DIY recovery possible?

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L_D_G

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Nov 23, 2010
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I have two external HDs that I removed from their enclosures hoping to place in a new build. I think one is a WD Element and the other a My Book. Both I think made NTFS when I got them years ago.

My problem has been that with both SATA and usb connections, neither drive can be accessed on the on the new build. While each was still showing up, I think I made them GPT (where my other option was MBR). Then I was asked to format them for use. I declined and now both only show up as unallocated in Disk Management.

I brought them to a repair place that said each drive test good. Relief. However, still unallocated. One is fully backed up, the other...not (fully, a lot is, anything recent is not). They are offering to send it away for recovery, but haven't named the price yet. I've seen those prices before and they aren't cheap. I'm trying to get another estimate as well, but also wanted to ask here if there might be another way to pull this off myself.

-Ultimate goal would be to recover the data and format myself.
-Hopeful goal is either recover or be able to see what I lost and document it and then have someone format it
-Painful reality of what I semi expect is that I'm looking at spending ~$1000 for recovery alone.
 
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BadBoyGreek

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Data recovery is always a tricky proposition. There's lots of data recovery applications out there that you can use if you want to take the DIY approach, but consumer end tools aren't quite as robust as some of the tools they use in professional data recovery operations.

You can Google to see which data recovery apps are best and read up on all their features, pros / cons and whatnot. It will involve some degree of expense either way, but provided your hard drive is still in good working order, most apps should do a fine job of recovering your files.

Should that fail, and you don't get the data you need back, then you will have to go to with the professional recovery option, which can get super expensive. Hopefully it doesn't come to that for you :)
 
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L_D_G

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Judging by the pdf manual, I can get the Home version on trial. That looks like it'll do the trick for recovery. Once all data is safe, what is my best option for formatting so each drive will show up and be useable as internal drives?
 
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L_D_G

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Sorry, the drives are 1.5 and 3 TB. I think I started them each as NTFS but while I was trying to set them up in the computer myself, I think I made each GPT (Windows offered that and MBR) in an effort to make them accessible. 1.5 is fully backed up, 3 almost. I understand that I'll need to move all data to back up first, my question now comes after that. How do I format the drives? This is of particular interest to me at the moment since neither drive is accessible-only coming up as an unallocated drive in Disk Management.
 
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L_D_G

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I updated my response at the same time you posted yours. Both started as NTFS as far as I know, but while I was trying to set them up in the new computer myself, I think I made each GPT (Windows offered that and MBR) in an effort to make them accessible.
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

Since Someone has confirmed the 3 TB is in good condition you need to buy a pair of 3 TB Drives and clone the problem drive.

One disk for clone the other for recovered data

You can then try various recovery programs to recover data from the clone
If you accidently write to the clone you can re create the clone and try again

Look at test disk photorecovery suite from cgsecurity
Or dmde recovery

These may be able to re create the original partitions
On the cloned drive
If they fail re create the clone and try raw data recovery

Short files such as pictures usually are easy to recover but long files such a videos are very difficult if they were fragmented

Regards
Mike Barnes



 
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L_D_G

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Picked my drives up and downloaded EaseUs. Miraculously, I managed to not only find my drive, but EU has at least found the data I'm hoping to recover. Went to bed with it at 2% needing about 8 more hours. Woke up this morning to 55% and it needing 12 hours. At the very least, I can figure out what I don't want any more and do a bit of cleaning and space saving.
 
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mbarnes86

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Sep 16, 2010
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Hi

You have been lucky

Once you have all your data back
You can use western digital data lifeguard for windows to check condition of the hard drive
One option is to erase the beginng and end of the hard disk
Windows will then think it is a new unused hard drive

You can then create new partition(s) and format from Disk Management

Regards
Mike Barnes

If windows explorer
 
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L_D_G

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Came home to "Deep Scan completed, we have found 60808 files for you. The program is intelligently building a new directory." So I hope this is good? As in it is rebuilding the drive with all data intact? I just figured it would provide analysis results and wait for me to start any rebuilding.
 
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L_D_G

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EU finished the directory build and when I tried to recover everything I could, it wanted me to pay (I had been thinking the free/trial version got me at least one recovery). I can still at least view everything I lost and figure out what I want to get back. Luckily, it's all still out there (for example: home movies that my dad copied for me...he still has).

Side note: Gilware is actually where my repair guy offered to send the drives to!

Thanks all for the help!
 
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