Best Way To Recover Data From A Failing Hard Drive

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Hadron, Sep 7, 2015.

  1. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    I am trying to recover data from a failing, clicking laptop hard drive for a friend.

    I have tried numerous programs with limited success.
    The most success was with Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier, but it still didn't manage to get anywhere near enough data.

    I am starting to think that I may have some success by trying to image it on another computer and then retrieving the data from the image.
    I am currently in the process of using Image For Windows to try and make an image.

    Any better ideas? *puppy*
     
  2. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    If it's clicking, it's almost gone...
     
  3. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    It doesn't click constantly.
    Just now and then.

    But, I agree with you it is almost gone.
     
  4. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    You could try using EaseUS Disk Copy it's free and creates a bootable USB flash drive/DVD which you can use to clone a hard drive. It has the option to run in silent mode where if it ignore any errors it encounters and continues cloning the drive.

    In your case, the drive may be to far gone. But, I have used a number of times to clone failing hard drives and have ended up with a cloned drive that boots just fine, even when the original damaged drive will not boot.
     
  5. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    Is there a way to clone a hard drive in 2 steps?
    What I mean by this is; I don't have another hard drive yet, but can I somehow do step 1, then do step 2 later if or when friend decides to buy another drive?
     
  6. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    If you have enough free space on a hard drive to created an image of the failing drive, you could use R-Drive Image to create an image of it. It's not free, but the trial version is fully functional for 30 days, and it is able to image drives with bad sectors.

    You would need to remove the hard drive from the laptop and you will need an external caddy or usb cable to connect the bad hard drive to the computer you will be running R-Drive Image on.

    Then you will have 30 days to buy a replacement drive to restore the image you created to.
     
  7. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    I already have the laptop drive plugged into my computer trying to image it with IFW.
     
  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Hadron,

    That's what I'd try too. If you have issues, try IFL.
     
  9. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    I have never used IFL.
    Do I have to make a boot disk and do it that way?
     
  10. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Yes. Want any help?
     
  11. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    At the moment I have IFW going and ignoring any I/O errors.
     
  12. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    That's fine.
     
  13. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    Oh wow!
    I can't believe that R-Studio has recovered this failing, clicking disk. I am astounded.
    I selected the whole drive with 3 partitions when I ran it, even though I only needed the 1.

    And there doesn't appear to be any threads on this amazing software. :eek:

    Thanks for everything, guys. Check it out. It is amazing.

    Edit: By the way; all my other previous attempts with other software failed.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2015
  14. markymoo

    markymoo Registered Member

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    I surprised nobody's mentioned the trick of putting the hard drive in the freezer to recover data for a clicking drive.

    I remind everybody. This is what you do. Put the hard drive in a sealed plastic bag. Store the hard drive in the freezer for 3 hours+ or overnight.

    Plug the hard drive into the PC soon after removing from the freezer. There's a small time frame to copy the data off the hard drive in time before it reverts back to clicking, using recovery software such as 'getdataback for NTFS' by runtime software. The cold retracts the heads.

    Once the data off, bin the drive.

    Best of luck.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2015
  15. boredog

    boredog Registered Member

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    Last edited: Sep 13, 2015
  16. boredog

    boredog Registered Member

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    "I surprised nobody's mentioned the trick of putting the hard drive in the freezer to recover data for a clicking drive.

    I remind everybody. This is what you do. Put the hard drive in a sealed plastic bag. Store the hard drive in the freezer for 3 hours+ or overnight.

    Plug the hard drive into the PC soon after removing from the freezer. There's a small time frame to copy the data off the hard drive in time before it reverts back to clicking, using recovery software such as 'getdataback for NTFS' by runtime software. The cold retracts the heads.

    Once the data off, bin the drive.

    Best of luck."

    That would make sense if you have a heat related component problem but the storage on a hard drive is magnetic and cold or heat has no effect. I know, I have been in electronics since 1980. First computer was a Sinclair 1000 lol
     
  17. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @boredog Actually it's well known that the freezer trick can help with data recovery. I've been hearing it about it for years. Of cours, it's not guaranteed to work, and if there is critical data you need recovered, you should skip this and send the drive to a data recovery company.
     
  18. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    I personally think HDD Regenerator is a better option at the moment. Maybe SpinRite 7 will be better than HDD Regenerator, but it would seem that Steve is having a hard time finding some to write it.
     
  19. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I tried Spinrite years ago. It would have taken a billion years to recover the data.
     
  20. roger_m

    roger_m Registered Member

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    @Brian K It all depends on how many bad sectors there are and how badly a drive is damaged. SinRite takes the most time when there a lot of bad sectors, and it is unable to recover them. SinRite will read a damaged sector many times in an attempt to recover data. If a driver is not too badly damage it probably won't have to reread a bad sector too many times. However on a badly damaged drive it may have to keep rereading damaged sectors (apparently it tries up to 200 times, but this can be reduced with command line arguments) in order to try to recover data.
     
  21. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    I don't think GetDataBack is a tool to recover data from mechanical failure.
     
  22. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

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    Have you verified the integrity of the recovered files?
     
  23. Hadron

    Hadron Registered Member

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    Please read Post #13.
     
  24. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

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    Doesn't say whether the files are readable and open in their respective applications. But I will assume they do.
     
  25. MerleOne

    MerleOne Registered Member

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    You could also have used drive snapshot which skips read errors and indicated which sectors were faulty (maybe also which files were concerned). Using such a program is less strain inducing on the drive so a slightly better chance to recover more data. After the image is created, you mount it (on another PC if necessary) and can recover files from the image.
     
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