JohnTC02 Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Anyone here know how to recover lost data from a hard drive that has just failed on me. I used it for all my game data so it's very worrying as I have just lost 4 years of modding, all my maps buildings and props plus all of my modding tools, gone!!! It was working fine this morning but when I turned the PC on this afternoon windows is unable to recognise the HD in the bios, I have hooked up another HD and that is working fine so it's the HD that has failed. Any help will be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat50 Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Just a quick googlehttp://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/tips/4294038Sure there are many more options.Never dealt with this personally.Hope you get it all recovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Oh boy, sorry to hear about this John. So this is a slave drive used for data, and it's not showing up at all in computer management? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 Thanks Wombat, I found that earlier. Rocky, yeah, it's a slave drive that I use for all my modding work (4 years worth), windows is unable to detect it plus it doesn't show up in the bios screen. From what I can find out the only hope is send it to the professionals for data recovery but that costs a fortune. Anyone here ever heard of or tried the freezer method? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Oh man, this is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinker Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 So many posts about putting it in the freezer. Very dubious about this. If you do, ensure it is in a sealed bag to reduce the condensation. Seriously, try a trial product out to see if anything can be seen first. Data recovery software And from here on, have an external HD to back up your stuff. Wish could help more, good luck. Set of tools here: Hiren`s Boot CD seems to have a utility named Parted Magic down in the other tools section that some posts have recommended. But pls don`t download these if you do not trust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 I have tried a couple of these today, problem is the bios is unable to detect the HD so these data recovery packages cannot see the HD to recover any data. Both the demo's I tried could only see drive C which is my SSD and is working fine. Anyway, it's in the freezer as I speak (yup getting desperate) sealed in two freezer bags and I try it tomorrow. I don't hold out any hope though but as you say there are a lot of posts about this some say it works while others say it's total bull!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROCO*AFZ* Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Is the head slapping? if so... i had this method work... but it only works until you power it off and may not come back so it's a last ditch effort. Take the drive in the palm of your hand and slam it flat against a carpeted floor. When powered on, the heads reset themselves and let me get all the data off it. After powering off the pc, the drive never worked again but it saved my Bosses daughters pictures. I've never been successful with freezer method but have seen reports it may work. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted January 26, 2013 Author Share Posted January 26, 2013 Thanks Roco, tried tapping the drive on the floor yesterday but no joy, I can hear the drive spinning but that's all. Got it out of the freezer this morning but as expected it still doesn't work. I'm now in the process of rebuilding my modding tools and getting all my buildings and props back, this will take ages so I'll be out of the modding scene for a while. Also lost all my saved max files, about 50 in total, my entire music collection of 200 albums plus my complete collection of pictures that I have taken over the years including all my scanned prints. The only good thing here is that the pics and music are on my wife's PC so I can retrieve them. Word from the wise, don't put off that backup you keep saying you need to do, I did now look where it got me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico686 Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hi John, The company I've worked before used the "freezer method" as a last resort and we've done it many times for the customers. The hard drive should be sealed in a waterproof bag and left in the freezer over night. As soon as you take it out of the freezer you will have about 30 min to try to recover your data from the hard drive. In order to do that you need to attach it to an adapter so that you can use it as an external hard drive. Mostly after about 30 min the hard drive will get warm/hot again so you need to seal it as before and put it back into the freezer. I know it takes alot of time doing it this way, but that's how we were able to retrieve/recover most of the data. In some cases we were able to recover all the data, but in other cases alot of data was lost due to failure in starting the hard drive. If you're sure that the problem is the PCB of the hard drive, you can try to find an identical PCB and replace it. This is something you should only do if anything else didn't work. Make sure that the PCBs are identical. Hope you'll be able to recover the data. Cheers, Rico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaapo Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hi John, sorry to hear that. I guess if the hard drive is spinning with no ups and downs but the bios does not recognize it, then the electronic has been burned somehow. The only way I know is to replace the electronic using a second identical hard drive. I'm not sure if this will work with never ones as well because in the very past this was possible. Second way is a data rescue company but this is very expensive. I did that many years ago with a companies hard drive and they took just 150 German Mark to give you a guess about the percentage of possibility to recover some data. This was before we had the Euro. Hope that freezer thing will work but the chance is very low. I keep all fingers crossed that it will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTC02 Posted January 26, 2013 Author Share Posted January 26, 2013 The HD was sealed in two freezer bags and left in the freezer over night, didn't help though. All I can do is keep a look out for an identical HD on ebay then swap the PCB over. Thanks for all the suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR6 Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Sorry to hear about the HD failure John. I also have known the sickening feeling of losing data on a HD - once not too long ago when I did a reformat and messed up the master boot record on a slave drive. I knew I should have backed up that data drive first and spent a lot of time kicking myself after. Hope you will be able to retrieve your data with the PCB swap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAW_Charlie Posted January 28, 2013 Share Posted January 28, 2013 Anyone here know how to recover lost data from a hard drive that has just failed on me. I used it for all my game data so it's very worrying as I have just lost 4 years of modding, all my maps buildings and props plus all of my modding tools, gone!!! It was working fine this morning but when I turned the PC on this afternoon windows is unable to recognise the HD in the bios, I have hooked up another HD and that is working fine so it's the HD that has failed. Any help will be appreciated. Hi John, I used a program downloded in internet named data doctor recovery sucesfully. Don't remember where I downloaded it. Sorry. I hope you can recover all the tools and fantastic maps buildings, etc of yours, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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