External Harddrive Recovery Options/Help

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

Hello Everyone.

This is the second time I've suffered an external hard drive death - both happened after one year of use. One with a Lacie drive, now with a Western Digital 500 gig external. I can mount the drive, the drive shows up - but I am getting Input/output errors - it asks me to format (yes/no) when I simply try to open a folder - and it seems the more I have tried to recover to a safe, working external drive - the more data would disappear completely. I managed to save most of my data (home movies and pictures) but Some important things when attempting to open now give me the format option instead of opening..

The drive is formated FAT for windows. It came this way out of the box. I plugged it into a MAC and used it on that machine primarily.

Heres my issue now. Should I pay $99 for Stallar Phoenix windows recovery software? I have tried a few free ones to no avail. All of my folders show up as they were before..I just get selective errors on certain folders.Certain (most) appear fine.. but the folders decline over the time more I open them it seems.

Which software is good for external hard drive recovery in your experience?

My local computer repair shop wouldn't take my money and sent me home to work on this myself (shocking!)

Thanks in advance!!

micker377 · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 869

Can you remove the drive from the LaCie box, and connect it in your computer as a "slave"? This would let you find out if it is a dying drive, or a bad "interface" board (or cable connection), in the LaCie box. You could also use this time to "clone" the drive to another place before you lose any more data. You may even find that the data is still there and not "lost".

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

The Lacie drive is the first drive which died on me, this time last year. It seems external harddrives, in my experience, only last one year and then die. This is a Western Digital. But I assume your advise is still the same.

So you want me to open the box, remove it - and then.. "as a slave" I have no idea..

I have a box that you can put/install hard drives in and then mount them- is that what you mean?

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

What software would allow me to clone the harddrive and allow me to skip the errors it gives me? Because I cannot copy the data to another area - It informs me of errors and says - sorry I can't copy this information due to this error. I think I would need clone software that would ignore this..

What do you think the chances are of my data - that the error says is lost or do I want to format - is actually there still? Just curious.

Thank you so very much for replying!

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1134 Location: Central FL, USA

Just for whatever it's worth:

An external enclosure with a Western Digital drive in it, would certainly be the last place on earth that I'd ever store anything more important than my Solitaire scores.

Western Digital drives have their own problems,,, one being they generate a considerable amount of heat.....which cannot get out of an external enclosure. The drive just sits there roasting in its own heat.
A friend of mine learned this the hard way, and came up with this unique cooling method, after replacing one burned up drive:

<<-- click to expand

If your main computer is NOT a Laptop, you may be able to open it up and find a spare IDE connector and power cable, where you could connect the drive from that external enclosure.

If that's not your cup of tea, then take the drive to an expert who may be able to extract the data from it, or at least tell you if the drive is KAPUT!
If you were close by, I'd do it for you myself.
I keep a permanent IDE cable and power cable handy just for such jobs.

What you need is way beyond the capability of the average user.
There is NO quick and easy answer to your problem.

Good Luck,
the Doctor Cool

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

I took it to my nearby computer shop who I know and somewhat trust and they sent me home to work on it by myself. They wont touch it. They mounted it saw it mount, and saw the problem replicate and said "go home and work on it" and here I am.

I have had a Lacie, and now I have a WD. They both lasted a year. I have an external to backup, thinking I'm taking a safe step and it does nothing but ever f** me in the end. Obviously this isn't the 100% ensurer of data security - the joke is that I was mounting the drive TO back up the data which I backed up ON the drive. As in, making backups of backups after my semester and then WHAM. Which is, of course, when this happens. I guess I will open the box - I have a windows machine as well as a Mac G4 Laptop. No one has said anything about recovery software so I assume you guys think they are a hoax??

Thanks. So much.

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2422

Up until the last post, you only mentioned a Mac. Since the majority of us own PCs, we aren't too familiar with mac software.
For a windows computer, PCInspector has managed to recover files from hard drives.
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
it's free to boot so you will only spend time downloading it, installing it on the windows computer and then running it and seeing if it can recover any files.

goretsky

Hello,

An external hard disk drive is likely to experience errors for a number reasons, such as moving the hard disk drive while it is in use, rough handling during transport, insufficient cooling/blocking of the ventilation inlet, disconnecting the hard disk drive while it is still being written to and so forth. I have external hard disk drives which are four to five years old which work fine, mostly because they have not been subject to any of the environmental extremes mentioned above.

Data recovery off of failed hard disk drives is a topic which frequently comes up in the forum. This message thread has list of various programs you can try--see post #39 towards the end. I have ahd good results with Runtime Software's GetDataBack line of software, mentioned in the message thread. It is a commercial product, but a trial version is available which you can use to see if it can access the hard disk drive.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

micker377 · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 869

I have a "slave" drive in my computer, just for back-ups. I also have an external hard drive for back-ups. I alternate between the two for backups. drastic - maybe, but you've seen how reliable hard drives are!

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 808

micker377 - I applaud you on you redundant backup. As I, too, have an internal & external backup system. But my EXTERNAL runs ONLY for the purpose of doing the backups then is unplugged. Suspect, you do the same.

Plus I put stuff like pictures (& other things that are "permanent") on CD's.
The more places, the less chance of losing it.

bellasmom - As for the HD's - Seems you DO have something weird going on as they SHOULD last longer than that. - I'd check the warranty before opening them though & if still covered get a replacement. Just hope you don't have any "sensitive" data on it. As "blowing it away" may ruin chances of proving anything was wrong with it.- check with the company on what to do as you may need an RMA (return merchandise authorization) anyway.

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

I applaud your double backup measure as well. I was on my way to doing such a thing myself when this crash hit me. Pictures go on cds bottom line. This crash is like that cliche saying - you don't know what you have till it's gone and your pictures and home movies always prove the most important. It's so stupid because I was GOING to double backup when this weird thing happened.

The last time I sent my lacie back they sent the same one right back and said "thanks we reformatted it" thats their idea of replacement.. so.. before I do that I am going to try to save all I can. It's just unfortunate it disappears as I try..

edward1313169 · Joined: Jun 05, 2008 Posts: 2

Hi, there are lots of software available on the net but I would like to recommend one of the best data recovery service provider called DiskEmergency. It has many ways to recover your data. You can submit problems online and get the job done quickly. Hope this will help you.

micker377 · Joined: May 27, 2005 Posts: 869

Another thought just hit me when re-reading this thread, I had a new external drive with a similar problem. My whole system is Fat32 (ask Doctor Who!). I continued to have problems with this one particular drive until I formatted it NTFS! It has worked fine since then. Why, I don't know - the Gods of Computerland?

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

Wouldn't formatting it NTFS delete all of my data?
You're saying after I back it all up to do this to fix it right?

Thanks.

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 808

A drive can be "changed" from fat to NTFS at any time (supposedly) without damage to the data by using the command line command:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984
(something screwy is going on with the URL linking button)
But I'd have backups anyway, just in case.

Now going the other way is impossible without a total reformat & install.

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2422

Yikes, $189 for Disk Emergency!
I'd try PC Inspector; it's free and has managed to recover data for quite a few people.
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1

Another one that is also favorably mentioned is Get Data Back
http://www.runtime.org/
It is $79 for NTSF drives and $69 for FAT32 drives.

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

"A drive can be "changed" from fat to NTFS at any time (supposedly) without damage to the data by using the command line command:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984
(something screwy is going on with the URL linking button)
But I'd have backups anyway, just in case.

Now going the other way is impossible without a total reformat & install.":

Have you done this your self via the command line and then it worked?? Micker - is this how you did it and then it worked just fine? I would be so very happy if that worked! I have the PCI inspector and it recovered some files for me - I tried full file restore and it literally showed me a 48 hour wait time. I panicked as I thought the longer the drive ran the more data I was loosing so I stopped it.. I might try that again to backup before I do the command prompt option- but that is something (the command prompt) that I am DEF. going to do. Thank you all, so much!

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 808

bellasmom · Joined: Sep 06, 2007 Posts: 18

Please have patience with me - I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I tried to use the Paragon disk copy last night and it was a disaster.
I freed up 281 gigs off of my friends 500 gig external HD to have enough room to back up my HD onto it..

Then Paragon told me that the data on my disk that was holding the data backup info would be deleted. EEK. Also it told me that his HD was unidentified. I ended up saying it was too risky and deleted it. What should I try now to exact copy my HD to his - that will ignore the errors. I tried just copying and pasting it and it won't ignore the errors, obviously.

I want to switch to NTFS, but want to back up first. Sorry for all the troubles, but I don't want to delete his data!

Thanks!

Baby_Tux · Joined: Mar 06, 2007 Posts: 808