Recovering data from failed internal HD

LeBum

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
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4,510
Trying to recover the data is driving me crazy. I've been going through a lot of info and methods, so my explanation/details may be a bit confusing and/or lengthy.

SPECS
Lenovo Y50 - I've owned it for 1.5 years
CPU: i7-4700HQ 2.4G
SSHD: 1Tb+8gb (WDC WD10S21X-24R1BT0-sshd-8gb)
OS: Windows 8.1 (upgraded to Windows 10)

It began a week ago with crackling and popping from my speakers, lagging when I browsed or played games, and clicking sounds from the hard drive; it was finals weeks, so I didn't really care too much. On Sunday, when I shut down the laptop, I noticed later that it had not fully shut down. The screen displayed only the Lenovo logo, so I forced shut down the laptop. The next morning, I got the same exact screen, but I waited longer and received the EFI Network 0 for IPv4 and IPv6 error and no bootable device.

I got into the BIOS and saw that my HD (WDC WD10S21X-24R1BT0-sshd-8gb) was detected. I checked the boot order and noticed that sometimes that my HD was in the boot order and sometimes, only the IPv4/6 were in the boot order. In both cases, the laptop could not boot up correctly, so I booted with legacy support. The Lenovo logo now had the loading circle beneath, but I would get a BSOD w/ UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME and a restart momentarily after.

(Just learned about the ubunter installer today)
Next, I tried the Ubuntu Pendrive method (Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS) with a USB thumb drive. This got me into the Ubuntu desktop, but the HD wasn't detected in any way while still internally connected. The only devices detected were the thumb drive and a 1GB loop device. My external hard drive with all my backup up until Jan-Feb was detected normally when I plugged it in. I also used TestDisk, although the only devices detected were the ext. HD and the thumb drive. Then I decided remove the HD from the laptop and then boot up the laptop into Ubuntu. I used the SATA-USB cable to connect the HD into the USB slot. Still, no detection; however, I noticed that in the Disks app the HD was listed as an unknown 2tb disk with free space (fully orange).

I'd really like to avoid any paid recovery methods unless they were my last resort. The only data I really need are recent school folders and the OS (either 8.1 or 10). I know, it was very stupid of me to not make any recovery media.

Edit: Is there any way for me to install a windows OS onto my Samsung EVO SSD and utilize that drive as a permanent fix?
 
Solution
for the os issue for a small fee most vendor will send you a restore cd or usb stick now with the factory image on it. for the hard drive try freezing it and then tapping it and plugging it into a pc. try running recovery software to get the data off. last chance free. if there a small amount of data may not be too clostly for you for your school work. before you do this see if windows 10 saved your data. one of the newer off line features of windows 10 one drive. if it was on it may have saved your files to the cloud.

SBMfromLA

Distinguished


Unless you have some data that's so valuable it's priceless... it's probably NOT worth it to see professional recovery... they can charge $500-1500 for Data Recovery. If you don't care about the data.. you could try the "Poor Man's HD Recovery Method" by freezing your hard drive then quickly putting it inside your computer to copy the data... but it might not work with a laptop since you would need a second drive to store any retrieved data.
 
Can't help with your data recovery. Sounds like a hardware failure. I've lived through three of them, and have learned that slowdowns and clicking are an early warning sign. I keep regular backups now.

As for reinstalling, just pop your Samsung EVO SSD into the 2.5" drive bay. You can make Windows 8.1 install media from this site. Your serial key is stored in the laptop's BIOS.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

Here's another link that might help if you run into problems validating that your laptop is in fact licensed to use Win 8.1.

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/
 
for the os issue for a small fee most vendor will send you a restore cd or usb stick now with the factory image on it. for the hard drive try freezing it and then tapping it and plugging it into a pc. try running recovery software to get the data off. last chance free. if there a small amount of data may not be too clostly for you for your school work. before you do this see if windows 10 saved your data. one of the newer off line features of windows 10 one drive. if it was on it may have saved your files to the cloud.
 
Solution

LeBum

Reputable
Jan 18, 2016
2
0
4,510
Thank you guys for the replies. I've been looking into all your suggestions. As of right now, I'm in the process of installing Windows 8.1 onto my Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500GB.

So today my failed internal HD was correctly detected as a 1TB hard drive, instead of a 2TB HD. I am not sure how it happened. This occurred while I was about 2/3 finished with the Windows 8.1 ISO download and probably after my second restart of the laptop. I had noticed that there were three new disks/devices appearing on the sidebar: LRS_ESP, Windows8_OS, and LENOVO. In the Disks app, I can see the volumes/partitions of the HD:
Partition 1: WINRE_DRV (1GB) --- unmountable
Partition 2: SYSTEM_DRV (273MB) --- mountable
Partition 3: LRS_ESP (1GB) --- mountable
Partition 4: Doesn't say (134MB) --- no option for it
Partition 5: Windows8_OS (953GB) --- unmountable
Partition 6: LENOVO (27GB) --- unmountable
Partition 7: PBR_DRV (18GB) --- unmountable

When I try to mount Windows 8, for example, I'm met with
Error mounting /dev/sda5 at /media/ubuntu/Windows8_OS: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=999,gid=999,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/sda5" "/media/ubuntu/Windows8_OS"' exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0).
Metadata kept in Windows cache, refused to mount.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda5': Operation not permitted
The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown
Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume
read-only with the 'ro' mount option.

I've read the the "unsafe state" is hibernation, but I can't disable hibernation if I can't access Windows. Any potential reasons on why/how the drive got detected randomly today?
Since my HD and its volumes got detected, is there any chance to recover any data without freezing or sending it off to a recovery center? I'm still up for freezing my hard drive, but I'm holding off on that.