Data Recovery?

[Xenogear900]

I have an Inaccessible Boot Device message when I try to boot up my computer. I want to do some data recovery, is there any good software that I can use to do this from my home OR is the best way to do it to have a professional do it? How much should this data recovery usually cost at a PC Repair store?

Xenogear900@yahoo.com

[TBoneit]

two quick things to do.

First get the hard drive makers diagnostics from them.

www.seagate.com for seagate
www.wdc.com for Western Digital
www.hitachi.com for Hitachi
www.maxtor.com for maxtor

download the version that creates floppies or CDs
boot form the disc and be sure it isn't damage causing the problem. If so do not fix it yet. If there is a problem with the drive go no further. Find someone with Norton Ghost and ghost it to another drive with the ignore bad sectors option.

Ghosting the drive first is not a bad idead, depends on how imporrtant the contents are. A good thing to do before continuing even if no problems.

Then Boot from the XP or Windows 200 Install disc

pick recovery console

run chkdsk to fix any errors. chkdsk /? will give you the switches they are different in recovery console vs in windows.

Surprisingly this may get you booted again.

Keep in mind that you should backup the drive with something like Norton Ghost first as it could also cause you to loose data if the drive is really bad.

[jman98]

Good advice from TBoneit. A word of warning though. I had a similar situation and the XP recovery console did nothing for me. I had to wipe the hard drive and reinstall

As far as paying for data recovery goes, it's expensive. I'm not sure I'd trust the local "PC repair store" to do it. If you really can't live without your data and must have it back, then you need to pay professionals to do it and it's expensive, but they know what they are doing and can get it back for you. Professionals probably will charge you $1000 minimum to do it. If you go the local PC repair store, I'm not sure what they would use to try to get the data. It would be cheaper for sure, if they even agree to try to do it, but probably it will still cost you a few hundred dollars and they may not recover as much as the professionals do.

I strongly recommend backups and Norton Ghost is a good program to use for this. I keep a special drive around just for Ghost backups for each of my 2 PCs.

[TBoneit]

That's why I suggested backing up first, The data may be readable even though the drive won't boot.

I've found that if the drive is sound then running chkdsk will fix approx. 1 in 4, running the XP repair process can fix more, and installing Xp again into the same directory can get you up and running with your available eventhough you will have to reinstall everything.

[studtrooper]

I just got a laptop HDD recovered for a client. $750 in change

[Webfoot]

A real newbie to the forum here.

I had a sim problem a yr or so ago and found a program that did a great job of data recovery. The program is called Get Data Back from http://www.runtime.org/ You can DL the program run it on the problem drive and see what it can find and recover. Looks at data from several diff perspectives with a probibility rating for each method. If it looks like there is a good probibility then make a purchase and have away with the job.

The prgm runs under DOS and as long as the HD can be seen and operates, everything should be a go for running the prgram. Not to hard to figure out how to operate and there is a somewhat decent manual to follow. Prgm will NOT write back to the problem drive, you have to have a spearate drive for the recovery. Prgm scans the drive one sector at a time and then trys to link sectors together to make up a complete file. My 80G drive took 4-5 hrs to scan and show several possibilities for recovery. I choose the method with best odds. Recovery went fairly fast and when done, all data was recovered.

If you pruchase you will have to select which file system you want to work with and purchase for that one. Price is abt $70 depending upon which version.

Hope this helps.

Edit:
Opps, the prgm runs under windows. Been a long time since I had the need to use.

[TBoneit]

Recovery software will not work if the drive doesn't spin up then be prepared to spend $$$ for rcovery specialist with a clean room.

[Iago]

I have an Inaccessible Boot Device message when I try to boot up my computer. I want to do some data recovery, is there any good software that I can use to do this from my home OR is the best way to do it to have a professional do it? How much should this data recovery usually cost at a PC Repair store?

Xenogear900@yahoo.com

If your drive is not dead then you can use data recovery software for recovery of your data. The best known software to me is Stellar Phoenix FAT & NTFS - data recovery software, I used this when my drive becomes inaccessible to retrieve the data. You can download the demo version from http://www.stellarinfo.com/partition-recovery.htm

If you wan to go professional then you can go to http://www.stellarinfo.com/data_recovery_services.htm

Or better talk to support person they will better guide you what to do

http://stellarinfo.com/support/

Hope they will resolve your problem .

Best of luck.

[normcar]

I would suggest you try the data recovery programs first. This assumes that the drive itself is running well enough to recover the data.

If there is a physical problem with the drive. Then recovery experts need to be used. They are expensive because they must determine what is wrong with the drive, and then fix it before recovery operations are done. They use some of the same recovery software that is available to the public. This can be very expensive as it is time intensive. I would try several data recovery programs first. I have had good success using them on HDs that were not physically damaged, or not working.

[Nelson37]

I also have used GetDataBack on three seperate drives which had power but could not be accessed otherwise, either no partition or progs would lock. Recovered 95 to 100% of data in all three cases. Otherwise the chkdsk, repair install options are good.

Depends on how valuable the data is, GDB can take up ot 18 hours or more on a drive.

If no needed data, then re-format is warranted with thorough error checking and testing, any glitches get a new HD. You don't to go through the whole installation process twice. Factor in how old the drive is.

Another thing which can be done in emergencies if the drive will not spin or power up. Find an identical drive and Very Carefully remove the board from the bottom and swap it with the dead drive. This will often work, finding the matching drive is the tricky part.

This is also the time to go into the backup speech. If the data is that freaking important, make an extra copy, dumbass! Your house just burned to the ground, get fire insurance next time!

[TBoneit]

Unfotunately Even GDB or the Ontrack S/W won't help when connecting the drive stops the computer from booting.

Yes I've seen that, I con only guess that the drive gets into a really funny state when you can't even boot from another system disc or a floppy to DOS.

[normcar]

I've also heard that putting the HD in the freezer for a while, can allow the drive to sometimes work for a short period of time to copy data. IF nothing else works, its worth a try. I have 2 dead drives that I will try this with, when I have some free time.