Question My HDD crashed and will not boot. How can I recover some files?

[crashtestaddict]

Have a Gateway FX-6840-23, Windows 7 Pro, 64 - bit, 1TB HDD, AMD Radeon 5700 series GPU, upgraded PSU - Rosewill, 8GB RAM, Asus Zonar sound card. Computer has been warning me of a Smart Event on the HDD, and it eventually crashed. Can't boot, even with a boot disc. Not concerned with the OS, only a lot of files having to do with my photography, and some other documents. So I just bought an iBUYPOWER Gaming Elite Desktop PC, Liquid Cooled AM8480i, Intel i7-8700k 3.70GHz,, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 3GB, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB 7200RPM HDD, WiFi, RGB, Win 10, 64-bit, VR Ready computer. I have an external DVD attached, and a SATA adapter dock to plug in my other HDD's I use for copies, and the original 1TB HDD from the Gateway that has the OS on it, and other software and files. Is there any way I can get files off of this crashed HDD without having to jump through all kinds of hoops, or pay a small fortune to the Geek Squad to recover them? I have already set up my new computer, and started to download some of the software I use, other things.

Thanks for any help

 

[Aeacus]

Hmm...

Few things to try:
* connect your old HDD to your new PC as you'd connect additional drive, with SATA data and power cables. Avoid using any drive docks.
When successful, your new PC should read the old HDD as 2nd data drive, from where you can access it and just copy/paste the important data from one drive to another. At all costs, avoid writing anything on the old HDD since that makes the already bad situation worse.

I've recovered several people's data this way when their PC/laptop has died with no ability to boot to OS.

* if given that your PC can't read the old HDD as data drive due to the whole drive corruption, things get though.
Here, you'll need to use data recovery software or use the services of data recovery firm. Do do it on your own, i suggest using Recuva,
link: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

I've had microSD card die on me (with holiday pics on it) and i had the most success with Recuva. Most of the free data recovery softwares i tried didn't even recognize my microSD card. Recuva was the only one who recognized it and managed to save good part of my pics.

* as a last resort, when all your attempts have failed, you're looking towards using services of data recovery firm.
Depending on how far gone the drive is, data recovery can be very expensive.

 

[drglab]

Have a Gateway FX-6840-23, Windows 7 Pro, 64 - bit, 1TB HDD, AMD Radeon 5700 series GPU, upgraded PSU - Rosewill, 8GB RAM, Asus Zonar sound card. Computer has been warning me of a Smart Event on the HDD, and it eventually crashed. Can't boot, even with a boot disc. Not concerned with the OS, only a lot of files having to do with my photography, and some other documents. So I just bought an iBUYPOWER Gaming Elite Desktop PC, Liquid Cooled AM8480i, Intel i7-8700k 3.70GHz,, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 3GB, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB 7200RPM HDD, WiFi, RGB, Win 10, 64-bit, VR Ready computer. I have an external DVD attached, and a SATA adapter dock to plug in my other HDD's I use for copies, and the original 1TB HDD from the Gateway that has the OS on it, and other software and files. Is there any way I can get files off of this crashed HDD without having to jump through all kinds of hoops, or pay a small fortune to the Geek Squad to recover them? I have already set up my new computer, and started to download some of the software I use, other things.

Thanks for any help

No need to Geek Squad. They aren't good and they don't specialize in data recovery. They will try something simple locally at your store, if it works (likely won't as they will replicate what you likely attempt at home) great, they pull your files. If not, they will ship the drive somewhere for real data recovery. And they are more expensive then most companies. Bad deal all together.

In order to provide maximum chances of recovery, the failed drive needs to be cloned to another healthy drive. As is, the drive has bad sectors, therefore making it unstable for any computer to communicate with it.

A free cloning utility would be ddrescue in Linux or another is hddsuperclone. Both fairly technical to set and get going.

If you want to confirm bad sectors, I would recommend a free utility called MHDD, or maybe Victoria for Windows. Again, both require some technical ability to install and run them to get a read on the drive's SMART attributes.

Not sure of your location, but there are a handful of good and honest data recovery companies that won't be as expensive as Geek Squad or other big companies.