Used DISKPART "clean" accidentally. Need to recover data.

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rizzo183

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Nov 1, 2014
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After searching, I found that a program called "Testdisk" can help recover data. However every time I boot, I get the error "Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

I normally use 2 HDs. Samsung 1TB (primary), Seagate 1TB.
The HD I'm trying to fix is my friend's. It's a Hitachi 500GB.

What I'm doing is:
1) Disconnect the Seagate 1TB
2) Replace it with the Hitachi 500GB

Then I get that error message. If I put the Seagate 1TB back in, everything works fine.

What should I do now?
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
@BadAsAl's suggestion for external connection might be the only way for you to connect the drive if you have no other computers available or ports. You could do it via an external enclosure (as already mentioned), a dock station or a SATA to USB adapter. It a good idea so don't worry about that.

Basically trying to get the data out of a working drive does not really overwrite or corrupt it. However, it's always recommended that you clone the drive and try to recover the data from that clone so that you have the original intact in case you decide send it to a data recovery company. If you don't have an extra drive for that, you could give it a try with the data recovery software, just make sure that you don't format or partition or...
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, rizzo183.

There are two possibilities here (most likely): either when you were installing your current OS on the Samsung drive, you had the Seagate drive connected to the motherboard during the installation process and some of the partitions and/or system files were written on it and now you can't boot without it (you can try booting with just the Samsung drive connected to the motherboard to see if this is the case), or for some reason your computer is trying to boot from the Hitachi drive (you should check that from your BIOS settings).
Basically recovering data from a "clean" command might not be possible via data recovery software. However, at least it's not "clean all" which wipes every single sector of the drive. Your best option would be a data recovery company, but you could still try your luck with data recovery software before that.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
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BadAsAl

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I would put the 500GB in a USB enclosure and attach it to the running machine.
If all you want to do is recover the data then something like GetDataBack Simple can do that easily but it will cost you around $80. Their trial version will at least tell you if it can find the files.
Testdisk could work too, I just haven't used it much before.
Check out iCare as well.
 
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rizzo183

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I have confirmed that it is indeed the first scenario you mentioned. My OS needs both the HDs to boot up. And I have only 2 SATA ports on my motherboard, so I can't connect the affected Hitachi at all.

One workaround (suggested by BadAsAl) is using a SATA to USB cable. Is that a good idea? Do i have any other options?

Also, even if testdisk fails to recover data, there's no chance that using testdisk would do further damage right? So even if this doesn't work out, I can always go to a recovery company and have them do it for me right?

 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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@BadAsAl's suggestion for external connection might be the only way for you to connect the drive if you have no other computers available or ports. You could do it via an external enclosure (as already mentioned), a dock station or a SATA to USB adapter. It a good idea so don't worry about that.

Basically trying to get the data out of a working drive does not really overwrite or corrupt it. However, it's always recommended that you clone the drive and try to recover the data from that clone so that you have the original intact in case you decide send it to a data recovery company. If you don't have an extra drive for that, you could give it a try with the data recovery software, just make sure that you don't format or partition or write anything on that drive whatsoever.

I don't want to get your hopes too high, a data recovery company might not be able to deal with this as well. However, there's nothing more you can do than give it a try if the data is really important.

Good luck!
 
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