paul3200 said:
my external hdd became corrupt for no reason no i cannot access any files and
i need them how can i recover them
THIS IS VERY URGENT PLEASE HELP ASAP
thanks
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If you work on the disk yourself, you run the risk of making the situation
worse. If you have no intention of spending $500 to $1000 on
a professional data recovery service, and just want to play with
it, then try this.
1) Remove the drive from its enclosure. At least some enclosure brands
(LaCie) have had power supply failures. It could be a simple matter
of getting power to the drive.
2) Once the drive is removed from its casing (which voids the warranty),
connect it to the IDE or SATA interface of a working computer. Make
sure all power is OFF, before making the connection. In the case of IDE,
check the jumper setting on the back of the drive. Working combos of
two drives on a ribbon cable, are Master for one, Slave for the other,
or set both to Cable Select (when using an 80 wire cable). SATA should
be easier to figure out.
3) Start up the computer. Enter the BIOS (press Delete or F2 or
use whatever key is appropriate for that computer, to enter the BIOS).
Does the drive show up in the BIOS drive listing ? If it does not, you're
screwed.
4) If drive shows up, boot the computer from your normal boot
drive. Make sure that no attempt is made to boot from your damaged drive.
Verify the boot settings in the BIOS, won't do that by accident.
5) Download the diagnostic program from the disk manufacturer's site.
I use a floppy based version of SeaTools for my Seagate brand disks
as an example. The diagnostic will give you some idea how sick the
drive is.
6) If it passes, normally I'd immediately do a sector by sector backup
of the bad drive. The purpose of that, is so no recovery attempts
can make things worse. That backup can be restored to the bad
drive, if the recovery isn't going well later. For example, TestDisk
attempts to write to the drive, and writing to a damaged drive is
normally a no-no. If you make a backup first, then you can do whatever
you feel like.
( How to do a backup of a damaged disk. )
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk
7) Download TestDisk and it can find the partitions on the drive.
If the problem was a corrupted MBR, TestDisk can fix it. TestDisk
is an unfriendly tool, so is a challenge to use. If you don't
like the menu option offered at a particular level, press
<control>-C to stop the program and exit.
( TestDisk )
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
8) If TestDisk works, but the thing still isn't visible (RAW partition),
then the file system could be corrupted. There are any number of $39.99
programs to carry on from this point.
In terms of "scavenger" programs for free, you can try these. If you're
desperate to get some file, any file, try these.
http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/WoundedMoon/win32/driverescue19d.html
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
You will need enough blank space on another drive, to hold the
results of any recovery operation. I recommend a minimum of two
spare hard drives, same size or bigger than your broken drive.
That way, you have plenty of room to work, and won't be taking
any stupid risks by working on the busted drive without having
a backup of it.
If you got stuck at step (3), it's going to cost you $500-$1000
at a data recovery firm. They can open the HDA in a clean room,
change head assembly, reprogram firmware, repair disk motor
controller chip, install new motor with fresh fluid bearings,
and so on. The more work they have to do, the more expensive it gets.
If it is just a firmware issue, the repair could be very quick
and not need the clean room.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room
HTH,
Paul
