like this?

thanks in advance for any help/advice,

rip

 

[Accessdabbler]

You must have 2 or more HDs?

First, do a virus check.
Next, do you have TweakUI installed? You can hide the drive from "My Computer" with this program so you can unhide it as well.

Are you sure you can see it in Device Manager? You should have 1 entry for each drive. If it is there, look at the properties, is there an error?

 

[wolluf]

If you've got some sort of access to the drive you could try this one if you haven't seen it

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

I haven't used it on bad drive - just tried it out on good one, looking for deleted files - seemed to work (from what it says, it won't work if the NTFS partition information is corrupted).

 

[meinalaska]

Since you use windows xp, you can recover your whole computer system by the followed steps:
1. Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore.
2. Choose "Restore my computer to an earlier time." , then click "Next".
3. Choose a day when you are sure that you system was fine, then click "Next".
4. Following the guide, you will restore your a good earlier system.

 

[TigerFlight]

I'm not sure but. Win 98 has TweakUI that will hide a HD. Are you using a program like that? The drive is still there but it is undetectable from windows. Do you have any apps that you run installed on that drive? Do they still function? If so, the drive has only been hidden. This can be set in the registry. The reason I am unsure is, I haven't had a chance to play with my XP machine yet. Wife is always on it.

It might not be dead, just hidden. ^Tiger_Flight
Everyone has their two cents worth. Lets all try to donate our two cents and maybe we all can come up with a Dollars worth of advice!!!!!

 

[ripcord2k2]

I don't have TweakUI installed, and it's not my primary drive so I can't do a "system restore." I guess there just must be a bunch of bad sectors and a bad partition, because even though these demo data recovery tools recognize my drive (size, sectors, etc) they don't see any partitions, and when I analyze them they just grind away (I stopped the latest one after it only went up 1% in a day) So I guess I'm just going to send it in to a lab that does free estimates and hope I can cut a deal (since I'm not a company and I'm just wanting to transfer data to another drive, which I'm providing as well)

 

[Enkrypted]

Have you checked your Event Viewer after the drive disappeared for any unusual errors? Also, are you able to identify the drive in Disk Management and see if it's reporting the correct information<as well as in the BIOS>? Enkrypted
A+
Let others know how much help they are by marking the helpful posts.

 

[prajapat]

Can you list the Partitions on the drive with approx size and the demo tools you tried. I have some and I think the job can be done.

Again on which partition, the required data resides. If needed, you may contact directly to my mailbox.

Chetan Prajapat