IMPORTANT! Major Data Lost! Need help getting it back!!!

[Asuka]

Ok, so my main 750 Western Digital just went AWOL on me. Past week it was really starting to work slow or crash constantly. So i said to myself its probably a good time to back everything up. (I was using this drive as a temporary place for all my organized extremely important files.)

Few days ago with a lot of patience i managed to transfer my pictures but that's only about 8 gigs out of the 280 I'm using up. I did this by using my USB wire instead of the fire wire it was connected with. After it crashed trying to transfer some videos it just wouldn't start up again. It would give my a error saying the device could not be read.

I opened up the external and took out the hard drive thinking it might be the wiring but I'm getting the same errors. Here are a few screenshots.

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6471/westerndigitaldatalifeggl2.png

I cant stress enough how much i need these files back. This was suppose to be the drive i backed everything up from in about a week and it pulls this shit on me.

I found this thread on the subject and its probably the same problem. I'm trying to gather as much info as possible.

I have tried these problems and they are not detecting any files.

RecoverMyFiles
EasyRecovery Professional Trial
R-Studio 3.8

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/8903/errorly7.png - Error

Something interesting i wanted to see why i keep getting this 512 byte option only.

Well i dunno why but my drive is being detected to a max of 512 bytes?

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8007/formattt4.png

Any option i click on is the same.

 

[Javert]

If only Asus had a Batman signal. I wish the best for you. I'm gonna ask some friends to see if they know what to do.

 

[Terminator]

If only Asus had a Batman signal. I wish the best for you. I'm gonna ask some friends to see if they know what to do.

 

[lanceleader]

Is the drive doing any noise ? Where I work we sometime put the drive in the freezer for an hour when everything fail. The only safe way is to send the drive in a recovery center but it's really expensive.

 

[huntingbear]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=unstopcp&btnG=Google+Search

try this...worked good for me on a failed drive

 

[Asuka]

No noise but the normal reading sounds you hear. I called CBL but they are charging me 955 to send it in. Im going to ****ing die if i cant recover these files and paying that much money is just insane.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=unstopcp&btnG=Google+Search

try this...worked good for me on a failed drive

Says zero files are found just like all the other programs.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

You could try getting another of the same drive and replacing the external electronics board.

 

[Asuka]

You could try getting another of the same drive and replacing the external electronics board.

Already tried connecting the hard drive directly to my computer. Same errors.

 

[lanceleader]

if you have the right screwdriver try to remove the logic board from the drive and then clean the contact with an eraser they get dirty sometime. For your information this is the software we use where I work http://www***ntime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

That's what I meant, the logic board of the drive, not the enclosure.

I don't know anything about them, but this place is advertising a flat fee of $279 for recovery.

 

[Asus]

Wait a couple of days and maybe it will work temporarily again. Don't work it to death trying to get it to read when it is on it's last legs...

 

[DEATHMASTER]

isn't there something about putting it in the freezer?

 

[Asuka]

Anyone have an idea why its being detected as a 512 byte drive? Whats this freezer thing people are talking about?

and im really hoping it magicly starts working again.

 

[Krynn72]

Send it to a professional.

 

[Pesmerga]

Send it to a professional.

But not to this guy

 

[soulslicer]

Send it to a professional indeed.

 

[Asuka]

Who is a pro who is bs is one problem to figure out and the ones that are recommended by western digital its like a grand...

 

[Operational]

Here is another file recovery program you can try
http://www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/info.htm?language=1
But sometimes there aren't software solutions to data recovery.

You could try getting another of the same drive and replacing the external electronics board.

If this doesn't work (I think it's worth a try) and you need the data that badly you might not have any other choice but to spend the money on a professional service.

 

[Asus]

If the head that writes/reads all the data is at the source of the problem then some say putting the drive in a freezer (in a ziplock bag) will help by shrinking the head so it doesn't hit the platters etc. But you didn't mention any hard clicking sound (arm/head issues) or weird spin up patterns (motor or maybe head hitting platters). And since your PC can't even detect the hard drive correctly then you cannot use software to recover stuff. I'm guessing its the electronics board or something else (not head/motor).

 

[Plug]

I had a problem with a seagate drive just a few weeks ago - i thought i tried everything and then found a freezer article - didn't work (and if you DO decide to put it in the freezer in a ziplock bag, make sure it's not on a humid day - i spent along time worriedly wiping condensation my already dying hdd).
In in the end i used a program called 'get data back', it did a scan of the drive, found all my files and i copied them to my brother's computer after registering.

I re-formatted the drive and put it back in, and i got the same problem i had initially, so i changed the sata port and bingo!

sometimes it's the obvious things that you don't think to try... Make sure you try the drive on a different computer, different ports etc etc - only then do something drastic like freezing the drive.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

You try booting up a LiveCD in Ubuntu and seeing if it can read it?

 

[No Limit]

If you go to start > run and type diskmgmt.msc do you see your hard drive there? Does it have a letter assigned to it and does the proper size show up? Have you tried hooking this drive up to a different computer? Some times another bios will detect your drive when others can't.

If not your are pretty much screwed. I know that's a shitty thing to hear but that's about it. Like someone suggested you can get an identical hard drive and try to replace the control PCB on it. But if you do this wrong not only will you piss away the money you just spent on the same drive but you will permanantly damage any data that might still be recoverable.

I hear these stories with internal drives connected to an external enclosure. For future reference don't ever run sensative data on that kind of set up again.