Hard Disk Recovery?

[drewboy12]

So while I was in Bangkok, my laptop began running very slow for a few days. I thought maybe I had a virus, and ran constant checks on Norton, and could not find anything. Then a window popped up saying something along the lines of "Your Hard Disk is failing, run back up now"... So I ran the backup program, but had to leave before it was done. When I returned the battery was dead (was full before I left), and when you turn the power on it just goes to the Asus screen, and no farther.

My question is, where in Calgary does Hard Disk recovery, and how much do you think it will cost? I have over 4000 pictures from the last 6 months of travelling, and about 10,000 pictures from the last 10 years... The Lap Top is only about two year old, but my portable hard drive wont turn on now either, so its esential I get this one recovered... If anyone could point me in the right direction it would be great!

Thanks

[Rathji]

At first glance, your symptoms don't seem to match a hard drive that is 'failed'. When you try and turn it on, does it give you a 'cannot locate boot disk" or any kind of message or does it simply hang on the ASUS screen? I also think the external drive failing at the exact same time seems odd as well.

What program popped up a window saying your hard drive is failing? Was it something you have installed or does ASUS have a SMART disk monitor that runs as part of a pre-installed utility maybe? or was it a random window from a program you have never seen?

As for your question, I don't know of any place in particular that does 'hard data recovery' for situations where a drive won't actually spin. I am not sure that is your case though. Does the drive make a grinding noise at all?

[Hack&Lube]

Unfortunately, HDD recovery is extremely expensive. Maybe a few thousand dollars. I would find someone who is knowledgeable about computers first to look at your actual drives (seems unlikely that both would fail simultaneously) and to see what the issue may be.

The message you got about the HDD being about to fail is probably from S.M.A.R.T. and does indicate a potential failure however. If you put that drive into your external case and hook it up to another computer, do you hear any sound of it spinning up if you put it against you ear?

[normtwofinger]

I don't have much tech advice, but I do feel your pain. I lost an external that had a few years of pictures on it. I was always meaning to back it up, but never got around to it. I was quoted $2500 for recovery, which I declined to do. I hope your problem is fixable by some other means, like the posts above.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by Rathji

At first glance, your symptoms don't seem to match a hard drive that is 'failed'. When you try and turn it on, does it give you a 'cannot locate boot disk" or any kind of message or does it simply hang on the ASUS screen? I also think the external drive failing at the exact same time seems odd as well.

What program popped up a window saying your hard drive is failing? Was it something you have installed or does ASUS have a SMART disk monitor that runs as part of a pre-installed utility maybe? or was it a random window from a program you have never seen?

As for your question, I don't know of any place in particular that does 'hard data recovery' for situations where a drive won't actually spin. I am not sure that is your case though. Does the drive make a grinding noise at all?

No it says nothing about not being able to locate disc. It just simply says Asus and INTEL. I can here the hard drive spinning though, with a slight slight scratch noise to it... Like a normal spinning hard drive..

The external drive is not spinning at all when I turn it on...

I am not sure what the window was... As far as I know it was part of windows or something from Asus, that simply said the hard disc is failing, run a back up now...

[wireframe]

Can you boot to a live OS and mount the hard drive? If this was caused by malware instead of an actual disk failure, you should be able to explore the drive easily after booting from another drive, like USB or CD.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

No it says nothing about not being able to locate disc. It just simply says Asus and INTEL. I can here the hard drive spinning though, with a slight slight scratch noise to it... Like a normal spinning hard drive..

The external drive is not spinning at all when I turn it on...

I am not sure what the window was... As far as I know it was part of windows or something from Asus, that simply said the hard disc is failing, run a back up now...

Probably looking at a minimum of 4 figures to get it recovered.

[drewboy12]

Originally Posted by wireframe

Can you boot to a live OS and mount the hard drive? If this was caused by malware instead of an actual disk failure, you should be able to explore the drive easily after booting from another drive, like USB or CD.

what to you mean? Like getting an external case and plugging it into another computer? I think thats what I got out of this, and that would be a good idea... Maybe ill take the hard drive into Memory Express tomorrow and buy a case for it.

I really dont want to have to spend thousands of dollars on it... I can live with losing all my pictures I guess... But man... Thats a lot of pictures and may be worth a couple thousand to have them. Memories...

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

what to you mean? Like getting an external case and plugging it into another computer? I think thats what I got out of this, and that would be a good idea... Maybe ill take the hard drive into Memory Express tomorrow and buy a case for it.

I really dont want to have to spend thousands of dollars on it... I can live with losing all my pictures I guess... But man... Thats a lot of pictures and may be worth a couple thousand to have them. Memories...

He means boot off an operating system (like Ubuntu) off a USB stick or off a CD-ROM drive, and then seeing if you can browse your hard drive.

The simplest option I think is what you just said, and that would be to take your drive out of your laptop (do you know how?) and put it in an external case and plug it into another computer (work computer, school computer, friend's computer, etc.) and see if you are able to browse it.

It really depends on what your photos are worth to you. I find I never look at my travel/vacation pictures after I take them. There are cheaper data recovery options, but they are in Asia which is ironically where you just were.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

what to you mean? Like getting an external case and plugging it into another computer? I think thats what I got out of this, and that would be a good idea... Maybe ill take the hard drive into Memory Express tomorrow and buy a case for it.

I really dont want to have to spend thousands of dollars on it... I can live with losing all my pictures I guess... But man... Thats a lot of pictures and may be worth a couple thousand to have them. Memories...

Save the disk, at any rate. Something might come along one day where you have a chance to do it.

Also, before you plug it in, be ready to do a sector by sector copy of it. If it works, you might only have a limited time and a sector copy will allow you to recover the data. It has been a long time since I have done something like that, but there are probably a few options out there that are newer, so I will leave it to someone else to suggest a peice of software to use.

[drewboy12]

"a hard disk failure is preventing windows from starting"

Ran start up repair
"root cause found- bad hard disc"

Sounds like it is spinning fine, but I was able to find that out... It won't allow me to start windows though... Guessing I am out of luck and need to purchase new....

Anyone know where I could take the drive in to see I they can do anything? Or just take the loss.... I'm frustrated about this.... My pictures are not worth $1000 to me... It sucks but life goes on....

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by drewboy12

"a hard disk failure is preventing windows from starting"

Ran start up repair
"root cause found- bad hard disc"

Sounds like it is spinning fine, but I was able to find that out... It won't allow me to start windows though... Guessing I am out of luck and need to purchase new....

Anyone know where I could take the drive in to see I they can do anything? Or just take the loss.... I'm frustrated about this.... My pictures are not worth $1000 to me... It sucks but life goes on....

Again, put it in an external and boot off another computer like we've mentioned multiple times here. Just because Windows won't boot doesn't mean you should give up trying to grab files off it.

[Rathji]

double post

[Rathji]

^

What H&L said.

Sent you a PM as well.