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Data recovery?

T

thejawn

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
77
So, I had a file server, and all of a sudden today it decided to stop working. I was getting errors like "can not from primary hard drive 0" or something to that effect. So I figured It had something to do with the motherboard. Well I was wrong. I plugged in the hard drive to my external reader, sqaut happened.
THEN, I plugged it into my parents computer, still NOTHING.
So now I'm sitting here in front of my computer, tempted to push the capslock button. This hard drive had all my music, video, home movies, pictures, word files, and other people in my houses stuff. I'm not sure what to do now obviously. I am considering a data recovery service like (ugh) bestbuy or one of those places. I know it'll cost me but at this point I have no idea what to do.

Any suggestions anyone? And if you think I should go with data recovery, what is your take on it?
 
If your drive is working mechanically (platters are spinning)..........

Get your drive and install it in a working machine.

Download and run GetDataBack.

If that program finds your files, pay for it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your drive is not working mechanically......

Try the Freezer Trick.

Good Luck and start doing back-ups.
 
*ding* *ding* *ding*

We now have another winner in the "I'm going to have a backup strategy" game!
 
[LYL]Homer;1032565799 said:
*ding* *ding* *ding*

We now have another winner in the "I'm going to have a backup strategy" game!
Click to expand...

Glad you posted this. Exactly what I was thinking... Why oh why do people not back up IMPORTANT info????:eek::eek::eek:
 
pug71 said:
Glad you posted this. Exactly what I was thinking... Why oh why do people not back up IMPORTANT info????:eek::eek::eek:
Click to expand...


Well, some of us know we should, we just never get around to it ;) I have an external drive to backup my documents and pictures, but apparently the last time I remembered to do it was in February and the drive crashed just a couple weeks ago.

On a related note, anyone know of some good and free backup software? The external enclosure I purchased (Antec MX-1) didn't come with any backup software. Obviously, I can't be trusted to remember to copy files manually so I need something that will run in the background and backup on a weekly basis.
 
nothing backs up better than a scheduled batch file

google backup via batch file or Xcopy to see how easy (and free) it is

alternitivly how is your coding you could throw one up in C# in about 2 hrs i reckon
 
I hate to mention it because it is a pay for program.. But ever thought about giving Acronis a try? on another note your right. I know I need to shut up and stock acting like i backed up for years. Only was it this year did I learn from you guys to take it more serious and I back up now hehe P
 
SpinRite 6 technically doesn't classify as a data recovery product; it would be more accurate to say it's for drive recovery but that's another thread altogether.

The issue here is that no software product of any kind, commercial or free (doesn't matter), is going to be of any use whatsoever because based on what the OP said the drive isn't even showing up in the BIOS detection routine on not one but two machines. So all the software you can throw at it would be effectively useless - the drive simply isn't visible as a hard drive at all so none of that software is going to recognize it and allow access using that same software.

See how that works?

Best Buy (Geek Squad) lacks the necessary hardware required to do a data recovery operation on such a drive; they use software tools and as I just mentioned, they're useless so don't waste your time or money. Unfortunately if the drive isn't accessible, some Geek Squad lackey isn't going to have any more luck with it than the OP.

There's a PDF file out there with over 200 ways to revive a dead hard drive, a simple Google search will locate it in various locations, but honestly the "freezer trick" is the one that's worked for me over the years. It sounds ridiculous, but so does the notion of a bee's ability to fly when you do the math and the aerodynamic calculations and come to the same conclusion that NASA did decades ago: Bee's can't fly, technically, yet they do. The "freezer trick" is a useful tool, but only if the drive is accessible, once again.

It sounds to me as though the OP has two options:

1) Send it off to a professional data recovery service that will literally disassemble the drive in a clean room environment and try to "rebuild" the drive using the same hardware, aka platter swap to a known working device, or...

2) Write it off as a complete loss (unless he gets lucky and suddenly the drive decides to show up in the BIOS detection routines) and move on.

There really isn't much else a person can do given the situation. Drive works, you can recover data using software. Drive dead, forget it or send it off to pros.

Good luck, regardless...
 
Geek Squad offers a professional data recovery service as stated in the post above. It's pretty expensive and might not be that great.
 
i had a friend who tried geek squad...ended up paying $320 for them all the data was lost. i plug it to my computer and all the data is here....just a corrupted boot sector...

you can do a far better job yourself
 
farscapesg1 said:
Well, some of us know we should, we just never get around to it ;) I have an external drive to backup my documents and pictures, but apparently the last time I remembered to do it was in February and the drive crashed just a couple weeks ago.

On a related note, anyone know of some good and free backup software? The external enclosure I purchased (Antec MX-1) didn't come with any backup software. Obviously, I can't be trusted to remember to copy files manually so I need something that will run in the background and backup on a weekly basis.
Click to expand...

I use SyncBack and I love it: http://www.download.com/SyncBack/3000-2242_4-10413802.html
 
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