Data recovery?
 

How satisfying is it to take your CPU to the fourth floor balcony and let it go?

Seem to have had nothing but trouble with our home PC since we bought it 2 years ago. New HDD, graphics card phuked, DVD software, CD burner, virus attack... And now a power cut and surge means (apparently) that our new HDD is seriously damaged and can't read itself. All the data is there, but it has no index.

Press R for recovery doesn't work. My bro talked me through all the steps on the phone and says, basically the options are to send it away to a pro data recovery firm who will charge three or perhaps four figures, or just wipe the drive and start again.

I can shrug at my stuff, but my wife's work and research on her father is now apparently kaput. Of course, no backups; you don't expect a hard drive to vape itself.

Bugger bugger bugger....

Take a look at some of the tools on here:
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/
I've used a couple in the past and saved my bacon...

If you can, get another disk to load an OS on and then reference the buggered one as a secondary....

I second that. All you probably need to do is boot up your system from another drive and recover your data (probably all of it in this case) to a second drive. Really not a good idea to recover data to the damaged drive.

This would be the recommended route if the data is extremely valuable/irreplaceable. Otherwise you might consider fixing the disk in situ with a disk repair program. This is more risky though.

Take your time and try and get someone to help if this is daunting.

Screwd.

Thanks for the replies :). PC back at the shop now; they have many awards as a PC retailer and support, though I don't trust them much. I'm not competent enough to install a second hard drive - could I do something with one of those little USB key-fob things? If they carry 128MB, that should be enough for a basic OS? How much memory does one take up?

Other point is, I dunno DOS commands, so I'd need someone's help anyway...

Do I sense that the first point is to get the PC back from the shop?

Installing a hard drive really is a doddle. If you go that route, check out R-Studio http://www.data-recovery-software.net/. I used when I suffered a BIG hard drive crash and couldn't boot. Well worth paying for something like that when it works (and I recovered everything even though nothing in the OS could read it). I've even recovered images from a camera memory card when that got corrupted. The cost of the software was a fraction of what I would have lost if I couldn't get my software keys and passwords back!

Er - actually yes you do. Especially if you buy an IBM drive :Whatever_ Average life of a hard drive is about three years, and any that are more than four years old can be assumed to be VERY suspect. A bit late now, but you really MUST use a CD-burner: it's not like they cost much. Call me Mister Paranoid but I do fairly extensive backups once a month. All us overclockers have learnt the hard way...

As stated, fitting a new HDD is pretty easy. The shop the comp is at would probably do it, and install Windows on the new drive. Or you must have at least one geek friend/colleague who'd do the job (and a lot cheaper than the shop - the challenge is half the payment). It's possible that only the OS files are borked and the data is recoverable. But getting a data-recovery company in is pricey - a colleague paid over £700 to get files of his hard drive after the controller circuits blew.

M

UPDATE

Shop phoned yesterday - "we've cloned your hard drive and replaced it with all files and data (which we successfully recovered) on the new one. As we only replaced it 2 mths ago, even though the problem (power cut/surge) was not our fault, we're not charging you a penny."

Well that's :) news for a change, but I assume to pick it up and have to rebuild, reinstall everything on the new drive, dig out CDs, borrow some from friends, etc etc. Like I've done at least twice before when I got it back from the shop.

Picked it up this evening. About 20 minutes ago, in fact. Connect the cables, switch on, and it's like I'd just switched it off previously - plug and play! :D:D:D:D:D RESULT!

I expect the CD burner to be getting a LOT of use this evening :D:D

Noted comment about IBM drives, thanks; I see from the shop receipt that it's an IBM one inside, so I'll be prepared for this to die in future. However, as I bought a lifetime guarantee, they should just replace it.

I know I should be wary of XP service Pack 2, according to another thread... Otherwise, I've just obtained a network card and cable for my 1997 laptop, so I'll see if I can get that online now. That'll help a lot for future problems (and yes, there WILL be future problems...)

Cheers all

Brendan

SP2 ain't worth getting ATM if you have a good Zone Alarmed / router firewalled PC / network... so long as you install the critical updates (don't have to include the general Windows bloat) you'll be fine. SP2 is still shagging a lot of programs. Not necessarily in a complex, unfixable way, but why let Micro$haft beta test another product on ya? :p

Not for nothing were they known as IBM Deathstars! Mine lasted five months before dying.

Now go out and get a surge protection multi-socket.


M

But I've GOT one, that's what bugged me!

Personally, I think there was some dodgy dealings. I wanted the first HD replaced as it made nasty grinding noises on startup. Took it in, they agreed, said they replaced it (and all s/w got wiped), yet when I got it back the noises were identical. Then it self-destructed after the power cut barely 2 mths later. THIS time it's blissful silence...