What chances do I have at getting my data back?

[OfficeJerk]

I was running a laptop which developed a power issue and would not progress further than the black and white startup screen upon boot without entering a continuous rebooting loop. So I removed the internal HDD which is a Seagate Momentus thin 320GB and hooked it up to a functioning desktop through sata usb cable and tried to copy some files across.

I noticed that this process was taking a lot longer than usual as It was taking over an hour to transfer a 100mb video. So after the video finished, I removed the drive safely from the desktop, and located a different functioning laptop and removed it's hdd then inserted the Seagate drive into it and tried to boot the laptop.

The laptop wouldn't boot, so I removed the Seagate and connected it back to the desktop via sata usb to begin the long process of copying my files, but when I did this, I could no longer access the drive in windows explorer. I constantly get the following message: E/ is not accessible, the request cannot be performed due to an I/O error.

I have tried various data recovery software but they either cannot locate any partitions, or once scanning has finished, say there are no files to recover, or only find bad sectors and take way too long to finish so I end them prematurely. The drive letter and the correct drive size are the only pieces of information left when vieweing the drive. Its also worth mentioning that upon inspection in device manager, it lists the drive as a RAW device now, when it was previously NTFS. The HDD is NOT making any strange noises or clicking sounds. It sounds normal.

Any help or information would be appreciated.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey OfficeJerk. That's very unfortunate and from what I've read it seems like your drive has failed. If it's acting up this way, I'd say that your best shot of retrieving your data might be a data recovery company.
Here's an article with a guide on how to proceed with issues like that, but I doubt it would help in this case.
http://techchannel.radioshack.com/fix-o-device-error-1693.html

Boogieman_WD

 

[OfficeJerk]

Thanks Boogeyman_WD for that, I suspected it has failed. It's not clicking or has ever been dropped that I can remember, knowing this, what chance would a professional data recovery company have at recovering my data? Which mainly consists of old photos.

Is there anything else I can try at home?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

I doubt there's anything you could do about it if the partition is RAW. Usually you should be able to recover data with data recovery software, but you've said that you had no luck with that. You could try a different program from the ones you've already used, but there's still no guarantee you'll be able to extract your data. About the data recovery company, I have no way of predicting how much data they'll be able to recover or if they'll recover something at all. Usually they can recover data from damaged HDDs, but that depends on how damaged your drive is and the more difficult it is the more expensive it gets.

Sorry about that mate. Good luck with your drive and data. I hope that you'll be able to recover it by yourself with some data recovery software.

 

[maddogfargo]

Continuous boot loop usually means the boot sector or partition table is bad. The majority of the HDD may not be.

Try removing the HDD from the laptop , let it cool down to room temp, and them hook it up to a USB adapter like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

You may be able to read your files without issue even when the HDD won't boot. But you will need a utility able to read the disk even without a format.

Try Recuva. It's free and does a pretty good job. And it will filter by media type so you can sort your picture files to the top of the list.

Do not partition or format or let windows prep the drive in any way.

 

[OfficeJerk]

Maddogffardo, I've tried that many times. With the very same device, all it days is 'cannot access E:/ because of an IO device error' when trying to acces it through windows explorer. Recvra can't find any information 🙁

 

[OfficeJerk]

I should also add that I tried to have it connected via Linux Boot and it won't work either. All it says when connected is the size of the HDD is over 600 PETABYTES!

 

[OfficeJerk]

Bump??

 

[trekzone]

As Boogeyman_WD have suggested, if you have no luck with those data recovery software that you have tried then your last possible option is to send your drive to a professional data recovery service. We have tried WeRecoverData in similar situations and they've been able to helped us so far. As also stated above, data recovery labs can recover data from damaged HDDs, but that depends on how extent is the damaged on your drive, the more damage it is the more expensive it will be to retrieve your data.

 

[OfficeJerk]

Trekzone, judging by how the device crashed, would you think the device would be largely damaged?

 

[OfficeJerk]

I suppose I just don't understand how this happened?

All I did was remove the fully working and accessible HDD from one laptop, try and power it on in another laptop then mount it back through Sata on the working laptop and it's become completely inaccessible

 

[trekzone]

Based on what you've said on your first post above, the power issues of your laptop might have caused the drive to be gradually damaged. All drives have the same chances of failing without warning. And it was an unfortunate experience for you since you weren't able to backup your important files.