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Hello folks,

I’m currently working with a user on a corrupted external hard drive. She filed a ticket for her Seagate external hard drive Wednesday because she was getting the dreaded,

CantFindFile.png

from all files on her external hard drive. We tried opening them 4 different ways, copying and pasting to see if they could be read from a location outside the external’s filing system (that would be a negative, ghost rider), and then the external hard drive was appearing as blank yesterday. When we ran the chkdsk function, it was reporting a RAW format filing system.

Today we went in with both Glary’s Undelete and Priform’s Recuva programs (both free versions, might I add). One was showing folders, but couldn’t find any files. The other one was reporting an unreadable, blank hard drive.

Does anyone have any further suggestions for data recovery that aren’t going to cost us $100 for this single hard drive?

4 Spice ups
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How much is the data worth and how much are you loosing without access??Thats how much you should be prepared to pay

Krollontrack are the folks to call

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Have you tried EaseUS data recovery?

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I totally agree, which is why we’re not willing to pay $100 for it. The manufacturer has data recovery options, but they’d want $100 for their services. That’s a deal breaker for the company.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll take a look into Kroll Ontrack.

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Kroll Ontrack is not going to be cheap. No data recovery is going to be cheap. Guaranteed you’re looking at thousands of dollars minimum to send it anywhere.

EaseUS is free, in an attempt to thwart pirates, and they have a good name behind them:

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Get it outside of a Windows environment. Boot a machine with a Live Linux, SLAX works good, and try that way. I have recovered more with this simple method than any other way. If it cannot be read from a Linux distro you can try a partition recovery package, not a file recovery one and there are several available in the Linux world that work well.

1 Spice up
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$100 for professional data recovery services is a STEAL in my opinion!

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Otherwise for DIY, my tool of choice is ddrescue

2 Spice ups
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Our lowest price for the easiest problems with a single drive is $250. Free no-obligation evaluation, and no data/no charge policy. If the problem is listed here, it will be $250- http://datarecovery.com/services/hard-drive-data-recovery/

I’d recommend some better software options but they’d also cost close to $100 (R-Studio or ReclaiMe). And you wouldn’t have a no data/no charge policy with those.

Another free one you could try is PhotoRec. If PhotoRec can’t scan the drive, then you have a drive issue that software likely won’t help you with. You might want to also try removing the drive from the housing and attaching directly with SATA to rule out an issue that the USB interface might choke on but SATA wouldn’t (though this doesn’t work with all drives).

Good luck!

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To recover data from corrupted Seagate external hard drive you can use Kernel for Windows Data Recovery Software. It is so efficient data recovery software to recover data from Windows file system. It can recover data from formatted, corrupted or deleted partitions of storage media. Visit Windows Data Recovery Software to Recover Data from Windows 11/10/8/7 to know more features and support of the software to recover data successfully.

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Try repair Microsoft Office Client Side. Best of Luck

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I would;

Option 1 - If data is critical.

  1. Send to data recovery expert

Option 2 - If data is important (but no send to a data recovery expert important)

  1. Check drive health/SMART table

  2. If the drive is on its way out and data important I would run ddrescue on the drive to create a sector by sector image (skip bad blocks first, then another pass trying to recover other data)

  3. If ddrescue can’t get all the blocks, maybe try spinrite, then re-run ddrescue to try grab all the data.

  4. Try recover data from the sector-by-sector image created, or restore it to another disk, and work from that (start using suitable choice of tools for the job depending on where its at at this stage, tools such as chkdsk, testdisk, file carvers depending on situation)

Option 3 - If data isn’t that important and you want it done quick

  1. Try mount it in linux

  2. If that fails, or partitions aren’t listed in linux, run testdisk to try restore partition table if it’s gone.

  3. If above fail, run spinrite, then try above again.

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Hey,

Just keep in mind that windows chkdsk /r will remove data that is not repairable. Many people learn that the hard way before they try other recovery options.

Good Luck!

5 Spice ups
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You will get some help from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/permanently-damaged-hard-drive-recovery/

@Stellar

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Due to restrictions (budget, HDD in remote location, etc.), we weren’t able to get this one resolved. We tried the EaseUS, and they couldn’t find any files on her external hard drive either. I pointed her toward a cloud storage as backup, and as of now, we’re leaving it at that. Thanks for everyone’s input! All very much appreciated. In different circumstances, I’d be really interested in trying the linux idea and ddrescue!

1 Spice up
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Late response, may want to setup a multi-boot Linux flash drive. Options such as Hiren’s, UBCD, and Falcon 4 tend to have a vert usable variety of tool options like ddrescue. Good to have on-hand, as needed. See also—

2 Spice ups
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Like RP said you can use one of those methods. You can try mounting it on a regular Linux machine.

Is there any kind of noise coming from the drive (clicking, scratching, etc?) or does it sound perfectly normal? Is the drive out of warranty?

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18

Sorry for the late reply were just getting setup over here.

How much does data recovery cost is the most common subject in the industry. I work in the data recovery industry and can give you first-hand information. I see these numbers every day and I can tell you they are accurate. The following is a chart that lists consumer solutions (professional versions are also available for every need by almost all providers):

The average price for data recovery

Solution PriceRange Note

Software $0-99 Most vendors offer free versions to recover a few GBs of data and if it works for you, you can purchase more usage during the recovery process.

Appliance $49-169 Easiest recovery process, however you have to wait for the product to be delivered (though its available for next day delivery from Amazon)

Service $200-10,000 I know its a wide range, but we don’t know what is wrong with your drive yet. Free, no-obligation estimates are available from most service providers.

These are actual numbers folks, and at these prices there is little room for price improvement if a data recovery company plans to stay in business. If you don’t know what the categories are, or you are interested in why data recovery is so expensive, or you just want to read more, https://www.prosofteng.com/datarescueoptions/

I would recommend running Free versions of software’s to make sure your files can be recovered in full before spending any money. Prosoft offers a free version of both their Mac and Windows based recovery software, which both have the ability to recover Linux based drives.

If the drive failure is more severe and requires the use of a professional recovery service I would recommend reaching out to us to see if we can assist you.

http://www.thedatarescuecenter.com/

Which solution is right for you is purely subjective (based on your assessment of the value of your data and your technical expertise to solve the problem). As a general rule of thumb, If you need to recover a single or a small group of files because you accidentally deleted them, software is probably the best bet. If one or more of your files is inexplicably missing or corrupted, or the whole drive is showing up as blank, you may have a significant software error (or virus) in your system. DO A FULL DATA RECOVERY the damage and data loss is likely not over yet… Software or Appliance will work for that (they have their own pros/cons). If your drive is showing signs of damage (unusual noise, smell, smoke, or has been subjected to physical damage including power outage, lightening, falling, etc.), immediately turn your drive off and send it to a service company to be evaluated (most companies offer free evals). Failure to do that will almost undoubtedly result in the complete loss of your data.

I hope this type of post is informative… I will be watching this forum to openly and honestly answer any questions relating to the data recovery industry. I may not have every answer immediately, but I can find every answer.

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