Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery

Saobh · 2013-02-20, 18:11

Hey guys,
Figured I'd ask you guys. My main HD played dead this morning and impossible to access it by plunging it as an exterior drive on my other computer. Tried a couple of recovery soft but neither have been able to access the drive (just about sees a physical drive exists but nothing more)

So I'm wondering if any of you know of some good applications for such recovery process. I had already made some important saves before hand so nothing too serious lost but I would like to access to what I can as loosing a couples of days work is never fun (and I'm pretty sure I missed saving a couple of things)

Free would be better but if need be and if they really do work paying ones can be considered.

Thanks in advance.

AfterDune · 2013-02-20, 19:24

Try Recuva, easy to use and free: Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

(but the pc has to be able to properly see the drive itself though)

Orford · 2013-02-20, 19:41

I have heard of people buying the exact same HDD and exchanging the platters. That works for mechanical faults but takes alot of stones if its important data.

LITOralis.nMd · 2013-02-20, 20:16

There are several Linux Live CD specific to this, I've used this one in the past:
SystemRescueCD | The LiveCD List

My first suggestion is also Recuva, using the sector by sector approach. It can take over 24 hours if it's a 7200rpm 1TB drive, but the results are worth it.

Also, grab the HDD manufacturer specific diagnostic tools, and make a live CD or bootable USB to see if it is bad sectors or as you are thinking, worst case scenario and the mechanical arm has died on you.

Important point you need to figure out before going forward. When you took bad disk and plugged it into 2nd PC as an external drive, did the NTFS partition show up at all?

Saobh · 2013-02-20, 23:39

When I plug it in, it tends to freeze any new folders opening and such while it tries to access the drive. If I just let it do its thing it finds one then the other partitions I had on it but when trying to access them I get a E/S error after it hangs for a bit.

Recuva is proving to be worse then the 2 other programs I tried as I gets locked up as soon as I turn the HD on. Gaaaaw the last time I had this problem (drive not even appearing in bios) I had found a small software which was still able to access the sectors and at least retrieve the files inside the 1st layers of folders but I'm incapable of remembering its name

/

Edit : Erf searched a bit more and it seems that I could be having this problem :

"Seagate 7200.11 HDDs How-to fix 0 LBA and BSY errors"

Problem is that I know I had at least 2 bad sectors which I fixed a couple of weeks ago, was getting blue screen of death a couple of minutes after boot the day after a windows update, but clearing the bad sectors and getting rid of my anti virus seemed to at least do the trick (seems like it was calling/scanning a bad sector after boot)

So perhaps this BSY problem is just a coincidence ... or I got the bad sectors and then the BSY bug kicked in

Oh fun times, fun times ^^

2013-02-20, 18:11	#1
Saobh Retired Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 8,125 Afghanistan	Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery Hey guys, Figured I'd ask you guys. My main HD played dead this morning and impossible to access it by plunging it as an exterior drive on my other computer. Tried a couple of recovery soft but neither have been able to access the drive (just about sees a physical drive exists but nothing more) So I'm wondering if any of you know of some good applications for such recovery process. I had already made some important saves before hand so nothing too serious lost but I would like to access to what I can as loosing a couples of days work is never fun (and I'm pretty sure I missed saving a couple of things) Free would be better but if need be and if they really do work paying ones can be considered. Thanks in advance.
	The only acceptable 'Lone Wolf' you'll be allowed to play : http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home

2013-02-20, 19:24	#2
AfterDune Retired PR Developer Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 17,028 Netherlands Blog Entries: 10	Re: Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery Try Recuva, easy to use and free: Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download (but the pc has to be able to properly see the drive itself though)

	Last edited by [R-DEV]AfterDune; 2013-02-20 at 19:44..

2013-02-20, 19:41	#3
Orford Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 856 United Kingdom	Re: Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery I have heard of people buying the exact same HDD and exchanging the platters. That works for mechanical faults but takes alot of stones if its important data.
Orford Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 856 United Kingdom

2013-02-20, 20:16	#4
LITOralis.nMd Retired PR Developer Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 5,648 United States of America	Re: Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery There are several Linux Live CD specific to this, I've used this one in the past: SystemRescueCD \| The LiveCD List My first suggestion is also Recuva, using the sector by sector approach. It can take over 24 hours if it's a 7200rpm 1TB drive, but the results are worth it. Also, grab the HDD manufacturer specific diagnostic tools, and make a live CD or bootable USB to see if it is bad sectors or as you are thinking, worst case scenario and the mechanical arm has died on you. Important point you need to figure out before going forward. When you took bad disk and plugged it into 2nd PC as an external drive, did the NTFS partition show up at all?

2013-02-20, 23:39	#5
Saobh Retired Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 8,125 Afghanistan	Re: Looking for a good free hardrive file recovery When I plug it in, it tends to freeze any new folders opening and such while it tries to access the drive. If I just let it do its thing it finds one then the other partitions I had on it but when trying to access them I get a E/S error after it hangs for a bit. Recuva is proving to be worse then the 2 other programs I tried as I gets locked up as soon as I turn the HD on. Gaaaaw the last time I had this problem (drive not even appearing in bios) I had found a small software which was still able to access the sectors and at least retrieve the files inside the 1st layers of folders but I'm incapable of remembering its name / Edit : Erf searched a bit more and it seems that I could be having this problem : "Seagate 7200.11 HDDs How-to fix 0 LBA and BSY errors" Problem is that I know I had at least 2 bad sectors which I fixed a couple of weeks ago, was getting blue screen of death a couple of minutes after boot the day after a windows update, but clearing the bad sectors and getting rid of my anti virus seemed to at least do the trick (seems like it was calling/scanning a bad sector after boot) So perhaps this BSY problem is just a coincidence ... or I got the bad sectors and then the BSY bug kicked in Oh fun times, fun times ^^
	The only acceptable 'Lone Wolf' you'll be allowed to play : http://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Home