Recover failed hard drive?

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Dude Crush

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Hi guys

I've run into a problem with my Seagate portable USB 3 hard drive. The company I work for recently locked down all USB ports for data loss prevention purposes.

Last night I popped my hard drive into the USB port and a McAfee noticed popped up and asked if I wanted to encrypt the drive, to which I clicked no. It then said the drive will be made read only.

Not sure what happened, but now the drive doesn't read on any computer anymore. On my personal laptop and my SO's macbook, an error message popped my saying that the drive cannot be read.

Problem is that I have old photos and docs that I really can't afford to lose. Is there any place that I can take the drive to try and recover the data? What should I expect to pay?

Also, a friend popped the drive into his machine and said that it's possible that the file allocation table is corrupt. The disc analyser he used said the disk is now in RAW format, but even that program couldn't pick up any other data.

Any assistance would really be appreciated coz there's a ton of sentimental value attached to my pics etc.... Was silly of me to only have this one backup!!
 
I suspect you may be out of luck on this one.

You could try taking it to a data recovery place - but that isn't going to be the cheapest endeavour for you..
 
Necropolis said:
I suspect you may be out of luck on this one.

You could try taking it to a data recovery place - but that isn't going to be the cheapest endeavour for you..
Click to expand...
Any ideas on data recovery places? I'm not aware of any... I'm not fussed about the cost - just about recovering pics etc. In 10 years from now, I'd probably regret not having those images more than I'd miss a few Rands.
 
attach it via sata to a linux machine use "photorec" (couldv'e changed name) to recover the contents, save money praise linux - stop storing data on unreliable spinning disk, try any flavor of online storage for your sentimental/important stuff.

install linux, automate scripts to sync to the decent provider - rsync is your friend and runs on android for those sentimental photos too. configure disks to be rsynced on usb insertion and changes replicated to your online provider.

google is your friend too
 
Dude Crush said:
Any ideas on data recovery places? I'm not aware of any... I'm not fussed about the cost - just about recovering pics etc. In 10 years from now, I'd probably regret not having those images more than I'd miss a few Rands.
Click to expand...

Been there - lost a heap of mp3's of 80's music (12" remixes) and can't find them again...
Sad part is the drive they were on failed during me making Back-ups onto DVD... :mad:

If it's in a RAW state chances are it won't display data since the allocation isn't noted/saved.
I screwed up a drive once which turn out a similar way.
Some Data Recovery software will allow you to write a default MBT/MFT (whatever) which should allow you to access the drive.
The Data might not be accessible but if Windows can 'see' the drive you can use even Basic Data Recovery Software to get those files back.

Also... if the drive is RAW, why not try the Storage Management option under the Admin Tools in Windows?

*** Word of advice - be careful not to write anything to the drive, ie. format or copy etc. This will fudge the recovery.

The Data Recovery blokes (easy to find on Google) wil charge about R8500 for a 1Tb recovery! (Prices includes a new drive too). :sick:
 
download knopix boot from it with hardrive conected look for data recovery. need another drive to copy to tho .
Be careful to write to drive tho
 
hmm. There are a few things you can try. Remember however, that every time you fiddle you risk doing more damage.

If the the damage is corruption and not hardware, my suggestion would be to get some forensic tools and firstly make an image of the drive using it.

There are a number of tools available and even some linux based commands can do it. What you are looking for is not a backup tool, but one that makes and exact, byte by byte image. (used in digital forensics). This copy you can then work with, without damaging the original. (In linux, i believe the dd command is what you looking for. (any linux experts, please advise)

Here are some useful programs and links to help you out.

1. Forensic tools: http://www.networkintrusion.co.uk/fortools.htm
2. Free hard drive imaging tools:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml
3. http://www.digital-evidence.org/ contains research information about digital forensics
4. http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/forensics.html
5. http://www.forensics-intl.com/ev-info.html

Once you have a copy, now use tools like http://accessdata.com/product-download/digital-forensics/ftk-download-page (FTK forensic toolkit) to manipulate, extract and get data of your hard-drive.

This should get you started. your data is likely quite recoverable, but you need to exercise caution.

Please PM me if you want some help of if this stuff does not make sense?

Cheers
ROddy
 
TestDisk worked for me once, but try to make an image of the disk first using ddrescue.
 
roddyp said:
hmm. There are a few things you can try. Remember however, that every time you fiddle you risk doing more damage.

If the the damage is corruption and not hardware, my suggestion would be to get some forensic tools and firstly make an image of the drive using it.

There are a number of tools available and even some linux based commands can do it. What you are looking for is not a backup tool, but one that makes and exact, byte by byte image. (used in digital forensics). This copy you can then work with, without damaging the original. (In linux, i believe the dd command is what you looking for. (any linux experts, please advise)

Here are some useful programs and links to help you out.

1. Forensic tools: http://www.networkintrusion.co.uk/fortools.htm
2. Free hard drive imaging tools:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml
3. http://www.digital-evidence.org/ contains research information about digital forensics
4. http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/forensics.html
5. http://www.forensics-intl.com/ev-info.html

Once you have a copy, now use tools like http://accessdata.com/product-download/digital-forensics/ftk-download-page (FTK forensic toolkit) to manipulate, extract and get data of your hard-drive.

This should get you started. your data is likely quite recoverable, but you need to exercise caution.

Please PM me if you want some help of if this stuff does not make sense?

Cheers
ROddy
Click to expand...
Awesome! Thanks so much for the advice. Let me get through some reading and research and if I get stuck I'll def seek some advice.

Much appreciated!
groenspookasem said:
attach it via sata to a linux machine use "photorec" (couldv'e changed name) to recover the contents, save money praise linux - stop storing data on unreliable spinning disk, try any flavor of online storage for your sentimental/important stuff.

install linux, automate scripts to sync to the decent provider - rsync is your friend and runs on android for those sentimental photos too. configure disks to be rsynced on usb insertion and changes replicated to your online provider.

google is your friend too
Click to expand...
 
shinji said:
Been there - lost a heap of mp3's of 80's music (12" remixes) and can't find them again...
Sad part is the drive they were on failed during me making Back-ups onto DVD... :mad:

If it's in a RAW state chances are it won't display data since the allocation isn't noted/saved.
I screwed up a drive once which turn out a similar way.
Some Data Recovery software will allow you to write a default MBT/MFT (whatever) which should allow you to access the drive.
The Data might not be accessible but if Windows can 'see' the drive you can use even Basic Data Recovery Software to get those files back.

Also... if the drive is RAW, why not try the Storage Management option under the Admin Tools in Windows?

*** Word of advice - be careful not to write anything to the drive, ie. format or copy etc. This will fudge the recovery.

The Data Recovery blokes (easy to find on Google) wil charge about R8500 for a 1Tb recovery! (Prices includes a new drive too). :sick:
Click to expand...
Thanks... Great advice. Will not try to make any changes to the drive till I've got some sort of clue for a way forward!
 
PostmanPot said:
It sounds like the drive is suffering from a hardware issue, in which case there's very little you can do.

If the data is important, rather don't try anything yourself, and book it in with the pros at SouthBit. You'd be looking at half the price of the figures being thrown around here, and MyBroadband members get a discount too.

http://www.southbit.co.za/book-in-your-hard-drive/
https://plus.google.com/+SouthBitDataRecoveryCapeTown/about
https://www.facebook.com/Southbit
Click to expand...
Great, thanks PostmanPot. It's not terribly life and death important, but I do have some family function pictures and stuff that one would really not like to lose.

Paying R5k will be stiff, but tbh I might do that if the prognosis is pretty good for recoverability!

Much keener to let a pro do this than risk stuffing it up. But if I need to DIY, I'll upskill myself and give it a shot!
 
Last edited:
Dude Crush said:
Hi guys

I've run into a problem with my Seagate portable USB 3 hard drive. The company I work for recently locked down all USB ports for data loss prevention purposes.

Last night I popped my hard drive into the USB port and a McAfee noticed popped up and asked if I wanted to encrypt the drive, to which I clicked no. It then said the drive will be made read only.

Not sure what happened, but now the drive doesn't read on any computer anymore. On my personal laptop and my SO's macbook, an error message popped my saying that the drive cannot be read.

Problem is that I have old photos and docs that I really can't afford to lose. Is there any place that I can take the drive to try and recover the data? What should I expect to pay?

Also, a friend popped the drive into his machine and said that it's possible that the file allocation table is corrupt. The disc analyser he used said the disk is now in RAW format, but even that program couldn't pick up any other data.

Any assistance would really be appreciated coz there's a ton of sentimental value attached to my pics etc.... Was silly of me to only have this one backup!!
Click to expand...

Where abouts are you?
 
Dude Crush said:
Great, thanks PostmanPot. It's not terribly life and death important, but I do have some family function pictures and stuff that one would really not like to lose.

Paying R5k will be stiff, but tbh I might do that if the prognosis is pretty good for recoverability!

Much keener to let a pro do this than risk stuffing it up. But if I need to DIY, I'll unskill myself and give it a shot!
Click to expand...

It will be less than that. :)

If you feel the data justifies the cost and not risking DIY, we'd be happy to send an overnight courier to collect at no charge seeing as you're in Johannesburg.

Pop us a mail if you'd like to chat - service at southbit dot co dot za.
 
SouthBit said:
It will be less than that. :)

If you feel the data justifies the cost and not risking DIY, we'd be happy to send an overnight courier to collect at no charge seeing as you're in Johannesburg.

Pop us a mail if you'd like to chat - service at southbit dot co dot za.
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks a mill... Gonna read up a bit and will def give you guys a shout if I opt to pay for recovery. I'll email u with a few questions that I have about how likely it is to be able to recover, fees for an assessment to check how bad it is etc.
 
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