hard drive crashed, how to recover files

[iluvchairs112]

my computers harddrive crashed (i'm not sure how, my parents won't give me any details) and we've been told by some comp technitions that there is no way that we can get the data back. however i'm sure there HAS to be a way, considering that the data is rarely completely deleted. i'm not sure of all the detail, my parents won't give me much info (they don't completely trust me with the comp as i've experimented a few too many times). i'd just like to know what are some possible things to do, like what could the problem be and how could we the data back? i'd just like to have some suggestions when we talk to the computer technition next time.

[Dan]

There is software out there that can be used to recover files on hard drivers. To use it you most have a differnt computer or another hard drive with an OS installed that you can boot from.

Next you have to hook in the bad hard driver as a secondary one (not booted from) and use the software to altiaize the croupted one and see if it can recover anything.

If the hard driver is so damged that it can not even been read from or mounted, the only option whould be to pay a company that sheslals in file recover to use an elction microsope on it and see what they can pull off. Unfrontly this costs alot.

The most imporent thing is to stop using the hard drive. The more you use it, the less likey it will be to reocver anything.


Some recovery software (do not install this on the bad drive):

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/collid,1295-order,1-c,downloads/files.html


I have also hured good things about spinrite:

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

[MihaiG]

Dan @ Mon May 14, 2007 10:10 pm wrote:

I have also hured good things about spinrite:

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

yes
i have a copy at that i used to recover files of my crashed hardisk,

its a an awesome program definetly worth the 70 or so dollars,

it also does repairs for harddrives and is good for checking your hard drive life,


probably the best program there is out there


-Mihai-

[rollerdude]

on my harddrive, it tells me that it no longer has a file system on it... could it be that just the part of the disk that tells the comp what file system is on is gone/bad?....is there any way to fix that without formatting it?

[rollerdude]

....*sigh*.... found out that it wasn't my harddrive that wasn't working... *sigh*.. 20 viruses and 300 infected files later...