Need to Recover some data...

[dragflameson]

My Uncle had a WD 120Gig external hdd.

It seems to have went bad as in it powers up and all and seems fine, but its just not being recognized by the computer... any computer for that matter. We tried it on his laptop as well, same thing

The thing is he has a bunch of family pictures and some other important doc's on that hdd that he needs to try and get off it. What can we do??

BTW - He did call WD and explained the problem, they said it was bad and they're sending him a new one, but he really needs to try and recover this stuff himself before he pays like $500.00+ to get it done professionally.

Is there anyway to take the hard disk out and hook it up to the computer as an internal hdd or anything at all???

Thank you!

Edit: Quick update...

DEVICE CANNOT START. CODE 10.

It's not booting at all, thats the error message displayed.

[Sterling_Aug]

For $179 you can get a suite of utilities that WORK.

We use them at where I work to retrieve data from hard drives that even the computer BIOS will NOT recognize.

You want Get Back Dat NTFS or FAT

http://www.runtime.org/

[dragflameson]

Thanks Sterling_Aug

He is a little skeptical of how this program can actually work though before he spends the money

Can you give me (us) a brief explanation of how it basically works please, I'm interested to know as well!

Our main wonder is that if the computer isnt even recognizing the HDD at all how will any program be able to get into to it and recover anything??

I also told him to check the BIOS to see if the HDD is at least posting.

Thanks again Sterling

[Steve R Jones]

I didn't read much, but these type of software either work off a bootable floppy or you pop the drive in another machine. (working machine and install the recovery software there)

[dragflameson]

Originally posted by Steve R Jones
or you pop the drive in another machine. (working machine and install the recovery software there)

Just as a slave? And that would be only if it posts at start-up, no?

[crossedup]

Is there anyway to take the hard disk out and hook it up to the computer as an internal hdd or anything at all???

I have a 12 GB USB HD here that I can take out of the enclosure and hook up directly, id guess that one is the same, even if it is a bit newer.

They are usually just a regular 3.5" HD in an enclosure. See if you can open it up and get the drive out or get a look at it. The board part of the USB enclosure might have gone, drive might be fine.

[Sterling_Aug]

I use BartPE bootable Windows XP I made for work and I installed Get Back Data on it. We have recovered data from drives that the BIOS did not even recognize.

It does work. Trust me.

[Baddog]

You can download the trial version of GetDataBack. If it works for you, you can save the files with a payed version. WHAT EVER YOU DO..Do not save the files to the drive you are trying to recover. The program has worked excellent for me.

[dragflameson]

Okay, I'm going to try that trial version I think.

Thank you guys... I'll let you know how it goes

[Sterling_Aug]

The trial version wouldn't let me save the data, only view it.

[dragflameson]

Sterling_Aug, we called that company that sells that software... after he (my Uncle) explained the problem they told us it wouldn't work and the drive is basically worthless now, unless we sent it to a data recovery place (which starts at around 500.00+ to recover data in our situation)

Sorry, I dont know how I did, but I did forget to leave out a pretty important part... the hard drive makes this very loud horrible sounding clicking noise

They said there must be a bad scratch in it or somethin like that. Oh well, he may decide to send it out, but may just take the loss.

WD is sending him a new one, but he is just going to sell that new one on eBay and get a Maxtor now since he'll never trust WD hdd's again, thank God!

But again, thank you for all your help guys, I'm sure that software works just as great as you say it does, and now I know about it if I ever have a problem like this agian

[Sterling_Aug]

A clicking hard drive is the kiss of death!

I would never buy a Maxtor drive. WDs are the best overall for the money, but IBMs are usually the best quality. Maxtor/Quantum is the lowest quality out there. We have at least one Maxtor fail each week at work and Dell sends Western Digitals as replacements.

[dragflameson]

Wow, really... I've personally never had any problems with any of my Maxtors (and I have 6 of my own, and used many others in other builds) and only had problems with my 1st two hard drive's I've ever used (once I 1st got into building my own) and they where both WD's lol.

[Baddog]

I had a 2001 Maxtor take a dump on me last week. Lasted 3 years or better. Not to bad I guess.

[Sterling_Aug]

I guess it comes and goes.

You usually get what you pay for, and Maxtors drivers are usually cheaper than everyone elses. It makes you go hmmmm.