HD utilities for data recovery?

[cmdrdata]

Is there a freeware that can be used to read a HD that is not visible
to the OS (win XP)? Maybe some tool that bypass whatever the OS is
trying to open like the bad file allocation table?I have a HD that died
on me (clicking noise). It no longer shows up and the last backup on
that disk was a few weeks ago, so the digital pictures I've recently
uploaded to it are gone.....

- Not visible from My Computer
- Not visible from Computer Management -> disks ( nor removable media)

Thanks.
-

 

[Art]

Is there a freeware that can be used to read a HD that is not visible
to the OS (win XP)? Maybe some tool that bypass whatever the OS is
trying to open like the bad file allocation table?I have a HD that died
on me (clicking noise). It no longer shows up and the last backup on
that disk was a few weeks ago, so the digital pictures I've recently
uploaded to it are gone.....

- Not visible from My Computer
- Not visible from Computer Management -> disks ( nor removable media)

Drive manufactures supply free diagnostic diskette images you can
download. That would be the place to start. It may be that the drive
has failed in such a way that it's fruitless to proceed any further.
But before you give up on it, make sure to shut power down and reseat
the power cable connector and the ribbon cable connector at both ends.
And make sure you don't have a power supply (partial) failure. See if
alternate drives work ok and also try the ailing drive in a different
PC.

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[socrtwo]

Is there a freeware that can be used to read a HD that is not visible
to the OS (win XP)? Maybe some tool that bypass whatever the OS is
trying to open like the bad file allocation table?

Drive manufactures supply free diagnostic diskette images you can
download. That would be the place to start. It may be that the drive
has failed in such a way that it's fruitless to proceed any further.
But before you give up on it, make sure to shut power down and reseat
the power cable connector and the ribbon cable connector at both ends.
And make sure you don't have a power supply (partial) failure. See if
alternate drives work ok and also try the ailing drive in a different
PC.

Art's advice is all very sound. You can try my page for quick links to
the diagnostic and repair programs (including some of the manufacturers
tools): http://www.s2services.com/diskrepairfreeware.htm, but if you
don't know the manufacturer, remove the drive, look and go to its
support site.

Try imaging it to a larger disk with a DOS or Linux tool.

DOS Tool - http://www.pcinspector.de/clone-maxx/uk/welcome.htm
Linux tool - http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/

Also to the point, see my list of possibly dead disk readers here:
http://www.s2services.com/diskreaderfreeware.htm. The DOS based NTFS
partition readers are:
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtfsDosProfessional.html and
http://www.ntfs.com/products.htm. Try Art's D-Browse 32 utility if
your disk is formatted FAT32: http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg/.

You could also try accessing the system via a serial cable
(http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/NtRecover.html)or via an
ethernet connection
(http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RemoteRecover.html).

Also try Bart'sPE Builder, which is sort of the new DOS for data
recovery purposes. All kinds of plugins for free disk recovery
programs have been created for it. Try starting here:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/( scroll
to the bottom to get links to plugins).

Paul Pruitt
s2services.com

 

[cmdrdata]

I will try your suggestions tonite.. The drive is 2.5" Travelstar,
20GB. I've tried it in
- the master slot as boot drive, no go
- boot up from C and mount the "bad" drive
from usb carrier, no go
- mounted on an ultrabay carrier, no go
- I've tried the freezing 2-3 hours method,no go

the disk just clicks and clicks, but no evidence that the BIOS or OS
sees it.

 

[Marten Kemp]

I will try your suggestions tonite.. The drive is 2.5" Travelstar,
20GB. I've tried it in
- the master slot as boot drive, no go
- boot up from C and mount the "bad" drive
from usb carrier, no go
- mounted on an ultrabay carrier, no go
- I've tried the freezing 2-3 hours method,no go

the disk just clicks and clicks, but no evidence that the BIOS or OS
sees it.

Your drive has developed "the click of death," probably
due to head damage -- it's trying (and retrying) to find
the orienting (servo?) information. There's nothing that
I know of that can be done at that point.

 

[Al Klein]

Your drive has developed "the click of death," probably
due to head damage -- it's trying (and retrying) to find
the orienting (servo?) information. There's nothing that
I know of that can be done at that point.

There are companies that can remove the platters, install them on
another drive and recover the data. The cost isn't trivial, so the
question is, how valuable is the data?

 

[socrtwo]

Your drive has developed "the click of death," probably
due to head damage -- it's trying (and retrying) to find
the orienting (servo?) information. There's nothing that
I know of that can be done at that point.

I think that might be right. From what I understand, it sounds like a
head crash, where the head is actually scraping on the disk instead of
being supported by a cushion of air. This destroys the data on at
least part of the platter. There are many platters and heads in a
disk, so the other platters might be fine, right guys?

So yes Al Klein is right this is what I think the data recovery
service's specialize in, and all the suggestion I made in an earlier
post would be wasted effort. Truthfully, I don't have experience one
way or the other. My sense is the services will cost you around $500,
though again, I have precious litlee real world events to back this up.
At that cost, it may be worth seeing if any DOS, Linux or BartPE
program will see the disk at all.

The biggest name in Data Recovery is Ontrack, from what I hear (I would
take this as just rumor again), they are apparently a little too
corporate to give individualized attention or make that extra effort to
get all the data recovered that's possible. Does anybody know of a
site that reviews all the data recovery services? Certainly this is a
needed Web Page!

 

[Art]

The biggest name in Data Recovery is Ontrack, from what I hear (I would
take this as just rumor again), they are apparently a little too
corporate to give individualized attention or make that extra effort to
get all the data recovered that's possible. Does anybody know of a
site that reviews all the data recovery services? Certainly this is a
needed Web Page!

No, but as long as the subject has shifted to professional data
recovery services and sw, I'll put in a plug for my friend Bob Green:

http://bootmaster.filerecovery.biz/index.html

I don't think Bob is into disassembly of drives. For the sake of
making rough distinctions, I see three levels of this sort of thing:

1. Recovery of erased files on working accessable drives. It's hard to
find a true freebie even for this, but I know they do exist. You have
to be careful of demo/trial type sw which will display erased files
but not recover them without purchase of a license.

2. Recovery of inaccessable drives which don't have mechanical
failures. Boot, MBR and partition recovery ... that sort of thing.
Items 1 and 2 are the areas that my friend deals with, I believe.

3. Partial recovery of data from drives that have mechanical failures
such as head crash.

A drive could have a electrical failure as well, in which case it
would be inaccesable and all the files would presumably be intact. But
it would require professional service.

BTW, the way to avoid large costs in the event of disasters is to
invest a very small amount of money in backup drives ... and use
one of them on a daily basis for valuable data. I use another bootable
cloned drive as well. It sits on a shelf until I need it. It pays to
be prepared

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Al Klein]

I don't think Bob is into disassembly of drives. For the sake of
making rough distinctions, I see three levels of this sort of thing:

1. Recovery of erased files on working accessable drives. It's hard to
find a true freebie even for this, but I know they do exist. You have
to be careful of demo/trial type sw which will display erased files
but not recover them without purchase of a license.

There's a freeware program called Restoration that will do this.

2. Recovery of inaccessable drives which don't have mechanical
failures. Boot, MBR and partition recovery ... that sort of thing.
Items 1 and 2 are the areas that my friend deals with, I believe.

Running fdisk /mbr will usually recover (replace, actually) a bad mbr.

 

[Art]

There's a freeware program called Restoration that will do this.


Running fdisk /mbr will usually recover (replace, actually) a bad mbr.

If only all situations could be handled that simply. There are some
situations where fdisk/ mumble will make a drive inaccessable, and
then you really will need professional help

Art

http://home.epix.net/~artnpeg

 

[Marten Kemp]

I think that might be right. From what I understand, it sounds like a
head crash, where the head is actually scraping on the disk instead of
being supported by a cushion of air. This destroys the data on at
least part of the platter. There are many platters and heads in a
disk, so the other platters might be fine, right guys?

Actually, from disassembling lots of dead drives to salvage
the magnets, I've found that the platters don't have any
damage visible with a small magnifier. I *think* that the
problem is that the teeny little heads touch down and get
worn off or melted, therefore the data's probably still on
the platters. Note that the debris from the destroyed heads
has contaminated the interior of the disk-and-head-assembly,
which will require decontamination in a clean room and the
installation of another set of heads.

As an aside: If you have two identical drives, one that
exhibits the click of death and another that spins but doesn't
get recognized by the BIOS, you can try switching the circuit
board from the click-of-death drive to the unresponsive one.
It'll work about 30-50% of the time. You should do a low-level
format with the Maxtor utilities before using it, though.
(Maxtor's utilities work with all manufacturers' drives)

Totally off the subject: the magnets in hard drives are
made with the element Neodymium, and are the strongest
damn things I've ever played with.

 

[Sietse Fliege]

Totally off the subject: the magnets in hard drives are
made with the element Neodymium, and are the strongest
damn things I've ever played with.

Also off-topic:
There are some .wav files of noises that indicate a defective drive that you
can download here:
<http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/knowtree.nsf/0/4b1a62a50f405d0d86256756006e3
40c?OpenDocument>
Nice to play them all at the same time! <bg>

 

[Al Klein]

As an aside: If you have two identical drives, one that
exhibits the click of death and another that spins but doesn't
get recognized by the BIOS, you can try switching the circuit
board from the click-of-death drive to the unresponsive one.
It'll work about 30-50% of the time. You should do a low-level
format with the Maxtor utilities before using it, though.

I think the best bet, at that point, is to do one last read of all the
readable data, then send the drive to someone who wants to play with
strong magnets. Actually committing new needed data to a drive that's
proved itself to be unreliable seems, to me, a bit foolish.

 

[dagdabrona]

Greetings,

Well, if the partitions are lost you can give a try to Active@
partition recovery tool that might be useful. Actually, it never failed
me before so IMO it is really awesome utility. Recommended!
http://www.partition-recovery.com/

 

[bambam]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Greetings,

Well, if the partitions are lost you can give a try to Active@
partition recovery tool that might be useful. Actually, it never failed
me before so IMO it is really awesome utility. Recommended!
http://www.partition-recovery.com/

Since you are shouting for the group, it will only cost you $995.00 for all
of us. Very generous of you. Just send us the details to our free downloads
after you have payed, cheers.