Recovering data from almist broken harddrive

[strike101]

Harddrive has lot of badsectors , i tried installing HD Sentinel and it reports that the drive has 10% health remaining

question is how to copy the remaining reliable data and ignore the bad ones , are there any recovery program that can backup or copy the ones that are still on the good sectors of the drive ?

Thanks

 

[Burpo]

Hook it up to another PC and drag & drop as much of your stuff as you can. When it encounters errors, it won't copy.
Do it soon while it still works..

 

[strike101]

that's my problem.. when copying files.. after it encounters an error..the harddrive feels like in unmounts itself.. and i have to replug it (external enclosure)

 

[Ketchup]

If you tell Windows to check the drive for errors, it should mark the bad sectors, and you can recover what is left.

 

[inachu]

I'm not an expert but I have tons of experience scouring for HD backup and other help in the past and There are various means to get data off.
The best way is to let the professionals do it if you have the time and money.

Second best way if you have a little time and a little money and minor engineering background then you can buy another same model hard drive and put the platters into the other new hard drive.

In your case I doubt you want to do either one and want to try the best to get what you got. If your hard drive heats up very fast after using it then it could be heat damage.

To get the most off the drive from heat damage then you should put the drive in a plastic bag then place it in a freezer for 15 minutes.

Cooling the drive down will keep the drive heads from lifting off the platter when spinning when the drive is suffering from heat damage.

Many drives that suffer heat damage also has cascade failure meaning the more you use it then the worse the condition gets which means the freezer is still the best option.

No need to chkdsk since your SMART test indicates failure very soon.

Just take what you can as fast as possible then destroy the drive.

 

[strike101]

uhm.. just tried testing it again.. i noticed lots of clicking sound.... so it's more like GG goodbye data ?

 

[KillerBee]

if it's not too old check the manufacturer website
to see if it may still be under warranty.

as far as recovery:
SpinRite has helped me recover data from a few hard disks
grc.com - but now costs $89.00

ddrescue and testdisk are free
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/

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

 

[inachu]

if it's not too old check the manufacturer website
to see if it may still be under warranty.

as far as recovery:
SpinRite has helped me recover data from a few hard disks
grc.com - but now costs $89.00

ddrescue and testdisk are free
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/

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

+1 on spinrite It lifts data then formats it the area then lays the data back down.

 

[Matt1970]

Second best way if you have a little time and a little money and minor engineering background then you can buy another same model hard drive and put the platters into the other new hard drive.

Don't forget a clean room, and that doesn't work for bad sectors.

 

[phis6]

+1 on spinrite It lifts data then formats it the area then lays the data back down.

In my experience, I find ddrescue and Testdisk combo better than spinrite.

 

[Underclocked]

Sometimes cooling it down will give you enough extra time to get your data.

 

[PliotronX]

Just curious, would this happen to be a Western Digital Green drive? The freezer trick unfortunately doesn't work with these, they die horribly. If not, it might be worth a shot. Get a hold of a USB->SATA adapter and wrap the HDD into an antistatic bag then throw it in the freezer for at least two hours. Then plug it into the adapter and boot to Hiren's BootCD to run unstoppable copier or one of the many other backup utilities. If it works, you have about 20 minutes before it returns to room temperature so get what you can off of there because either the head could crash violently or condensation could form and the freezer trick won't work again.

 

[stinger608]

Sometimes cooling it down will give you enough extra time to get your data.

That is for sure. However I don't think that the earlier 15 minutes from inachu is near enough.
When I have done this in the past I usually found leaving it in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours worked the best.