Hard drive just died... Now to recover my data

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Maxim726X

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Yeah, just happened on my desktop. It's been a long time since I backed up my data so there is a lot on there that I could do without losing.

I think it's a Hitachi Deskstar, which I remember reading had a pretty high rate of failure but I took the plunge anyway. Only had it for about 2 years, so to I'm relatively sure it's still under warranty. I come to you today asking for the best data retrieval service. I'll pay upwards of 500 if I must, obviously if I can get away with paying less I'd like to.

Drive just starting spinning and clicking. No longer recognized by computer.
 
Does the drive show up in BIOS? Have you tried using a Linux Live CD/USB and its data recovery tools?

If it's clicking, you're probably boned on user recovery. And if the data is extremely important, you may not want to risk powering on a clicking drive (not 100% sure if that matters).

Can't really offer any suggestions on pro recovery services. Sorry.
 
cameron said:
Does the drive show up in BIOS? Have you tried using a Linux Live CD/USB and its data recovery tools?

If it's clicking, you're probably boned on user recovery. And if the data is extremely important, you may not want to risk powering on a clicking drive (not 100% sure if that matters).

Can't really offer any suggestions on pro recovery services. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm not going to risk trying to access it anymore... Relatively sure user recovery is out of the question. I'm relatively sure (from what I've read) that the data can be recovered these days. Just wondering what the best deal is for reliable recovery. Appreciate the suggestion though.
 
cameron said:
Can't really offer any suggestions on pro recovery services. Sorry.
Click to expand...


Don't do this!

There are tons of free easy to use HDD recovery progrmas out there.
Just hook a new working HDD in first & start your PC & hook up your dead HDD as a secondary & run one of the many free programs to recover data.

If the HDD is clicking & won't even be recognized, place it in a zip lock bag & put it in the freezer for several hours.
It'll work after that for an hour or two, so you can recover your data.
 
I remember hearing a while ago Steve Gibson was working in a version of SpinRite that was not dependent on the BIOS on order to make the disk viewable by the OS. I've never used it, but a bunch of IT people I know swear by it. Check it out OP. https://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
 
I would take a chance at opening the drive up and see where the hard drive heads are parked. Most likely they are out of place. Watch a few YouTube videos on how to do this. If you need security tool bits, check out your local harbor freight hardware store.

"But what about dust?!" Well, did you know there is a little hole in the hard drive that says "DO NOT COVER" to keep the platters balanced? Dust lands in there.

Otherwise, expect to pay $$$$$$ per GB for professional services.

Fun Factor said:
If the HDD is clicking & won't even be recognized, place it in a zip lock bag & put it in the freezer for several hours.
It'll work after that for an hour or two, so you can recover your data.
Click to expand...

Have you tried this yourself?

I have many times, and it has never worked.
 
Fun Factor said:
Don't do this!

There are tons of free easy to use HDD recovery progrmas out there.
Just hook a new working HDD in first & start your PC & hook up your dead HDD as a secondary & run one of the many free programs to recover data.

If the HDD is clicking & won't even be recognized, place it in a zip lock bag & put it in the freezer for several hours.
It'll work after that for an hour or two, so you can recover your data.
Click to expand...

Oh it's a slave drive... My OS is on a Solid State so I could try something if I wanted to.

It is clicking, and is not being recognized. Guess I can give that a try.
 
olubode said:
I remember hearing a while ago Steve Gibson was working in a version of SpinRite that was not dependent on the BIOS on order to make the disk viewable by the OS. I've never used it, but a bunch of IT people I know swear by it. Check it out OP. https://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
Click to expand...

The only problem with spinrite is it doesn't fix physical defects. You'll need to open up the drive.

If the heads are out of place, the drive can't read anything.
 
Said this a million times, but :

0. Place empty Flash drive of whatever size in one of your back powered usb ports.
1. Download and burn a Hiren's boot cd anyway you can. It's free.
2. Change in your bios to boot from CD first.
3. Choose press any key to boot from cd when it pops up.
4. Run Mini Xp when the Hiren's options pop up.
5. Copy whatever you need off the HDD onto the flash drive. The flash drive has to be connected to the computer before you run Hiren's boot cd.
 
I have a clicking and not recognised hard drive as well, I dropped it on the floor the day I was about to make a copy of it to my backup drive. Shit happens. It's not main data. But I'd like to recover it anyway.

The only thing is that I don't know if I should do the freezing trick or just outright open it and put the drive head back in its place.
 
Put it in a plastic bag and in the freezer for 24 hours and then connect and get all the important stuff off as fast as you can.
 
Konka said:
Put it in a plastic bag and in the freezer for 24 hours and then connect and get all the important stuff off as fast as you can.
Click to expand...
My only concern is the being "as fast as you can" bit. I thinking opening up the HDD and fixing the head position, while more tricky to do, buys you a little bit more time.
 
olubode said:
I remember hearing a while ago Steve Gibson was working in a version of SpinRite that was not dependent on the BIOS on order to make the disk viewable by the OS. I've never used it, but a bunch of IT people I know swear by it. Check it out OP. https://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
Click to expand...

HOLY SHIT. I haven't heard that name or that program in like 15 years. What a blast from the past, I can't believe he still updates it.
 
Edit: ^^^^^^^^^I can't believe I'm forwarding an ad, but Carbonite (guess where I heard about that...) and probably many other services back up everything on one computer for like 60 bucks a year. Cloud storage is much cheaper now.

Risible said:
HOLY SHIT. I haven't heard that name or that program in like 15 years. What a blast from the past, I can't believe he still updates it.
Click to expand...
One of his listeners (he shares stories on his podcast) said it was a blast from the bast when he booted it. Not hard to understand why when you look at the UI :D
Spinrite-6.0.png


Edit 2: Reminds me of ScanDisc in Win98 :P
 
IceCold said:
What service do you recommend to do this? Backing up 100GB+ to the cloud sounds expensive.
Click to expand...

Carbonite gives you unlimited online backup for any internal drives (at least I think it's unlimited). There's really no excuse to not be backing up data on this day and age.
 
teiresias said:
Carbonite gives you unlimited online backup for any internal drives (at least I think it's unlimited). There's really no excuse to not be backing up data on this day and age.
Click to expand...

Slow internet for online backups.

For most users, free cloud storage is enough due to the Internet factor.
 
Maxim726X said:
Yeah, just happened on my desktop. It's been a long time since I backed up my data so there is a lot on there that I could do without losing.

I think it's a Hitachi Deskstar, which I remember reading had a pretty high rate of failure but I took the plunge anyway. Only had it for about 2 years, so to I'm relatively sure it's still under warranty. I come to you today asking for the best data retrieval service. I'll pay upwards of 500 if I must, obviously if I can get away with paying less I'd like to.

Drive just starting spinning and clicking. No longer recognized by computer.
Click to expand...

In the tech and geek lore they where called "Dethstar" (since the IBM days mind you) for a reason.

It will be HARD to try to recover if is already clicking, better to bury it and buy a new one and pour one for your info lost (unless you have the dough for a pro service)
 
claviertekky said:
Slow internet for online backups.
Click to expand...

I'm on lower than 10Mbps DSL and can still manage. Once you do the initial backup (which obviously take a while) it does incremental difference backup and essentially syncs the backup with your current drive state and runs on the background. You can also selectively pick folders. I only backup up music, photos, other media. There's no point in backing up my Steam or OS folder for example.
 
Ty4on said:
Edit: ^^^^^^^^^I can't believe I'm forwarding an ad, but Carbonite (guess where I heard about that...) and probably many other services back up everything on one computer for like 60 bucks a year. Cloud storage is much cheaper now.


One of his listeners (he shares stories on his podcast) said it was a blast from the bast when he booted it. Not hard to understand why when you look at the UI :D
Spinrite-6.0.png


Edit 2: Reminds me of ScanDisc in Win98 :P
Click to expand...

teiresias said:
Carbonite gives you unlimited online backup for any internal drives (at least I think it's unlimited). There's really no excuse to not be backing up data on this day and age.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Are there any file size limits? I have some HD family footage that are pretty huge.
 
I thought Hitachi had the lowest failure rates... I need to buy a ton of new drives for video editing, and everything I've read suggested Hitachi.
 
SpinRite is the only solution -- go straight for that and don't spend time on other stuff! If there's something that'll fix it, it'll be that. At least, that's always been my experience (with my failed drives, I mean).

SpinRite can also be run regularly (on Level 2) for maintenance purposes. Evidently that helps repair ailing drives that are on the brink. I run it like that on my drives and haven't had any issues with them since I started with SpinRite, but I suppose I've no real way of telling whether it's SpinRite doing that or just my luck in that they're not failing. But I trust Steve Gibson and GRC, so I'll take his word that it's probably SpinRite keeping them healthy.
 
railGUN said:
I thought Hitachi had the lowest failure rates... I need to buy a ton of new drives for video editing, and everything I've read suggested Hitachi.
Click to expand...

Hitachi makes excellent drives. The "DeathStar" moniker is a holdover from a long time ago...people that don't know better still cling onto it because it was a catchy label.

BackBlaze put out some figures on the drives they tested in-house and found that Hitachi drives did very well.

No matter what brand you buy, solid backups are a must. No storage solution is wholly immune from failure.
 
It's been ages, but when I had dead drives I used to bang them hard on a desk once or twice to get the head unstuck. But that was during the Maxtor days. The freezer trick never worked.

And yeah, Spinrite is great, although most of my hard drive failures were to the point where it wasn't detectable by the BIOS, so it never worked for me.
 
Shao Kahn on the Lawn said:
Hitachi makes excellent drives. The "DeathStar" moniker is a holdover from a long time ago...people that don't know better still cling onto it because it was a catchy label.

BackBlaze put out some figures on the drives they tested in-house and found that Hitachi drives did very well.

No matter what brand you buy, solid backups are a must. No storage solution is wholly immune from failure.
Click to expand...
Take the BackBlaze data with a grain of salt... if Seagate drives were that failure prone, they would be out of business.
 
IceCold said:
What service do you recommend to do this? Backing up 100GB+ to the cloud sounds expensive.
Click to expand...

I'm a recent convert to onedrive with office 365. You get 5 copies of office that you can share with friends and family to bring the cost down, and each person gets 1TB onedrive storage. So now I store all my photos including RAWs on onedrive. And you don't need to schedule backups, it works like Dropbox, syncing a folder on your HDD so whatever you out in there gets uploaded to the cloud.

Yes it takes a while initially, but you just leave it chugging away for a couple of days.

All my important documents are stored on both Dropbox and onedrive. My bigger files on onedrive and a NAS with RAID for added security.

I could and should make physical backups more often, but making things automatic was way better for me. I was just forgetting/putting off backing up when I had to use external HDDs. Now I just image my HDD now and then before I make any major changes
 
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