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    Bad sectors on HDD, and chances on recovering data?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Kingcodez, Jan 31, 2009.

  1. Kingcodez

    Kingcodez Notebook Consultant

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    I have an old 55GB HDD That I threw into a cheapo enclosure.
    Anyways I have some movies on there I want to get off, I tried like 20 Data recovery programs, most can get 4-5 pictures off but after that it says there's either an I/O error or other programs simply don't see the HDD.

    I tried FDisk and all that stuff, I ran some program that was recommended here to repair the bad sectors but that took 10 hours for 2% of the HDD.

    I was using a recovery program and I checked the notes, it says it ran into like probably a million bad sectors, I'm thinking the HDD is severely damaged.

    Since the damage is so wide spread, do I have a lesser chance of getting back a 700MB+ Movie file?
    I understand pics, they take up way less sectors than a movie.

    Should I keep trying the sector fixing software? Or is this damage irreparable?

    The HDD fell off the bed a few times, and made some beeping noises at me when it got jostled too hard IIRC.
     
    Kingcodez, Jan 31, 2009
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If it has that many bad sectors, there is no way to get any of the data off of it AFAIK.
     
    Greg, Jan 31, 2009
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  3. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    FDisc is a DOS based format utility, that will only format the drive, not recover anything.
    Does the drive stay active, i.e. does it continue to spin while these tests are occuring?
    If the drive shuts off after a few seconds, their is something wrong with the actuator assembly.
    Most free software isnt going to get the data off.
    Real harddrive service centers can get all of your files back, but its rather expensive.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Jan 31, 2009
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  4. Kingcodez

    Kingcodez Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah it keeps spinning, the PC can't recognize it but some software can access it.
     
    Kingcodez, Feb 1, 2009
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  5. goofball

    goofball Notebook Deity

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    If the PC can't detect the HDD (Not the partitions but the actual HDD), you can't use software to get the data back.
     
    goofball, Feb 1, 2009
    #5
  6. Mark C

    Mark C Notebook Enthusiast

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    Mark C, Feb 1, 2009
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