Getting data off of dead drive

Hi all.
My sister's friend had her hard drive fail and of course nothing was backed up. The drive is making some awful noises and wont boot up at all. I put it as a secondary drive on my computer and tried to boot up to knoppix. The drive was detected but it wouldn't get past the configuring hardware line. When trying to boot into windows with the primary drive it stop at the windows xp screen. So my question is there anything else I can try? It is also being detected in the bios.
Thanks

 

Update.. I got slax to boot up but it didn't see the drive at all. I'm thinking it might be time to call it for this hard drive.

 

try dd rescue
How to: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?&threadid=190306
There is expensive commercial software that works using the same reverse read concept.
http://downloads.tech-pro.net/recoversoft-media-tools-professional_x1949-3.html

 

Hi,

I'm just a newbie here so my advice is perhaps best not followed (disclaimer).

I have however been in this predicament before, once for myself and once for a friend with hdd's that totally gave up (after much noise and grudging performance) and weren't even recognised in the bios (In addition I have two hdd on a shelf awaiting similar treatment, when I can get the time and the materials to effect the prior remedy).

In those prior instances I used 2 programs that are far cheaper than the second link provided, (the first link I will follow up on, as its probably far safer than my method, cheers foogoo:cool), a spare drive of adequate size for the backup, some bravado or stupidity and a deep freeze!

As much as its urban legend, I found that sticking what I would term a 'mechanically stuck hdd' in a freezer, very carefully wrapped, and then re trying it in conjunction with some imaging and recovery software, plus the space to do so onto.... works a treat.

In my friends case it allowed imaging as backup of the drive, plus revived the dead drive to many months of future useage.

In my case plenty of time to either image the drive as its partitions were recognised, or to recover the vanished partitions data as best as possible, as I now recall occurred with a further drive I was given by a neighbour a few years ago to work on, who had dumped a pc in the street. They saw it as an act of kindness that I showed them just how much ID theft data was upon the 'dead' drive. Shame our Banks don't do the same for us when they skip their prior desktops huh?

Method:

Buy an external drive large enough for the expected recovery and get it up and running. The first program below can help with doing that and partitioning it too I believe.

Download the 15 day full demo version of Acronis True Image 11 home (I used earlier versions like 7 and 8, which continue to rescue me along with 11, which just saved my laptop) http://www.acronis.co.uk. If you plan to buy it, do so via the demo version rather than the online store as its alot cheaper.

The second program is called R Studio and is a far cheaper equivalent(?) of the Recoversoft program in the first link. http://www.r-studio.com/

Try out the demo version on your own hdd via the manual and see how many prior partitions or lost data it picks up even in its limited form. Use this program if the frozen hdd shows no partitions, being sure to recover info to a separate drive from the source.

Wrap your hdd in an antistatic bag, then a zip lock type freezer bag, then loads of clingfilm and then bubblewrap. Freeze it for a day or two.

When all set and sure of how to use each program quickly. Unwrap the hdd (be brave) & try out the newly defrosting drive (Probably after making an image of your own drive to a safe location, plus an acronis boot disk or activated f11 secure zone).

Check the bios and it should be recognised again (your already at that point), boot to safe mode and see if the OS sees it properly. If so immediately use AcronisTI to image all the partitions or whole drive. You can then mount these later to restore individual files or the whole lot to a new internal system hdd. If they wont allow imaging as is, then try running disk checks/defrag etc and trying again.

If it comes up blank, use R Studio or alternatively (which I haven't tried this function of yet) Acronis Disk Director Suite reckons, that it too can recover lost or deleted partitions for further imaging or recovery.

When finished and you should get enough time to do so (from many hours to heavens knows), you can probably decide whether to let the drive live or to totally erase its content via shredders in Acronis DDS or other tools.

Then just physically destroy the drive to beyond CIA sufficient levels if you are bothered about the content. Gary Glitter wasn't and Enron didn't need to, despite the fact they were both upto to no good. Shame we don't know more about Enron.

Anyway its probably bad advice buts its worked for me before and I hope again in future, as I've a good itunes collection I haven't heard in awhile that awaits some external hdd enclosures and a recap on R Studio. Perhaps I'll make a guide for the foolhardy :zzz


Namaste