You may want to be careful about this one: "Partition was Changed/Deleted" depending what you've done with your partition table (or indeed if that's damaged).
Similarly you'll need to endure it handles your drive interface (IDE/SATA etc). Other than that "create image files" is handy if you find you need to clone the drive, but otherwise they pretty much all offer the most important ones.

Here are some more tools and information.

Try not to use USB connectors for hard drive recovery.
It is a dumb connector, it doesn’t handle ATA commands, cannot handle errors very well,
Connect a drive directly to a motherboard instead.

DIY Hard Drive Diagnostics: Understanding a Broken Drive
http://www.myharddrivedied.com/phreaknic13/diyhdd.pdf

MyRescue A program to rescue the still-readable data from a damaged hard disk. (Any know how to work with Linux?) This is a powerful tool, unfortunately its not well documented.
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Recovery/myrescue-20155.shtml
http://myrescue.sourceforge.net/

HDDScan is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics. (I would run this, it might give you more information on whats wrong.)
http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.01.22-HDDScan/

It supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.
The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc.

@ da mage: Yeah, both WD drives failed in under four years. The first was in like a year. This one is like two years old... which means I'm averaging about 2 yr per drive. Seems wrong.

@ HeX_0ff: "Careful"? As in, I should or should not have it? Your post implies I should, but just want to be sure.


Wasn't planning to (don't have any SATA-to-USB adapters, drive doesn't have any native USB ports), but good to know, thanks.


Thanks, will read.


Some knowledge of Linux. I used it for a semester for a C++ class where the lab used Linux (Redhat IIRC), but that was only very basic stuff. I'm familiar with the DOS command line/comfortable with command lines in general, but I only know a little about Linux.


What should be the timing on using this? Do I want to just go ahead and do it right away, do I want to do it first thing when I attempt recovery, do I want to see if I can simply get files off of it first, what?

Also, got your PM, thanks. Not home to try it, but will try when I get home.

Careful as in you should have it yes.

K.


This was absolutely indecipherable to me. I suspect this is because I don't have the accompanying presentation audio?

"What should be the timing on using this? Do I want to just go ahead and do it right away, do I want to do it first thing when I attempt recovery, do I want to see if I can simply get files off of it first, what?"
I would run it be for the recovery. nvm

Woops, here you go:

DIY Hard Drive Diagnostics: Understanding a Broken Drive
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4513065.

"This is the basic process to start doing diagnostics on your damaged hard drive. The point is to help you determine what the problem is so that you know if it's the board, the heads, media, etc. I will do a shotgun approach to diagnostics by the process of elimination, but more significantly explain when you should STOP before destroying your chance at important data.

For example, if you have a hard drive that you cannot see at all in the BIOS that does not mean it can't be read using something smarter than your motherboard. Yet can you tell if it's a head problem or a firmware issue? Well, if you know the basics of the "POST" process for a modern drive, you might know that if you could see a serial number that the head probably read data from the drive after being instructed to by the firmware. So the real question is, why can't you read the data?

These are the topics I am going to cover from my experiences in running a successful data recovery company for 10 years. If you are interested in fixing drives, or just a better understanding of how the drive works, then this is the talk you don't want to miss.

Scott Moulton is a forensic specialist and runs a data recovery company out of Atlanta called My Hard Drive Died where he uses his forensics experience to recover hard drives, and teach an advanced class in data recovery. He has been running a data recovery company for six years, doing recoveries for some very high profile forensic cases. His specialty is working with damaged hard drives in forensic cases. And yes he does have a clean room onsite! Company Name: Forensic Strategy Services. LLC. /www.MyHardDriveDied.com /www.ForensicStrategy.com"

Neat, I'll take a look tomorrow when it's not nearing my bedtime. Thanks for that.

Hmm. The talk cuts out in the middle; seems like there should be a follow-up or something. I tried finding it on his website, but the only thing I could find doesn't seem to want to play (it's a .mp4, which should play in QuickTime but it's not...).

Download the mp4 file and a program called VLC media player (It plays almost everything out there.)
or if you have Firefox get "FlashGot" install it> restart Firefox> go to http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4513065 > go to Tools (next to bookmarks)> FlashGot> FlashGot Media (1) and it will download the video file.(can be played with VLC media player)

I feel like a nub for forgetting VLC...

EDIT: Doesn't work. I think the mp4 file's busted.

Hmmm..try FlashGot
or I found it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvJ3bafRh8 (it has 7 parts)

I actually got the ustream version going so I've watched 55 minutes of it so far.

I think that most of this is beyond what I need to do.

One thing I noticed was his recommendation of mhdd - which he says is free, and is awesome diagnostic software. No idea how to use it, but it sounds like I should at least give it a look/have it ready when I attempt the recovery. Anyone know anything about it?

The other thing is that he mentioned a firmware problem on Seagate drives; I recently updated the firmware on the drive, so I don't know if they patched it so I avoid that, but otherwise I might need a $25 cable thing that I use to talk to the serial port on the back of the drive. I don't really know the details though.

So, current plan is to put the disks (new and bad) into this computer, boot Windows, and attempt to get things off of the disk. Should that fail, run some kind of diagnostic software and copy the disk wholesale onto the new disk. How do I do that, and if that fails, what do I do?

Lets start with stage 1 and see how you get on. We can get into the heavier stuff if basic recovery tools (or even just a windows mount) can't get the job done. I'd say your chances of getting your data back just with the methods we've gone through already are pretty good.

UPS claims the replacement drive is due today, and they usually deliver around 3pm local time (US Eastern, GMT -5). What are your plans/schedules for the weekend, guys? I think I'll take one of you up on your very generous offer; I do not want to screw this up.

I'm likely to be up by the time you get your hands on the replacement. Drop a message in GMail if you end up needing help with TrueImage.

HeX_0ff, most likely has more hands on experience. I'll be around, if im needed just send me a pm and we'll go form there.
What programs are you planning on using?

I'm not overflowing with time this weekend as it's the bank holiday weekend here in the UK and i'm away visiting family from tonight until monday morning.

That said I can still help if needed, and nobody else can. drop me an email and I'll give you my mobile number.

HeX

MyRescue seems to have the best reviews, between mentions here, and in that presentation. It's for GNU, though, which I don't have and I don't know how easily I could use it - is that something I could do with a liveCD, or would I need to actually install GNU Linux on my machine?

Barring that, http://www.dtidata.com/speed_clone.htm comes fairly highly recommended, as does Acronis, though the latter was one specifically mentioned by the presentation as one that does not handle broken drives well. That said... I don't know how broken it actually is.

I plan on using MHDD to help sort out the answer to that question as well.

Question: MHDD is bootable. That means I either run it before attempting to get the drive to mount in Windows and recovering files normally, and then if that fails having to power down and reboot to use MHDD, or I run MHDD first, and go on from there. Thoughts on which is the better procedure?

Finally, as I mentioned, I upgraded the Firmware on my drive several weeks ago. I assume I should also upgrade the firmware on the replacement, assuming it doesn't come pre-upgraded, before I copy things? Also, the replacement drive should be unformatted before the copy, yes?

MyRescue can be integrated in to a live cd. (I don't know how to do it ) Here's a start http://sourceforge.net/projects/myrescue/forums/forum/235860/topic/3632321

run MHDD first, and go on from there. It is bootable on the ultimate boot cd. download sardu(google it) run it and click on ultimate boot cd> download the iso to ISO folder in sardu. click make bootable usb. I would upgrade the firmware. I believe the replacement drive should be formatted to ntfs.

Should I recreate the Partitions as they previously existed, then? Because formatting to NTFS is impossible without first doing the allocation...

sry, If you use SpeedClone or Acronis. they should take care of that for you. Start unformatted.

so you have the new drive?

Going out to run some errands, hoping the drive is downstairs when I get back. Should be back in about 30 minutes.

Turns out my information is out of date: apparently the UPS guy hasn't been showing up til 6-8pm for the past several months. UPS.com still says it's scheduled to be delivered today, though.

Hmm, from 5-11pm I'll be busy. Tomorrow, I'll have some time.
You can give it a try on you own if your up to it.

I'd suggest otherwise. A firmware upgrade shouldn't be necessary unless there is a real need for it. Was there any particular reason as to why you upgraded your current's ?

Well, the presentation above commented that the 7200.11 and 7200.22 Seagate firmwares had some kind of bug for which there was a patch. When I had drive issues with my WD drive but stupidly thought it was the Seagate drive (because I'd mixed up which partitions were on which drive), I'd called up tech support and they recommended the firmware upgrade. Soooo - yes?

Anyway, currently (7pm) still no UPS delivery. Will let you know when that gets in.