Data recovery options from failed hard drive?

Windows XP , Maxtor drive failing. Blue Screen with "Unmountable Boot Volume". Ran chkdsk /r from the recovery console, and recieved a message about the volume having one or more unrecoverable errors. Set the drive up as a slave to try to recover data, and windows tells me the drive is not formatted.

Anybody have any ideas on how to rescue the data?

Thank you in advance

 

Any clicking, grinding, or other sounds? If so, stop plugging it in and get it to a clean room before you destroy it.
Sounds normal? Try running some recovery tools. R-Studio is one I've used, but it's not freeware (I used to work at a data recovery company for over a year)

 

I agree, if the drive is making god-awful sounds, it may be too late for home data recovery, and you may want to call a pro. They charge out the wazoo for such recovery, so unless it's VERY valuable data, it may be gone forever. But, if you have no intentions of paying anyone top dollar to recover the data, and you figure "I might as well try, and if the drive totally dies on the operating table, so be it", then here's some programs to try. If you don't mind paying a bit (like around $50 I think) try Easy Recovery Pro from OnTrack. It works great, and is easy to use as the name suggests. For freeware, there's PCInspector File Recovery. It also works great, but isn't very user friendly, can be a bit confusing the first few times you use it, and it can be slow (but very thorough), but it is free... here's the links:
Easy Recovery Pro: http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-downloads/ (free trials; full recovery disabled in trials)
PCInspector File Recovery: http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
There's also many good free and paid utilities in the MajorGeeks Data Recovery section. Most of the paid programs will scan for your data, and will show you what is recoverable. You just can't actually save anything until you register/activate the software by purchasing a registration code...
Good luck!

 

Thank you, gentelmen, for the ideas.

No the drive is not making any abnormal noises. The data is, I'm told, not backed up.

I find it odd that Windows cannot find the formatted partition...

 

It's pretty normal for that to happen. The portion of the HDD in which the partition data may have just been overwritten. I do agree that EZ should find it, and that the R-Studio program will definately find it as long as the drive spins and has it's read heads still....actually...is the drive spinning?

 

Yes the drive spins up nicely. I have tried R-Studio (haven't paid yet) it has found huge numbers of nameless files/fragments in the 'extra files found' directory.

The question is, is R-Studio the best out there for under $100 or is Spinrite (or something else) better?

 

The "Extra Found Files" directory are possible files, based on the program searching for "Header Information". If it finds a bit that says its a word doc, it will note it even if it's really nothing except random noise. What you should do is: Image the drive if you have another HDD's space to use. Then do a COMPLETE scan. Try working with the green partitions, and work until you only have red ones left.
Put it to you this way: I worked for one of the major data recovery companies out there (They're in the top 3), and we used R-Studio at the remote sites.