I had a hard drive fail yesterday. Wouldn't boot at all.
I have now put a new system on another drive and have been trying to access the data off the drive that failed.
When it is on the secondary IDE channel, it is recognised as a drive but when I try to access it, it says the drive needs to be formatted first.
When it is in an external (usb) box, it is recognised and just freezes the system.
Does anyone know of any decent (free or cracked) tools that could help me get the data of this drive. My CD list is on there, countless photos of the kids, address book, documents, emails, favourites etc.

Dolly

Cracked...not a chance of finding that info on here

But there is a nice easy program
takes a while to recover the data, but if you put it on the second IDE channel, you should be able to access it

Then i suggest you throw the HDD away, and get a new one.

http://www.tech-pro.net/active-backup.html


This software is supposed to be pretty good. They used to do a program i've used called GetBack, but they discontinued it, for this "more powerful" program (according to them) Give it a try, and see if it recognises the drive.

Good Luck.

Thanks GaRHaR

Dolly

Before you go spending money on a recovery program... I would try running Windows Setup from the CD... if the drive spins up- it could be as simple as a hosed Master-Boot-Record.... if you can get it to boot for 1 last time you could easily pull all the special stuff off there.
You could use the recovery console or setup itself (do a repair install). If the drive's not COMPLETELY shot (won't spin up) you should be able to get that data...

If it is not mechaninically working --you can STILL recover those files-- but at that point it becomes "how much are you willilng to spend" Data recovery services are expensive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...060300147.html


Before it failed-- were you hearing any strange noises (grinding/buzzing/clicking) anything out of the ordinary??

You could have a look at these:

http://www.partition-recovery.com/
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/fil...d,22917,00.asp
http://www.r-tt.com/
http://www.winplanet.com/file/28237.htm
http://www.stellarinfo.com/
http://www.ontrack.com/
http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/download.htm