FabSwingers.com forum: PC hard drive data recovery

By *damandeve4fun OP Couple
over a year ago

Glasgow

I have a PC and the hard disc has become corrupted. I took it to a PC shop and they said there is only a small chance that some of the data could be recovered.

Does anyone know of a good, reliable and discreet expert who would be able to attempt this? We have some Fab-style photos that would otherwise be lost!

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Get yourself Get Data Back software, It is a lot cheaper than getting a specialist, and much more discrete. Once installed,it will scan the damaged drive, and you can copy the recovered files to another drive.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Second that one.

Data can be recovered, places will charge an arm and a leg to do it when a simple piece of inexpensive software can do the job more discreetly

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By *ohnny4playMan
over a year ago

Kinross

You could also try a free program from piriform, it is called recuva.

I hope that helps.

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By *wiftieeMan
over a year ago

near Glasgow

As has been said, I'd give the free Recuva programme a try first, it gets good reviews.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Just remember that wherever you take your pc to, they will be having a good look at your pics if recoverable

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Hook it up to another PC as a slave drive and see if you can see the contents within windows. If you can see it just copy your documents and settings folder over to your new drive, dawdle.

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By *nnyMan
over a year ago

Glasgow

Probably a good time to remind folks that if it's important to you, make a back up.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

HDD docking station. Put corrupted hard drive into it and view or download files to your new pc via usb connection.

I have done this with two hard drives.its usually the operating system that is corrupted and most pics, video or music files survive.

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By *rown_cock_edinMan
over a year ago

edinburgh

"Probably a good time to remind folks that if it's important to you, make a back up."

External drives are not expensive and really the amount of data on most peoples PC that needs backed up is not large at at all. I can back up most important stuff on a few DVDs.

Some external drives come with apps so that you use this or a button on the drive, once activated it can run a preset routines and backup certain files/folders to the drive.

Can automated it further by having it back one a week assuming drive connected. (easier being in one place with a desktop)

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By *ohnny4playMan
over a year ago

Kinross

Dropbox is good for some simple cloud storage, even if the pc is destroyed in a fire or flood the online back up can be retrieved.

Especially good if you use multiple machines.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Try a partition slide but you wud need another hard drive to transfer your data

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By *idKnightMan
over a year ago

Edinburgh

Google for linux live disc data recovery. Boot your machine off one of these and it can scan your hd to see what's recoverable with a plethora of tools that the pros use...

Windows often reports a disk as dead when it's not, linux looks a little more carefully.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

You can also reinstall windows without formatting the drive. When you do that everything that was previously on the drive gets stored in a folder called windows.old meaning you can go in to it and save your data.

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By *tormountCouple
over a year ago

Near You

You need a program called testdisk which is free and plenty of backup available from forums.

Its a wee bit confusing as it is written in dos but I managed to recover 100% which showed up as corrupt.

Takes a wee while but well worth it when you get everything back.

As others said make sure you have another disk to transfer the data to.

Dont give up too easy on it as it can be frustrating, fair chance with a bit of effort you will get there in the end.

Best of luck

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Arrgh! Everytime I go on YouTube some annoying guy tells me about this. It has now managed to make its way onto fab. There is no escape.

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By *andS_GlasgowCouple
over a year ago

Giffnock

my SD card is coming up with "Not recognised" - "do you want to format"

tried Recuva with no joy - any other tips

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Sandisk rescue pro

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By *hillaxMan
over a year ago

Scotland

Try Wise Hard Disk Recovery as a software tool for free.

Hind sight is a great thing, but backing up is always useful. I've been there before and now always buy anti-dastrophe from Freecom for any new disks I buy.

It costs £20, and if the disk fails, they collect it by courier and recover all data in a clean room, and transfer it onto another disk for you. All for £20, but you need to buy and register first, it's like the AA or RAC, you can't use join when your car has broken down already.

What's £20 for extra piece of mind? the courier there and back would cost £20 anyway!.

Just google Freecom anti-dastrophe or check it out on ebay, item #370668663577

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