Hard drive crashed. Reformatted. Gotta get my files back!!!!

[USRanger]

This week my hard drive crashed.  Upon booting, it would get to a few seconds through the Windows startup screen, then die & reboot.  I would then get the black screen saying there was an error & would I like to start up in 3 different types of safe mode or start windows normally.  There was a 30 second countdown to choose.  No matter which boot method I chose (even letting the 30 seconds run out & auto-choose), it never worked.  It endlessly went to the Windows startup screen, died & then would reboot.  I ended up having to do a system recover that took me back to my pc's Day 1 out-of-the-box state.  The good news is it fixed whatever was wrong & now it runs fine again, except I now have an empty pc, besides Windows.

I thought I was good because a couple months ago I had a bad feeling (premonition) and bought an external HD to back my stuff up in case of something like this.

The bad news:  Apparently when I hooked my external HD up & told it to copy everything on my HD, it did not include any game files from any game & pretty much 80% of needed programs like photoshop, sony vegas, my AV program, etc.  

I NEED MY STUFF BACK!!

Any of you that know me in here know how much I dabble in AH-wise, and can imagine just how much in AH stuff I have.  I don't have the heart to start all over from Day 1.  Honestly, it may retire me from the game if I would have to do that.  We're talking 4 years of non-stop AH creation stuff.

I've been reading that there are programs I can buy that can get this stuff back off a formatted HD.  I just tried a trial version of one of em that let me choose up to 1Gb of info I can get back for free.  I chose a couple AH sound folders & it worked.  My hopes are up.  I   this can really work.  I'm gonna wait one day & see if anyone responds.

I need to know if anyone has ever done this and/or can recommend a program to use.  Help meh!  Help meh! I'm in distress!  Don't make me kill something!

[1701E]

I don't know a good restore program, only even tried one a long time ago for a Flash drive.  However, I do know if you want to restore data from a HDD (in this case) don't write new data if possible.  As I understand (and it could be wrong), when you delete data you have a chance to recover it, but as you write data back onto the disk you overlap where that data was stored.  The more you Overlap the less chance you have of recovering it.  I have no idea how many times it takes it be gone forever, but until someone finds you a good solution just try to avoid writing new data as much as possible.  As you recover data store it on the External until you have everything you need.

Luckily with Programs you don't have to worry unless you mean you're missing the files you made associated with them.  Photoshop, Vegas, AV, etc can all be re-downloaded provided you still have your Keys or Serials.

Hopefully you get it sorted out, hate to see all the hard work on Sound Packs, Pictures, and the likes gone.
 

[USRanger]

I don't know a good restore program, only even tried one a long time ago for a Flash drive.  However, I do know if you want to restore data from a HDD (in this case) don't write new data if possible.  As I understand (and it could be wrong), when you delete data you have a chance to recover it, but as you write data back onto the disk you overlap where that data was stored.  The more you Overlap the less chance you have of recovering it.  I have no idea how many times it takes it be gone forever, but until someone finds you a good solution just try to avoid writing new data as much as possible.  As you recover data store it on the External until you have everything you need.

Luckily with Programs you don't have to worry unless you mean you're missing the files you made associated with them.  Photoshop, Vegas, AV, etc can all be re-downloaded provided you still have your Keys or Serials.

Hopefully you get it sorted out, hate to see all the hard work on Sound Packs, Pictures, and the likes gone.
 

Thanks.  I read that too about not putting new data on, so I haven't yet.  I don't have the serials or keys to those programs, because I put them in text documents in My Documents!

Still holding out hope of at least getting my AH stuff back.

[Golfer]

GetDataBack

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

It'll let you try before you buy to make sure it's going to work for you.  It worked in my case.  Good luck.

[USRanger]

Thanks much.

[Chalenge]

I think you want to undo the system restore. Probably you should have used the Windows Repair feature from the installation CD.

Anyway... once you get sorted out you are going to need SpinRite.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

[USRanger]

Cool thx.  I didn't have a Windows installation CD though.  It came partitioned on my HD (it's an HP from Bestbuy).

[Estes]

HandyRecovery works well for me. http://www.handyrecovery.com/

[Chalenge]

I just tasted something really nasty after reading that Ranger.

If you used the regular Windows Restore to restore to a previous time I think you should undo that and then run SpinRite either from a CD or USB thumb drive. If you used an HP utility to restore from an image I think you are probably looking at great difficulty.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

My advice is to get a new hdd, install windows there and try to plug the old hdd in. If it won't show up in disk management then you're pretty much screwed. You can try to freeze the drive and see if you get lucky getting it to run one last time.

If the hdd is burned i.e. it doesn't even spool up (you can hear if you listen closely while starting the computer) then you still have the option of getting an another similar drive and replacing the controller board from the working drive to the bad one.

If the disk is just corrupt (you can hear it runs and it shows up in device management but you can't read anything from it), software like getdataback can help you but even then, install a new drive, install OS on it and whatever you do do not do anything but READ from the old harddrive. And forget about spinrite etc. harddrives come cheap just toss the old drive to the bin, just a question of now or later when it fails again.

[Chalenge]

Negative! Do not freeze your HD. What a terrible suggestion!!

SpinRite will probably fix it if it isnt working under the OS. If it doesnt fix it then there is no hope. I have had people bring me drives that are supposed to be 'bricked' but SpinRite got the drives working. Of course if one is gone that far you get the data off and toss the drive but name one other program that can do that! It would cost you thousands to send a drive off and have data recovered otherwise.

The purchase of a new drive is probably needed anyway and I would go one further and suggest getting Acronis True Image Home 2011 and cloning your HD as it sits (after undoing the restore) to the new drive. Do not get the "free" version available from Western Digital. It is not a complete version and does not have complete functionality.

Suggesting that he 'forget about SpinRite' is only going to cost him more lost drives. SpinRite will prevent drives from dying. Use it regularly.

[USRanger]

The HD is working properly since I reformatted. I can can see the lost data is there using a trial of one of these programs so hopefully ill get most back.  I was just wondering if one of these recovery programs was a standout. Thx for the advice all. Gonna give it a go when I get home. Fingers are crossed.

[Krusty]

Don't wait too long. Don't install too much. All that "data" has been pooled back into the "available space to over-write" category on the drive. That means any writing to the disc has the potential to over-write part of all of some other file you want to recover.

The more you wait, the more you do, the more you install, the greater the chances of writing over and permanently losing that "lost data" -- it's only "lost" right now because you haven't overwritten it. As soon as you do, it won't be "lost" -- it'll just be "gone."

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Negative! Do not freeze your HD. What a terrible suggestion!!

If it would have been physically damaged this sometimes allows up for one more spool-up to recover data. Far from terrible. However I missed the part where he managed to reformat the drive (why on earth?) so it's obviously working.

SpinRite will probably fix it if it isnt working under the OS. If it doesnt fix it then there is no hope. I have had people bring me drives that are supposed to be 'bricked' but SpinRite got the drives working. Of course if one is gone that far you get the data off and toss the drive but name one other program that can do that! It would cost you thousands to send a drive off and have data recovered otherwise.

R-Studio costs about 40 bucks and it can recover data from a formatted or partly corrupt filesystem.

The purchase of a new drive is probably needed anyway and I would go one further and suggest getting Acronis True Image Home 2011 and cloning your HD as it sits (after undoing the restore) to the new drive. Do not get the "free" version available from Western Digital. It is not a complete version and does not have complete functionality.

Suggesting that he 'forget about SpinRite' is only going to cost him more lost drives. SpinRite will prevent drives from dying. Use it regularly.

Probably? Getting a new drive is his _only_ option. If he installs anything over the old drive (operating system, anyone?) he WILL lose his data permanently. I doubt spinrite is going to perform any miracles on hardware defects it can play tricks on the spinners at max, doesn't prevent them from losing surface or controller from going bad.

Edit: Sigh, it seems he already installed the OS again. This is the last thing anyone should do when wanting to recover data.

FIRST RULE OF RECOVERING DATA: DO NOT USE THE DRIVE TO BE RECOVERED FOR ANYTHING BUT READ OPERATIONS --AFTER-- BEING INSTALLED TO A RUNNING SYSTEM AS SECOND DRIVE. WHATEVER YOU DO DO NOT INSTALL THE OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE FAILED DRIVE AGAIN.

The OP should shut down his computer immediately to prevent further data loss, get a new hard drive, install OS on it and then try to recover what may or may not be left from his data.

[ColTomb]

USRanger, check your PM