Data Recovery

Gasherbraun

Hi.

I cannot find anything recent on this so thought I would ask.

I have a corrupted hard drive out of a Dell laptop that I want to try and retrieve photo files from. My company IT contractor has looked at it (he notes 'corrupt MFT') and said the best option would be someone who specialises in data recovery.

So can anyone recomend a company, preferably in the Dublin area but not essential, who do this work. I was looking at Critical Data Services who look good but just not sure.

Many thanks.

shanec1928

Gasherbraun wrote: »

Hi.

I cannot find anything recent on this so thought I would ask.

I have a corrupted hard drive out of a Dell laptop that I want to try and retrieve photo files from. My company IT contractor has looked at it (he notes 'corrupt MFT') and said the best option would be someone who specialises in data recovery.

So can anyone recomend a company, preferably in the Dublin area but not essential, who do this work. I was looking at Critical Data Services who look good but just not sure.

Many thanks.

They are good but expect to pay for it.

degsie

If you have the time or inclination, have a search for a tool called 'testdisk'. According to the blurb...

The MFT (Master File Table) is sometimes corrupted. If Microsoft's Checkdisk (chkdsk) failed to repair the MFT, run TestDisk. In the Advanced menu, select your NTFS partition, choose Boot, then Repair MFT. TestDisk will compare the MFT and MFT mirror (its backup). If the MFT is damaged, it will try to repair the MFT using the backup. If the MFT backup is damaged, it will use the main MFT.

gouche

Any specialised data recovery shops are going to charge a premium for recovery.
You could try use photo rec to recover the photos and any other files to another HDD.

excollier

How corrupted is it? I have seen drives that Windows cannot read be connected to a Linux machine and the data recovered easily. What's more any Linux distro is free! Worth a shot.

Gasherbraun

shanec1928 wrote: »

They are good but expect to pay for it.

I just got an idea of cost. May be worth it for a commercial operation but in my case the photos are just not worth the cost of recovery.

Thanks for the other ideas everyone. I will look into these.

Its tough.
Photos are irreplaceable, but you can pay lots of your hard earned for a chance, and that's all it is, a chance.

eeepaulo

I would clone the harddrive first, then work off the clone, that way you can have multiple go.

I did it a while back using ddrecovery, this is a linux program.

The sort of program you are looking for is cloning software that 'clones sector by sector'

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1896053/corrupt-master-file-table-bad-sectors.html

The suggested answer in that link looks good

I have not done this in years so there might be good windows software now, easeus do a cloning tool.

(It takes ages but means you get to make mistakes)

riclad

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/best-free-recovery-software-1141256

I find recuva the easiest program to use.for file recovery .
testdisk is not easy for non tech experts.
Download linux mint 7 iso 650 meg,
burn to a cdr ,use burn image commander in imgburn, free program.
boot from mint cd,
it,ll see all windows files even if boot files ,on windows are damaged.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

PhotoRec ignores the file system and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's file system has been severely damaged or reformatted.

its just designed to recover photos.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/IDE_vs_SATA

You can put the drive in a usb drive caddy ,
20 -34 euro if its a 3.5 inch drive .
theres sata interface and ide interface drives .

3.5 inch drives need a caddy with its own power supply.
in my experience.
2,5 inch drives under 300gig may work fine with a usb powered caddy .
http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38
Try mint linux live cd before you buy a caddy.

excollier

Parted Magic (a live Linux cd) is a really good tool and includes photo recovery software - costs $6 but well worth it.

riclad

See www.nfts.com,
there,s a free demo live cd,eg
a windows live cd ,
to a acess files on any windows drive .
it looks like windows 7 os.
Any linux live cd should be able to see all files and folders ,
on any windows pc drive,
windows user name password not needed to do so.
I Recovered a few 1000 files ,music, pdf, pic, s
from 2 16gig sdcards .
sdcards were formatted by accident.
recuva found about 90 per cent of the files i needed,
it has a very simple easy to use interface
recuva is free to download .

A laptop drive will need a sata caddy 2.5inch usb,cost 14 euro approx.
only winxp era , old laptops use ide drives .