Disk Recovery Software, preferably Win or Mac

[GreNME]

I have myself a disk that, while not critical, I would really love to get some data off of. However, it's doing that "click of death" thing but seems to be nominally recognizable to the OS. Unfortunately, I can't seem to talk Win Explorer into giving me more than an acknowledgment that the disk exists, let alone get a directory listing so I can grab the files before it enters the Great Bit Bucket In Dev Null. It's a SATA drive, but I have it connected via USB with an adaptor.

Any ideas for some disk recovery software I can find on the net to try and crack this thing? I'm hesitant to try a chkdsk on it because it's really flubbed, but at this point the available software I've found so far seems to be utilizing parts of Explorer and as such have proven just as ineffective (as Explorer). I have a buddy who could loan me some software, but he's not online at the moment which means that's out of the question. So until I catch up with him I want to see if there are any free alternatives out there.

Any ideas?

[Yalius]

I've had great luck with one called Power Data Recovery. It isn't free, though.

[Ducky]

I know you said you wanted win or mac, but with a dd you could copy bit for bit as much as can be read in linux.

Something to think about. You could dd the source to another disk of similar size and have the data to pour over after the drive dies totally.


ERTA: You could use dd with OS X also. and, if you wanted, you could create a mac disk image of roughly the same size and DD the sucker into the disk image. (Make it an ISO if you want to mount it on another machine I guess...)

[GreNME]

I know you said you wanted win or mac, but with a dd you could copy bit for bit as much as can be read in linux.

Something to think about. You could dd the source to another disk of similar size and have the data to pour over after the drive dies totally.


ERTA: You could use dd with OS X also. and, if you wanted, you could create a mac disk image of roughly the same size and DD the sucker into the disk image. (Make it an ISO if you want to mount it on another machine I guess...)

But I don't want the entire disk image, and I don't have enough free space on my MBP. Unfortunately, I don't know the sectors the files I'd be looking for are located either, since the volume is NTFS and there's likely fragmentation (and bad sectors).

I thought about dd, which is why I mentioned the Mac, but dd wouldn't be quite as specific as I'd like when I don't know the locations of the stuff I need.

ETA: d'oh! I could use an nfs share from another computer, couldn't I?

[Ducky]

But I don't want the entire disk image, and I don't have enough free space on my MBP. Unfortunately, I don't know the sectors the files I'd be looking for are located either, since the volume is NTFS and there's likely fragmentation (and bad sectors).

I thought about dd, which is why I mentioned the Mac, but dd wouldn't be quite as specific as I'd like when I don't know the locations of the stuff I need.

ETA: d'oh! I could use an nfs share from another computer, couldn't I?

Ding!

That's one way to go.

Or the thing posted earlier. I don't know much about the win tools tho.

[leonAzul]

If there is a mechanical problem, then the software to use is beside the point.

Legendary temporary fixes to "unstiction" the pickup arms and enable a hard disk drive to read its platters long enough to recover some files have included a) freezing the drive in an air tight (moisture proof) bag, b) "baking" the drive in an oven at about 110º F for a few hours (if moisture contamination is suspected and not recommended), c) intentionally dropping the drive from a height of a few inches (or similar physical jolt), d) removing the spindle and installing it into a known good drive mechanism :yikes: (This latter is what data recovery services do as a last resort -- hence why it can get so expensive.)

Needless to say, YMMV. The above is for informational purposes only, yadda, yadda.

How bad do you want it?

[GreNME]

If there is a mechanical problem, then the software to use is beside the point.

Well, it depends on the mechanical problem and how bad it is. I've gotten lucky with a few bad drives before, including one that was actually in a computer recovered from a fire. The drive lasted long enough for me to get about 90% of the data (for the client). The difference between that and now, though, is that I want specific files and don't want a full data dump.

Legendary temporary fixes to "unstiction" the pickup arms and enable a hard disk drive to read its platters long enough to recover some files have included a) freezing the drive in an air tight (moisture proof) bag, b) "baking" the drive in an oven at about 110º F for a few hours (if moisture contamination is suspected and not recommended), c) intentionally dropping the drive from a height of a few inches (or similar physical jolt), d) removing the spindle and installing it into a known good drive mechanism :yikes: (This latter is what data recovery services do as a last resort -- hence why it can get so expensive.)

The latter works most times, I can attest to that. Has to be done in as clean a room as possible, though, because the drive degenerates fast afterward.

Needless to say, YMMV. The above is for informational purposes only, yadda, yadda.

How bad do you want it?

Not bad enough to take it apart. Once I give up, the best I expect are a few neat magnets to fiddle with.

[GreNME]

Ding!

That's one way to go.

Or the thing posted earlier. I don't know much about the win tools tho.

Good deal. I'll give it a try tomorrow. It's a damned shame I don't have two of these USB converters, or I'd just clone the drive raw.

[Ducky]

Well you can clone not just to an NFS share. USB/firewire etc. if you have to get creative. ;)

[BirdyBuddy]

CopyCatX (Mac OS) has a neat feature where you can pause and restart a recovery, so you can give the drive time to cool down if the failure is heat related. It's also designed to try recovery from various parts of the drive, rather than linear. Better chance of more data recovered.

[BenBurch]

FileSalvage - http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

Echoing the above, if the mechanism is screwed, unlikely to help much

[joshuamarius]

I know this thread is a bit old but I wanted to give you some info that could help. I do a lot of research on hard drives. Google "Inside of Hard Drive" and you will see my video come up.

When you can hear the clicking sound, the best thing that you can do is to not power the drive anymore as you can cause further damage and dramatically lower your possibilities of recovering your data. This is where you contact a special department which handles data recovery. I happen to send many customers to Data Retrieval Services in Clearwater. They are a group of Engineers that concentrate on forensics and also data retrieval.

In some cases, you are able to retrieve data yourself, possibly fixing some surface problems (bad sectors, etc.) by using a program such as HDD Regenerator. It really depends of the level of damage and the type of damage (mechanical or electron). I've recovered tons of data, sometimes depending on the project I do it for free (if it is a unique project, lol).

Here is a piece of advice. When you get to that point where the Operating System struggles to read the files off the drive, don't use Windows. Use another OS such as Linux. My favorite is a LiveCD of UBUNTU or XUBUNTU, these Operating Systems are lean and "bother" the hard drive less upon being detected or mounted.

If you need help just let me know. More than willing to offer a helping hand.