2.5" Hard Drive - Recovering data

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Flidiot

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I have a problem with the wife's laptop.

It took a bit of a knock and seems as though the drive got a bit of damage in the process.

Windows doesn't boot and getting into system recovery takes about 10 minutes.

I plugged the drive into my laptop via USB and I noticed that the file system was listed as "RAW". I managed to sort that out, to the point that it at least shows as NTFS and I am able to browse the file structure of the drive. Albeit slow as hell.

Now that is all good and well, logic would be to copy all the files off and just install Windows on a new drive. The problem is though that quite a few of the files are not copying over at all. Either receiving IO errors or "delayed write failed".

I am running chkdsk at the moment which seems to, slowly, be doing something. But just want to get all my options together so that I can push on as soon as the check finishes..

Even if we can just get the bulk of the data off the drive, that would be great.

Is there any advise for situations like these? :confused:
 
I would suggest using file scavenger to recover the files. im not 100% sure it will speed up the process but i have recovered alot of data using that program from drives that windows does not want to read at all. i did have a issue with it renaming files but that was only off one hard drive not the rest. good luck with your data recovery.
 
Zarathustra said:
Download the ISO & make a bootable CD:

http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.p...R_YOUR_COMPUTER&front_id=12&lang=en&locale=en

If this doesn't work, probably your only option is to contact the master of data recover - SouthBit
Click to expand...

Thanks a mil! Busy downloading it now, looks like something that I should keep in my toolkit regardless of whether I use it now or not. At the moment I have a few CD's for various tasks. This seems to be everything rolled in one.

shane' said:
I would suggest using file scavenger to recover the files. im not 100% sure it will speed up the process but i have recovered alot of data using that program from drives that windows does not want to read at all. i did have a issue with it renaming files but that was only off one hard drive not the rest. good luck with your data recovery.
Click to expand...

I actually downloaded File Scavenger last night - just the demo though. Haven't tested it yet though... Will definitely try this out as well if push comes to shove. Even if it renames files, I honestly don't care. Rather have the files by different names than not have them at all. Thanks a mil!
 
Flidiot said:
I am running chkdsk at the moment which seems to, slowly, be doing something. But just want to get all my options together so that I can push on as soon as the check finishes..
Click to expand...
Not a good idea. You should put disk back to the original laptop (or PC SATA controller), boot from CD or USB and clone entire drive to the other drive (in case of laptop - USB destignation).
 
sajunky said:
Not a good idea. You should put disk back to the original laptop (or PC SATA controller), boot from CD or USB and clone entire drive to the other drive (in case of laptop - USB destignation).
Click to expand...

Some good advice here. I would not advice normal cloning software either as some fail on hard errors. GNU ddrescue comes to mind.
 
Thanks everyone. I am a total noob when it comes to recovering data. The odd file undelete here and there, but this is so far out of my scope. I really appreciate the help.

sajunky said:
Not a good idea. You should put disk back to the original laptop (or PC SATA controller), boot from CD or USB and clone entire drive to the other drive (in case of laptop - USB destignation).
Click to expand...

At some point this afternoon the drive was in the laptop and I was booting with various "rescue kits" but none of them were able to recognise the partition, so put myself back to where I was last night. Not to say being in the original laptop or that the software did anything, I just think this drive is pretty buggered. I would be too if I took a knock as hard as it did...

I did manage to sort out partition recognition/detection again, so will definitely try cloning it.

ponder said:
Some good advice here. I would not advice normal cloning software either as some fail on hard errors. GNU ddrescue comes to mind.
Click to expand...

Can't judge if you are for or against ddrescue? :erm:
 
Flidiot said:
At some point this afternoon the drive was in the laptop and I was booting with various "rescue kits" but none of them were able to recognise the partition, so put myself back to where I was last night. Not to say being in the original laptop or that the software did anything,
Click to expand...
I made actually two points, maybe not clear:
1. When drive is failing, working on USB interface doesn't help, as USB do not handle disk errors correctly. Native SATA interface is an absolute requirement when drive shows errors/delays during reading.

2. Working on the ailing drive, trying to access file system puts drive on the stress, if is going to die, it would die quicker. But using check disk and other utilities attemting to write to the disk, it takes it to the next level, it will accelerate deterioration of the file system and make more difficult for recovery.

I don't say, these utilities messed up or did something wrong, I don't know, all I say is that they shouldn't be used in the first place.
 
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sajunky said:
I made actually two points, maybe not clear:
1. When drive is failing, working on USB interface doesn't help, as USB do not handle disk errors correctly. Native SATA interface is an absolute requirement when drive shows errors/delays during reading.

2. Working on the ailing drive, trying to access file system puts drive on the stress, if is going to die, it would die quicker. But using check disk and other utilities attemting to write to the disk, it takes it to the next level, it will accelerate deterioration of the file system and make more difficult for recovery.

I don't say, these utilities messed up or did something wrong, I don't know, all I say is that they shouldn't be used in the first place.
Click to expand...

Now that I read your previous post again I actually see your points. Sorry - completely overlooked them before. Call it delayed-Monday-effect.

Both points make sense - probably a good thing I stopped working on the drive just after posting my last reply.

Thanks for the advise sajunky, really appreciate it!
 
Your drive has damaged media, i.e. platter damage. There's a good chance that the heads are OK so recovery, at this point, is possible.

No software tool is going to help you other than ddrescue. However you risk killing the drive altogether by trying further attempts.

Rather book the drive in if you're serious about getting the data back.
 
South_Bit said:
No software tool is going to help you other than ddrescue.
Click to expand...
DMDE comes to my mind, not to argue, but for information.
It has advanced error handling features like re-reading individual sectors inside the block which gives error, skip and reverse reading too. In free edition there is no second pass (automatic return to the skipped areas with different parameters), so it has to be done manually. Pro version support scripting, so it can handle problematic areas automatically, but for casual use it is more than sufficient tool to complete cloning.
 
i made an interesting discovery (on mac).
had a bad drive, when trying to copy files & folders to a new drive kept getting IO error messages.

however, out of frustration, took a last ditch attempt and ran syncronization software.
virtually everything was copied over correctly.
i have used this method time & again with success (also using different sync programs).
i assume sync software reads & writes in a different manner !

this has worked better for me than most data recovery software. (unless the drive is not mounting)
 
South_Bit said:
DMDE is a good tool, but by the sounds of it this drive needs a hardware imager.
Click to expand...
Term hardware imager is little bit confusing, as it is pair of two pieces: dedicated device with ATA/SATA controller and software written specifically for this controller.
The similiar results can be achieved using a good generic software and PC motherboard with built in well known and established controller.
In case of ATA drives I had the best results with DMDE and old PII motherboard (Intel i440BX chipset). For SATA drives I have less experience, but here the same rule apply. It worked for me well on motherboard with i865 chipset (SATA I).
 
Well, since I don't have access to much else.... I have the drive back on it's original hardware and have been running ddrescue since Friday, it seems to be doing something... going to let it run a little while longer and then check out the image that is being created.

Holding thumbs as this point as budget doesn't allow for booking the device in...anywhere :D

Thanks again, everyone, for all the input.
 
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