Bad hard drive -need to get files maybe?

I have read about 3 dozen threads on recovering files from a dying hard drive or software to use but I'm still not sure about HOW to get files from a already dead hard drive. Is there any freeware that will run of a floppy or cd that I can get some files?

 

It really depends on how dead the drive is. If the BIOS can see the drive, then you may be able to boot to a 'live' CD like Barts or the UBCD4Win and recover the data that way. You can also try removing the drive from the PC, hooking it up to a PC running Windows, and trying some data recovery software. Here's a list of freeware, most of 'em are here at Major Geeks and they all must be run from within Windows:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_&_PhotoRec_d5561.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Data_Recovery_d5336.html
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Victoria_for_Windows_d5688.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/TestDisk_d4803.html *
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Partition_Saving_d5753.html *
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Partition_Find_&_Mount_d5740.html *
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Disk_Investigator_d1341.html
.... and one over at Snapfiles http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/softperfect-file-recovery/spfilerecovery.html

* = these are primarily for 'rebuilding' or recovering an entire partition, at the partition level, versus file recovery at the file level. I wouldn't recommend using these on USB flash drives, mainly because I really don't think they'd work. No harm can come from trying though (at least I don't think any harm can come from trying).

The main thing to keep in mind is that you will need to have 2nd drive ready so that you have a place to put any data you recover. You can use an external drive, a slaved hard drive, or if you remove the crashed drive and slave it to a healthy PC, you can save the data to drive C: (just create a folder called "Saved Data" and put it there).
Good luck! :-D
Let us know how it goes...

 

One thing I forgot to say is that it's a laptop,not a pc.The bios sees the hard drive also.I'm home right now but I have my sis boot it up and make sure though. It's a Dell E1505 and I did a diagnostic test on it ,it didn't pass the hard drive short test. Gave an error code but I didn't have the time to write it down at the moment.I'll see if she can mess with it and get some more ifo if you need it.

 

Just like to concur with robert 123's suggestion but suggest a similar demo to full product. I dont doubt the Stellar product but it seems you have to buy a separate version per file format whereas this http://www.majorgeeks.com/R-Studio_d1031.html covers all of them at once for the same price. I cant vouch for its any worse as a jack of all trades but i have used it many times to recover lost data on various systems. Before my desktop went totally south and has chucked its final curveball, I just used it last week to recover 135gb of 159gb lost. Sadly I had allowed CHKDSK to scan the said drive before I had twigged what had happened, otherwise I m confident I would have got it all.

It luckily was a partition of DVD documentaries, so I only lost a few easily replaceable ones as a result. It definitely goes down to individual file level if thats all you need aswell, as I imagine roberts & DLB's various links also do. Those I will check out also.

However both R-studio and Stellar recommend imaging a dying drive you are trying to get data from first, just incase it dies further in the process and you lose anything potentially recoverable.

I'd therefore advise you grab the Acronis True Image 11 demo which is fully working for 15 days to do this. That just saved this Vista laptop a day before my desktop died and I needed R Studio afresh.

As for totally dead HDD recovery see my post here http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=167651 as I got tipped off by an IT professional my wife knew online, that this idea may work. It was a long shot but it does work a treat.

All best with your data recovery.

Namaste