Hard Drive - Backup Failure (Data Recovery CRC Errors)

[ramoar]

Hello Anandtech,

I was hoping that you could help me out with a problem I am having backing up a hard drive. Here's the specifics:

>Sister's laptop crashed. She needs data backed up.
>Cannot enter Windows Vists, BSOD's. Safe Mode also crashes.
>I tried attaching it to an external SATA>USB connector to back it up. Connected it to my Windows 7 PC.
>Backup Drive is recognized, as is the HP Recovery Partition as G & H Drives respectively.
>Upon trying to access the drive it tells me that it needs to be formatted.
>Going into Computer Management tells me that the file system is RAW & it is 100% empty of data.
>Downloaded PCTools FileRecovery to see if it could see anything and it can pull the Recovery partition from HP but does not even see the G drive.

I am signed into my PC as an admin...any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[pcgeek11]

Wellll, Actually you should backup the drive Before it fails....

There are numerous file recovery softwares out in the internet:

http://www.piriform.com/recuva is one of the more popular.

Her data and drive may be toast. All you can do is try.

 

[ramoar]

Absolutely, it is looking like its toast. Could it be something with a corrupted partition or MBR? I'll check out that program. Thank You!

Quick update - Recuva can actually see the G drive. So that is a positive step.

 

[pcgeek11]

It may just be corrupted. I would ask myself ... Would I trust it again with hard disk prices as low as they are?

I would install a new drive.

 

[ramoar]

The drive is corrupted. Doing a deep scan to hopefully pull as much as possible off of it. Thanks again for the suggestion of Recuva.