Cannot access files on damaged Hard disk

wilkinsit · 2013-09-17T23:22:05.000Z

I have already been through the forums and tried many things, i need some fresh ideas. here is the story:

I have this customer’s laptop which they dropped on Friday and the Windows OS went belly up. You get a blue screen when it tries to load windows. The hard drive can be detected in BIOS and the system reserved and the “recovery” partition can be seen when you connect the drive either via SATA or USB to another machine. The main partition cannot be seen and Disk management either says it needs to be formatted or shows nothing and hangs. I have UBCD which I ran a chk disk like program and the drive is riddled with bad sectors. I am trying to recover the persons auto-biography which they haven’t backed up in 6 months.

Within UBCD there is EaseUS disk copy which ran for 48 hours and recovered 2GB out of the 500GB and then I stopped it and moved on. I tried parted magic (also on UBCD) to recover the partition, i got the partition to be recognized in Linux (through parted magic and slax) and the drive ID is there but i cannot browse any files. Trying to us clonezilla or other cloning software on UBCD also turns up errors or complete failure off the hop.

I followed suggestions from http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/107194-data-recovery-from-old-sata-hard-drive and have Slax loaded, i had the disk being recognize but it would not mount nor browse files. I am currently downloading Damn Small Linux and am going to give that a go now too.

Does anyone have any other idea on how to get files off this computer? any Linux trick i can try since Windows is being a SOB and cant access the drive. I am a complete Linux Noob and i Google just about anything to do with running stuff on Linux so if there is a Linux trick i need some steps to follow. I am a programmer etc so im not a complete dummy but Linux is definitely not my forte.

The disk is a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue, spins up just fine and like i said two of the three partitions are detected and i can browse them in Linux (Windows wont let you browse the system reserved and recovery part’s by default)

Thanks!

inotna · 2013-09-17T23:30:03.000Z

If all else fails, your last resort would be handing the hard disk to a professional data recovery services which will cost you alot.

jonfarnick2302 · 2013-09-17T23:35:12.000Z

@ a previous job, they had getdataback, GetDataBack — Data Recovery Software For Crashed Hard Drives, as long as the drive spun (and sometimes you needed to throw it in the freezer for a few hours to get past the click-click stage), i was amazed at what could be retrieved

bad sectors could corrupt a specific file, the MFT could be hosed and you loose the directory structure and or file names, but many an end user were happy to be able to retrieve what we could, and most often than not, it was most of the data on the drive

and it was a boat-load cheaper than having the drive sent to a recovery specialist, you’d only need to do that if the drive was dead dead, didn’t spin, didn’t power up, etc

simonmatthews · 2013-09-17T23:37:48.000Z

Take it to a HDD recovery specialist. It will cost crazy amounts but you are just reducing chances of recovery by continuing to stuff around with it.

mpk · 2013-09-17T23:38:14.000Z

Steve Gibson’s Spinrite 6 ( GRC | SpinRite 5.0 to 6.0 ) is alway my first goto product for low level drive formatting issues. This will check, repair, or report each physical sector. It may not find/fix any problems, but it will tell you if there’s a physical problem with the disk, or just corrupt data. Steve’s got a satisfaction guarantee if you’re not happy with the results. (However, I’ve had this software since v2 or so, and I use it every month or two.

wilkinsit · 2013-09-17T23:40:08.000Z

KerBeer → I asked the client if he was willing to send it to a specialist, when i told him approximate costs he just stared blank at me and after he swallowed the costs he said no… it obviously isnt THAT important, thanks for the advice.

Steam punk → thats the second time someone has recommended that software… im willing to give it a shot and your right way cheaper than DR specialists.

I have DSL being installed on a multiboot USB right now, im going to try some finicking with that before i look at paid software, thanks for the advice!

erleedelorbe1819 · 2013-09-17T23:40:17.000Z

Hello Wilkins! Just so you know the following is not a prank or joke

Well, you asked for it here it goes! Remove hard drive from computer and place it inside a ZipLock back or any bag that sels and watchOnce you’ve made sure the bag is sealed put the disk in your freezer… yes the freezer, leave in on there for a few hours or overnight. Nope! this is not a joke or prank, this actually works, and it has saved my skin a few times

The cold has an effect on the platter that it makes the data easier to read. Please try it… you’ll be surprised.

-Erlee

If in doubt google it!

wilkinsit · 2013-09-17T23:45:58.000Z

If all is lost, i will give that a shot. thanks for the tip.

Simple → Customer is not willing to shell out this money, thanks for the tip

simonmatthews · 2013-09-18T00:02:02.000Z

Then customer doesn’t value the data.

jonfarnick2302 · 2013-09-18T00:07:05.000Z

you can download the trial version

*Download the trial version and recover your files. You can preview your data to be sure it actually works. If you like the results you do not need run the program again. Purchase the license key and enter it into the open program. Then copy everything you need!*

it’ll show you what can be recovered (if anything), to actually extract the data (to another physical drive), only then would you need to shell out the money for a key to unlock that last (important) part of the process

kev840 · 2013-09-18T00:09:26.000Z

There is a program called encase that will read every sector of a drive regardless of its status in the MFT, which appears to be where your problem lies. I don’t know if they offer a trial version or not. We use it in law enforcement to clone and examine hard drives. You’d be amazed at what can be recovered.

http://www.encase.com/products/Pages/encase-forensic/overview.aspx

wilkinsit · 2013-09-18T00:33:23.000Z

I found the files using getdataback, thanks for the tip, I only needed one file and i was able to grab it without the license.

Simple → I fully get your opinion (and i spiced it) but keep in mind little IT shops like myself are fixing stay at home mom’s and random people from my area.Even my SMB clients wouldn’t shell out 1000+ on data recovery unless it was their fiscal data. and even then they may just write it off and key in some hard records. Data recovery at that magnitude is for corporate guys that scramble a disk containing financial data or SIN/SS numbers.

Kev → For $3k it should be wiping my arse too lol.

Thank you everyone for the help!

brendanwight · 2013-09-18T00:34:14.000Z

Can you boot into recovery console and fix the MBR?

You might be able to utilise these instructions (for Ubuntu, I know you’re not currently using it but it might inspire a solution via slax or DSL) HOWTO: Fix an NTFS partition in Ubuntu | Linux Expresso

Here is a link to a thread full of suggestions from when I was trying to recover an external HDD back in April http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/321451-busted-portable-hdd

If you have a Caddy or adapters, you could attach is as an external HDD to a machine with a working version of Windows and try various other data recovery tools

wilkinsit · 2013-09-18T00:36:22.000Z

I did try an MBR fix and it got it to the point where the partition was recognizable but not readable yet. all is fixed, thanks for your input!

simonmatthews · 2013-09-18T00:44:11.000Z

I used to work at an small IT shop and had to deal with data recovery quite a bit. I would rarely waste much time on customers that weren’t willing to spend money on recovery. It usually meant they will argue the invoice with you anyway and you wouldn’t get a return on the work you put in.

brenten · 2013-09-18T01:50:21.000Z

look at UFSExplorer.com They have some shareware utilities for DR. its free to try and see if its possible, the license is required to move the data.

maybe give him a dropbox account for x-mas?

jnors · 2013-09-18T03:00:28.000Z

+1 for the freezer… It has worked for me in the past.

jirehrejmae8504 · 2013-09-18T03:16:07.000Z

Hi pls try this one… you said your hard disk is detected on BIOS…

Now you can use the Paragon Hard Disk Management (version 2009 prefered)

This is a powerful tools for back up the data in DOS MODE

Hope it help

philippfode1904 · 2013-09-18T06:29:43.000Z

The Freezer method worked in several cases for me as well.

The regular way would be to try everything under the UBCD and if nothing works, i give the freezer method a try.

galaxyman7075 · 2013-09-18T07:09:45.000Z

Ubuntu Live CD is a good option…you boot from the CD, then you can transfer the files to an external HDD…