Recovering data from dead laptop HDD

[barry.sajid]

Hi everyone,

So basically here's the deal. My laptop recently died, don't know what might have killed it but could only access bios. FeelsBadMan 🙁

So, I tried recovering important data from the laptop HDD using an external case which made my internal HDD into an external one.

Fair enough, I plugged it into my other desktop computer and I can't access anything from it. Not being an expert here, I have the feeling that it does stop every communication between my computer and my working HDD/SDD (e.g. : accessing it in "This computer" tab makes my PC freeze, accessing it with "Western Digital's Data lifeguard" make the software stop working which leads to a "Windows Explorer stopped working",) + every disk related command in the command prompt, whether it is in admin mode or not, just doesn't stop loading (e.g. : Diskpart, ...).

But whenever I unplug the non-working HDD, it directly unfreezes the computer and everything's alright. I'm now at a point where I don't even care anymore about the data, I just want to format the HDD so it doesnt go to waste, but since I can't access it, I didn't find a way to format it.

N.B : The non-working HDD specs are : Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500 Go.

Thanks for reading folks. 😀

 

[JaredDM]

If the drive isn't clicking or making any odd physical noises, then it's almost certainly a firmware issue with the drive. WD Blue drives very often get an issue commonly called the "WD Slow Responding Bug" after they start to develop bad sectors. Because the drive is continuously reporting a BSY (busy) signal over the ATA the computer will perpetually hang waiting for a response, and only un-hang when the drive is unplugged.

The data can almost certainly be recovered, but not likely DIY. We see these cases here in our lab (https://www.data-medics.com) all the time, and it's usually a flat $450 US to recover them. If the data is crucial, professional recovery is likely to be your best option.

If you're in another country, let me know and I can probably recommend a good lab in your part of the world that won't rip you off.

 

[barry.sajid]

Hi,

First off, thanks for replying. I don't hear any weird sound but the regular "disk rotating sound", to me it's not physically damaged.

Besides this, as told previously I dont really care about the data anymore, I'm more into not dumping the HDD and making a use of it by firstly formatting it. The issue is that I can't find any interface where I'm able to format the disk since everytime it shows up on my computer, the window stops working and I have to unplug it. Same result for any third party disk managing software, it gets laggy whenever I try to access anything disk related when the HDD is plugged.

N.B. : Since you asked me, I'm from Belgium, if that can help.

Thanks for reading. 😀