hard drive won't boot, want to copy all data to another drive.

[TomTomson11]

I have a WD 500gb drive which has all my stuff on it (around 300gb), and it has started failing miserably in different aspects at the same time. Right now, i can't even boot the drive, and it can't fix itself, so i want to copy the whole drive to my 500gb seagate one, but i'm not sure how i'm supposed to do if i have one sata port seperated from the other ones to which is connected my drive (i'm assuming it's a high-speed connection, correct me if i'm wrong) and in the other one i have a dvd drive plugged in.
And by the way, why does my semi-new seagate drive makes noises while operating, even at idle? Thanks!

 

[Joshua Fredricks]

I can recommend this site, however I don't know if you have a spare PC to try this in. http://www.thetechmentor.com/posts/how-to-recover-data-from-a-crashed-hard-drive/ Let me know if this helps any.

Josh

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, TomTomson11!

I'm sorry to hear about your WD HDD failing. Unfortunately, it's not really recommended to transfer data from a failed HDD to another one. I'd advise you to run WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics first. If you are unable to boot, you should consider using another computer to test the hard drive there or to create a bootable USB/flash drive with the DOS version of the utility. This testing tool will help us determine the health and SMART status of your WD drive.

If your files are that important to you, you should definitely consider contacting a professional data recovery partner. They are your best bet at getting most of your files back, especially if the damage is too severe.
It might also be a good idea to check the warranty of your drive as well.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted with the S.M.A.R.T. results.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[TomTomson11]

I can recommend this site, however I don't know if you have a spare PC to try this in. http://www.thetechmentor.com/posts/how-to-recover-data-from-a-crashed-hard-drive/ Let me know if this helps any.

Josh

Hey there, TomTomson11!

I'm sorry to hear about your WD HDD failing. Unfortunately, it's not really recommended to transfer data from a failed HDD to another one. I'd advise you to run WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics first. If you are unable to boot, you should consider using another computer to test the hard drive there or to create a bootable USB/flash drive with the DOS version of the utility. This testing tool will help us determine the health and SMART status of your WD drive.

If your files are that important to you, you should definitely consider contacting a professional data recovery partner. They are your best bet at getting most of your files back, especially if the damage is too severe.
It might also be a good idea to check the warranty of your drive as well.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted with the S.M.A.R.T. results.
SuperSoph_WD

Well, i don't have any spare pc's, i barely have one which's keyboard doesn't get recognized 60% of the time, and it's really a hassle. I booted the WD drive once more, tried to system restore, and startup repair, but nothing yielded positive results, as still doesn't boot up. Because of my hardware shortage and overall hard drive knowledge, i'll probably just hand it over to a specialist some day to maybe get it back to working condition, but i highly doubt it if it would be a long lasting fix, because that drive is all kinds of distorted, as the screen moves from left to right of my screen about 3 cm, and cuts off the right part, and the resolution and text were absurdly distorted to the point where i couldn't fix it without any physical help, also, the text and look of windows is still kinda weird to the eye on my current different compared to when it was fine. that may be because i was switching between my WD and seagate drives. Right now i'm going to install 64-bit windows (trial version) and pray that i don't have to deal with any drive problems and resolution blasphemies, after i install new windows if the text will still be blurry i'll try to seek further help. I have no idea how i managed to damage the WD drive so weirdly without any obvious physical damage, and couldn't find a similar situation on the net. Thanks for the help, but i need professional physical help. Thanks again.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, TomTomson11!

Unfortunately, hardware components fail. Generally speaking, mechanical hard drives are pretty sensitive and that's why it's highly recommended to keep multiple copies of your data stored on different storage devices/drives, etc. This is the best way to avoid any potential data loss.

I'm sorry that you WD HDD gave up on you but I'm afraid you won't be able to FIX the drive itself. You could use the professional assistance of a Data Recovery Partner but you won't be able to use the same HDD most probably. I'd advise you to simply consider replacing the failed drive (If it's still under warranty, contact our Support either by phone or email).

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD