Hard drive crashed!

[The Reverend]

Last week, the computer kept rebooting over and over, so I brought it
in, and they said the hard drive crashed. They thought that possibly
it could be clone/copied/ghost, but no.

Everything is on it, and I can't unlock it.

Is there a Windows program that I could afford to try to retrieve my
lost memories, or is it to be sent out somewhere and spend boo-coo
bucks!?

Thanks.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Last week, the computer kept rebooting over and over, so I brought it
in, and they said the hard drive crashed. They thought that possibly
it could be clone/copied/ghost, but no.

Everything is on it, and I can't unlock it.

What do you mean by "can't unlock it"?

Is there a Windows program that I could afford to try to retrieve my
lost memories, or is it to be sent out somewhere and spend boo-coo
bucks!?

Thanks.

There are consumer-level data recovery utilities, and they can work well,
yes. They will not work at all if the drive does not spin up or has failed
electrically. But if the drive does basically work, there's no real
problem or harm in trying the recovery yourself as long as you don't try to
write anything to the drive, and that includes trying to boot from it.

Google "data recovery utilities" and you'll find a number of links to
various apps. I've used R-Studio in the past to good results.

Attach the crashed drive to an XP system that has more than enough free
drive space to contain the entire crashed drive. Never try to recover to
the failed drive. I use external USB2 drive cases for this purpose.

Many recovery apps have a demo mode, which will tell you what it thinks it
can recover. If it looks promising, pay the money to unlock it and recover
the data.

Don't expect the process to be fast. It will take hours, depending on the
amount of data and number of files. You can tell it to not recover
specific files and folders; for example there's no need to recover
hiberfil.sys or pagefile.sys or the content.ie5 folders.

If the demo modes fail, yes you may want to consider a professional service.
These will give estimates, but estimates may not be free. It can help a
lot if you can identify specific data to be recovered.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ricky]

If you're getting an access denied message you can try taking ownership of
the files..
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308421&Product=winxp
In XP Home you have to boot in safe mode to see the security tab. In XP Pro
you have to disable simple file sharing.

 

[Twayne]

Last week, the computer kept rebooting over and over, so I brought it

in, and they said the hard drive crashed. They thought that possibly
it could be clone/copied/ghost, but no.

Ask them why not? And post their response here. Something just doesn't
sound quite right.

Everything is on it, and I can't unlock it.

Unlock? What do you mean by that?

Post back with the exact error messages your'e getting and exactly what
you did, step by step, up until the machine stops working or you decide
you can't go any further.

Except for the post on taking ownership seeming like a good guess,
that's all folks can do is guess with the tiny bit of info you have
provided.

Is there a Windows program that I could afford to try to retrieve my
lost memories, or is it to be sent out somewhere and spend boo-coo
bucks!?

Maybe. But don't spend that money unless/until you know it's necessary.
Chances are, it's not necessary to spend any money on this.

And for your future considerations and peace of mind, surf on over the
wikipedia.com and look up "backup", and read about it. Then implement a
backup strategy for your computer. Usually it consists of two things:
One backup just for the system areas, and another for your important
data.
Once you implement that, you'll never have a worry like this again.
If you're willing to spend a couple bucks, check out drive imaging
software like NOrton's Ghost or Acronis' True Image; they're both good.
Pick the one that seems to make the most sense to you from a user view.
If you can't spend any money, then XP's ntbackup.exe is still an
excellent app that will create the backups you need.

HTH

 

[The Reverend]

I was told they tried to clone the the info onto the new hard drive,
but they couldn't. They tried Ghost as well, but it wouldn't load,
and that it would cost hundreds of dollars to access all the
information from the dead drive. I'll call tomorow

Yet, I had another computer long ago that I couldn't turn on, and my
friend was able to do so. My friend builds computers, and has no idea
of how to retrieve this, but as before, I am thankful for the help and
information on this newsgroup.

OK, I just called them, and they said they use 3 Ghost programs, and
the drive was in "too bad a shape". Could be problem with the
MBR....


On another note, as I was originally writing this, my computer turned
off by itself (then reloaded). A couple of times (as well) I had a
CMOS error, and had to put the correct date in.

 

[smlunatick]

I was told they tried to clone the the info onto the new hard drive,
but they couldn't.  They tried Ghost as well, but it wouldn't load,
and that it would cost hundreds of dollars to access all the
information from the dead drive.  I'll call tomorow

Yet, I had another computer long ago that I couldn't turn on, and my
friend was able to do so.  My friend builds computers, and has no idea
of how to retrieve this, but as before, I am thankful for the help and
information on this newsgroup.

OK, I just called them, and they said they use 3 Ghost programs, and
the drive was in "too bad a shape".  Could be problem with the
MBR....

On another note, as I was originally writing this, my computer turned
off by itself (then reloaded).  A couple of times (as well) I had a
CMOS error, and had to put the correct date in.

Ghost will not be able to access a crashed drive. It needs a working
partition / drive for it to be successful. Look across the Internet
and you should be able to find several recovery tools.