Any chance of partition recovery?

[techyguy717]

Laptop wont boot, no previous issues.
Detect bad sectors with long manufacturer test. No repair tried.
About to copy files, but Computer can't even find boot partition now, and neither can Linux Hirem Boot CD.

Customer wants Laptop restored with all configurations and programs, just like was functioning yesterday. Customer needs laptop functioning by end of day for big project.

Advice for recovery?

 

[lcoughey]

Laptop wont boot, no previous issues.
Detect bad sectors with long manufacturer test. No repair tried.
About to copy files, but Computer can't even find boot partition now, and neither can Linux Hirem Boot CD.

Customer wants Laptop restored with all configurations and programs, just like was functioning yesterday. Customer needs laptop functioning by end of day for big project.

Advice for recovery?

First thing, what would you have gained if the drive completely crashed while you tested it? Yup, I read almost every sector, killed your drive and didn't even bother to copy a single sector off the drive first.

Never run a diagnostic on a hard drive unless you are 100% sure that 100% of the critical data is backed up.

Now, as to where you go from here. Have you discussed the value of the data with the client? Is it worth my lab's low end price of $280 ($350 less your 20% reseller discount) or 300DDR's $300 price? If so, you should send it out before taking any further risks with your client's data.

What I've been recently noticing is that technicians want to try everything they can first before considering sending it to a professional lab...but, usually at a higher lab price and lower recovery odds.

A professional data recovery lab you can trust to work with should be your first option and not your last.

Anyway, assuming that your client's data isn't worth $300 and you want to try it on your own, here are the steps:

1. Figure out what is failing and temporarily fix it (weak heads, PCB, firmware)
2. Get a full sector-by-sector clone with a something that can handle bad sectors, ie gnu ddrescue
3. If you want a clean bootable drive, you will have to keep fighting with the clone until it is as close to 100% clean as possible
4. Then recover the data from the clone drive

Be very careful not to clone the wrong way (had a tech call yesterday and it would appear that he completely overwrite his client's drive).

Also, be very clear to the client that everything you do from here will likely cause more damage and that by your trying, you are possibly ruling out professional data recovery or, at the very least, raising the price.

Oh, by the way, your client's expectations of time are unreasonable. But, if they are rushed, you are well advised to send it to a lab ASAP, to increase the odds of success and decrease the time to get it recovered.

Good luck

 

[lcoughey]

Laptop wont boot, no previous issues.
Detect bad sectors with long manufacturer test. No repair tried.
About to copy files, but Computer can't even find boot partition now, and neither can Linux Hirem Boot CD.

Ooops...didn't catch that. You just proved my point. The drive has already gotten worse, significantly decreasing your odds and potentially increasing your price.

 

[bdoggman]

Just some advice.. If you cant back up the data and your drive is failing, you might want to consider removing the platters out of the drive into another one. Data recovery services can be very expensive. Ive done this several times.You would need another functioning drive with the same specs. Make sure you wear latex gloves and a mask if possible. The platters cant have any prints or human residue. Its not the easiest method and most professional but it works. Then you can make a pretty good profit off the service.

 

[lcoughey]

Just some advice.. If you cant back up the data and your drive is failing, you might want to consider removing the platters out of the drive into another one. Data recovery services can be very expensive. Ive done this several times.You would need another functioning drive with the same specs. Make sure you wear latex gloves and a mask if possible. The platters cant have any prints or human residue. Its not the easiest method and most professional but it works. Then you can make a pretty good profit off the service.

You have to be kidding, right? I sure hope so. I do thousands of data recovery projects a year and can only think of one case in the past year where I had to transplant the platters.

 

[KompuKare]

Just some advice.. If you cant back up the data and your drive is failing, you might want to consider removing the platters out of the drive into another one. Data recovery services can be very expensive. Ive done this several times.You would need another functioning drive with the same specs. Make sure you wear latex gloves and a mask if possible. The platters cant have any prints or human residue. Its not the easiest method and most professional but it works. Then you can make a pretty good profit off the service.

Just out of interest: when did this work? Because, as density increases the chances of this working get slimmer all the time.

That is to say, doing this without a clean room or at least a laminar flow cabinet might have worked on a 1980s or 1990s drive where the sector wasn't that tiny but I can't such a crude method still working. And surely you'd want powder free nitril gloves.

Areal density is now close to 2Gb (note the lower case 'b') per inch:
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/rubriques/market-reportsresearch/ihs-isuppli-storage-space/

Don't think you'd get any data of such a platter without a clean room and the original noble gas filling.

 

[bdoggman]

Just out of interest: when did this work? Because, as density increases the chances of this working get slimmer all the time.

That is to say, doing this without a clean room or at least a laminar flow cabinet might have worked on a 1980s or 1990s drive where the sector wasn't that tiny but I can't such a crude method still working. And surely you'd want powder free nitril gloves.

Areal density is now close to 2Gb (note the lower case 'b') per inch:
http://www.storagenewsletter.com/rubriques/market-reportsresearch/ihs-isuppli-storage-space/

Don't think you'd get any data of such a platter without a clean room and the original noble gas filling.

Unless i'm just lucky or something it seems to have worked for me. I just happened to find a youtube video one day that showed me how to do it, so I tried it and it worked I'm not a pro at it nor do i have a clean room. But i do offer the service at my shop as a last resort if they don't want to spend $500 - $1000 on a recovery.

Heres some links to videos. I was under the impression that it was a widely used method.. Like i said i'm not a pro at this...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=removing+platters+for+data+recovery

 

[lcoughey]

Unless i'm just lucky or something it seems to have worked for me. I just happened to find a youtube video one day that showed me how to do it, so I tried it and it worked I'm not a pro at it nor do i have a clean room. But i do offer the service at my shop as a last resort if they don't want to spend $500 - $1000 on a recovery.

Heres some links to videos. I was under the impression that it was a widely used method.. Like i said i'm not a pro at this...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=removing+platters+for+data+recovery

This is foolishness...the only reason you should ever transplant the platters is when the spindle is seized and there is absolutely no other options. Not only are your methods horrible, it would appear that your ability to troubleshoot hard drive issues is flawed too. Fortunately, most technicians know better and will ignore your advice.

 

[Markverhyden]

Laptop wont boot, no previous issues.
Detect bad sectors with long manufacturer test. No repair tried.
About to copy files, but Computer can't even find boot partition now, and neither can Linux Hirem Boot CD.

Customer wants Laptop restored with all configurations and programs, just like was functioning yesterday. Customer needs laptop functioning by end of day for big project.

Advice for recovery?

Your first mistake is doing something other than attempting a backup as the first step. Second mistake, it appears, to be giving the customer the expectation that you can get the job done by the end of the day.

If you had run an imaging program you would have seen there were bad blocks while you getting what you could. That alone would be enough to tell the customer that there is no way anyone could get a bootable, functioning image.

As Luke pointed out, as he does so many times, you should have had a conversation about the value of the drive contents before you did anything. That is what I always do. If the stuff is "life or death" type of thing, meaning no backups elsewhere, and they place a meaningful monetary value then it's a pass and sent on to those that know how to handle situations like that.

 

[codegreen]

Just some advice.. If you cant back up the data and your drive is failing, you might want to consider removing the platters out of the drive into another one. Data recovery services can be very expensive. Ive done this several times.You would need another functioning drive with the same specs. Make sure you wear latex gloves and a mask if possible. The platters cant have any prints or human residue. Its not the easiest method and most professional but it works. Then you can make a pretty good profit off the service.

I'm sorry to be harsh, but this is easily the worst advice I have ever read on Technibble. OP, please don't do this, ever.

Data recovery professionals have the training and equipment to do this kind of procedure... but more importantly they have the knowledge to know if it is an appropriate response to the situation.

 

[Xander]

Detect bad sectors with long manufacturer test. No repair tried.
About to copy files, but Computer can't even find boot partition now, and neither can Linux Hirem Boot CD.

This won't help you much now but my philosophy (after being burnt a couple of times) is to now always assume a hard drive has one foot in the grave and that anything I do might push it in. I don't back up every drive I touch but, if there's the slightest reason to think it might be sectors, it's getting imaged first and then I go for a Fab's backup for redundancy.
Once I'm confident the data is safe THEN, and only then, I'll run checks. You should just assume that all that extra wear and tear on the drive from doing a check will make it x% worse.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

About the only check I do on a drive if I'm questioning it at all is gsmart control from parted magic, just the quick 60 second/2 minute test. If it shows the drive being questionable, then I normally fire up acronis and try to do a sector by sector backup of the drive to an image on an external. Then I can clone that to a new/working drive to work off of and run file checks, repairs, etc. Been able to save a few that way, because many times the clones have booted the pc, then I can go through and clean things up afterward. Did this on a point of sale system for a client of mine, made it easier for them and me because we didn't have to do any reconfigurations.

 

[bdoggman]

I'm sorry to be harsh, but this is easily the worst advice I have ever read on Technibble. OP, please don't do this, ever.

Data recovery professionals have the training and equipment to do this kind of procedure... but more importantly they have the knowledge to know if it is an appropriate response to the situation.

Silly Techs, please do your research before saying this does not work, or bad advice etc.. like I said earlier "I'm not a PROFESSIONAL"..And if your on a major budget and don't want to pay someone hundreds of dollars for a data recovery, This method does "Absolutely Work". Just google or youtube it, Theres plenty of proof that it does work. But that being said. I'm just giving my personal experiences that have worked for me.

 

[lcoughey]

Silly Techs, please do your research before saying this does not work, or bad advice etc.. like I said earlier "I'm not a PROFESSIONAL"..And if your on a major budget and don't want to pay someone hundreds of dollars for a data recovery, This method does "Absolutely Work". Just google or youtube it, Theres plenty of proof that it does work. But that being said. I'm just giving my personal experiences that have worked for me.

As you said, you are not a professional, but I am.

 

[Xander]

The rest of us, actually, ARE professionals and, as such, know when a job is better in the hands of an expert like Luke and Brian (300DDR). If you're relying on Youtube tips, you're probably in over your head and have no business risking customer's data. If they've no regard for their stuff and are willing to let you experiment on their data, good for you. That's a risk that the professionals here aren't willing to take.

You can be completely professional without being an expert in something.

 

[altrenda]

I think you guys are being too hard on our friend. I watched this YouTube video and it opened my eyes to data recovery.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNb8oFMJa8

 

[Markverhyden]

I think you guys are being too hard on our friend. I watched this YouTube video and it opened my eyes to data recovery.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNb8oFMJa8

ROTFLMAO!!!! Thanks. Nice end to a long week.

I guess some of these others figure that when they get their Master's of Science from Google that a PHD from Youtube is the way to go.

 

[Altster]

I think you guys are being too hard on our friend. I watched this YouTube video and it opened my eyes to data recovery.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNb8oFMJa8

...and just think, you could store all of your data in a sealed glass jar if you really want to!

Anyone who watched this - did you read the comments left for the poster of the video? Just toooo funny!

 

[citizensmith]

Youtube has many "profesionals". This guy at http://myharddrivedied.com/ has many vids & info on howto to diy data recoverey. If it was my own drive and it it did'nt matter what happenned I might have a go.
What OP is failing to grok is most people here would'nt do that procedure for a paying customer. Sometimes 'fixing' something just makes it a whole lot worserer

 

[Moltuae]

I think you guys are being too hard on our friend. I watched this YouTube video and it opened my eyes to data recovery.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSNb8oFMJa8

lmao

I can think of a few people that I know who would actually believe that.

In fact I've joked with a few customers in the past, when lifting up a computer to carry it away for repair, that I can tell their hard drive is getting full because the computer's getting heavier. Some laugh; some actually believe me!




On the subject of questionable HDD data recovery methods, while I wouldn't recommend this for recovering anything important, there is one unconventional method that works for certain types of failures that I've had success with on a number of occasions.

Generally, the type of failure has to be where the drive is partially working or works for a few seconds/minutes at a time ... and the recovery method is to put it in the freezer for a few hours. Again, I wouldn't recommend doing this unless it's your own drive or it's a 'nothing to lose' situation. Also, I would recommend putting the drive in an airtight bag before putting it in the freezer to keep it dry and you should power it up immediately after removing it from the freezer (still in the bag) to minimize the risk of condensation. For particularly stubborn drives, pack ice blocks around them while recovering the data. I've managed to completely image a few of failed drives this way.