Recovering data from HDD

papito

Hi, I have seem many other threads about this issue but could not get an answer on same problem as mine.
My history started trying to delete and external USB hdd using disk Killer.
Suddenly I realize this was deleting my PC drive (5 seconds) and I turn the PC off. Now I cannot Boot the Pc anymore but it is recognized in BIOS.
I send it to PC world and they said they were unable to recover any data due to the HDD been faulty.
It is not faulty because it was working fine and it is recognized in BIOS. It spins, etc. I tried to conect it with USB to a laptop but cannot see it in the "My PC".
Any suggestions will be really appreciated as all my data from my baby and family are in there, some files from University that I need too. Currently I have a quote from a Company of £200, another is asking £200 to £400 depending on how complex.
Thank you

Blacksheep1979

you could have knackered something when you physically turned it off. Have a look at some of ontracks tools - getdataback or tiramisu.

papito

I had to turn it off, since there was no option to stop the deleting of the HDD files. I will look into this getdataback on google, thanks

everythingblogcast

Spinrite 6 go to https://www.grc.com for more information. It costs $80 so about £40.

crox

papito wrote: »

I tried to conect it with USB to a laptop but cannot see it in the "My PC".

Could you see it in computer manager? Right click my computer, click manage, expand storage and look under disk management.

papito

ohh! I panic when this happenned and did not checked, I will pick it up from PC World today and try and see.

papito

well,I have my hdd back from PC world and now if connected with USB enclosure it shows as Drive E in "my Computer", but if I want to open it, a pop up wndow saying the Drive is not formatted and asking me if I want to format the drive now? Is that means something?

papito

Blacksheep1979 wrote: »

you could have knackered something when you physically turned it off. Have a look at some of ontracks tools - getdataback or tiramisu.

I tried getdataback and apparently it can recover some data, but is very slow as i coul donly connected to a USB1, I'll try to put as a second drive on a PC and see what happens....thanks

any other sugestions?? please

CHR15

You are doing the right thing by connecting to another PC as a second drive.

Just make sure on the PC you have enough space on the C: drive to restore your files to.

On no account attempt to restore onto the same drive you are attempting to recover from (it should warn you about this).

You may well end up with a folder on the C: drive (call it what you wish, e.g. Recovered)

Killdisk is very destructive for Data. You may well have lost completely all the files it had got through before you hit the power button.

That said, hopefully it began with file system files so your personal data may well be recoverable.

It is slow, but you have nothing to lose.

Dead_Eye_Jones

GL with this. Sadly people only seem to learn the importance of backups the hard way . I just add this in my continual drive to hammer home this point. I know the OP will never go without backups again but I bet many readers still have critical data not backed up. Id suggest a cheap USB drive to backup all the personal stuff (photos, docs, etc) and ideally keep this at your parents/childrens place etc.

Yep it cost money and yep it is a pain. But sooner or later you WILL lose data...

Best of luck to the OP - I cant really add anything to the above. Sadly many of the erasing progs out there do random overwrites to ensure data recovery is impossible . Hopefully you switched it off in time - its unlikely the drive is damaged, its worth giving the recovery software a go !

Blacksheep1979

I wouldn't reccomend usb disks for backup, rather write the data to a cd/dvd, check that its written correctly and then store it somewhere safe where it won't get scratched. USB and other solid state memory devices have a finite number of write times before they start to act up.