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    Best free file recovery program?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by passive101, Jan 12, 2011.

  1. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    I have a HDD from an old laptop that doesn't work right. I hooked it up via an esata reader and the main partition is unreadable and windows says it needs to be formated. The old hdd's recovery partition also seems to be bad.

    While the drive is being read it constantly has the same pattern of clicks.


    Other times when I power on the drive it just seems to lock up my "computer" window. The window is no longer responding.

    Is there a way to retrieve data off this disk easily? If so what is the best free program to do this with?
     
    passive101, Jan 12, 2011
    #1
  2. s2odin

    s2odin Merrica!

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    s2odin, Jan 12, 2011
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  3. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    Recuva is not scanning it and saying an I/O device error.
     
    passive101, Jan 12, 2011
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  4. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    Would formating this HDD help in this case?
     
    passive101, Jan 12, 2011
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  5. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Sounds a bit like a dead drive to me... -> i.e. send it in and pay a few hundreds or thousands...

    It's difficult to say.
    If it spins up, your best bet might be to try and image the drive and then sift through the image.
     
    DetlevCM, Jan 12, 2011
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  6. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    Windows 7 just had a pop up a few minutes ago telling me I should backup all data and restart the computer and something about a failing HDD.

    I have the bad drive hooked up to the eSATA port still.

    I was really hoping on being able to take some data off of it. The way Recuva works would it not matter if this drive is formated etc?

    I don't need to find deleted files, I just want to access files that are on the HDD.
     
    passive101, Jan 12, 2011
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  7. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    formatting wipes things out. completely.

    if you want to do this yourself you are going to have to slow down, learn the tech and terms involved, and not try things without understanding.
     
    newsposter, Jan 12, 2011
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  8. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    I was wondering because sometimes when I turn the drive on it says it needs to be formated to access it.
     
    passive101, Jan 12, 2011
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  9. michael_recycled

    michael_recycled Notebook Deity

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    michael_recycled, Jan 12, 2011
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  10. s2odin

    s2odin Merrica!

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    Maybe try the freezer trick with the hard drive as well.
     
    s2odin, Jan 13, 2011
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  11. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    hmmm googled it. I'm gonna give it a go!
     
    passive101, Jan 13, 2011
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  12. Sredni Vashtar

    Sredni Vashtar Notebook Evangelist

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    Try testdisk.

    AS a last option, if there are problem with the disk and some sector are unreadable, I would try ddrescue from linux. You can clone the failing disk on a new one and then try recovery programs on a working hardware.
     
    Sredni Vashtar, Jan 14, 2011
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  13. passive101

    passive101 Notebook Deity

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    freezer trick did nothing. It can see the restore partition of the disk, but the main one just sits and sits. It doesn't even say the drive needs to be formated. It just times out
     
    passive101, Jan 14, 2011
    #13