WD 4T My Passport Data Recovery

HorseField

Hi

I lent my other half my external harddrive which had images from a previous holiday on it that I had forgotten to back up. When I received the drive back today and booted up my PC a message flashed up stating that the D drive (the external WD 4T) was being repaired. When I opened it up half of the images from the drive had been removed.

My partner insists that they removed the drive correctly and that it was not dropped but they are not very tech savvy. I've turned off the PC and the drive and started them up again to see if it changes anything but half of the images including the holiday pics that weren't backed up are gone.

I'm Googling options in Galway City/County and a lot of people are saying that I should get it professionally done. These images mean a lot but I'm not going to waste over €500 getting it repaired.

What are my options? Thanks in advance everyone.

Spocker

Try some software like Recuva maybe?

HorseField

Spocker wrote: »

Try some software like Recuva maybe?

Cheers, do you know if I'm putting it more at risk by doing this before I send it away?I wouldn't mind paying something like €100 if I could get the pics back, it would be worth it IMO.

Thanks again.

Spocker

It should be fine, you'll just need additional space somewhere else (USB stick, or other drive) to copy any files that are found

ED E

Spocker wrote: »

It should be fine, you'll just need additional space somewhere else (USB stick, or other drive) to copy any files that are found

I disagree.

An amateur will often cause more loss, a pro will put the drive to RO before mounting and carefully pull everything off in one go in case something is on the edge of full failure.

All depends on how much the data is worth.

irishgeo

HorseField wrote: »

Cheers, do you know if I'm putting it more at risk by doing this before I send it away?I wouldn't mind paying something like €100 if I could get the pics back, it would be worth it IMO.

Thanks again.

more than likely the files are still there. just marked as deleted. first thing is don't copy or write anything else to the drive.

Snotty

Would connecting the drive back to the partners computer and checking the recycle bin be worthwile?

I would be cloning it first under linux using dd
And work on that then.

whizbang

Would connecting the drive back to the partners computer and checking the recycle bin be worthwile?

Absolutely definitely the first thing to try.

Good luck finding a proper professional.. In my experience, 9% of them are amateurs, 9% are lucky amateurs,the others will charge horrendous amounts of money.

HorseField

Cheers Guys,

I decided to go with my own recovery as I was quoted €500 to €1200 for the recovery professionally and I don't think that holiday snaps etc. are worth this.

Spocker has mentioned Recuva and a mate also recommended EaseUS for data recovery. Would anyone offer any other programs or preferences regarding the above mentioned?

Grma,

JIdontknow

I used EaseUS before and found it good. Recovered photos (will also find other file types and formats) from an SD card that was showing memory in use but wouldn't show the files (I.e knew there was something on it, but couldn't view / access them).