Hard drive recovery?

ION08

Hey all, I recently had an issue with my laptop where the hard drive needed to be replaced and windows re-installed.

All the work was carried out by a highly recommended PC doctor and my Laptop is now working great but seeing as its a new HD, I have lost ALL of my Music, Pics, Videos & Other files

PC Doc tried his best to recover the data from the old HD but no luck, I was told to hold onto it anyway because you never about further down the line.

Was just wondering if there is any hope of getting my stuff back of it or is it a lost cause?

uch

If you can get an identical hard drive and change the platters from the old one into the new one you might be able to access it but it's a bit hit and miss, what was wrong with the old one ??

Antar Bolaeisk

The above solution would only work if you have a clean room to hand I believe and even then tolerances are insanely tight. The only replaceable item in a hard-drive is the controller chip which can be lifted from an identical hard-drive and patched onto the old one.

There's specialists who deal in hard-drive recovery but unless the data is very valuable to you forget about it as they cost a fortune.

Basically make sure you back up all your data in future to avoid situations like this.

uch

I've done it in me kitchen and it worked with an IDE drive

The_Conductor

uch wrote: »

I've done it in me kitchen and it worked with an IDE drive

You were incredibly lucky. It is not normal to be able to disassemble a harddrive and put the platters in a fresh case- if you got away with it- well done- were you to try it several thousand times in your kitchen your success rate could be measured on one hand.

OP- what is wrong with the hard-drive? I used work as a data recovery specialist- many moons ago- there are several tricks you can try to get the drive temporarily working again- unless you've caused physical damage to the heads or the board is fried (and even then- you might be able to mount a new board on it and give it a shot anyway.

If you want to send it to a data recovery company- it would not be unusual for the charge to be between 1,200 and 1,500 per drive. If the information is important- you may consider this money well spent- and indeed many data recovery companies are run off their feet even at these prices.

S.

ION08

The Pc doc actually said something along the lines of physical damage to the hard drive but unfortunately I cant be more specific.

I didnt realise it would be that expensive to send it off to a data recovery specialist.

The data is mainly music but also digital camera pictures & videos of holidays, events, friends etc ... the type of stuff you would look back on in a good few years to remember the good ol times!

gamer

Google hard drive freezer trick,you can swap round the drive pcb if you can get a hd thats identical eg seagate model 502aa2z if the drive patters r damaged theres nothing you can do.
NOT to be rude if a pic is important it should be copied to 2 hardrives and a cdr
HDS ARE very cheap .Because all hds will stop working at some point or they get dropped.You can get usb 2 sata cable or caddy peats 15euro .PLUG it in 2 pc if you cant feel a slight vibration on the metal top ie the hd spinning up the hd pcb is dead.
Put plastic tape on the pcb to stop short circuits or static damage.

Capt'n Midnight

ddrescue is your friend

Poco90

Don't know if you have tried this but is has worked for me many times on both IDE and SATA drives that weren't even showing up in the BIOS.Get a USB to SATA/IDE adapter (about €40) and connect the old drive to your PC and you might be able to get the files off it. If this works, only copy small (doing most important files first) amounts of files at a time as the hard drive is very delicate. Hope this helps.

ION08

Cheers, will definitely give that a try - worth a shot!

justin245

You can recover your data with the help of Stellar Phoenix Windows data recovery software.This partition recovery software recover helps you to recover your lost data. Download the software demo version in which you can see the preview of your recoverable data.Software has GUI interface which makes it very easy to use.For more details visit
http://www.partitionrecovery-software.com/

mark renton

ION08 wrote: »

PC Doc tried his best to recover the data from the old HD but no luck, I was told to hold onto it anyway because you never about further down the line.

Im not very trusting anyway, but if you want to check for yourself, put your old hard drive back into your laptop, boot from ubuntu cd which will run from CD rom and you can see for yourself

bonn

My Hard drive crashed as well and I was told that the electronic surface is not working and PC does not regognize hard drive anymore. Dell sent me new hard drive but ist not compatible. Is there any way I get get my data back, any tricks or software, besides the very expensive company ?
Thanks !
Regards
bonn

P.s I bought external harddrive for back up but 1 day too late... :mad:

ION08

Cheers for all the good info and advice on this.

From the sounds of things there may still be some hope for getting the data recovered

Im gonna hold onto the Hard-drive and try get it sorted (or get someone to sort it rather) when im back home from my travels

ION08

Reviving my old thread

Im really wanting to see if its possible to recover my files from the old hard drive as im back off my travels and based in dublin.

Can anyone help me out or point me in the right direction please??

would love to get back al my old pics, videos and music

bonzodog2

So did you try getting a USB enclosure/adapter or downloading a live linux CD ?

ION08

bonzodog2 wrote: »

So did you try getting a USB enclosure/adapter or downloading a live linux CD ?

Hey, no i havent, but if you reckon its worth a go i'll definitely give it a try!?

is it these things here?:

http://www.misco.ie/productinformation/~90672~WW~/Videk%20USB%20to%20VGA%20Adapter.htm

As for the linux CD , what exactly would i do with that? (pardon my IT ignorance)

spider guardian

A Linux Live CD will allow you to boot a flavour of Linux directly from the CD, no HD required and no changes are made to the OS you already have. A good version to use is Ubuntu, it is well-supported with plenty of drivers and an easy to use interface.

Download the image from the link, then use an ISO-burner to burn the image to a CD. If you have CD-burning software already installed it may already be able to burn the ISO.

Once this is burned, put your old HDD back into your laptop, switch it on and boot from the CD. Most computers will prompt you to select a boot device when you switch them on.

Ubuntu will then start up. Click the 'Places' option at the top of the screen. If Ubuntu is able to read your HDD it will appear in this menu as '100GB Filesystem' or whatever size your HDD is. Click this and hopefully you will be able to navigate through your HDD.

Ubuntu may display the message 'Hard Disk Failing' in the top right-hand corner. If this is the case you may still be able to recover some data, but it's a lottery.

If you can't see your HDD or Ubuntu tells you that it cannot mount the file-system then you're out of luck man. If this is the case PM me and I'll send you the number of a recovery specialist in Athlone, his prices are very competitive and we've used him here at my workplace before.

Capt'n Midnight

I have a look later for a recover linux CD with photo rec and testdisk and ddrescue built in

ION08

spider guardian wrote: »

A Linux Live CD will allow you to boot a flavour of Linux directly from the CD, no HD required and no changes are made to the OS you already have. A good version to use is Ubuntu, it is well-supported with plenty of drivers and an easy to use interface.

Download the image from the link, then use an ISO-burner to burn the image to a CD. If you have CD-burning software already installed it may already be able to burn the ISO.

Once this is burned, put your old HDD back into your laptop, switch it on and boot from the CD. Most computers will prompt you to select a boot device when you switch them on.

Ubuntu will then start up. Click the 'Places' option at the top of the screen. If Ubuntu is able to read your HDD it will appear in this menu as '100GB Filesystem' or whatever size your HDD is. Click this and hopefully you will be able to navigate through your HDD.

Ubuntu may display the message 'Hard Disk Failing' in the top right-hand corner. If this is the case you may still be able to recover some data, but it's a lottery.

If you can't see your HDD or Ubuntu tells you that it cannot mount the file-system then you're out of luck man. If this is the case PM me and I'll send you the number of a recovery specialist in Athlone, his prices are very competitive and we've used him here at my workplace before.

Thanks for your suggestion, i followed your step by step instructions. I got on ok with burning ubuntu onto a CD and tried it out on my current (new) hard drive and it worked and recognised it.

I then set off to put my old harddrive back into my laptop but the pin connectors on the hdd didnt seem to line up or connect with the ones attached to the laptop ..... i screwed the hdd back in (i dont even think the pins were touching) and needless to say when i booted using ubuntu as you described above, it didnt recognise the harddrive

But surely the PC doc would have tried this method of data recovery himself before replacing the harddrive ??... or am i being naieve??

Anyway, if you could PM me the number of your recommended recovery specialist thatd be great.


Any other suggestions welcome!


I'll be investing in a harddrive to USB cable as suggested by "bonzodog2" ... hopefully wont be money down the drain

PapaQuebec

PM me!

aamurray

ION08 wrote: »

I'll be investing in a harddrive to USB cable as suggested by "bonzodog2" ... hopefully wont be money down the drain

When you go to buy this adapter make sure it has 2 IDE connectors (there are two sizes) AND a SATA connector. This will ensure you can connect mostly any type of drive to the USB port. I have found this method very reliable and fast but if your HD is spinning and "clicking" then I think it is off to the Data Recovery specialists.