Step One: I strongly suggest you mount run a full level 4 analysis on the drive using Spinrite 6.0. This will take a VERY long time, possibly as long as a week if the drive is REALLY bad. Do not bother with any level setting below level 4 analysis as they will not revive as many bad sectors as possible on the drive. All the possible sectors will be moved or marked appropriately as necessary for data recovery.
Step Two: Get yourself a copy of Ontrack Easy Recovery Professional and mount the bad drive in an actively cooled USB enclosure (so that the recovery system can boot effectively without interference form the bad drive). FIrst try an advanced Recovery, and specify the format system you had used, likely NTFS, you may also try a RAW recovery on the drive.
I strongly suggest that you use a computer for this that is not required on a daily basis. I use an old system used specifically for this as data recovery is offered as a service for customers willing to pay for it. Most of the time partial or complete recovery is possible on about 60% or more of failed drives. There are many other techniques and tricks to recovery data, but then I would need about ten pages of space to relay this. Techrepublic.com has some useful advice for recovering lost data.
hey,
i have the same problem! only my computer doesn't recognize my hdd at all. not even bios. so i can't run any diagnostics on it.
so my question is: is this the only way to fix the problem? i mean the recovery stuff. i don't want to loose any of my data!
here's my letter:
Can't see my HDD anymore!! Please Help me!!
Hello Everybody!
First of all, sorry about my English!
So.. I have a super huge problem. My computer was working fine for like 2 years until Sunday. That's when I checked my computer and saw a message: Windows was unable to save file: D:/... etc.. (I'm sorry I didn't write it down.). It froze down. I couldn't do anything. I had to Reset the computer, but since that time the computer is unable to see my D: hard drive, which is a Seagate.
You should know my configuration:
I have a Compaq Presario SR1911X with 2 hard drives. One is for the Windows XP: Samsung SP2004C, the other one is for all my data (photos, music, emails, everything!): Seagate ST3200826AS. This is the one which is not working.
I took my computer apart and tried to change the cabels, just to see if it's a cabel problem. It's not. And I can hear that the HDD has power because it gives me the sound.. But the only problem, that the computer doesn't recognize it anymore.
Please Please Please people, help me!!!! I don't want to loose all my data, expecially my photos. Also, I don't have the money to get it to a data recovery comptany.
Thank you!