HDD failure!!! HEEEEEEEEELP
 

Does anyone know/recommend a data recovery company that can save my data on a 2.5" SATA HDD? I will provide a new SSD if required.

I had a RAID failure and decided to move some data to my laptop as I repaired the RAID and now I cant access the laptop; keep getting this I/O failure notice................:(

It's a load of family video so irreplaceable, cost is only a minor issue, if it's expensive I'll just wait until I can afford it.

My research into the problem indicates that it may be a platters out repair etc.........:-(

Platters out Mike starts at £'000's from what I've heard. Its a seriously tricky business.

If the drive spins up and registers in the BIOS, you have options. If it doesnt, then its not going to be easy.

I bought some superb software last year, which Ironically due to SSD failure over the weekend I dont currently have it installed, and i'm in a hotel so cant recall what it is.

getdataback for ntfs and fat is a cheaper, but less comprehensive alternitive.

Dont put the data back onto SSD - They're even worse. When they fail (which they do without any warning) they just vanish along with your data - Instead, put it into multiple location of any media you fancy +++

If it registers as a drive, then I can possible do something, but you'd have to get it to me.... Is there anything left of the original RAID where you had it stored? Did it used to be anywhere else that you might be able to undelete more easily ?

whatever you do, stop trying to boot it, or use the drive, it wil likely only make it worst. Save whatever life it has left for the recovery +++

After a bit more head scratching here she is:

http://www.active-undelete.com/

I use R-Studio

You could try http://www.sysresccd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage

It's a live Linux OS that you boot the machine to (either CD or USB) and then has tools to recover data, and it's free :)

Thanks for the replies guys.

Ian,

Its actually a 2.5" SATA drive from my laptop. I transferred data to it from a RAID that had an iffy disk while I did a complete rebuild of my household NAS. In the end I did a complete format and rebuild believing my data was safe on the laptop!!!

So now I have the drive out of the laptop in a USB caddy. When I attach it to my Win 8 x64 PC it sees the drive and the partitions but cant access them saying there is an I/O problem. I have stopped trying for precisely the reasons you have stated!

If I send it to you with another 250Gb 2.5" HDD would you have a look please? At your convenience of course. +++

Can you tell me what is the drive make and model number is ,I may have a working cct board , I have a very large collection of 2.5" drives that have mostly just started to fail and bringing up SMART errors so the electronics are good.

Is there a prize for the first person to crack the code and decipher what on earth these guys are talking about? :Confused:

The '8 is enough of a challenge for me, let alone all this techno computer speak! :o

As Roboblob states, the control board PCB, is often the cause of failure, I've brought a few back to life by exchanging that for an identical one - purely to extract the necessary data. Definitely worth a try.

You have to be extremely carefully doing this (apart from any physical issues) as the board will probably have calibration data stored on it during manufacture.
Whatever you do don't put the drive in any situation where it might get written to after making such a swap.

Also, don't do it if there any suspicious noises from the mechanism when powered on as that might indicate physical damage for which a "platters out" laboratory is your only hope.