Question Failed hard drive, need help

[twister86]

My pc (case) started making a weird noise, I immedietly powered it off, so nothing bad was going to happen and the noise stopped.
When I powered it off, the screen "froze" like a mixed colored lines on the screen purple-ish and bunch of others, and then it shut down.

After waiting 10 minute, I started the PC again, and it can't find my hard drive (HDD)

I have 2 drives in the pc, 1 is installed on windows (C, that means it were able to boot up, but my other (internal) drive (E, that I use for data storage (it is higher capacity, seagate model) can't be found in "my computer" anymore.

After opening up disk management (diskmgmt.msc) it found an "unknown" drive, that i assume is the one that failed.

it shows a disk icon with a red arrow pointing down, and called Disk 1 in bold letter
under that, it says unknown, 128,00 GB, not initialized
and next to it with a black stripe it says under unallocated

after that a screen prompted, to initialize disk using either MBR or GPT. i clicked down this window right away, i didn't wanna do something that i didn't know of.

after that, i googled my problem, i found various "causes" for this, and various "answers" and "fixes", which didn't give me any answer at all on what to do about this problem.

and most importantly, none of my searches found my exact problem, because i am 100% sure that this drive and that my drive that went missing, is larger then 128 gb, i don't know the exact space on it right now, but i used it as storage, so im assuming it was either a 1 tb or 2 tb drive. and I am even 99,8% sure that before this occured, i had precisely 128 gb free space on it. (which im assuming is the unknown allocated space) which was free before.

however before doing anything further that may worse the situation, i ask here and hope some (hard drive) expert can help me out.

cause yes, i had very important data and files on the disk i would like to recover,, or atleast parts or bits of it. (even if the files are corrupted, but atleast be able to view them)
if i can't fully recover the data, i want to see atleast the folders and files that were on it.
but i am hoping to do a full data recovery ofcourse, if thats possible. i can go to a store and get a new HDD and try copy/save whatever that im able to aswell.

so what should i do ? i dont want "wipe" it out by make a new format full wipe, and why is it showing 128.00 GB when the drive is obviously a lot bigger?

 

[USAFRet]

So replacing the arm reader won't fix it either?

He said the 128 gb and 4 gb partition that the disk management found in windows was from the control unit circuit board. But trying make a new partition wouldn't work he said.

If it was only a bent arm, you could, in theory, transplant the platters. Not you, but an expensive data recovery company.
Not sure how the arm bends, in a drive that was never opened up.

But as there is apparently damage to the platters as well...thats where the data resides.

 

[mdd1963]

Yes I come to the conclusion that this problem can't be solved with online help here.

I will contact a professional data recovery service.



Also, does anyone know the chances of a data recovery service to be able fix it?

I heard from 50% to visiting various data recovery websites saying they have 98-99% fix rate. (?)

These folks are quite sought after (well, mainly by folks who had no backup), and well respected...

$300 Data Recovery

$300 Data Recovery provides affordable Hard Drive, RAID, SSD, and Flash data recovery services in Los Angeles. BBB A+. 4,100+ Reviews. Mail-In & Drop Off.

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[twister86]

If it was only a bent arm, you could, in theory, transplant the platters. Not you, but an expensive data recovery company.
Not sure how the arm bends, in a drive that was never opened up.

But as there is apparently damage to the platters as well...thats where the data resides.

I don't know if the platters have dust and scratches with the visible eye, or if it was in microscope he saw it. though, does it make a difference?

If it was microscopic, visibility damage, could it still be recovered?

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know if the platters have dust and scratches with the visible eye, or if it was in microscope he saw it. though, does it make a difference?

If it was microscopic, visibility damage, could it still be recovered?

Data recovery only counts when you have the actual data residing on a different physical device.

" could it still be recovered" is all speculation.


As far as "dust"...

https://www.atarimagazines.com/v5n6/InsideHardDisk.html

 

[twister86]

Question:
Is there a program or Windows setting or command prompt or BIOS or a route to guide up a 'structure' or 'mapped tree' of the content of a harddrive that were on that PC before?
For example, if I had a game installed on the (storage) drive, it makes a shortcut on the desk, which the 'shortcut' is created and saved on the C: (windows path) drive, that leads to the destination of the other drive. other example, if I download a photo or file from the internet, it is saved in the Temp folder also in the C: drive, even if I set it to be saved in the other drive. Is there any program or software that would do a full structure path of what was on the other drive? (even if it comes down as complicated as 1's and 0's in the BIOS) (more or less as google webarchive if you know what that is)

 

[USAFRet]

Is there a program or Windows setting or command prompt or BIOS or a route to guide up a 'structure' or 'mapped tree' of the content of a harddrive that were on that PC before?

That does not exist.

A shortcut for a game or application might tell you the name of an exe that was on the dead drive.
It does NOT tell you the other 5,000 files associated with it. Or where the 0 and 1s are.


What might have been on this drive?

 

[twister86]

That does not exist.

A shortcut for a game or application might tell you the name of an exe that was on the dead drive.
It does NOT tell you the other 5,000 files associated with it. Or where the 0 and 1s are.


What might have been on this drive?

About everything except for Windows.

Could temp files be on there also that is saved in windows temp folder first if you download something from internet?
From I seen when I click on a file on google, I can either "Open it with..." or "Save as..." , Im guessing save as end directly up on the drive, but "open with" and then drag it, ends up on temp folder first?

Oh also, there is browser view history.. since Google chrome is after all installed on the Windows drive (by defaut)...

Have you heard about the program TreeSize Free? It structures up your folders and files for your drive, but I don't know if there is a way to not "refresh" it meaning it would show the last "scanned" structure of the drive, is it possible?

On note, even if it shows just the exe file, and its called photoshop.exe, i Would know that photoshop was on the damaged drive, and make me able to recover that by install it again and see if i can remember any projects. (just an example)

 

[USAFRet]

About everything except for Windows.

Could temp files be on there also that is saved in windows temp folder first if you download something from internet?

Have you heard about the program TreeSize Free? It structures up your folders and files for your drive, but I don't know if there is a way to not "refresh" it meaning it would show the last "scanned" structure of the map, is it possible?

Tresize (I've used it) can only read a drive that it can actually....read.

There is no history. And even if there were, it would only tell you the names of the files. Not be able to reconstruct them in any way.
The only you'd know was to have Treesize or similar running before the drive died, and not close it or reboot the system.

Temp files, are by definition, temporary. It is NOT everything that used to live on the dead drive.

 

[twister86]

Yes but since I can't actually regain the files, I just wanted see the structure and the name of files.

Funny enough, Treesize WAS running when the HDD crashed and failed and I forced boot down.

So there is no way to open treesize like in a previous scanned manner, like google webarchive, without pressing the "run as administrator" scan etc ?

Maybe this sound fuzzy but, knowing what some of the programs and files were, I can able to "reconstruct them" and use the substraction method to calculate how much data of files that were important to me that I actually lost.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes but since I can't actually regain the files, I just wanted see the structure and the name of files.

Funny enough, Treesize WAS running when the HDD crashed and failed and I forced boot down.

So there is no way to open treesize like in a previous scanned manner, like google webarchive, without pressing the "run as administrator" scan etc ?

Maybe this sound fuzzy but, knowing what some of the programs and files were, I can able to "reconstruct them" and use the substraction method to calculate how much data of files that were important to me that I actually lost.

Any "history" would be like the card catalog at the library.
(but there is no history in that tool)

Here are the names of the books, and what shelf they're on (used to be on)

The shelves and contents have burned up in a fire. But at least you sort of know what used to be there.
Even worse though...the pages of each book were scattered around, and the actual index of what pages go with each book is also gone.

 

[twister86]

Feels more that I had a ancient authentic Tyrannosaurus Rex full skeleton that got burned up, and now I'm trying to put it together again piece by piece, in replica plastic parts, I have no structure, but if I find a structure I know where the pelvis are gonna be put, the tail gonna be put, etc, of course it won't be the same and authentic, but atleast I did my best job at "restoring" it as good as I could.

Google chrome browser history and download history could help a bit too, even if it was just the latest (date)

(Maybe it's true that all files can be re-created again except for photos that were taken with a camera)

 

[USAFRet]

Feels more that I had a ancient authentic Tyrannosaurus Rex full skeleton that got burned up, and now I'm trying to put it together again piece by piece, in replica plastic parts, I have no structure, but if I find a structure I know where the pelvis are gonna be put, the tail gonna be put, etc, of course it won't be the same and authentic, but atleast I did my best job at "restoring" it as good as I could.

Google chrome browser history and download history could help a bit too, even if it was just the latest (date)

(Maybe it's true that all files can be re-created again except for photos that were taken with a camera)

Here, you might have a photograph of T Rex, but no actual bones.
You know where everything might go. If you had them.

Those bones live on the dead drive.