Desperately need your help - Hard drive dropped !!

[Stu Ward]

Hi

I have a WD 1TB external Hard drive that i accidently dropped off the lower shelf of my computer desk. Only fell around 100mm, but it can no longer be seen by the computer
Powers up, but its as if the USB is no longer working.
Took it apart, removed the USB adapter and plugged in via the SATA, still no joy

Help me Obi Wan !!!

[Barrykgerdes]

If it has irreplaceable data it can be recovered by specialists but I think you will find the cost is more than two or three replacements drives

If it has been dropped I would suspect that something internal has been shocked out of place.

Barry

[troypiggo]

I've been through this recently. Firstly, stop plugging it in and trying to get it to work. The more you plug it in, the higher the chances of more damage and corrupting all your data.

I sent my wife's disk off to a recovery specialist, and I think this is how most work from what I understand. He tested it to see if could or couldn't recover data. They only charge if they do get something off it. Trouble is that's rare so fees high. If they need to replace some parts on it to get it working, you pay even though still no guarantee recovery possible.

So can cost hundreds and still no data. If can get data I think it would have added up to close to $1000. We decided it was worth trying as there were first year of our son photos and video on there. But the data wasn't recoverable.

[hotspur]

ah that's not good to hear of such data loss Troy and Stu.Everyone's worst nightmare.

I know this is not much use-but its a prudent thing to remember after reading this-is to back up really important data on three different H.D,and have them stashed away in three locations,Also I like to burn onto disks many important files.

[Stu Ward]

OK I have got Windows to kind of recognise the disk, but its not showing up in my computer, because its not initialised.
Any idea how i can do this and not lose data ?

Thanks

Stu

[kustard]

You could try connecting it up to a computer with a different OS on it to see if it can see it.

[mill]

Stu find and use data recovery software and put everything on another harddrive.

[ZeroID]

Some useful recovery software at www.snapfiles.com (http://www.snapfiles.com) Check out the free tab first.
The other method I have used is to download a Puppy Linux disk, boot up a PC with that with the drive connected via USB. Mount the drive and use Puppy linux to access the data.
Before you get all 'Anti -Linux' it is real easy. Puppy boots from the CD, leaves no trace as it does not install so any Pc will do. It has a very friendly user desktop, almost Mac\Windows combo and it mounts drives via a simple tool and lets you just drag and drop.
If your drive has any life left in it it's a good bet.
But I suspect your drive has crashed the read head assembly in which case a rebuild by an expert might be the only possible option.
Good luck with it.

[alistairsam]

Hi
I agree with Brent, booting into linux has a better chance of the disk being initialized than with windows.
gparted is a free utility for modifying disk partitions, but worth checking if it recognizes the partition type as it easily recognizes partitions that windows setup can't.
was it just one partition or more than one ? what was the file system formatted to?

you could try cloning the hard disk if you have a spare, else try ghost to create an image of the partition(not disk). chances are it can successfully create an image. that can then be restored to a different drive.

Else you'll have to try a data recovery software. you've got to pay for most of them but there might be something free that's reliable.
as in another post, don't keep power cycling your disk. if its connected, leave it connected, or leave it disconnected till you have a software or a plan.

I used a software called tiramisu about 10 years ago to recover hard disks corrupted by a very nasty virus, I got all my data, but its quite expensive now.
have a look at the westerndigital data recovery links. might be expensive, but good to call and get some pricing.
http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp?lang=en&selregion=apac

you also got to think of how much you need the data and then take the risk by attempting recovery yourself, else you might have to give it to recovery specialists if its really important.
if you got windows to recognize it, there might be a good chance for recovery.

[Barrykgerdes]

I have a boot disk (CD) that will boot my computer into DOS 7. I have a number of old DOS recovery programs that can examine hard disks. Making a dos 7 boot disk is much easier than booting up in Linux. However DOS 7 does not like NTFS

If the computer actually recognises the HDD maybe a partition manager program will find it.

I have recovered lots of stuff from failed HDD's but it depends on how bad the damage is.

In the future you should do as I do. Arrange the material stored on the disk into separate partitions. Put the programs that can be recovered from source into their area and the rest into more than one place.

Terabyte HDD's are great but what do you really need them for except for storing video/photos. I put all that stuff that needs to be kept onto DVD's

Barry

[troypiggo]

I know mate. It was my wife's computer. I had given her a backup disk, had it plugged in, showed her how to use it, done the first backup for her, and despite that she hadn't backed up any of it since. My data is backed up in several places I can assure you. Now, her data is my data, RAIDed, auto-backup etc.

[Stu Ward]

So

This disk is recognizable in device manager but it's memory is unallocated. Therefore I cannot access it.
Gonna give it to a bloke at work to see if he can fix
It has been backed up but not for a little while. It's the pics of the kids that we want. The rest is just trivial.

[Tiotion]

I've been in your situation Stu, its a bugger isn't it. If your mate can't help give puppy linux a go. Try googling 'recover data from damaged hard disk with linux' or something along those lines. It has saved me a number of times.

[Stu Ward]

Will do, thanks a lot

Stu

[Poita]

Make sure your mate knows what he is doing, or you could lose the lot.
I used to work for a data recovery centre, if you dropped the drive and it no longer shows as formatted, the chances are there is a hardware fault, or the bios is now recognising it as a different setup since you removed it from the case.
As you will be needing a new drive anyway, see if you can grab the same model WD external drive and swap the damaged drive into the new WD case and see if it comes up correctly.

If it doesn't, but the drive spins up, is recognised and sounds exactly the same as the new one (i.e. doesn't make any weird noise like clicking etc.) then you may be able to get the files back. One tool you can try is HDD Regenerator to see if the sectors on the drive are actually accessible. http://www.dposoft.net/
Download it and create the Boot CD or BootUSB version and run it on the drive. The free version will only attempt to recover the first dodgy sector, but we aren't really worried about using it as a recovery tool. Just running it and seeing if it can scan the sectors on the drive will tell us if the drive is in a working enough state for software recovery to work.
If it fails to read any sectors then the drive is pretty much cactus, and you would need to send it to a professional data recovery centre, and then the $$ kick in. It is possible to recover data off nearly any drive, but can be a very expensive episode.

If HDD Regen will read the drive, then I can recommend some software tools to recover the files.

[hickny]

Stu,
Visit the Western Digital site http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en
and locate your product. Here you can download some data diagnostic software from WD.
The diagnostic will tell you if the drive can be read. If not you have the option of recovering the data via specialist company. A mate of mine had the very same problem in January and it cost more than $1000 but he did get all his data back. If you can do wothout the data and if the drive is less than 3 years old they'll replace it essentially for the cost of the shipping to Singapore but first you need a Warranty-RMA number. It takes about three weeks from the time you return your drive until the replacement arrives. The good thing about the replacement is that it comes with another three years warranty. The bad thing is that you loose your data.

[Stu Ward]

It's the pcb USB port that is rooted. It's a converter from sata to USB. But when you connect via sata it's not recognised. Possibly due to some proprietry software. He's gonna see if he can clone it or make it readable from sata. It spins up and makes no funny noises

[gary]

Given the disk was dropped, the chances that there are just a few bad spots
preventing the partition from being recognized is slim. A mechanical or electronic
failure within the drive itself is unfortunately more likely.

However, if the drive can still seek and read, the following recipe can often be
very fruitful for recovering from bad spots.

1) Obtain a Linux recovery image and boot Linux from either CDROM or USB stick.
For example - http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
The moment of truth will be if the device is still recognized at least as a raw block device.
This recipe does not care that the drive was loaded with Windows and it will
simply treat it as a raw block device.

2) If the faulty drive still appears as a raw block device, purchase an identical model
drive and connect both it and the faulty drive to the same machine.

3) Run GNU ddrescue to try and recover data from the faulty device to the new device.
This comes on the above cited Linux recovery OS.
See http://www.gnu.org/s/ddrescue/manual/ddrescue_manual.html
ddrescue uses algorithms to try and recover as much data as it possibly can
by recursively splitting bad blocks and reading them multiple times.

4) Once ddrescue has done its stuff, try seeing if the new cloned disk is readable from Windows.

[GTB_an_Owl]

if your system can see the drive

stick your windows disk in and select repair console
go to the dos prompt and run chkdsk
might just work

geoff

[ZeroID]

Puppy Linux gives you the Linux power without the need to know Linux at all. Runs as a Windows like desktop, no need to get to command line or anything. Easy install\run and no residue when you turn it off.

It is quite usable to any user as an alternative OS, free applications already loaded, word, excel, photoshop, media etc equivalents are all there and will recognise USB and you can mount any PnP hardware. Very easy to use.

I recovered over 20 gigs of Music off a seriously virussed HD (Limewired !! ) no problem. Just attached the HD and mounted it, attached a USB keydrive and mounted it, then drag and drop.

[Tiotion]

Any updates Stu.

[Stu Ward]

Still lost atm.

Bought a new usb PCB for it. It arrived today. plugged it in. Windows sees the drive, but its not in My Computer.

WD Software Acronis True image says it is not initialised. But i'm not sure whether to do that or not

Stu

[Stu Ward]

OK So now I can see the HD in the devices and printers as a Mybook HD
But Disk management says it is not initialised and gives me two options

Partition in MBR or GUID.

Can I do any of this and retain the Data on it, or must i try something else

Any info would be appreciated

Stu

[supernova1965]

I think if you download Damn Small Linux iso and use something like Starburn also free to burn the ISO to CD and set your bios to boot from the CD and see if you can access the data from with in (DSL). I think it is your last hope.

[mill]

Stu get Hiren's boot cd and burn the iso to a cd.
It has loads of data recovery programs on it and i have used it on several occasions.