Any Help Recovering Data From Dying Drive (Windows)?

***bob*** · #1 3rd August 2009, 06:29 PM

My son just called from North Carolina that the month-old external hard drive he'd bought to store all his gigs of family pictures and his business files is doing nothing but 'clicking'. While the company is ready to replace the drive, his important data is in danger of being lost.

I've already suggested the overnight-freezer trick, which is where we stand right now. Failing that, is there anything that anyone has for a possible (free) "hail-mary" last-chance effort? Since the drive's being returned, we can't really take it apart, etc.

savage · #2 3rd August 2009, 06:50 PM

I know you stated Windows, but in my experience, Windows doesn't really know what to do when a disk is "dying", I've had several unreadable, clicking disks in Windows that Linux has been able to access well, granted some I/O errors, but I've always got *most* of the data off.

I would personally try a LiveCD. See if Linux can access the disk, if it can, 'dd' it's partitions immediately to image files on another disk, you can then work with those to restore the data.

bbfuller · #3 3rd August 2009, 07:00 PM

Hello bob

When I've had luck getting data off a dying Windows drive it's been after booting the machine up with something like Knoppix and then dragging the data off across the network.

However, I've always understood that the "click of death" syndrome has to do with the head actuator assembly, and if that's so you may not get it over the disk to actually read any data.

I suppose any distribution that automatically detected hard disks and provided a mount point for them would be worth a try.

If the data's that valuable it might be worth forgoing the warranty claim and send it to a specialist recovery service.

JEO · #4 3rd August 2009, 07:03 PM

If the clicking is happening right after it spins up and before you try to read from it then it might not be able to load the rest of its own firmware from its firmware area. If that happens it's unlikely you will be able to read from it since the drive won't ever become ready. At what point do they say it starts clicking?

Nokia · #5 3rd August 2009, 07:14 PM

bob, I think you should guide him to recover his data using a linux live cd. I suggest using a read only mount.

***Dan*** · #6 3rd August 2009, 07:58 PM

Uhm ... Probably off base here, Bob. But if it's a small (2.5) USB powered drive, make sure it's hooked directly to the computer involved and not through a hub. Also (if supplied ) make sure BOTH power/USB plugs on one end are plugged in. Many small drives require more power than one plug will supply, and the drive will fail to spin up accordingly.

If it's a full size WD drive ... and it is the click of death ... Ouch! Time to spend some money.

***bob*** · #7 3rd August 2009, 08:11 PM

Well, further info from son: It's a Buffalo drive which 1). has been knocked over a few times and 2). there was a lightning storm the other day. OUCH!

Since he's given away the linux box I set up for him, it's back to the Live CD method. I've left instructions to first try the frozen drive method, but if that fails, to give the Live CD a try and see if the data can be grabbed and put onto an 8 gig flash drive. Thanks, guys. We shall see!

***Dan*** · #8 3rd August 2009, 11:05 PM

Hmmmm.

Got the sheet music for, "Taps?"

Replicant10000 · #9 5th August 2009, 05:48 AM

A USB drive worked for me.

***bob*** · #10 5th August 2009, 10:29 AM

I should check in with him today just to see. At last report, his external drive was being frozen and he was trying to recover anything left on his internal drives that had been erased but not overwritten. Frankly, the 'clicks' and the drive not being read at all don't give me a lot of hope for it, but I'll report back (once the sun's up and the son's up).