Recovering Hard Drive Data

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ngerdes, Jul 17, 2012.

  1. ngerdes

    ngerdes Private E-2

    I hope I'm in the correct forum.

    I was trying to help my Mother recover pictures, files, etc from her computer. Through a combination of just getting old and I think some viruses, it would no longer boot. I tried several windows recovery things but to know avail.

    So, right now, I'm just trying to get the data off of it. The Hard drive is a 250 GB Western Digital WD2500JS. I connected the hard drive to my computer using the cables (connected to the SATA2 port). I didn't do anything as far as a jumper because from my understanding (which may be wrong) I wouldn't need to because of how the SATA Hard Drive is connected.

    ANYWAY... I connect it, and boot my computer, and it recognizes the drive (shows up as the E:\ drive under My Computer), but there is nothing in it.

    But the thing is, it is a 250GB drive, and the settings on the my computer say there is 9.7GB out of 10.1GB available on the drive, and it's empty.

    I don't have the knowledge to figure out why the 250GB drive shows as only 10GB on my computer.

    And with that, I'm not sure since the folder is empty, can I get the data off of the computer? Or is it just plain gone.

    THANKS!
     
  2. tgell

    tgell Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Do not write anything to the disk. Download Minitools Power Data Recovery. Scan your 250GB drive and see if it finds any files. The first GB is free so it should let you know if it can find your files. There are a number of different options you can try. I would start with Damaged Partition Recovery.

    http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/

    A free option is PhotoREC. It has a little bit of a learning curve. On both programs remember to never save the data back to the 250GB drive.

    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
     
  3. ngerdes

    ngerdes Private E-2

    Just due to my inexperience.... would you mind explaining why you would try the partition first?
     
  4. foogoo

    foogoo Major "foogoo" Geek

  5. ngerdes

    ngerdes Private E-2

    OK. Right now the bad hard drive is connected to my PC as the secondary drive. I run Windows 7 (64Bit). So to use this utility, I need to run it from linux correct?

    I have a USB stick with Ubuntu on it that a could boot from with my computer. Would this work to run this utility? I would just need to point it at the secondary hard drive as opposed to the regular (primary) hard drive on the machine?

    Sorry for so many questions. It's one of those things, I really want to help out and get the data off of this drive, but I don't want to screw up my computer in the process of doing it... Thanks for the help
     
  6. oliverpowell

    oliverpowell Private E-2

    You don't need to have linux to recover your files. Just download Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery software from here:

    http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm


    After installing, run this program as like any other computer program. Choose the desired external hard drive and start scan. It may take some time depending on the hard drive sizes and after which, gives the preview of recoverable files and folders.

    Try your luck and let us weather you succeeded or not.

    Good Luck!!!
     
  7. foogoo

    foogoo Major "foogoo" Geek

    parted magic comes as a bootable ISO, you can use some programs to make it in to a bootable USB, either way it does not run in Windows. You can run it from your Ubuntu USB then you have to download the program, which is more technical than just booting the CD.
     
  8. ngerdes

    ngerdes Private E-2

    Well, it looks like this worked... I can preview the files... But in order to recover the data, it's going to cost $99.00.

    Anyone know of one that's at least cheaper, if not free?

    And also, the only thing that appears on the preview are *.WMF file types? Is this normal?


    Is there something special I need to keep in mind if I boot from a USB and then download the file? I've operated Ubuntu from a USB on other occasions, but never really tried to download anything I guess.
     
  9. oliverpowell

    oliverpowell Private E-2

    No, the data can still be seen by special recovery program if it isn't overwritten. To test it, You can try the software mentioned in one of my above post. The software runs in GUI mode, so you doesn't need to have professional knowledge.

    Posts your results after trying the programs.

    Thanks
    Oliver Powell
     

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