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Hard Drive Recovery

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by joe645, 2008/12/09.

  1. 2008/12/09
    joe645

    joe645 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    I had a HD failure recently and took the computer to a repair facility. I'm not sure how far the shop went but they told me that the HD would not boot up, and that they couldn't "ghost" over any files to another working HD. They did say my HD was probably a candidate for HD Recovery but the cost would be expensive. I have ordered a new HD and want to know is there software on the market to try and recover any data off the old HD, or do I just bear the expense and send it to a Recovery Team? I do have a back up of my HD (about 3 months old) on an External HD in True Image format (.wbt), I believe. I can't remember how I did this, although I think I downloaded a trial version of Acronis Software. I sure would like to try and recover some recent photos and files off the failed HD and hope there is someone out there that can help me. Thanks for the effort.
     
    joe645,
    #1
  2. 2008/12/09
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Can you access the drive from within Windows?
    If so, there's some hope.
    If not, you'd be looking at a few Thousand Dollars to have a pro try to get data off.
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #2


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  4. 2008/12/09
    joe645

    joe645 Well-Known Member Thread Starter

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    The repair facility told me my HD would not boot to Windows. I am not sure if it is accessible from an external source such as using it as a slave HD and trying to access it through a working PC. Is that possible? I have seen some ads for data recovery for $279 not thousands.
    thanks for your input.
     
    joe645,
    #3
  5. 2008/12/10
    Steve R Jones

    Steve R Jones SuperGeek Staff

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    Trying to slave it to another machine would be the next step.

    If the drive only corrupt data AND you can access it, then a free app like the following might help:
    Recuva (pronounced "recover ") is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!
    http://www.recuva.com/

    If the drive has a mechanical failure and you can't access it, then you'd have to send it to the pros...And it'll cost a lot more then $279.00 .
     
    Steve R Jones,
    #4
  6. 2008/12/10
    FastTracker

    FastTracker Banned

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    Don't know if this would help or not, but I read in one of the PC magazines a letter from a man that had the same problem. The little printed circuit board on the back of his HD went bad. He purchased an EXACT duplicate HD and changed the board. Said it worked out fine for him.
     
    FastTracker,
    #5
  7. 2008/12/10
    Dennis L Lifetime Subscription

    Dennis L Inactive Alumni

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    If you want ALL of your info, you will need to try to access the old drive. If you can give up the past 90 days, your Acronis image should work fine. Reinstall Acronis program, connect your external drive and find the image backup (it will have a .tib extension). "Double click" on the file, with luck Acronis will automatically load it. If NOT, launch Acronis and choose option "Mount Image ". This is NOT a restore. This mounts a virtual drive with all of you C:\ drive information at the time of the backup. Follow the folder paths to your user name, My Documents and you will find all of your familiar folders and their contents. Now just copy / paste the contents into your current folders on your new drive. Only copy over what you want.
     
    Dennis L,
    #6
  8. 2008/12/10
    PeteC

    PeteC SuperGeek Staff

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    Be aware that Acronis can be scheduled to make an incremental backup at a frequenct to suit your needs - I make one weekly.
     
    PeteC,
    #7
  9. 2008/12/10
    wildfire

    wildfire Getting Old

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    This works, I've done it a few times myself but afterwards I wouldn't trust either drive (perhaps the new one for temp stuff).

    If you really need a backup of your failed drive and go to one of these cheap experts you'll find they'll retrieve your "My Documents" folder (hardly rocket science) or nothing at all (more than likely), but you'll still be charged full whack.

    Your best bet is to ask a friend who knows about computers to assist with slaving the drive and retrieving the data... These cheap data recovery firms are cowboys in my opinion.
     
    wildfire,
    #8
  10. 2008/12/11
    mattman

    mattman Inactive Alumni

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    Get the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows:
    http://www.ubcd4win.com/
    (239MB).

    I have been using it today to recover files from a HDD that accidentally got formatted.

    If you want to save the files to an external USB drive, it needs to be connected before you start the computer.

    Matt
     
    mattman,
    #9

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