Hard Drive Recovery

[Danno]

Hi All

Just wondered if anyone has any dealings with HDD recovery after a catastrophic failure, making it totally unreadable.

At the moment i've got it set up a slave in my main PC and installed windows on a new HDD as the master. OMG its VERY unstable!

I'm using a peice of software called File Scavenger. It has read the files after scanning for 12 hours ( thats just for the photos! everything else can wait) and says it can recover them but now it tells me the C:\ drive is unformatted! Err no, thats the one running windows! So I have no where to save the recovered files

I can possibly do it via a network if I can get these two to communicate. But I'm unsure if its stable enough to do it.

Ideas?.................

[marky]

Can you view the files on the old HDD through Windows ??

[Danno]

Yes, sometimes, normally it tells me that its unformatted or theres no partition, even though it has two partitions. When it can see it, it canot read/cut/copy/paste or move any of the files. Even the folder structure remains intact.

[marky]

Ive never used a file recovery utility so im as stumped as you.

[Danno]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRGH

Its effin' crashed!

Ok another 12hour wait then.

So how easy is it to network these two PC's together. I've got the cross overcable and net cards

[Deviant 1]

When im working on or scanning PC's , to recover lost data i use a proggie called Easy Recovery Pro. It will even bring back data that has been wiped after a full drive format.
Theres no hiding anything. It will bring back info even from a 5 year old drive and things that were deleted at the beginning.

http://www.ontrack.com/

[TimberSurf]

When im working on or scanning PC's , to recover lost data i use a proggie called Easy Recovery Pro. It will even bring back data that has been wiped after a full drive format.
Theres no hiding anything. It will bring back info even from a 5 year old drive and things that were deleted at the beginning.

That assuming you havnt written over the data since!

Like I have done to the last 2 years worth of piccies!

[Danno]

When im working on or scanning PC's , to recover lost data i use a proggie called Easy Recovery Pro. It will even bring back data that has been wiped after a full drive format.
Theres no hiding anything. It will bring back info even from a 5 year old drive and things that were deleted at the beginning.

http://www.ontrack.com/

Yeah this Scavenger does the same thing. It just seems to get grumpy when I try and save the recovered data. Also the PC is SO unstable, you can't ask to do more than 1 thing at a time and that takes 5 minutes just to open a browse window. Oh well if I cant get it to work then I'll try and find Easy Recovery.

I've now put the duff drive in my spare PC so it can scan all night and not effect this one. Then I have over 12500 jpg files to sift through to find the ones I really want. What a pain in the arse tho. No drivers, no software, and no system disks, as that was all on a recovery partition on the drive! As I'm on dial up its taken ages just to get the right video drivers from nVidia!

[marky]

Is it making a clunking or clinking sound, If so its the heads crashing on the disk. A night in the freezer may help ensuring you put it in an airtight container 1st. Its an old trick but sometimes works.

[andy_enuff]

Yup, the old freexer trick can be VERY effective, only for short periods of read time tho, until the drive heats up again. Give it a go!

[Danno]

No, its not making any noises at all. But thats a new one on me!

I've emailed QueTech who make File Scavenger and they've given me the prerelease version 3, because they reckon its hardware failure and thats shifted the Partitioning around, therefore it can't recover any files although it will read them, and version 3 handles that problem better then previous.

They also advise making a "ghosting image" if the drive. What is this and how can I do it?

If all else fails, I've got some quotes from professional hardware recovery companies. Get this £95 to inspect the disk and give me a list of recoverable files, THEN prices start at £500, increasing by the Mb recovered.

[bobafatass]

If you can view all you images in windows, how about investing in a external hard drive, then drag and drop the files from one to the other.
Just an idea, might not work so I stand to be corrected !
Andy.

[Danno]

Nice idea Andy, but it can only see them, not read/move/cut or paste. Even with two HDD in the machine it cannot physically do anything with them.

Bummer

[aidyb]

Hard Drive Failure

Well, if you're having trouble even with your new hard drive installed.....have you considered that you have a virus ? Makes a machine do some mighty strange things....usually makes them run really slowly or things happen which normally would'nt happen.
As to the duff hard drive......if the data is really important, take it to someone who specialises in data recovery, though in my experience (through my computer wis-kid brother, (25 yrs. in the game and very very good at his job) even though it is possible to recover data, it is very time consuming, and you won't know if, and how much, till you let them try.) So they can't quote you a definite price for the job, cos they don't know how long it might take !
My advise, if it's really important stuff, set a limit as to how much you want to spend, and be prepared to walk away with perhaps nothing for your money....
Sorry , but that's how it might end up.
Ade.

[Danno]

I guess its a case of how much do I want to get my kids photos back. Especially with my recent change in marital status (bless her ). Its not going to be cheap, but they are worth it.