HDD Data Recovery

[Gongalong]

Hi folks,

 

I've got an external HDD here (Seagate) which has been used to store some vital data, has failed, there's no backup etc. etc. (wrists have been slapped)

 

Something in the drive is detected by Windows when I connect it as Device Manager adds something (and there's an event sound), but the drive letter never appears.

 

I'm about to break open the case to double check whether it's the drive or not.

 

In the past we have approached Kroll about disk recovery (I have a friend who used to work for them, and am assured they are legitimate!), but is there anyone else I should try?

 

Or anything else I can try with the HDD before going the disk recovery route?

 

Suggestions appreciated!

 

TIA

[LosOjos]

First thing I'd do is take the drive out of it's caddy and try it inside a machine or in a known-working dock/caddy, it could just be that the SATA->USB controller in the caddy has gone kaput. Admittedly, it's much more likely to be the drive but it's worth a try and won't cost you anything!

[Gongalong]

Yep, that's next on my list to try.

 

Ironically I did get the drive to work - it kicked into life half an hour after I'd connected it - but I was only told afterwards that the data was vital, after I'd disconnected it *facepalm* I've tried it many times over the last 3 days, and it has never revived again since. When the drive is connected it does spin up, so something's alive in there.

[Oaktech]

We had a WD that did something similar and that turned out to be a fried USB controller.

[difinity]

Boot from a Linux disc like Mint as I've had a far better success rate rather than using Windows.

 

Yes Ontrack are legit, I've used them in the past and am a partner.

[DarrenShan]

Check out Spinrite (http://www.grc.com) a fantastic tool if the problem is corruption.

 

Ontrack are a good company to use, another is a company in the Midlands called Disklabs (RAID Data Recovery and Computer Forensics by Disklabs)

[Gongalong]

Thanks all for the suggestions so far.

 

Update: I've removed the drive from the caddy, put it in a SATA dock, and it does at least appear in Disk Administrator now. It's a 4TB Seagate drive, and appears with a 460GB RAW partition (!), along with two 1.5TB unallocated partitions. The drive definitely had a Windows partition of some form, with the relevant files on it, because I was able to view it until it died completely.

 

I'm going to try ZAR on it, as that can view the drive as a whole, to see if it will recover anything...

[Gongalong]

ZAR found around 90% of the files intact, but unfortunately it was a trial. I recovered what I could with the trial, and we've bought a license now.

 

Running it again to try to recover the remainder... (it looks like it will need a couple of days to scan)

[mac_shinobi]

Not sure how much use this is now but reclaime is meant to be quite good, think it is a one off of £50 ( give or take a bit ) , failing that test disk

 

ReclaiMe File Recovery Software

 

TestDisk - Partition Recovery and File Undelete

 

Don't restore data onto the same faulty or problematic hard drive and you should be ok

[Gongalong]

ZAR is 60 bucks, and the trial did well. Let's see if the full version does the same... (it's going to take another 2+ days to scan the drive)

[mac_shinobi]

ZAR is 60 bucks, and the trial did well. Let's see if the full version does the same... (it's going to take another 2+ days to scan the drive)

 

Have you got the link to the website for ZAR - would be interested to see

[difinity]

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