Recovery from HDD with bad sectors

[Skad]

I removed a drive from a laptop that would not boot, I'm using an external dock to do recovery on it. Ontrack easy recovery says there are bad blocks and refuses to run, so I tried using recuva instead. the scan ran for a long time, and I was able to see the files I wanted, but the drive disconnected before I could get them. Now it disconnects every time mid scan. I don't hear any of the telltale sounds of a dying drive, so I don't think the issue is physical. If I do a quick format on the drive is that the best chance to be able to complete recovery of my data? I only really need a few small files and they're not worth enough to me to pay for professional recovery. I'm just hesitant to do a format if that's going to make things worse.

 

[S Haran]

Do not format. It only makes recovery more difficult. You are working with a drive with bad sectors. Best practice is to make a clone image of the drive with a tool like Linux ddrescue. Then if successful run your recovery tools on the image.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Skad,

Unfortunately, the issue is most probably a physical one. There could be some physical bad sectors on the drive.

You don't really have many options. You just need to use different software tools and hope that one of these would work. Reformatting the drive is not a good idea.

In case your HDD disconnects with all the tools, then you will need to contact a data recovery company.

After you recover your data, it may be a good idea to test the drive: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility

Cheers,
D_Know_WD