Windows Cant Detect A Hdd - Any Hope Of Recovering Data?

[*LOACH*]

Hi,

So I bought a 2TB Western digital Caviar Green about 2 months ago and today Windows sees that the drive is connected (external USB case) but cant access it. I also tried it on my Linux machine and more or less the same thing happens. Is there any hope of recovering my 1TB of data thats on it? It has my only copies of this years Tokyo Autosalon and a bunch of other stuff on it too. Please feel free to create many and varied insults regarding me not backing stuff up.

Thanks in advance.

[Miguelone]

How much money you got?

Seriously though if it's not being recognized at all chances are something physical is cooked. Call up a few data retrieval companys and find out what it'll cost ya.

[*LOACH*]

How much money you got?

Seriously though if it's not being recognized at all chances are something physical is cooked. Call up a few data retrieval companys and find out what it'll cost ya.

Sorry I made a mistake in the title of the thread. Windows knows the disk is there but cant access it. When I go into disk manager (Windows 7 starter) it says I need to format the drive and then in the information it says it is a healthy, active, primary partition and has the disk size, it also says it is online. But I cant even do an error check on it cos it has a pop up that says windows cant access it.

Thanks for the reply.

[Madaz]

have you tried plugging it into another PC

[barraspalding]

time to start re-downloading your porn collection

[*LOACH*]

have you tried plugging it into another PC

Yep a Linux one. It also shows this popup:

Edited February 10, 2011 by *LOACH*

[DivHunter]

there are many and varied recovery tools that may help you, I suggest google.

[EeLeYe]

Is it covered by waranty at all?? If you didn't do anything beside use it as instructed, then Western Digital should have a look, free of charge... unless of course, there's stuff on there you don't want anyone to see.

If it is cooked, there are ways to retrieve the data but it costs a lot of $$$$$$. They can basically "re-manufacture" the drive in a similar fashion as if it was on the production line and retrieve undamaged data. Really depends how important the data you lost is.

[GTRPowa]

Have you tried to error check the drive? Bring up Command Prompt and type

chkdsk d: /r

(where d would be your broken HDD letter.)

It'll either fail or succeed. If it fails, next best bet is look at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm - Or seek pro advice.

Edited February 11, 2011 by GTRPowa

[GTRNUR]

Disk Internals NTFS recovery will do it. It scans for directories, files and folders at a sector level and then allows you to extract the data to another drive. They key to recovery is not modifying an already damaged disk, as while its damaged it is still partially readable. Once you go overwriting parts of the disk you cant go backwards again.

Edited February 11, 2011 by GTRNUR

[Cephas]

If it's plugged in via USB, maybe try taking it out of the enclosure and plugging it in directly via SATA.

The different access method may allow the OS more error recovery options.

Other than that, try spinrite etc.

[liger]

is this the first time that you've used the drive?

i remember a while ago that you had to use WD align for XP oeprating systems. but if you have vista/win7 its not needed.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=805&sid=123〈=en

it might not be of much help, but it might be the answer.

[*LOACH*]

Sorry about the day in replying, as suggested by DivHunter I have been trying the tools available found through Google with little success. By doing what I think is the sector level check I can see files. I downloaded the supposedly free Disk Internals NTFS (recommended by GTRNUR) and after 30 hours of running it found the files but it then told me I need a registered version to save them, awesome!! I also have tried a bunch of other programs which havent worked yet. I dont really want to pay for a program which I hope to only ever use once.

Cephas-Thanks for the idea but I dont have a case in the same country as me to plug it into.

EeLey- I checked WDs site and they only recommend recovery companies that will not void your warranty - no offer of data recovery not even software only.

liger-its not the first time I have used it, over a period of 2 months I have transferred 1TB of data on it, some stuff is backed up but my recent photos, Japanese language study stuff, recent document scans and a bunch of other stuff isnt. I formatted it using a Win7 PC and have only ever used it on that and a Linux machine so the XP problem shouldnt affect it.

At the moment I am running minitool power data recovery but I dont have high hopes as it estimated the time for the scan to be 60 hours and yet it seems to be taking a lot longer than that.

What I really want is a program that will just automatically scan and copy the drive (hopefully in one process so it doesnt have to read the 1TB to scan it, then read it again to copy it as that is what takes the time) and quarantine any corrupted files. All while maintaining as close to a bit perfect copy as possible. But any other way of getting my files back would definitely be appreciated.

Any suggestions?

Thanks so much for the replies- as you can see I am following them up and appreciate the time taken to try and help even if they dont work.

Edited February 14, 2011 by *LOACH*

[Nanogrip]

I've had similar problems as yours but it was from a My Book. Re-plugging usually works as well as restarting the computer. But in your case looks more serious. I'll try to help out. First don't do anything on the computer that has your Caviar Green HD, doing any activity will delete or modify the files you want to recover. Then download and run this (you can use a portable version as well):

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

It will take you probably a day and a half to recover most of your files, some will be lost for good unfortunately

Caviar Green HDs have been known to have problems from their solder points. Here is another thing you can do. Take out the HD, and look at the circuit at the back, carefully unscrew all the bits holding that circuit, take out the circuitry and then clean the inside (the side that attaches to the HD) with a very small amount of rubbing alcohol, I used WD40 for one HD in an emergency and it worked, but I don't recommend it. This is probably one of your last options to do though.

Those are what worked for me when I had to recover files from kaput HDs.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[*LOACH*]

I've had similar problems as yours but it was from a My Book. Re-plugging usually works as well as restarting the computer. But in your case looks more serious. I'll try to help out. First don't do anything on the computer that has your Caviar Green HD, doing any activity will delete or modify the files you want to recover. Then download and run this (you can use a portable version as well):

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

It will take you probably a day and a half to recover most of your files, some will be lost for good unfortunately

Caviar Green HDs have been known to have problems from their solder points. Here is another thing you can do. Take out the HD, and look at the circuit at the back, carefully unscrew all the bits holding that circuit, take out the circuitry and then clean the inside (the side that attaches to the HD) with a very small amount of rubbing alcohol, I used WD40 for one HD in an emergency and it worked, but I don't recommend it. This is probably one of your last options to do though.

Those are what worked for me when I had to recover files from kaput HDs.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for the reply. At the moment I am still running minitool power data - has been going for 5 days straight and is at 85% done......just seems to be going slower and slower though - might never finish. I might give it the weekend and if it doesn't look like it will finish I will have to try your idea or something else. 1 week with no windows PC to play games on is not fun.....how I survived for a year and a half without one I will never fathom - ahh thats right flash games. More hours playing turret defence games and Travian than it is possible to maintain sanity with - they were dark times. Anyway thanks again.

[elrodeo666]

Loach buy a Mac

and do this to your PC..

Seriously I just had a problem with 2TB WD external drive which I used only 4 times.

Almost lost 1.8TB of movies and pics but managed to recover it all but a few files corrupted.

WD 2TD is on its way back for a refund.

Seems like theres been a lot of problems with them.

[*LOACH*]

Thanks for the reply but if I buy a Mac I will have to use the same technical methodology with my car. Hence my next vehicle would be a Hummer which I would modify by replacing the engine with a Postie bikes donk, spray it babypoo brown, install the drivers seat upside down and facing backwards. I would also have to replace the steering wheel and pedals with a sphincter muscle controlled joystick.

I dont like Macs.

Yeah until now I have had many good experiences with WD drives but these Caviar greens dont seem too good. I bought a Samsung one to put my data on if I can recover it then the Caviar will go back for a refund/replacement.

By the way thanks for latest HKS Day photos in your thread, most appreciated.

[bozodos]

LOL @ the suggestion to buy a mac. Bet the salespeople love seeing you walk in with the big SUCKER sticker stuck to your forehead.

First of all, the OP is having a hardware issue, NOT a software / os one.

Secondly, the f**king Imacs have the hard disk buried under the panel and right next to a bunch of hot componentry. I'd be a lot more paranoid about one of those failing than one in an external case or in a pc.

The greens have been a tad problematic, I only use Caviar Blacks in my home box.

[*LOACH*]

DONE!!!!!!!!!! only took a bit over 8 days to scan and then another day or so to copy. Today off to try to explain to the shop including having to say about 4 or 5 times that I dont care about the data on the drive anymore just gimme money or another drive and understanding about 2% of the Japanese that was being said to me. Dont know whats been corrupted but so far a lot seems to have been recovered. Mini power tool data recovery 6.5 did the job although I reckon Disk Internals would have done the same job in about 2 days.

Anyway big thanks to everyone who helped out. Very much appreciated.

Edited February 26, 2011 by *LOACH*

[gregor]

A good outcome then, most of the recoveries I've attempted dont work at all if they run that long.

For whoever said the hdd manufacturer should look at it - they wont. They'll replace it under warranty easily enough but the warranties state it's not their problem to recover data, and don't cover any loss as a result of disk failure.