[bigron]

Maybe some one can suggest something. Have an old hard drive which has a lot of important files. I password protected/ put them in a secured folder etc , the files for obvious reasons. Down the line the pc where the hard drive was installed met with a bad accident but I managed to salvage the hard drive. Now I have the hard drive but not aware of the software I used to create/ hide my files on it. Also, the disk has crashed and makes a mechanical sound when connected to a power source.
Any way of recovering the files. This would be of immense help to me if there is a way of doing this.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by abhi7013

The password was set on the WD application itself. And the old laptop isn't easily accessible to me rite now to copy the files. Hence wondering if there's any other way!

I am not sure you have a way out if this what you used Setting up and using WD Security and WD Drive Utilities

Originally Posted by bigron

Now I have the hard drive but not aware of the software I used to create/ hide my files on it. Also, the disk has crashed and makes a mechanical sound when connected to a power source. Any way of recovering the files. This would be of immense help to me if there is a way of doing this.

Connect the hard drive to another machine and check if it is recognised. If yes, then simply copy the data to another drive. The click of death is a bad sign. Do this ASAP before the drive dies completely.

If it is NOT recognised the controller may be faulty or the disk may have suffered internal physical damage. Data recovery by yourself is doubtful. You will need to seek the help of a professional data recovery service which can be prohibitively expensive.

@abhi7013, @bigron - Gents, I cannot stress this enough - ALWAYS backup your data. Fact - hard drives and even SSDs fail, it's only a matter of time. If you encrypt your hard disk and forget the password say goodbye to the data especially if you used a military-grade encryption algorithm like AES. Think about it, if it were easily recoverable then a password and resultant security would be pointless, right?

[abhi7013]

Originally Posted by R2D2

I am not sure you have a way out if this what you used Setting up and using WD Security and WD Drive Utilities





@abhi7013, @bigron - Gents, I cannot stress this enough - ALWAYS backup your data. Fact - hard drives and even SSDs fail, it's only a matter of time. If you encrypt your hard disk and forget the password say goodbye to the data especially if you used a military-grade encryption algorithm like AES. Think about it, if it were easily recoverable then a password and resultant security would be pointless, right?

Yes, that is the software that i have used. I do agree with you on the backup part. A security feature wouldn't have much value if there was a work-around.

Anyways, only option left is to get hold of the old system and copy the data onto another drive and erase it completely.

[bigron]

@R2D2 - I think I ve lost my data for good then. I do remember using a pretty solid encryption tool to hide the data. Also, the hard drive does not get recognized when I connect it to another system. It intermittently spins but does not show as a device. I approached a data recovery professional and it was indeed very expensive. Not that, the files are of such nature I am scared to leave it to a third party vendor for recovery.

[.sushilkumar]

Any recommendation for a good data recovery expert in NCR with reasonable costs. Don't wish to deal with likes in nehru place.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

good data recovery expert in NCR with reasonable costs.

Unless it is a simple fix, you will find yourself having to take a hard line on the the value to you of your data. Recovery does not come cheap: it is very expensive.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

Any recommendation for a good data recovery expert in NCR with reasonable costs. Don't wish to deal with likes in nehru place.

Data recovery is very expensive and unless you really deem the data to be very important I would suggest just buying a new drive and backing up from start.

At the cost of repetitition - ALL drives fail at some point. A 4-5 year old Corsair SSD in one of my home desktops failed last week and was replaced. The PC was up and running within 15 minutes thanks to Macrium Reflect a backup and imaging software I swear by.

Always backup your data preferably to multiple repositories (USB drive, internal drive, NAS) and even the cloud for disaster recovery.

[Thad E Ginathom]

I might have posted about it at the time. I don't really remember now, but I think that the data-recovery for a dead hard disk was something like 70,000. I did have backups, but not as recently as I thought. The delivery photos of my then-new car were not worth 70k, and most else was backed up. I had to decline.

What really stung was that I am a retired systems manager. I let myself down badly, with no excuse whatsoever. I am more careful now.

[condor]

Any references for a reasonably priced HDD repair service for a desktop harddrive ? I have a failed drive, and want to try a platter swap. I also have a matching donor drive to use for this.


I have already tried changing the external PCB - it didnt work. The price quoted for data recovery from the failed drive is expectedly high.

[raksrules]

My reply may not be helpful to the agenda of this thread but just want to pitch in with my 2 cents. Few months back I bought a new WD Passport HDD to just keep backup of data. I almost never open the HDD unless it is necessary. However, I purchased one more HDD of a different brand to backup data from 1st HDD to 2nd one. I know it may be overkill but I only have the one time investment (for foreseeable future) of the extra HDD but peace of mind is great that I have 2 copies of that data.

[bigron]

Any recommendations for a potent data recovery software.

Have a Sony laptop on which I had a folder of pictures on the desktop which I deleted accidentally.

A few general recovery softwares were unable to recover the specific folder.

May be a stronger recovery software would do the trick.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by bigron

Any recommendations for a potent data recovery software.

I have responded to your PM but sharing here so other members may read for any future reference.

I have used two recovery software tools with a good level of success:

a) Get Data Back
b) Stellar Phoenix

Both have a trial mode to display what can be recovered and if you choose to go ahead you will need to buy a license. For successful recovery it is VERY important you immediately stop using the computer as sectors/blocks marked as empty (after deletion) can be overwritten considerably reducing your chances of recovering the old deleted files.

There are also low level hard disk sector by sector editors but you really don't want to go down that route as it is complex and requires in depth knowledge of file systems and partition tables. Otherwise you may wind up losing ALL data.

Again, at the cost of repetition ALWAYS backup your data. Accidental deletion or hard disk failure can be a stressful experience.

PS - please note the corrected link for GDB. I had posted the wrong one here (link to site with a similar name) and in the PM. Apologies.

[bharatbits]

Folks, i have a query. *My hard disk has not yet crashed*

My laptop hardisk is making a click sound every now and then. I have been hearing this from quite some time (probably a year) but i dismissed it thinking it to be the dvd player tray that was trying to eject on it's own but failing. Stupid of me to think so.

I am reasonable sure now that the sound is coming from the hard disk. The problem now is this is my primary and work laptop as well. The data on it is very critical for me. Is there a way i can check for the health of my hard disk? I am not really a very tech guy.

Lenovo Core i3 laptop purchased in 2017. 8GB RAM, 64 bit OS Windows, 1 TB harddisk.

What should be my next steps?

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by bharatbits

I am reasonable sure now that the sound is coming from the hard disk. The problem now is this is my primary and work laptop as well. The data on it is very critical for me. What should be my next steps?

I think before anything else you should immediately obtain a backup of the data, before it crashes. I am not sure if it is a serious problem or not but by experience of recently paying a hefty amount for data recovery, please take a backup and then proceed with other trouble shooting. If the hard disk has warranty maybe you can get a replacement disk. But there is no warranty provided for data loss AFAIK. Hence, take a backup asap.

[AtheK]

Any good data recovery guys in bangalore, i have some photos that i need recovered form a HDD, the HDD does get detected once a while, but not able to access folders.

This was my backup HDD, and over the time without even accessing it, it has crashed. I recently bought 1 TB space on Onedrive and was planning to move all the photos to Cloud, and encountered this issue.

Also any idea what is the general cost for recovering data.