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General discussion

Mission Impossible? Hard Drive Data Recovery Needs Help

Oct 22, 2006 8:47PM PDT

Hey,

Im trying to recover my data of an old hard drive i havent used in about 2 years. I just plugged it into my current PC and it says 'BOOT DISK FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER'

I put in my Win XP CD so that i could use the recovery console fix the damaged boot sector and possible missing or corrupt ntldr ntdetect.com files.

When i pressed R it says 'Set up did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and propperly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.'

After following this advice i now have no idea where to go next.. i would really love recover the data of this drive.

Any ideas? Thanks Rob

Discussion is locked

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You'll need another machine....
Oct 26, 2006 8:27PM PDT

Nasty, sounds like the drive might be completely dead. I would remove the drive from that old machine and inspect it, check if it looks ok (no burnt chips etc). If you think its ok, turn off your main computer and hook the drive up in place of your CD drive (saves finding cables etc). Boot the machine up and it should detect the drive (if it doesn't then you will need to seek the assistance of a professional data recovery center) and still boot from you main drive. After Windows loads the drive should be detected, mounted and given a drive letter, browse "My Computer" and you should see it, and the files your chasing there. Copy them to your main PC then shut down and remove the drive again. Put it back in the old machine and see if it is detected again, if not it could be problem with the old machine's PSU or motherboard, but that's another matter....

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Recovery
Oct 26, 2006 8:33PM PDT

Have a look at a program "easus data recovery", it can search internal or attached hard drives and list all the files, even if disk has been formatted it will still find files. I plugged my hard drive into an external housing and plugged in, it found all the files I had deleted, also used on a laptop which had a corrupted hard drive, it found all files and I was able to recover 99%
Good Luck
Dave

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Hard drive recovery
Oct 26, 2006 8:43PM PDT

Hi Rob, although I have no real solution for you, I do have a pdf entitled '200 ways to revive your hard drive' I've only briefly looked through it and it seems to comprise of suggestions and ideas submitted by members of a forum like this one. Yours if you want it, let me know where to email it to.

regards
Andy

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200 Ways to revive a failed HD ?
Oct 26, 2006 9:10PM PDT

Hello

I could do with this .PDF file too

Please send to: dnresadm@a.dii.mod.uk

This is heavily firewalled etc. but a .pdf should be ok

Thanx

I owe you

You need any tech advice ?

Les K

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@ Les
Oct 26, 2006 11:20PM PDT

Hi Les, do you want it in pdf or zip format?

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PDF file.
Oct 27, 2006 11:04AM PDT

could you please email me your file as well. aheninger@lycos.com
I'm always looking for new ways to make my job easier.

Thanks much!!

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Please, sir?
Oct 27, 2006 1:03AM PDT

Andy,

I too am in serious need of this PDF file.

Please send me a copy to:

beachdog67 (at) gmail (dot) com.


Thanx!

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200 hundred ways ...
Oct 27, 2006 4:53AM PDT

Hi Andy my name is Ivan. I am entusiastic about your posting. I have one hard drive that failed 3 years ago with my documents full. I still haven't recover anything .. I survived with a old back-up copy of those files... could you sent me a copy of that pdf.. i really apreciated that . My email is iamfree@earthlink.net

Thank you much Ivan ....

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Boing
Oct 27, 2006 7:02AM PDT

Ivan, I had the email bounced straight back to me saying you wont accept because i am not on youe approved senders list. You need to sort this out before requesting emails. Let me know if you still want it

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Yes, please
Oct 27, 2006 5:45AM PDT

If possible, I too would like a copy. Either pdf or zip would be great!
sarge259
sarge259@gmail.com

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You got mail
Oct 27, 2006 6:59AM PDT

To all who have requested a copy so far, check your email box. Good luck, and as i stated previously i have not used any of the techniques in the pdf so i dont know if they work, but hey, what you got to lose.
Good Luck all.

If this becomes a popular request then i will upload it to rapidshare or something similar and post the link.

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I want your pdf too please....
Oct 27, 2006 9:21AM PDT

Please send the pdf to jmichaelwebber@earthlink.net

thanks

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Would you please send it to me, too?
Oct 27, 2006 9:23AM PDT

Hi Andy,
Would you please forward your file to me, too? I've got a hard disk failure yesterday.
My email is: bluebirdbiz@gmail.com

Thanks,
Reza

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Can I have the document too?
Oct 27, 2006 12:45PM PDT

hi Andy,

can you email me the document please?
rajesh.desai@yahoo.com

thnx a lot
rgds

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Rapidshare link to 200 ways to recover your hard drive
Oct 28, 2006 1:48AM PDT
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Like to read this one please
Nov 1, 2006 3:37AM PST

Hi Andy, as a recent survivor of an external hard drive (the manufacturer never said that continuous use may lead to failure because of overheating)I am now interested in this pdf. Can you email me at gongkoqui@aol.com? Thanks

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Follow the above link
Nov 1, 2006 5:14AM PST

Hi, the file you want is on my work PC which i will not be in front of for a week. If you look at the post above yours I have put a link to the file that i have uploded to Rapidshare.

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200 pdf to recover dead hard drive
Jul 24, 2008 4:46PM PDT

I need the 200 ways to recover files from dead hard drive. Kindly send to dbuen@amkor.com. pls pls pls pls pls.

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Data Recover that works!
Oct 26, 2006 9:17PM PDT

I have had great success recovering 100% of lost data on a couple of occations using software called File Scavenger

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

you need a second drive as a destination for the restored data.

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Spinrite!
Oct 26, 2006 9:37PM PDT
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backup or recover software
Oct 27, 2006 6:04AM PDT

File-Recovery.NET i use their software , works great

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mission impossible
Oct 28, 2006 3:01AM PDT

So the question is..is the hard drive in question originally a startup drive? If just a data drive make sure it is set up as a slave when installed as a second drive in the computer. If it was a boot drive and does not work, did it have the same OS as the computer you are installing it in requires? Lastly, if it is a drive that is an ata 33 or better, installing it into an external box ( USB 2.0 ) will allow the internal boot volume to start you computer as normal and then plugging in the usb drive in question might allow you to see it and drag the files over to a functioning drive or you might then be able to run a data recovery or repair utilities to fix this now external drive. IT MIGHT SIMPLY BE CORRUPTED AND NEED A REPAIR and thus cannot function either as a boot drive nor as a data drive. If it is running as an external drive, it is possible to save the data if the drive is not mechanically trashed.

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Hard Drive Recovery
Oct 28, 2006 4:35AM PDT

If all else fail take the hard drive and put it in a freezer bag ,place it in your freezer for 2 to 24 hours take it out connect it and transfer the data to another hard drive....

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(NT) Are you joking?
Jan 30, 2010 2:49AM PST