best software for data recovery from possibly failed hard drive?

[Kremlar]

Have an older 40GB IDE drive here that is having issues since an unexpected power issue in the home. Drive is recognized by the BIOS, and Windows sees the drive and assigns a drive letter - but indicates that the disk is unformatted when you try to access it. It was formatted with NTFS.

What's the best software to try and attempt data recovery nowadays?

Can anyone recommend something good?

Thanks!

 

[cmdrdredd]

I've seen people recommend spinrite but I've never used it. https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

 

[Cerb]

Linux, w/ ddrescue, to start. Copy the contents to a separate, known good drive, as an image (there are newb guides for this stuff, so hit up Google). Then, write that image to another known good drive, which will be used for the software recovery attempts. That way, if you screw up, you can start over. By using ddrescue, there's no need to fuss over specific dd parameters.

I would then start with testdisk, to try to get the partition and FS back to some visible/usable state. But, there are other options, too.

 

[taq8ojh]

If you REALLY care about the data, don't touch the disk no matter what, no matter what awesome recovery software, and spend few hundreds of dollars on professional recovery. Those companies do exist for a reason.

 

[Blain]

If you REALLY care about the data, don't touch the disk no matter what, no matter what awesome recovery software, and spend few hundreds of dollars on professional recovery.

In most AT cases the data just isn't that valuable.

 

[Kremlar]

I've seen people recommend spinrite but I've never used it. https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

I used to use that way back in the day. From what I understand it takes an incredible amount of time to run on modern day-sized drives (even 40GB), and at this point I'd rather try to get this data off quickly than put additional wear and tear on this possibly failing drive.

Linux, w/ ddrescue, to start. Copy the contents to a separate, known good drive, as an image (there are newb guides for this stuff, so hit up Google). Then, write that image to another known good drive, which will be used for the software recovery attempts. That way, if you screw up, you can start over. By using ddrescue, there's no need to fuss over specific dd parameters.

I will check that out, thanks!

If you REALLY care about the data, don't touch the disk no matter what, no matter what awesome recovery software, and spend few hundreds of dollars on professional recovery. Those companies do exist for a reason.

This data is not that important. Are there reliable vendors that will charge in the hundreds? Last time I used a service like that the price was in the thousands. It was www.ontrack.com. They did come through.

 

[taq8ojh]

If you are a company, it's probably in thousands indeed, depending on severity of the damage.

Software-wise, I bought File Scavenger and it works well enough for the usual situations.

 

[Blain]

In the hundreds... My Hard Drive Died
File Scavenger has also worked for me.

 

[erichui84]

I have used GetDataBack NTFS to recover my missing partition and end up recovering everything. They do have a demo that you can use to scan and see what you expect to get before paying for it.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
If it is nothing that important, doesn't hurt to give it a try.

 

[John Connor]

I have used this, but not sure if it compares to your situation. I have also used HD regenator, but you should do a few passes with it. http://www.dposoft.net/

 

[jkauff]

EaseUS Partition Master software works well if you can still run Windows. They also sell a more comprehensive data recovery package if a lost partition is not your problem.

On the non-Windows side, you can download an ISO file with a bootable version of Linux and the GParted utility that you can burn to a CD. Boot from the CD and use GParted to fix the partition table, assuming that's the problem.

 

[iluvdeal]

I have used GetDataBack NTFS to recover my missing partition and end up recovering everything. They do have a demo that you can use to scan and see what you expect to get before paying for it.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
If it is nothing that important, doesn't hurt to give it a try.

I'll second this recommendation as I used it on failing drives before to recover files from failing drives which Windows couldn't see the contents of correctly.

 

[Cerb]

On the non-Windows side, you can download an ISO file with a bootable version of Linux and the GParted utility that you can burn to a CD. Boot from the CD and use GParted to fix the partition table, assuming that's the problem.

That's for writing a new partition table, which GParted has it own preferences for. Doing that may sometimes work, but if it doesn't, you could have harmed your chances of further attempts.

 

[MJose]

Since you have mentioned that your drive is being displayed as not formatted, you can utilize data recovery application to recover files that are present in the respective partition.

All you need is a separate PC where the data recovery tool can be installed and then you need to connect the hard drive via USB interface to the system and restore data accordingly.

This was the similar case in which I caught few days back. Had a long search for data recovery applications on internet and found much needed help by visiting this page:
http://www.sfware.com/partition-recovery/recover-ide-hard-drive-data.html

Hope this helps you out the same way as it did to me.

 

[Elixer]

This is an old topic, and that is a paid program, and, well, your post reads like you are trying to sell that.

Needless to say what Cerb said

Linux, w/ ddrescue, to start. Copy the contents to a separate, known good drive, as an image (there are newb guides for this stuff, so hit up Google). Then, write that image to another known good drive, which will be used for the software recovery attempts. That way, if you screw up, you can start over. By using ddrescue, there's no need to fuss over specific dd parameters.

I would then start with testdisk, to try to get the partition and FS back to some visible/usable state. But, there are other options, too.

is the correct way to handle all these issues with data recovery.

 

[Zodiark1593]

If all that happened was the Partition Data got borked due to software or (in my own case once) user error, Test Disk is a good start and definitely helped me.

If there is any indication whatsoever of hardware failure and the data is valuable, do not touch, take it to a pro, etc etc etc.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Linux, w/ ddrescue, to start. Copy the contents to a separate, known good drive, as an image (there are newb guides for this stuff, so hit up Google). Then, write that image to another known good drive, which will be used for the software recovery attempts. That way, if you screw up, you can start over. By using ddrescue, there's no need to fuss over specific dd parameters.

I would then start with testdisk, to try to get the partition and FS back to some visible/usable state. But, there are other options, too.

Best advice here :thumbsup: