Anybody good at retrieving data from corrupt drive

[Defiant]

I have a fairly new hard drive (250G) that for some reason got corrupted. If I have it installed in a machine, the machine won't boot. It will go through all kinds of disk checking and report that certain sectors are unreadable when I try to boot. I put it in an external case, but it won't even show up. If I have it in an external case, then go into "Computer Management" from "Administrative Tools" (using XP SP2), I can see the drive in Disk Management, but it does not have a drive letter associated with it. "Reactivate Disk" does not work, and nothing I have tried has worked so far. I am sure that if I was under investigation by the Feds they would be able to rebuild it to see if I had anything they could bust me for, but I can't find any info that could help ME rebuild or repair it. Does anyone have any idea about something I could do to get this drive working again, or know of some software that I could use? Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

[gonzo]

Steve Gibson's SpinRite is your best bet. Forensic data recovery costs $300 an hour. Clean room recovery is even more.

[Newton]

Spinrite is the best option http://grc.com/spinrite.htm

[Defiant]

Well, it certainly LOOKS good. I wish there was a demo for it, though. So far I have tried Forensic Disk Utility, Stellar Phoenix, R-Studio, and GetDataBack. None of them can even SEE the external drive.

[gonzo]

Originally posted by Defiant@Jun 20 2005, 07:53 PM
Well, it certainly LOOKS good. I wish there was a demo for it, though. So far I have tried Forensic Disk Utility, Stellar Phoenix, R-Studio, and GetDataBack. None of them can even SEE the external drive.
Sounds like track zero is gone. LBR is MIA.

[Defiant]

I got Spinrite, so I guess I will burn it to a CD, disconnect my local drives, and put the bad drive back in and let the thing run overnight. Hopefully it will work out. Thanks for the reccommendation. I'll let you know if it works.

[Newton]

Cool man good luck :okthumb:

[Defiant]

Looks like Spinrite doesn't recognize the hard drive, either :headwall:

[Timon]

Can you hear the drive spinning and reading when you boot up your PC? Put your hand on it or press it against your ear while you boot up the PC.

If not then there may be a mechanical or electrical failure in which case data recovery software won't help you, you'll just need to get whatever is broken repaired.

I'd contact the manufacturer and see if there is any service center in your area.

[Defiant]

Originally posted by Timon@Jun 21 2005, 02:11 AM
Can you hear the drive spinning and reading when you boot up your PC? Put your hand on it or press it against your ear while you boot up the PC.

If not then there may be a mechanical or electrical failure in which case data recovery software won't help you, you'll just need to get whatever is broken repaired.

I'd contact the manufacturer and see if there is any service center in your area.
That was the very first thing I did when I initially started having problems with this drive. It is not a mechanical problem.

What I finally ended up doing last night was sticking the drive into one of my spare machines and running Spinrite. That didn't work. So I ended up deleting the partition, creating a new partition, putting the drive back inside of my primary machine, then tried running Forensic Disk Utility and GetDataBack. No luck there, either. Just for the hell of it, I ran Stellar Phoenix again. It found the drive and started listing the data I figured was gone for good. I went to bed as my data was being recovered. Of course we had a power fart over night and our machines reset, so I had to start it over again this morning when I got up, but at least it is working. Thank you to everyone for their assistance!

[EmporerEJ]

Let me guess...Maxtor?

[Defiant]

Originally posted by EmporerEJ@Jun 23 2005, 02:17 AM
Let me guess...Maxtor?
Good guess