Is there hope yet?

[unbiased]

I have a 120 GB external HDD. I had about 2 GB of data on this HDD which I had encrypted while attached with another computer using WinRAR's encryption function. I was unable to transfer this file to my computer.

I heard of a software named Unlockerwhich was said to be able to unlock such data which it isnot possible to transfer due to locking with some program When I tried Unlocker,it said it could not unlock it as it could not find any lock, yet it could help moving the folder. I chose the option of move and it said that it willmove the folder on reboot, I clicked yes and computer went on to show' shutting down' screen and external HDD also was showing blinking indication of activity. When after about 45 minutes this process was still on I unsocketted the HDD from USB port. At this the shut down process could finish.
Now after this when I try to access my HDD it shows, unable to access because data is corrupted. It shows full capacity as available.

NowI have some very important files on this hard disk, almost 70 GB of it. Is it possible to recover it somehow?

Thanks in advance.

 

[taltamir]

1. start backing up your data.
2. There are professional data recovery services, they are not even that expensive anymore.

 

[Hammerhead]

Originally posted by: taltamir
1. start backing up your data.
2. There are professional data recovery services, they are not even that expensive anymore.

Do you have any suggestions for companies that offer data recovery services?

 

[taltamir]

sorry, no. I haven't had the means to pay for one when I last had a HDD failure (I was young...) and I have been keeping proper backups, etc, since. So I have no actual need for them.

 

[Chronoshock]

Since it sounds like it may not be a mechanical failure (or at least not a fatal one), you could try using some of the recovery software out there. I've used PC Inspector file recovery (freeware) with some success, ended up recovering ~90% of my files off a dead HDD. My dad used it recently on another dying hard drive that said the disk wasn't formatted whenever he tried accessing it. He was able to get back most of his files as well