eddychamoun
Hello LebGeeks ,
My uncle got a pc with 3 HDD :
- Hitachi 20 GB - IDE ( Partition C - D ): partition C used for windows xp OS and Partition D used for backup
- Hitachi 40 GB - IDE ( Partition E used for backup )
- Seagate 1 TB - SATA ( Partition I used for backup )
So the operating system was corrupted and my uncle's neighbor have formatted the partition I , where the windows xp isn't installed on it .
And when he was installing the windows xp the electricity has gone ! And now the Seagate 1 TB HDD is corrupted . When the Seagate HDD is plugged in , the pc was stuck at the BIOS screen and I cannot access the BIOS Setup neither the Safe Mode but when I unplug the Seagate HDD the first windows xp load that is installed on the Hitachi 20 GB partition C . So the biggest amount of data was in the Seagate HDD and my uncle need to recover the data on it so I've ordered an Enclosure USB 2.0 to SATA 3.5 inch and I'm thinking of recovering the data from the seagate HDD by inserting the HDD into the Enclosure then plug in the USB to my laptop and use the EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional to recover the DATA then I'll try to wipe the Seagate HDD cause I think that this HDD isn't totally damaged but it is only corrupted .
And now I've formatted the partition C and still got the Partition D and E intact .
Is my plan correct in order to recover the data from the HDD ?
Any suggestions that might help ?
yasamoka
When you connect the HDD to the laptop via USB, make sure to right-click Computer and click on Manage. Then, click on Disk Management. That disk should be visible there. Depending on the partition type, you will have to apply different steps leading to recovery. If the partition is RAW, then that means the drive was corrupted, and needs a format before attempting recovery. If the hard drive is still healthy and hasn't received physical shocks or knocks, then do a quick format. Else, do a full format. Full format maps the bad sectors in the hard drives making recovery take a reasonable time rather than eons. As far as I know, full format does NOT wipe data. That's what data wiping tools are there for. BUT, you have to check.
If it's NTFS, or FAT32, then the files should still be visible, I'm guessing. If not, then normal recovery is the way to go except if you see recovery hang at certain sectors, at which points you need to run chkdsk or a full format.
I remember using EASEUS, and if I'm not mistaken, I didn't have too many fond memories of it. The tool which impressed me the most in terms of recovery success, speed, features, etc...is ZAR. Zero Assumption Recovery. You might want to try that out. The demo allows you to save a file that can be read back later to recover (I don't recommend going that route, scan for lost files and recover directly), but does not allow you to recover. So, make sure you have the full version (try the demo first, if it scanned successfully, then BUY it. Then, try to load that file and recover, and if that doesn't work, then scan again, then recover).
Hope that helps.
MrClass
Hold your horses, formatting the drive won't help, might even make the problem worse. Before you proceed, I recommend you run Spinrite 6. It ain't free, but my God it is the best tool I ever used for drive recovery. It is a low level tool that simply fixes the partition and attempts to fix bad sectors much better than any other tool. I have used once on a drive that got corrupted; Windows BSOD instantly. After running Spinrite on the drive for the whole night (fixing takes time), Windows loaded perfectly. Spinrite doesn't load from Windows, you have to burn it on a CD and boot from the CD. A tool really worth paying for.
