hard drive recovery..

[Guest]

My desktop computer crashed and was unable to boot up windows because of some
file missing, I belive it said. Anyhow, I removed the hard drive and placed
it into an enclosure...When I plugged it into my laptop, nothing happened, so
a tech at my mother's workplace said he would see what he could do. He was
able to read the hard drive, but said that when copying the files it was
overheating and shutting down. Yesterday, he said it wouldn't turn on at all.
I'm hoping its not too late to recover our files. I found a website with a
program called RecoverMyFiles. That scans the drive and tells you if it can
restore those "lost" files. It is an appealing offer, considering sending the
drive in somewhere will cost $100's of dollars. I was just wondering if
anyone knew if these type of programs actually work, and if they will work on
a hard drive that is in an enclosure and now working as an external hard
drive. thanks for any help.

-Camille

 

[Ghostrider]

My desktop computer crashed and was unable to boot up windows because of some
file missing, I belive it said. Anyhow, I removed the hard drive and placed
it into an enclosure...When I plugged it into my laptop, nothing happened, so
a tech at my mother's workplace said he would see what he could do. He was
able to read the hard drive, but said that when copying the files it was
overheating and shutting down. Yesterday, he said it wouldn't turn on at all.
I'm hoping its not too late to recover our files. I found a website with a
program called RecoverMyFiles. That scans the drive and tells you if it can
restore those "lost" files. It is an appealing offer, considering sending the
drive in somewhere will cost $100's of dollars. I was just wondering if
anyone knew if these type of programs actually work, and if they will work on
a hard drive that is in an enclosure and now working as an external hard
drive. thanks for any help.

-Camille

There are any number of tricks to get a hard drive to spin and this is
the first thing it must do in order to start any form of file recovery.
Presumably, the tech has come across a way to start the drive and keep
it cool long enough to download the files that are there. But if the
drive does not spin, then it is really time for the professionals to do
the job. While expensive, one must pay if the data is really that vital.
On the other hand, where are the backups?

 

[Guest]

unfortunately...there were no backups for the files. They were all personal
files and it never occurred to back them up, pretty stupid, but its too late
to go back and do that now. All he was doing was using the drive in the
enclosure and it was plugged into the USB port. What he said he thought was
happening was that a chip was overheating and shutting it down before all of
the files were done copying.
So, I'm assuming if the drive isn't able to start up...that the online
recovery downloads will be ineffective?

 

[Mistoffolees]

unfortunately...there were no backups for the files. They were all personal
files and it never occurred to back them up, pretty stupid, but its too late
to go back and do that now. All he was doing was using the drive in the
enclosure and it was plugged into the USB port. What he said he thought was
happening was that a chip was overheating and shutting it down before all of
the files were done copying.
So, I'm assuming if the drive isn't able to start up...that the online
recovery downloads will be ineffective?

Exactly. The trick is to get the hard drive to start spinning, stay
cool and then offload the important files. The USB enclosure might be
part of the problem. How long will the hard drive run if the casing
of the external drive enclosure has been removed?

 

[Anna]

unfortunately...there were no backups for the files. They were all
personal
files and it never occurred to back them up, pretty stupid, but its too
late
to go back and do that now. All he was doing was using the drive in the
enclosure and it was plugged into the USB port. What he said he thought
was
happening was that a chip was overheating and shutting it down before all
of
the files were done copying.
So, I'm assuming if the drive isn't able to start up...that the online
recovery downloads will be ineffective?

Camille:
Based on your description of events and the observations & diagnosis of the
"tech at my mother's workplace" it certainly appears that you have a dead
HDD on your hands whose data - if it can be accessed at all - can likely
only be done by a commercial recovery service. A very expensive proposition
as you apparently know. If the data is crucial to you and *must* be
recovered, that would be your only practical option at this point and I
would suggest that you tamper with the drive no further. And understand
there's no guarantee a recovery service would be successful in resurrecting
the data.

But understanding this, if you want to give it another try as a kind of last
resort...

1. Remove the HDD from its enclosure; put it in a zip-lock plastic bag or
some such, and leave it in your freezer for about 15 to 30 minutes.

2. Install the HDD as a *secondary* drive (don't attempt to boot to it) in a
desktop PC that has a bootable drive and see if you can access its contents.

3. If you can, work as quickly as you can to access the most important data
you want and copy it to the boot drive or removable media (CD, flash drive,
etc.). If this works at all - a very iffy proposition to begin with - you
won't have much time to access that drive before it finally gives up the
ghost.

The above probably won't work so it's nothing to get your hopes up too high.
It's a last resort and as I've previously indicated, and should *not* be
used if the data on that drive is crucial to you and must be recovered
through a commercial recovery service.
Anna