Best Way to Get Data Off Failing Hard Drive for Data Recovery?

[aaacronisuser101]

I lost data from my hard drive - my "My Files" folder with hundreds of files just 'disappeared'!

I took it out of my computer and put it in an enclosure to protect it from being written on.

Now- I'd like to make a copy of it so I can try to do some data recovery without damaging the drive further.

I am a newbie. Should I:
-make a mirror image?
-should I also copy the 'recovery drive' which is a different partition (any chance my files ended up there?) --this drive is a FAT drive the other is a NTFS
-do nothing because I could damage the drive further?

Also: I've heard some data recovery places scam you. Should I try recovery software first (on the mirror image on my healthy drive) or go direct to an engineer.

All suggestion appreciated!

[foghorne]

-{ Quote: "I lost data from my hard drive - my "My Files" folder with hundreds of files just 'disappeared'!

I took it out of my computer and put it in an enclosure to protect it from being written on.

Now- I'd like to make a copy of it so I can try to do some data recovery without damaging the drive further.

I am a newbie. Should I:
-make a mirror image?
-should I also copy the 'recovery drive' which is a different partition (any chance my files ended up there?) --this drive is a FAT drive the other is a NTFS
-do nothing because I could damage the drive further?

Also: I've heard some data recovery places scam you. Should I try recovery software first (on the mirror image on my healthy drive) or go direct to an engineer.

All suggestion appreciated!" }-

Do a search for R-Studio. It has got me out of the crap on a couple of occaisions. You will be able to download a trial which you can use to see if you can find your files. It will be limited as a trial in that it won't actually let you recovery files over a certain (small) size. If it can see you data you can then consider paying for it.

There are probably many other similar tools on the internet, this was the first one I came across and used. So use this as a benchmark and search for others too.

F.

[aaacronisuser101]

Thanks for your suggestion, but need additional help regarding making an image first.

As a warning to all others, I DID try running a 'recovery' software directly from my bad hard drive. It showed the files I would recover. When I clicked on one of the files it said I could recover, to see what it was, IT REWROTE ONTO MY HARD DRIVE AND CREATED A NEW 'MY FILES; FOLDER (the one that disappeared in the first place) and left that folder with ONLY ONE FILE instead of the hundreds that disappeared. That alone could make recovery of my lost files impossible!

Just want to warn others so they will not be in the mess I am in now. Sorry, can't remember the name of that software.

Any help about making an image will be appreciated.

Thanks

[seekforever]

The first thing I would do is attempt to copy all the desired files from the bad drive to a new drive using Windows Explorer. Copy only the files you really need first since activity on the drive is likely to make it worse. Do not run chkdsk, defrag or whatever as a first step.

You may want to do C or B before A since flogging the flakey drive by making a clone may do more damage. It just depends on what is wrong so you have to make the call.

A) Try making a clone of the disk using the TI rescue CD. You can try to recover using whatever tools on the cloned disk which will leave the original intact.

B) Consider utilizing a recovery program to get what it can off the drive if the above is inadequate. Since you already lost files you will probably need to do this although you might hit it lucky with C below and re-establish some linkages.

C) Try running chkdsk /f on the partition(s). Do not run defrag, the last thing you want to do on a flakey disk is to move information around.

I would not rely on making an image using TI since the disk is screwed up and while you may end up with an archive it may be unuseable. However, after you have done the above then you have nothing to lose.

[ViROID]

I've used a small program called ADRC Recovery Tools to make "images" before, it's a simple program but it works.

Generally speaking, I use Ontrack's Easy Recovery Professional data recovery software, its not cheap. I've also used R-Studio before and it does a pretty good job too.