Hard Drive Recovery

[tcb 180]

Any computer buffs out there?

I had an external 500gb hard disc failure a few weeks ago and lost all my personal pics, docs etc.

Bought one of those devices off Amazon but still failed to read the drive. Looks like the only way now would be to pay a firm hundreds of pounds to recover the data.

All car shows, holidays, weddings, car rebuilds etc Gutted!

Anyone out there have the know how to help me please?

[sneekyparrot]

Any computer buffs out there?

I had an external 500gb hard disc failure a few weeks ago and lost all my personal pics, docs etc.

Bought one of those devices off Amazon but still failed to read the drive. Looks like the only way now would be to pay a firm hundreds of pounds to recover the data.

All car shows, holidays, weddings, car rebuilds etc Gutted!

Anyone out there have the know how to help me please?

If the drive is spinning then it maybe a logic fault on the brd. Its a long shot but if you can get another drive the same model version etc then swap the logic brd.
beyond that its data recovery but i would do some research as it may not be as much as you think. I had a drive recovered around 20yrs ago and it was around £850 back then but not many were doing it back then.

P.

Ps. Also try it in another machine as a slave, do not try to boot from it. if you can see it then its a start. I used to have some drive software so if you can get machine to see it then drop me a line and i will do some digging.

[Malteser]

When you plug in the hard drive, does it spin up?
- if yes, then see next question
- if no, then should check if you have another EXACT drive and try switching the mainboard that is on it because the board might have gone

If it spins up, is there a grinding noise?
- if no, see next question
- if yes, you could try the freezer trick. Basically put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the freezer for a day or two. This might be enough to let it run smoothly enough for the computer to use it so you can pull some data from it.

If it spins and there are no noises, does the computer "see" it? check My Computer to see if it is there. If not, check Disk Manager (Right click on My computer and click MAnage if on Vista or 7). If it is there and just not able to be used, then you can try this next step but be warned. You do have the potential of losing data!!

Right click on the partition and format it (a quick format not a Deep Format!!!).
Download Recuva (free software from the internet)
Open Recuva after installing it and do a Deep Scan of that drive. Then ask it to recover that info that it does find to another drive. I have used this program and method many times and it has always worked for me on hard disks, SSDs, flash cards, USB sticks and anything else that holds data (even a floppy disk once!) but every situation is different.

Hope this helps you out and if you need any other help feel free to write here or PM me. Good luck

[DuckFeet]

LAST resort before binning it is double ziplock and 24hours in the freezer, might get you 15minutes use before its completely gone.

[tcb 180]

It makes a noise when you connect it but the computer does not identify it at all. Tried one of those recovery kits. Wired it all up and still no drive identified. I had a fella run some tests and still no good.

Heard of freezer trick but most say whatever, do not do this?

Cost of recovery firm is £299 - £399 and that's the cheapest.

I am thinking of getting a new pcb for it ? They are around £25 delivered from Canada. May be worth trying do you think???

Gutted mainly due to all pics I've lost.

[peterzs]

we normally ask the grand son to fix it!!!!

Not got any computer repair shops near you???

[tcb 180]

Yes Pete but its specialist stuff. Has to be opened in a sterile lab environment etc or you can contaminate disc and lose it all for good.

[dave23572]

Give these guys a call:-

http://www.krollontrack.co.uk/data-recovery/

[peterzs]

good luck with it, suppose we should all back up the hard drive. (sounds good, but I know ****** all).

[tcb 180]

Thanks Dave. Sent an inquiry off to them just now.

[dave23572]

Thanks Dave. Sent an inquiry off to them just now.


It won't be cheap, but may be your only option from what I've read.

I run an IT support business myself.
If your drive was just corrupt or with only minor hardware failure, I should be able to recover the data for you, but it sounds like you have a higher degree of hardware failure so I expect you'll need a specialist data recovery firm to take the drive platters out and recover the data using their machinery in their clean room.


On a general note, here is some advice for all you hard drive users out there:-

Backup your data regularly to a device that is not left permanently connected to your computer. Only connect the device to your computer for backups then remove it and store it somewhere else, preferably fireproof.


SMART monitoring
It is a good idea to have a hard drive SMART monitoring program running on your computer. Hard drives generally fail gradually rather than suddenly. Like a car, they wear out over time. Wear and tear in the motor, head mechanism and also the drive surface itself.

A SMART monitor will alert you to many of the error states hard drives can report. Normally these errors are not picked up by Microsoft Windows at all, until of course it gets so bad that Windows becomes unstable, freezing, or not booting, possibly with data loss at the worst stage.

A hard drive SMART monitor will give you a much earlier warning of impending drive failure, so you can get the drive replaced long before you hit the real problems.

I install a SMART monitor on not only my own computers, but all my customer's computers. The one I use is CrystalDiskInfo (http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html) which is free software.
Install the "Standard Edition" and during the installation process be sure to choose "Custom Installation" and de-select the junk software that is attached to it, such as it is with many free programs. Otherwise it will also install software you don't want, possibly even adware. As long as you de-select it, it's fine.

Once it's running it will show you information about your hard drive status.
Under the function menu set both "Resident" & "Startup" to ON, to make it run silently in the background going forward.
You can also configure it to e-mail you if problems are detected (under the "Function / Alert Features" menu).
All my customer's computers are set to e-mail me if CrystalDiskInfo detects a problem.

More information about SMART (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Monitoring%2C_Analysis_and_Reporting_Technology)



Regards...
D Hale
http://www.dhcomputing.co.uk

[peterzs]

thanks Dave, good advice.

[tcb 180]

The good news is: YES THEY CAN DO IT !

The bad news is : IT WILL COST BETWEEN £299 - £999 PLUS VAT

Don't care what anyone says, that is taking the ****!

[Jason04r]

There not cheap , we sent a customers hdd and they charged £899 ... It was a government owned hdd so they didn't care.

Smart protection works very poorly .I change hdd's daily and smart didn't detected a problem on say 90% of the drives yet failed on short dst test.

[tcb 180]

The most needed things on there are the refurb of the Astra Gte, in case we sell it one day. My old Zed pics CA 03 MXC and car shows.

[dave23572]

There not cheap , we sent a customers hdd and they charged £899 ... It was a government owned hdd so they didn't care.

Smart protection works very poorly .I change hdd's daily and smart didn't detected a problem on say 90% of the drives yet failed on short dst test.

Oh yes I know SMART monitoring isn't the complete solution and doesn't pick up all faults, but it's still worth it if it's free software.

What hard drive testing tools do you recommend?

Dave

[tcb 180]

Been put in touch with a family friend who's working in computers in the states so hopefully he can either come up with a fix or be able to get it done cheaper? Awaiting a reply with fingers crossed.

[peterzs]

Good luck, sounds a nightmare.

[Jason04r]

Oh yes I know SMART monitoring isn't the complete solution and doesn't pick up all faults, but it's still worth it if it's free software.

What hard drive testing tools do you recommend?

Dave

Generally seatools from bootable disk , depends on the machine . Dells diagnostic normally finds issues before needing seatools ... Seems I normally fix dells then any other brand :)