recovering data from a dead hard drive

biccynana

Have just had a catastrophic hard drive failure in my Dell laptop. A friend who knows his way round computers and has enough kit to do some investigation of the drive says the following:
"It looks like the partitions on the drive are corrupted. So badly in fact I can only see one of them. One is called ‘Recovery’ which is a small Dell partition which, if used, would bring your laptop back to its factory settings. However the partition that this recovery tool would use is not visible so I doubt this would work even if you could boot to it."

Given those comments do you think there's any chance of a specialist being able to recover any data (photos particularly) from the hard drive. I don't really want to spend money on getting the drive looked at if there's absolutely no way any data could be recovered.

Thanks
Michael

googler

If one partition is visible and readable, that suggests that physically, the drive is working OK.

Without knowing HOW your friend viewed that partition (was the drive still in the laptop? did he remove it to a caddy? did he install it as a secondary drive in a desktop? etc etc), it's difficult to say more.

Armed with the make and model of drive, I'd suggest you look at the maker's own website and see what utiltities they have available for download. You might find something that you or your friend could use for data recovery.

Take it you don't have the photos backed up elsewhere, then?

GunJack

try booting the machine using a puppy (or other flavour) linux bootCD, you'll often find linux can read data off such a drive even when windows can't. I've saved data off drives in similar circumstances, not always, but give yourself (and techie mate) every chance you can....specialist data recovery costs several arms and legs......

Weird_Nev

There are freeware data recovery programmes that will do a raw read of the drive and copy it to a new drive. It sounds like the drive is physically ok as you can see the recovery partition.

Have a look here - it's been a while since I've done this so I don't have any specific software recommendations I'm afraid.
http://free-backup.info/data-recovery-software.htm

My advice would be to put the failed drive in a USB caddy (can be had very cheaply from the likes of ebuyer or dabs) and recover it to another external HDD of equal or larger capacity, then copy the required files back over to your fixed computer.

nembot

[edit] Okay should of read the whole post!

If it's not mechanically damaged, you can sometimes revive them long enough to pull data off by popping the drive in an airtight ziplock bag and give it a couple of hours in the freezer.

I've used this method a couple of times at home and in work as part of my previous server engineer role.

Sometimes if the pcb has failed, you can use once from an identical model (disk size isn't really a factor, the pcb must look exactly the same though) usually around 5/6 small screws to remove/replace.

S0litaire

OK! Sounds like its data corruption rather than a damaged drive!

You're lucky!! the partition information is held in a number of places on the drive!
Any good recovery software should be able to recover and restore the partition information and you'll get access to your data again!

I'd suggest keeping it in a USB caddy and using a program like "GetDataBack" http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-products.htm
the free version will scan the entire drive and let you know what partitions it can see and recover. ( you need to buy it to do the actual recovery but the free version will tell you if everything is recoverable!)

Just because Windows can't see the drive does not mean that the drive is not accessible! Software can try and connect to the drive directly (basically by-passing the windows explorer).

andy2004

instead of wasting money buying recovery software like getdataback which i have tried and compared against other recovery software, use Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva which is freeware and can recover just as much as getdataback, you can recover partition infomation quite easily with the right tools, Hirens Boot CD is one of the best allround freeware disc you can download I suggest the older 10.5 which has everything on you'll need. included data recovery software, partition recovery,

scotty_591

I am a Computer Scientist and have had previous work experience in a Computer maintenence and repair shop.

My advice is to get it seen to by a specialist, as if you don't know what you are doing, you could easily accidently format the drive or erase all of your data. I'd imagine it wouldn't cost more than £30 (if you went to a reputable dealer) to get it recovered. My brother's laptop hard drive overheated and it only cost him £26 to get it recovered.

Hope this helps

scotty_591

googler

S0litaire wrote: »

OK! Sounds like its data corruption rather than a damaged drive!

You're lucky!! the partition information is held in a number of places on the drive!
Any good recovery software should be able to recover and restore the partition information and you'll get access to your data again!

I'd suggest ..... the free version will tell you if everything is recoverable!)

Just because Windows can't see the drive does not mean that the drive is not accessible!

The prize for overuse of exclamation marks is hereby awarded....

S0litaire

googler wrote: »

The prize for overuse of exclamation marks is hereby awarded....

wow!!
you really like me!!!
I just like to thank....

:P lol

googler

nembot wrote: »

Sometimes if the pcb has failed, you can use once from an identical model (disk size isn't really a factor, the pcb must look exactly the same though) usually around 5/6 small screws to remove/replace.

You're not seriously suggesting taking a hard drive (as opposed to a USB HD enclosure) apart outside of a clean room, are you?