Lost Precious Photos On Hard Drive

candygurl

Hi all.
I have an external hard drive which is encased in an INTEGRAL box which i plug into my usb port. this hard drive was in my old pc, but would not fit in the new one so i use it this way in the box. it has worked a few times, it holds a few important files, plus all my ipod/itunes music and most important all of my photos.

it just stopped working. when i plugged it in last week to update my ipod my pc would not recognise it. i brought it back to PC WORLD to check if it was the unit but it is the hard drive, they tell me.
they also told me that there was a slight smell from the box when they opened it like something had shorted (could this be becuase they set it up wrong in the first place? as they put the drive into the box for me).. and that it's the drive not the box and that i will have lost all that data..

i'm desperate to get the photos.. this was my back up and although i have the photos of my kids saved onto some discs, somewhere, there are photos, now precious, of my recently deceased father, and it will break my heart if i have lost them..

i have heard that u can get people that will look at it and see can anything be retrieved, but that it can cost up to 500 euro????, unfortunatly i dont have anything like this kind of cash lying about, but if i must i will raise it, provided it's gonna provide a result.. ..

any suggestions would be gratefully received..
many thanks
v

imho

http://www.recuva.com/ this is free i got a lot of photos i deleted by mistake and it got them all back for me . Good luck

rjm2k1

I had an external drive go recently, windows wouldn't recognise it at all. I took the drive out of the box and plugged it into a normal ide controller, it worked fine (apart from a few bad sectors) and I recovered all my files. I did have it set as a slave so not sure if it would work as a master any more.

candygurl

OK, thanks for your comments,i'll try to put it back in old pc, which is being used for something else, that's why i took it out.. u think it may start up under the old connection?

i am not sure what you mean by installing software, is there any point if the thing wont start up at all? how is it to recover data on something it assumes is not there? i havent deleted anything.. i have just got this external hard drive that appears to be broken..

what i'll do for now is try to put it back in old pc and see if i can get at it from there then back it back on to pc first.. many thanks for ur support..

peter999

candygurl wrote: »

OK, thanks for your comments,i'll try to put it back in old pc, which is being used for something else, that's why i took it out.. u think it may start up under the old connection?

i am not sure what you mean by installing software, is there any point if the thing wont start up at all? how is it to recover data on something it assumes is not there? i havent deleted anything.. i have just got this external hard drive that appears to be broken..

what i'll do for now is try to put it back in old pc and see if i can get at it from there then back it back on to pc first.. many thanks for ur support..

Do you think the Hard Drive works (spins up) or not ??

You need to find out whether it is the Hard Drive or External Interface box that is the problem & whether it is a Software or Hardware fault.

If the drive still works but has become corrupted somehow (software fault), you can often still recover old files by various means
eg. connecting drive as Slave on another machine or using File Recovery software.

If the drive does not work (hardware fault), the only way to recover files may be to send to specialist company who will repair drive or disassemble drive to access platters.
These companies know the common hardware faults, how to repair & get the drive working long enough to recover data.

Most will only charge full cost when they recover the data you want.

I sent a drive to USA for assessment, thinking it would be cheaper, they could not recover data using software recovery & proposed expensive hardware repair/disassembly, but I did not proceed.
Later found that UK companies charged similiar prices.

Using this specialist service depends on value of data to you & whether it's worth the cost, maybe £300-£500 (that was few years ago) !!

peter999

candygurl

Many thanks for that advice.
i took it back to PC world where i bought the box and they took it out and tried it in another one and said it was not starting up, so therefore deduced that it was the drive and no it's not starting up,spinning..

so are you saying if that's the case that there's no point trying it in the old pc instead?..

i'd be better then to go straight to the recovery experts with my hard earned cash in my grubby little fist? lol.

thanks again

imho

You need to get a external hard drive and use it as a back up when you have sorted every thing out.Then if something happens like this again you have a back up .

albertross_2

if you put it in the old pc as the main drive, you should be able to tell if it is spinning up, by feel, and also by the bios saying your primary hd is found (or missing).

if it isn't spinning at all, then it is a data recovery specialist job, not cheap. if it is spinning, and recognised by the bios, then you may be able to get at the data with software, either for free, or fairly cheaply.

if you do go down the recovery specialist route, look for no data back, no fee companies. I am a bit suspicious of companies who say they can do it for £100 or so.