Recover data from bad drive

[Lifted]

I have a hard drive pulled from a new Vostro V13 (lucky 13 :\) that I'd like to get some data off of. The drive failed recently so I removed it and placed it into a regular desktop computer to try to recover the data.

Problem is that when I boot the computer with the bad drive attached, it takes a LONG time, and eventually boots but doesn't recognize and hard drives. There is a working drive on SATA 1 running XP, but the laptop drive on SATA 2 is preventing the computer from seeing anything on the SATA ports.

If I was back in Asia I'd head to the local IT mall and have some guy get my data off for $5, but I kind of need to do this myself now. Any ideas on how I can boot up into any recovery software if the BIOS won't even recognize the drive?

What's the name of that good recovery software that can read data from dying drives? It's not free, but works pretty well if the drive is not totally trashed.

 

[mrblotto]

I'm not sure what a Vostro V13 is, laptop or desktop?

If it's a laptop (hell, maybe even desktops too), make sure you have disabled/removed the HD password in the BIOS. The 'host' machine usually will not see the drive (and data contained therein) if there is a HD pwd enabled on it.

If there's isn't a HD pwd on the bad drive, maybe you can go into the Windows Recovery Console (google it on how to install the recovery console) and do a CHKDSK D: /R on the bad drive (should be drive D, but depends on any other partitions on your primary drive)

There are many other apps out there too, like R-Studio for one. But the drive normally has to be at least recognized in the OS to use it.

Good luck

 

[Lifted]

It's a laptop drive (2.5"), but it doesn't have a password. The laptop stalls detecting the hard drive as well, it's not just the desktop. They both report no drive in the computer when it's connected, so chkdsk and the like won't work in this instance.

 

[Supersonic64]

Are your drives in ACHI mode? If so try plugging the bad drive in once you are booted and in Windows.

or

Make sure you set the right drive as the primary drive in the BIOS once you connect the laptop HDD.

 

[Lifted]

Are your drives in ACHI mode? If so try plugging the bad drive in once you are booted and in Windows.

I will try this.

or

Make sure you set the right drive as the primary drive in the BIOS once you connect the laptop HDD.

No drives are detected by the BIOS when the laptop drive is attached to the desktop computer, not even the primary desktop drive which is working fine.

 

[Lifted]

Just took the drive out of the freezer (yes i'm desperate) and it just makes a <click> <click> <click> sound (about 1 per second) 4 or 5 times, then stops. It feels like it's spinning, I feel vibration coming from it, but it's still not showing up in the BIOS.

 

[Modelworks]

Does the drive spin up the second you connect power to it ? If not it is one of the drives that is set for delayed spin up . Sometimes they have jumpers but most now are set that way in the firmware on the drive. Windows will not see these drives but if you know someone who has linux it will detect the drive and spin it up and then mount it. Give this a look:

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

 

[Lifted]

Spins up right away. I'm going to see if Windows will detect it (or possibly freeze up) after connecting it while running. If that doesn't work I'll try Linux. If that doesn't work I'll try an external USB enclosure I have at home tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

[Modelworks]

Just took the drive out of the freezer (yes i'm desperate) and it just makes a <click> <click> <click> sound (about 1 per second) 4 or 5 times, then stops. It feels like it's spinning, I feel vibration coming from it, but it's still not showing up in the BIOS.

Try mhdd but make sure you select the correct drive when you run it. It is VERY easy to completely destroy any drive with this program. Make sure you read each prompt carefully.
http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

 

[Lifted]

Run this before trying Linux? I've got ubuntu on a USB stick but I'll try MHDD first if you think I'll have better luck with that.

 

[Lifted]

MHDD is not detecting the HDD. I think I'm screwed.

 

[mrblotto]

D'oh, you may indeed be screwed. The click click click is never a good sound to hear. There are places available you can ship your drive too and they retrieve whatever they can, but it's way expensive.

 

[Lifted]

Good thing it's not MY vacation pictures. Sucks that the user ended up erasing everything on the camera's memory after copying everything over to this 2 week old Dell.

Thanks for the help folks, much appreciated.

 

[Modelworks]

MHDD is not detecting the HDD. I think I'm screwed.

If MHDD doesn't see it then its DOA.

 

[Blain]

If it doesn't show in the BIOS, it doesn't look good for data recovery.
Boot from a Knoppix live CD and try to access the files.

 

[hackmole]

Hi,
Good data recovery program recommended to me was GetDataBack. The other thing is that it may be possible to retrieve the photos from the erased camera memory by using GetDataBack on it. I'm assuming that it is a camera memory card that you stick into the computer. I used GetDataBack on another erased drive recently as a test run and I was able to get back all the erased stuff. I'm still nervous about running it on my messed up hard drive because I'm worried the scanning might damage it. I also need to get a larger hard drive to maybe store an image of the bad one on it. My current extra drive might not be large enough. I've been told that if your drive is really bad, you are supposed to make an image of it with the recovery software because having it scanned with the recovery software might make it worse.

 

[coolVariable]

click of death can only be repaired (and data recovered) if the drive motor and head get professionally replaced. Cost: last I checked $2000.
No BS program is going to do anything.

 

[Blain]

click of death can only be repaired (and data recovered) if the drive motor and head get professionally replaced. Cost: last I checked $2000.
No BS program is going to do anything.

My Hard Drive Died offers data recovery for much less.
It's still not what would be considered "cheap", but data recovery on a laptop drive should be very feasible for $1k or less, assuming the trip to the freezer didn't cause even more damage due to condensation.

 

[RebateMonger]

I've seen prices for recovering hardware-failed disks everywhere from $300 to the $25,000 that a client paid to recover a double-disk-failure of a SCSI three-disk RAID 5 array.

Hard disk data recovery is a total shame because 95&#37; of it could likely be avoided with a pair of $100 2TB SATA disks hooked up to automatically back up important data each night.

 

[Blain]

Hard disk data recovery is a total shame because 95% of it could likely be avoided with a pair of $100 2TB SATA disks hooked up to automatically back up important data each night.

Or even a $25 USB thumb drive to backup key folders.
Most people aren't going to shell out huge $$$ to recover their Seinfeld or Lost episodes.
In many instances "critical data" takes up very little space.

 

[RebateMonger]

Or even a $25 USB thumb drive to backup key folders.

Yeah, for sure, a TON of lost photos and other important files could be saved if folks would even invest in a USB thumb drive AND USE IT for making backups. A single flash drive, left attached all the time and with automatic backups set up, would reduce the odds of significant data loss by a huge factor.

 

[Modelworks]

Hi,
I've been told that if your drive is really bad, you are supposed to make an image of it with the recovery software because having it scanned with the recovery software might make it worse.

Correct. Do a sector by sector image of a drive before you try recover. Mount the image file and try to recover from that. Don't even install the drive in a pc until you are ready to image it and try to do it from a non windows OS. The reason is windows writes to drives just by booting windows even if you do not access that drive. It doesn't write much but with my luck it would be in an area I needed the data from.

 

[coolVariable]

My Hard Drive Died offers data recovery for much less.
It's still not what would be considered "cheap", but data recovery on a laptop drive should be very feasible for $1k or less, assuming the trip to the freezer didn't cause even more damage due to condensation.

Looks like they charge $1k though I am suspicious that they are so vague about the "donor drive" that you need to provide. AFAIK that needs to be an exact matching drive (even same firmware) - considering the expense of finding such a drive, their $1k and my $2k is not far off.

 

[Blain]

You don't send them a donor drive.
Scott teaches data recovery and forensics all over the country.
His video presentations are really interesting.

 

[Russwinters]

Hello!

I am the resident DR technician.

Scott is a good guy; I can vouch for him, but I am not 100% sure what kind of price he will charge.

I have to say that after putting it in the freezer the recovery cost will go up (and don't "omit" the details, because we know if it's been put in the freezer)


What brand/model is the drive?

I may be able to help, my company is located in CA, several users on the forums have used me before, and I have recovered their data.

Since this is a user forum, and I don't want to seem like I am just advertising I won't post pricing here, but I can say that it will be well under $2000 as mentioned.

If the data is valuable I would refrain from trying any more DIY procedures on it, the freezer may have already cost us the data, but I have seen worse.


Regards,