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Does anyone here use this tool?

I had a issue with one of our external HDD (Lacie Quadra) which had a damaged partition and the drive was not detectible when connected to a PC and showed up as “Unallocated” under disk management. I then tried couple of tools and this tool from GetData was able to scan all files/folders and display them in original folder structure. To recover though I would need to purchase this software. So, the reason I am asking is to know if this would be a good purchase because we need to recover that data.

Is there any other similar tool (maybe free or cheaper) that would do a good job?

Thanks.

MV

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I’ve had this happen. Crazy thing to do…

Use Windows to do a quick format on the drive. Then get Recuva from Piriform and your data should be recoverable.

Thanks,

A.J.

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You could try a linux disk, otherwise, I like the following. Yes, you have to pay for them but it’s one of the things I think it is worth spending some money on.

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Basically, when you format the drive, what you are doing is making it readable again by Windows. The partition, like you said, is corrupted. Formatting does not remove the data. Many think it does and people who sell used computers get their identities stolen…

That is the best tool I’ve ever seen for this outside of professional level tools used by Seagate/WD, etc and should do the trick.

Thanks,

A.J.

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@AJ - I thought about that but I am a little paranoid since the data is is really important and I am not sure how much it would recover. This HDD has at least 2TB to be recovered with pretty much all known file formats including installers.

@Merryworks - I tried the runtime software but was not happy with the scan results What linux disk would I need? Is there a link you can provide me?

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Recuva will get EVERYTHING! At this point, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain without spending thousands to get it done in a clean room lab.

Thanks,

A.J.

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Actually have a lot to lose if that does not go well. I will try a test run a spare hard drive I have and check if I am able to recover the data after formatting it.

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Worst case, you can send it in to someone like this.

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I have used SpinRite in the past and it has saved my @$$.

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I keep hearing about this but I don’t think I’ve ever used it…is it similar to Recuva??

Thanks,

A.J.

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If the data on the disc are really, really important, entrusted to professionals.
Unless you are an expert in the field, the important thing is to get the data back quickly and correctly.
This can assure you the only data recovery lab known.
It will be an important assessment on the costs / revenues.
If you wish to deal with the way Do-it-yourself, I strongly recommend Ontrak Easy Recovery, with an adequate preparatory training.

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If you are not able to locate the partition then you can use linux ubuntu. Run the disk and explore the partitions. All the recovery software works with similar kind of technologies all you need to check its recovered files preview. If the preview showing you exact files you are looking for you can buy that tool. But all in all you should try with linux first which is free of cost no need to spend money.

If you still want to try tools then you download kernel for windows data recovery from http://www.nucleustechnologies.com, stellar recovery tool from http;//www.stellarinfo.com and easeus partition master from http;//www.easeus.com/ all these great tools to recover data.

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Spinrite is great when there is something incorrect at a low level on the hard drive. It can test and repair otherwise unrecoverable problems with hard drives. We have had great success with it, in the right situation. It does not fix higher level problems. For example, if there is ambiguous bit-level information, Spinrite can often repair it, but for deleted files or something, Recuva or a professional file recovery utility would probably work better. I would recommend trying it in this case, the testing is non-destructive, we have never had a problem get worse thru using it (Actually, that is not exactly true - once we had a drive suffering from a internal heating problem, Spinrite may have unintentionally shortened it’s life by testing). Also, it is inexpensive, and the author/principal architect/company owner releases useful utilities to endusers and the IT community.

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Thanks for the suggestions but as we needed the data on the file urgently and I could not wait for the second scan to complete after 24-48 hours - almost 2.3 TB of data; I went ahead and purchased RecoverMyFiles software. As I had already done the scan and saved the scanned session, all I had to do was put in the license key to activate and recover our files. The software does work as advertised.

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Sorry only seeing this thread now - We purchased this product a while back for the same reason - does exactly what it is says. Very handy tool to have!

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