Hard Drive Crashed - Help Recovering Files!

vja4Him

vja4Him

Registered
My 500GB external hard drive (Hitachi DeskStar) crashed! The blue light comes on, and I can hear the hard drive spinning, then sounds like it's stuck, or clicking ...

Same thing happens to the internal HD on my iBook G4. Sometimes the internal HD works, sometimes not.

I desparately need to find someway to attempt to either fix the external 500GB HD, or recover the files. The 500GB was my main HD, and I have so much very important data that I need to recover (no backups!).

I have years of research (lots of family history), thousands of pictures (many very old), my personal journals that I've been keeping for years, personal information, letters, documents, family videos, and all of my e-mail.

Somebody was telling me that there is special software that will recognize the HD, and allow you to recover the files.

What would you recommend? At the present I have no money to do anything, but will save up for the recovery software. My uncle is getting me a new hard drive, so I'll have that to back up the files when I have the recovery software ...
 
There is no guarantee that you will ever be able to recover the data from the hard drive. It may be toast for good (which is why it pays to have a good backup plan).

If the drive is physically damaged (i.e., won't spin up, keeps clicking, etc.), then there's not a lot you can do. Your options at this point are to either try some magical joojoo, or send the drive off to professional data recovery experts, who charge anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for data recovery.

Some magical joojoo you can try at home is to remove the bare drive from the enclosure, place it in an airtight freezer bag, then freeze the drive for an hour or two. Take the drive out of the freezer, connect it immediately and see if you can recover any data. The theory behind this "fix" is that the freezing process causes certain metals to contract ever so slightly, possibly freeing any stuck heads that may be preventing the drive from operating.

Other than that, unless you've got a professional "clean room" (airtight suits, air purifiers, etc.) then there's not much you can do with a physically damaged drive.

The recovery software you're probably thinking of is called "Data Rescue II" (easily found with a Google search). However, unless the operating system itself recognizes the drive, that software won't do you much good. It's typically used for damaged directories or accidentally deleted files -- not in the case where there's physical damage to the hard drive.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
There is no guarantee that you will ever be able to recover the data from the hard drive. It may be toast for good (which is why it pays to have a good backup plan).

If the drive is physically damaged (i.e., won't spin up, keeps clicking, etc.), then there's not a lot you can do. Your options at this point are to either try some magical joojoo, or send the drive off to professional data recovery experts, who charge anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars for data recovery.

Some magical joojoo you can try at home is to remove the bare drive from the enclosure, place it in an airtight freezer bag, then freeze the drive for an hour or two. Take the drive out of the freezer, connect it immediately and see if you can recover any data. The theory behind this "fix" is that the freezing process causes certain metals to contract ever so slightly, possibly freeing any stuck heads that may be preventing the drive from operating.

Other than that, unless you've got a professional "clean room" (airtight suits, air purifiers, etc.) then there's not much you can do with a physically damaged drive.

The recovery software you're probably thinking of is called "Data Rescue II" (easily found with a Google search). However, unless the operating system itself recognizes the drive, that software won't do you much good. It's typically used for damaged directories or accidentally deleted files -- not in the case where there's physical damage to the hard drive.
Click to expand...

I have Disk Warrior 4, but the damaged HD doesn't show up in the Disk Warrior window.

I'm wondering if Data Rescue 3 or Drive Genius 2 might have a better chance of reading files on the damaged HD ... ???
 
vja4Him said:
I have Disk Warrior 4, but the damaged HD doesn't show up in the Disk Warrior window.

I'm wondering if Data Rescue 3 or Drive Genius 2 might have a better chance of reading files on the damaged HD ... ???
Click to expand...

I gotta say then your chances are slim to none. better consider professional recovery like Drivesavers.
 
Do you have a working external drive? I wouldn't make any attempts to further mess with the harddrive until I had something to save any recoverable data to.
 
vja4Him said:
I have Disk Warrior 4, but the damaged HD doesn't show up in the Disk Warrior window.

I'm wondering if Data Rescue 3 or Drive Genius 2 might have a better chance of reading files on the damaged HD ... ???
Click to expand...

The problem with these utilities is that they rely on the operating system to "see" the attached drive and to mount/unmount it. If the drive is physically damaged, then it will not "mount," and no recovery utility will be able to "see" the drive in order to fix it.

You're not dealing with a corruption issue here -- you're dealing with the fact that some mechanical part of the hard drive has failed, and no amount of software you throw at the problem is going to fix the hardware of the drive.

You've basically asked us, "Hey, all four of my wheels are broken on my car. How can I drive the car to the store? I have voice-nav GPS and the OnStar service." Well, you're not going anywhere, despite having GPS and OnStar (i.e., the "software" fixes) without getting some new wheels on the car (i.e., the broken "hardware" portion).

You must correct the hardware problems of the drive before any amount of software will be able to do anything. Unfortunately, hard drives are hermetically sealed and have absolutely zero user-serviceable parts. In other words, unless you're an electrical technician with experience disassembling hard drives, you're plain out-of-luck. It's time to call in the data recovery experts, who will disassemble your drive, remove the platters in a "clean room," and put the data on a new drive for you. This is not a procedure that can (nor should) be performed at home.
 
In order to retrieve the lost files you need to run disk check utility first to track the lost files and if it doesn't work then you are required to go for third party recovery software file rescue Mac that will scan the whole disk space of your external hard drive files and then locating the files retrieve it back.

For more details visit :
http://www.filerescuemac.com
 
One possible solution to this problem is that to tack out the hard disk from casing and replace the casing. There are a great number of chances that your casing is not working/malfunctioning. It’s a quick (and chip fix). Try it....
 
In prescribe to get the unregenerated files you require to run plough stay quality introductory to excerpt the lost files and if it doesn't work then you are required to go for tertiary band feat software record save Mac that module construe the livelong saucer place of your extraneous solid drive files and then locating the files get it hindermost.
_________
hary
http://www.cheapipod.co.uk
 
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