Corrupt hard drive... any IT gurus?

[calbear2000]

So my work laptop stopped booting, and IT gave me a new laptop with a new hard drive.

I can send my old hard drive sent to a data recovery service for a couple thousand dollars, but would rather try to find an easier (and faster) fix.

Does anyone have suggestions on data recovery software or file repair software? IT suggested EasyRecovery... does anyone have experience with that?

Thanks!

 

[Heisenberg]

Before you do anything, make an image of the HD if you can.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Go back in time, and make a backup of your important data.

 

[conjur]

http://www.r-studio.com/

 

[calbear2000]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Before you do anything, make an image of the HD if you can.

Is making an image simply copying the hard drive onto another?

Thanks

 

[loup garou]

I tried pretty much all the free and some pay apps for home data recovery on a client's dead drive with no luck. Sent it to ESS Data Recovery and they extracted the data no problem. The drive was pretty f'd up and it ended up costing about $700. If you send them your drive, they charge like $60 for a quote, and that quote is the absolute most they'll charge you. If they don't get your data, they don't charge you (except for the initial $60). All in all, a great service, and I always recommend them in situations like this.

 

[calbear2000]

Originally posted by: Saulbadguy
Go back in time, and make a backup of your important data.

I did make a copu a month ago... but a lot of important emails and presentations have happened since then!!

 

[DaveJ]

If you can access the drive, make a backup with Ghost or something similar. If the drive won't boot at all (which I suspect is the case given your post), there are two methods to try:

1. Tap the top of the drive lightly with a blunt object

2. If that doesn't work, toss the drive in the freezer for a while (sealed in a ziploc bag)

One of those methods might unstick the heads long enough to get most of your data recovered.

Dave

 

[Platypus]

Email sent.

 

[Richdog]

Acronis Trueimage is the best drive-imaging software i've ever used. Version 6 is free, and apparently it makes backups of RAID set-ups too. Search Google for it, you should find it.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: calbear2000

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Before you do anything, make an image of the HD if you can.

Is making an image simply copying the hard drive onto another?

Thanks

Yeah, basically. Do a 1:1 copy onto another drive if you can and then run your recovery programs on the clone. That way, if you fsck it up, you'll still have the original.

 

[calbear2000]

Originally posted by: werk
I tried pretty much all the free and some pay apps for home data recovery on a client's dead drive with no luck. Sent it to ESS Data Recovery and they extracted the data no problem. The drive was pretty f'd up and it ended up costing about $700. If you send them your drive, they charge like $60 for a quote, and that quote is the absolute most they'll charge you. If they don't get your data, they don't charge you (except for the initial $60). All in all, a great service, and I always recommend them in situations like this.

Thanks for the information.

My IT department always goes with one service and they usually charge $2000 according to my IT guy.

I don't have a problem expensing this, but I don't want to wait for the turnaround time... was hoping there's some software I can run to repair the bad sectors myself.

 

[OulOat]

First, this belongs in General Hardware. If you search there, there are multiple threads offering advice on how to revive dead/dying HDs. Your best bet would be to chill the HD for a day or so. This might let you use the drive long enough to retrieve all your data.

 

[calbear2000]

Oops, I didn't know there was a forum for these kinds of troubleshooting issues. Thanks for the pointer

 

[calbear2000]

Thanks for the move mods.

One other question... IT already tried my corrupt HD as a slave but it wasn't readable. Would I still be able to make a ghost image?

 

[calbear2000]

Thanks for the move mods.

One other question... IT already tried my corrupt HD as a slave but it wasn't readable. Would I still be able to make a ghost image?

 

[Abhi]

Did you try GetBackData?

 

[sharkeeper]

IF the data is valuable, STOP! NEVER power up a questionable drive! Hand it to a pro and get your data back. Keep messing with it and you'll make professional recovery efforts more difficult (and expensive) OR you may cause some or all of your data to be unrecoverable! (gone forever) It's not worth it, trust me!

Cheers!

 

[calbear2000]

All, just an update on my situation as I got an email asking me how I fared...

I convinced my department to let me buy Ontrack data recovery software and it worked like a charm! Got everything back in its original hierarchical structure. I was even able to find files I "permanently" deleted! Amazing software... and the recovery process took less than an hour!

Now, I have $800 software cd that was used once sitting in my office!