Maxtor HDD data recovery

C

Castle

New Member
Hi. So my sister's computer has crashed and was sent to a local computer shop for the repair. The shopkeeper simply replaces a new HDD and removes the originally Maxtor in it saying that the HDD is faulty and has tried every possible means to access the Maxtor drive and backup into the new HDD. But what he has done is not enough.
I brought the repaired computer back to my sister and she yelled saying that that is not just all of her data, although the computer has a new HDD and OS fully operational. To her, data is more critical.

I have tried asking the shopkeeper to recover the files but he said thats all he could do. Just a reference to the web, I have noticed a number of professional data recovery advertisements and I wonder if the state of my sister's Maxtor HDD can be salvaged.

The Maxtor HDD, to what I guess, has bad sectors so only certain parts can be accessed or retrived.

Would you suggest me to, bring it to Maxtor service center or just anyone out there who cliams knowing how to fix to do the job?
 
Bringing the effected drive to a professional service along with blank media or a second spare drive will entail them actually opening up the drive housing to read the platters with a different type of read head they attach directly. The reason the repair shop could only go so far is that the effort to use the drive's own heads was futile since those were likely bad themselves.

Professional services do charge a good rate however for anything they are able to recover. The only option usually available is simply trying out one or more data recovery programs severall being freewares like Recuva. http://www.recuva.com/
 
As far as i know openig the hdd is NOT an option. You will need a "clean" room to do this. And when i say clean i mean REALY clean. The particle counts shall not exceed a total of 3000 particles/m3 of a size of 0.5µ (micron) or greater, and of course retriving data requires specific equipment.(The particle count in your room shoud be about 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter, 0.5 μm and larger in diameter). So, if your hdd is physically damaged, try replacing the electronical board on the back of your hdd.( you must provide one from an IDENTICAL hdd). If this doesen't work.... forget about retriving data.
 
If the platters or read/write haeds are bad you don't replace the controller card. You try a few data recovery programs first to see what can be retrieved and seek out a service if you are prepared to lose what is left on the drive.
 
It is certainly possible, but the question is "how much do you want to spend"?

If you want to ship it up here, I'll take a look at it for you, no charge, and give you a quote based on what I find. You can PM for details if you like. We do offer clean room services as well, but just so you know, they're very expensive (usually 2000+).
 
Replacing a working controller card is a total waste of time when the problem is with either the drive heads or simply bad sectors on the platters. Prices will vary between different recovery services where the best move would be to shop around in you location for the most reasonable if there are things unreplacable like family photos remaining on the drive.

But even then it will depend on what can be recovered and not simply lost for good. For things simply downloaded and non essential that can be relocated at any time simply accept the loss after trying out a few less costly programs. This is one reason why external drives for storage as well as burning data disks for backing things up are gaining in popularity.
 
if you still have the drive try to recover those sectors by using spinrite or acronis true image recovery. i'm pretty sure there are many others

if it's mechanical failure then you'll need to send it off to a pro like SIRKENIN

perhaps maxtor has wav files of mechanical failures for download like hitachi. try searching for it
 
dznutz said:
if you still have the drive try to recover those sectors by using spinrite or acronis true image recovery. i'm pretty sure there are many others

if it's mechanical failure then you'll need to send it off to a pro like SIRKENIN

perhaps maxtor has wav files of mechanical failures for download like hitachi. try searching for it
Click to expand...

The first part of that was correct. For the rest.. :rolleyes:

Active Undlelete gets a good review for a retail product. Recuva however is one of the freewares available depending how bad off the drive actually is. The main reason for bringing a drive into a reputable data recovery service is mainly when the read/write heads on a drive are toast and no recovery program will see results.
 
The main reason for bringing it to people like us is so that it doesn't end up in the hands of people like the poster before me..

Both utilities as seen there depend on the drive being fully functional and working... All they do is recover deleted files on an otherwise fully functioning drive. We step in where people that do nothing but quote Google like him fail because they throw Knoppix at it and wonder why it reports "NO changes have been made".

Can everyone tell yet that this clown doesn't have a clue what he's talking about?
 
And that was the word from the fabulous fabricator who doesn't know about the complaints heard in pms about him and the garbage he posts. :rolleyes:

Like stated before you first try data recovery tools to see if the heads on the drive are still working to see what can be recovered. If you don't get anywhere at all that suggests the heads are toast where you would then have to bring the drive into someone "who does know" and is properly equipped for data retrieval.

Lately with two separate drives both seeing failing heads important files were able to be retrieved without the need for anything else. The problem with the two separate systems was that nothing could be written to the drive while data could still be copied from them.

As far as someone else's comments on Linux it's quite apparent that the poster there has never even used a live for cd Linux distro. While a bit outdated at this time someone with "actual" Linux experience prepared a good article on pc rescue and of course how to use a live for cd distro step by step for rescuing files from a drive when otherwise...? ut oh... http://www.shockfamily.net/cedric/knoppix/

Other distros like ubuntu live seem to serve that same purpose.
 
Ok... This is my desk:

img02041tj8.jpg


The monitor on the right, the little Compaq, is running Knoppix. Please note the circled error message window, part of what I quoted in a previous post in this thread. That was on the 500GB WD that seems to have self destructed for something to do.

The backup copy of the MFT went up in smoke. Now the drive doesn't even know what it is, what file system it has on it and it appears blissfully unaware that it's 500GB, but appears quite happy to report a drive size of -1GB. The error message also recommends that it can do nothing with the drive, to go to Windows and run chkdsk /f, reminding us that the /f switch is overly important (but seemingly forgetting that the /f switch is obsolete, replaced by a more functional /r switch).

What happens when you run the tools on it that you described is that it will report back "unknown file system" or "can not read from this disk". You do not use an undelete program on a broken harddrive. You use them on a drive where you deleted it, emptied your recycle bin and then went "OOOOPS!".

When you have a harddrive failure, you do not run the tools you suggest on them.
 
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And if you actually read the article there it explains how Knoppix as well as some other live distros can be used when a partition itself becomes inaccessible not when a drive is foobar! Like mentioned before when you can read from a drive you use the low cost options to see what can be recovered before spending on any professional recovery service.

Simply posting a photo with an error on a screen doesn't show anything especially since the article outlines how to see files recovered from one drive copied to another referring to desktops not laptops with only one hard drive. OOOPS! You goofed again!
 
What your article says, ace, is the following:

"
If you have accidentally deleted files or reformatted a drive it is imperative that you do not write anything to the drive; save your current work (on a different drive if possible) and turn off the computer. This means don't download or install any data recovery software onto the affected drive (at all if you have only one drive). You should only use recovery software that does not write to the drive. You can use Knoppix to get to and back up your other files, but do not remount the drive so that it's writable. You can find more about what to do when you lose data. Get professional help with damaged drives and deleted files and please, don't panic. "

I know you don't read the whole article when you copy and paste links from Google, so there's a highlighted section.

What the article tells you is that if the harddrive needs the standard repair (and indeed it refers you to use chkdsk /f when it does) or has been formatted, files deleted or whatever, KNOPPIX WILL NOT WORK.

The only time Knoppix works is when it can't boot, but everything else is in tact. GOODY!!!! Putting the drive on an R-Driver and connecting it to another Windows computer will accomplish the same damn thing.

Again, the only person who "goofed" here is you... because you don't know your products, you live in the dark ages, you don't read the articles and what not that you pull from Google in a desperate move to prove your "point" (or more accurately lack thereof) and you don't read anyone's posts but your own. If you do, you have a serious comprehension problem.

Either way, one can make more progress talking to a brick wall (and there's a better chance that the brick wall will get it, as opposed to you).
 
Too bad what you still don't know is that the information there was already put to the test when that was first seen. Having worked with it first hand to see how effective it is that's one thing I did try while you still haven't. That included drives that never saw an mbr to start with simply being storage only.
 
tyttebøvs said:
why do you say a drive used for storage only doesn't have a mbr?
Click to expand...

Without any OS ever being installed there no entries made in any mbr or boot files simply a volume active or inactive with files on it. The basic information allows for the partition(s) on it to be seen as one or more logical drives.

Try setting one used for storage only as the first boot device to see what you get. blink... blink... blink.. goes the flashing dash in the upper left hand corner of the monitor.
 
The only drive with an MBR is the primary system drive (typically C: ). Any slave drive does not have an MBR if no OS was installed on it when it was the primary system drive.

And it's not a blink blink blink. It's a message "invalid boot disk.. yadda yadda yadda.. please insert a boot disk.. blah blah blah"
 
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SirKenin said:
The only drive with an MBR is the primary system drive (typically C: ). Any slave drive does not have an MBR if no OS was installed on it when it was the primary system drive.

And it's not a blink blink blink. It's a message "invalid boot disk.. yadda yadda yadda.. please insert a boot disk.. blah blah blah"
Click to expand...

Wrong again as usual! :P

When setting a storage drive here as the default all you see is blink... blink... blink... since the bios is still trying to look for an OS on a valid partition where none is found.

On a host drive when the boot information is lost you then see the invalid boot disk message.

Gee? I almost forgot to add in the screen shot of how it looks when you can easily open two windows for two separate drives with the latest release of ubuntu live 7.10. That makes it easy to copy files from one drive to another while booting from a live cd.

 
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