How to recove HardDrive w/o spending a lot?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Athena
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A

Athena

Hello,

I cannot get to Western Digital 40GB drive anymore. I need to recover
some files from it. Is there a program/utility to do that?

Thank you,

Athena
 
Athena said:
Hello,

I cannot get to Western Digital 40GB drive anymore. I need to
recover
some files from it. Is there a program/utility to do that?
Click to expand...

It depends. Since you've provided almost no information about the drive
and what "cannot get to" means, that's the only specific answer you can
get. Here's my general data recovery cut/paste information; take
whatever is applicable to your situation from it:

*IMPORTANT* - If there is any question that the drive is at fault - it's
making noises for instance - and the data is crucial DO NOTHING FURTHER
ON THE DRIVE. Every time you spin that drive up you may be destroying
data. If this is the case, send the drive to a professional data
recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or Seagate Data
Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered
all the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my clients and it cost
$2,700. He thought it was worth the money; only you know what your data
is worth. I understand that some insurance companies are now covering
data recovery charges under "Loss of Intellectual Property" so check
with yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

*IMPORTANT* - If you think the drive is physically healthy, it may be
possible to retrieve the data by software methods. DO NOTHING FURTHER
ON THE DRIVE. The data is still on the hard drive but if you overwrite
it, it will be extremely difficult or impossible to recover it. If you
use data recovery software, install it on another machine and either
use it from that operating system or create a bootable cd/floppy and
work with that. If you don't have the skill and/or equipment to do
these procedures and the data is crucial, take the machine to a
professional computer repair shop that has experience in doing data
recovery. This will not be your local version of BigStoreUSA. In-shop
data recovery is usually not exactly cheap (for ex., my charges are
generally $150-350USD), but it normally costs less than sending the
drive to a company like Drive Savers. You need to make the
determination of the value of your data and decide what to do.

So, here are some things to try to recover your data:

1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install
of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the
working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard
drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd.

2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE
or a Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here
is general information on using Knoppix for this:

You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it.
Note that the default mouse action in the window manager used by
Knoppix (KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS
Windows' double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn
the files to cd/dvd-r's.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder

3. If a Bart's PE or Knoppix won't work, you can try using data recovery
software. Here are some links to various programs. I use Easy Recovery
Pro, but it is expensive. People whom I respect have recommended
R-Studio and Restoration. YMMV.

http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html
PCInspector File Recovery -
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/welcome.htm
Executive Software “Undelete†-
http://www.execsoft.com/undelete/undelete.asp
R-Studio - http://www.r-tt.com/
Ontrack's EasyRecovery - http://www.ontrack.com/software/

Malke
 
Athena,

Without being more specific one can only assume, so here goes..

Check the drive with the WD Data LifeGaurd Diagnostic utility first..
http://support.wdc.com/

If the drive passes all the quick tests, except for data not being indicated
on the drive (ie..it's showing up in the bios, device manager and in disk
management, as unallocated), knowing for sure there is or should be data on
the drive, then try the TestDisk app here -
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk .. It should be able (with easy user
input), to recover partitions, files, fix a damaged or write a new MBR,
restoring the drive (along with your data) to the My computer window, as well
as to Disk Management.. This is assuming the 40GB drive is not completely
toasted and is in fact setup as a slave drive in the first place? If the
drive is not setup as a slave drive, look here on how to set one up
-http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/install_xp_disk_mgmt.html
If you read up and follow all instructions, you should, hopefully, be able
to get to your data.. If your data is really crucial and important, then by
all means opt for a professional data recovery ($$) company to secure your
data..
Post your results..
Happy Holidays too..
Cheers..
j;-j
 
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