Any recommendations on Hard Drive Recovery Services.

[NickD 203]

Not mine, stepsons' has all of his important data on that one drive. I don't have that problem, burn floppies, CD's, DVD's, have external drives with backup, and three other computers for backup. He crashed it by trying to load Windows7, his first mistake, his computer is not compatible with Windows7. He sent me his drive, it is crashed.

While I may have the knowledge, don't have the tools, so I am worthless. Only option is to find a reasonable recovery service. Certainly enough on the web, but don't know the difference between a good or a bad one.

Anyone have recommendations on this subject?

Drive is still under warranty, Samsung would be happy to replace it, but are not liable for data recovery, suggested a third party source for this.

[Captain Oates 911]

IF its a desktop, try putting it as the number 2 disk in another machine and see if the machine will read the disk

There are enclosures for laptop dsks that can be attached to another laptop via usb

Failure to boot doesnt mean the data is corrupted so there is every chance it is still there

If the drive is partitioned and the data is on partition c, you could install xp or whatever to partition D

The install wipes partition D clean so only do that if the data is on C

No way I would use a company to recover it - its either there or it isnt and you can get it yourself using a second machine.

PS I could not live without acronis which takes disk images, restores, resizes partitions and the image can be mounted as a virtual drive. It has saved me many times and even restores to dissimilar hardware

A second machine will get this data back for you then you can re-install the original op sys

Edited September 7, 2011 by Alan the Red

[rsn 135]

If the drive truly is damaged, for damaged drive recovery, try another fabulous Steve Gibson product: SpinRite

Edited September 7, 2011 by rsn

[Captain Oates 911]

If the drive truly is damaged, for damaged drive recovery, try another fabulous Steve Gibson product: SpinRite

Maybe it has screwed up the boot sector thats all - in that case it's highly likely all the data is intact and readable by a different computer

If the windows 7 installation formatted the partition with the data on it before it tried to install, then forget it with anything as it will be blank

[rsn 135]

If the windows 7 installation formatted the partition with the data on it before it tried to install, then forget it with anything as it will be blank

Not true. windows performs a high level format which simply removes the file allocation table, for the most part. None of the data is really missing

[Barca 10]

if all fails, try putting in a secure bag and try to freeze the drive, it worked from me in the past!!! good luck!

[NickD 203]

if all fails, try putting in a secure bag and try to freeze the drive, it worked from me in the past!!! good luck!

Tried the freezer test, common in electronics to contract the connections in hope it will make contact, no success. Also tried several recovery programs, not one of them could even find the drive.

Was a bit shocked to find a Samsung HD in a Seagate free agent external drive case, my stepsons' buddies already opened the case and poorly. I did pull the drive and tried it in two different notebooks, an XP and a Vista, Windows could not find this drive. Made a bootable memory key, and only with that drive in slot one, the primary, DOS couldn't find it either. The motor does run, and you can hear the heads constantly clicking. Will do this for about four minutes, sets off an alarm, then turns itself off.

Also found upgradeable Samsung firmware for this drive to prevent clicking. While the program states the firmware has been satisfactory upgraded, that pops up in a flash. Never seen firmware load that quick, in particular an 8MB upgrade. Don't believe that program is finding the drive either. Was the only drive in the computer, didn't want to mess up other drives so removed those.

Samsung also has a test program for this drive. But when I ran it, stated in big red letters, this program will delete all the data from your drive. Didn't want to try that.

Wouldn't even dare return this thing back to Seagate for warranty, my stepson's buddies really mess up the enclosure. But the drive itself looks okay, they didn't get into that.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Can you try accessing it on a Linux machine?

[NickD 203]

Can you try accessing it on a Linux machine?

Son was sure a Linux nut, never met anyone that hated Microsoft as much as he did. But unfortunately, only place he could find a decent job after he graduated was in Japan, and has been there for the last four years. But his buddy is still here, also a computer whiz, will look him up, thanks for the tip. For me, a computer is just another tool and have a whole bunch of tools. But I do spend about two hours every Saturday morning cleaning it up. Never saw software that can such a huge mess as Microsoft.

For a short time, had to be the first kid on the block with the latest and greatest computer and OS. That didn't take long to get smart, takes MS at least three years to work out all the bugs in their latest and greatest software. Don't believe Vista even lasted that long.

My stepson is still in Venezuela, we petitioned for him a long time ago, but was unfortunately barely over 21 when I married his mom. Computers down there are a nightmare, cost four times as much here to enrichen Chavez's pocket. So been smuggling stuff to him.

One word that does not exist in the USCIS's vocabulary, is "family".

[spookyturtle 9,466]

This is an old article, but it gives an in depth look at data recovery, even in extreme cases such as a head crash. Unfortunately, it is extremely expensive, but it gives a good look into what is involved in the process.

Edited September 10, 2011 by spookyturtle