Anyone know anything about data recovery? (total laptop implosion)

[BitVyper]

So my laptop's hard drive is eighteen kinds of fucked, and I just want to recover data from it before I try formatting and giving it a fresh Win-7 install. However, my attempts to repair the hard drive have left me unable to access it, or even get startup repair options to load. All I can get to run on the laptop right now, is Hirens, and mini-xp won't function off Hirens for some reason, so I'm using the Parted Magic rescue environment. If I try to access the drive from Parted Magic, it returns the "exit code 13" error, which tells me to run chkdsk /f, which I can't run because I can't get to anything windows. The full error reads:

ntfs_attr_pread_i:ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent or there is a hardware fault, or it's a SoftRAID/FakeRaid hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very important!

Followed by some stuff about raid setups which is irrelevant because this isn't a raid.

I have a portable hard drive reader that I've tried as well, and my other Win-7 PC just wants me to format.

Is there anything I can do from either Hirens or my Win-7 machine that might allow me to access the data on this hard drive?

Originally, windows wasn't booting, but I was able to get to the repair menu, where I found that fs.rec.sys was corrupt. None of the repair options helped (tried bootrec options in command prompt, system restore, startup repair), and I don't have a win-7 install disk, so I put in Hirens and grabbed the fs.rec.sys off my other Win-7 PC to replace the corrupt one. I had some success with this and was able to get into windows, but there were various errors that made it obvious something wasn't right, so I tried updating the drivers and running windows update in the hopes that it would fix whatever drivers were corrupt. That's why I ended up in my current state.

So yeah, if anyone has any ideas about how to get my data off this hard drive, I'd sure appreciate it.

[Revising Ocelot]

Amateur-hour knowledge here. Why the fuck I'm allowed to work in a computer repair shop, I have no idea. But hey I'm actually earning money, more than can be said for the previous 10 years, can't complain too much.

Easiest option would be to just take the hard drive out, and try to access it on another machine that's already booted into Windows or w/e with a SATA to USB adapter. If the drive's failing then trying to boot from that drive is just an exercise in frustration. If the drive appears on the other computer? Good, get in there and copy over them datas. For severely damaged drives that aren't accessible or like to go clickety-click we send them off to a specialised data recovery company, and that costs hundreds of £. Hopefully you won't need to do that.

[BitVyper]

Easiest option would be to just take the hard drive out, and try to access it on another machine that's already booted into Windows or w/e with a SATA to USB adapter.

Yeah, I tried that; it appears, but Windows just tells me to format it.

[Azisien]

Have you tried running Recuva off Hirens? Since Hirens doesn't seem to be working, have you tried installing Recuva on a working hard drive and then targeting the busted one?

[Revising Ocelot]

Got a USB stick with Ubuntu on it? Try booting into that and accessing the drive from there. You can also run the Disk Utility to see just how FUBAR the drive is.

[BitVyper]

Oh, I can get into Parted Magic on Hirens, just not mini-xp. I'll try Recuva though.

---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

Discovered TestDisk thanks to a friend, and it's actually letting me access the file structure, which is phenomenal. Also allowed me to copy a file over, so it looks like everything is cool; I just need to go buy an external HD with enough space to hold everything.

[synkr0nized]

TestDisk is pretty baller.

It couldn't help me recover a hard drive that suffered heat death, but it's a fantastic troubleshooting and panic-levels-rreached-recovery tool for virtually any disk issue.

[BitVyper]

heat death

I choose to believe you mean entropic decay and that your hard drive was actually a self-contained universe that suffered a big rip scenario.

Edit: If nothing else, this has all been enjoyable because I got to watch an, apparently awful, repair place's tech's eyes glaze over as I described the things I'd already tried doing. And then he offered to do a memory diagnostic for 150 dollars.

[synkr0nized]

"My hard drive is failing, here's what I did ..."

"I can check your RAM." ????



I will assume it was just as you described. All of the little Reboot citizens inside slowly succumbing to the endless cold.

But what it really was is that a pretty important case fan failed unbeknownst to me, leading to stack of four hard drives not getting the cooling they should have. Instead, they just generated heat in unison. Over time, I had two drives in that machine fail, and it wasn't until diagnosing the second that I discovered the -- in all likelihood, at least -- actual point of failure.



As to your situation, is there anything left for you to do with it now? In other words, did you get your data off it and, as such, don't care about the drive itself anymore if it is a loss, or is there still a need to salvage it / data from it? I am not sure what you could do if TestDisk did not repair any broken partition tables/MBR or access the data.

[BitVyper]

I got a decent chunk of data off it (~11 gigs of my stuff). Testdisk stopped being able to access it though (still appears, and Testdisk still identifies all partitions, just can't get at the file structure), so I'm probably just going to format and see if it will work with a fresh windows install. I'm still playing around with Testdisk though, 'cause there's a few things yet that I'd like to try and get off the HD. I'm mostly just rolling through and trying the options.

"My hard drive is failing, here's what I did ..."

"I can check your RAM." ????

Pretty much that exactly. Two separate places I went to; at the second one, the guy gave me some canned advice and then immediately retreated to a back office and never came out again. I can only assume he's still there, trapped in a cage made from his own fear.

I kept expecting someone to respond to "hirens" with "is that a type of fish?"

---------- Post added at 05:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:32 PM ----------

Maybe you'll have an idea. Basically I'm getting to here:



Then I try the list and copy files function, and it will access any of the partitions except number 2, which is the one I want. Trying to access that gets me here: