SATA 2.5inch not initialized

[barbarosa42]

I have a "small" problem.
Just got a HITACHI 80 GB 2.5" 5400RPM SATA INTERNAL HD from a client and he hasn't got a clue about the formating type just wants the data back.
I plugged it in a desktop PC running Win 7 and it shows up in BIOS and under Disk Management bit it says Unallocated Disk Space - Not initialized. I'm pretty sure that from the conversation that i had with him that the disk had partitions but now it just shows one big unallocated space.
Used some software for recovering data which report back bad sectors (interesting some do others don't).
Tried running under Ubuntu - no luck.

I'm running out of options here - any suggestions?

 

[WyomingKnott]

Yeah - search this forum for the term "Drive Recovery." You'll find half-a-dozen programs that scan a drive that has suffered a failure and will recover files. If you pay for them. The initial scan tends to be free, recovery tends to cost.

Then teach the client to do backups.

 

[danielsuperchef]

did you try windows recovery discs? Or chkdsk /f /r ?

 

[FreeDataRecovery]

The best practice for recovering data from a drive with bad sectors is to create an image of the failed drive onto a new drive. Then operate your recovery tools against the image.

Chdsk or any other tool that writes to a failing drive is not reccommended.

 

[marcellis22]

danielsuperchef... Yeah, TRY running CHKDSK on an unallocated disk, same with Windows recovery... Spinrite, OnTrack are the tools to use... Sounds like you need to tell the client he's screwed!