failed HDD data recovery options

[#1]

Hi Someone has asked me if it's possible for me to recover some photos from their old laptop, which I agreed to take a look at. PC doesn't boot and I eventually managed to get into the BIOS settings and also run the basic diagnostics. The HDD was the issue. I've removed it and put it in a caddy and taken a look on a working PC. It very briefly appeared as a drive in Windows but then disappeared before I could manage the storage to see what was there.

I was tempted to have a go with the recovery software that claims to find your lost files. I suspect that without being able to see the drive iin windows will be futile? Any recommended software tools?. As I'm doing this as a favour I'd rather not pay, or suggest the owner pay, anything until we have a reasonable chance of success. It's a Hitachi HDD from 2011.

Should have backed it up of course but no one wants to hear that  

[#2]

From your description, I would suspect the HDD is totally borked. As you can't see it, I doubt consumer-grade 'recovery' options will work.

MAYBE a reputable computer technician/business could help, but it would cost, and you are obviously reluctant to pay.

As you say - it should have been backed up.

[#3]

Rather than trying to recover anything from the original disk - which could fail at any time, or writing anything to could make the situation worse,  I would recommend attempting recovery from a cloned copy of the broken drive.

If it was me doing it, I would create a bootable USB flash drive of Clonezilla,  then boot your PC into the Clonezilla console.

If you have enough hard drive space on your PC, I would first try and do a bitwise copy from the faulty drive to an 'image' file on to your PC, alternatively you can do a direct bitwise clone to another 'backup' drive (preferably an SSD).

Then get an empty SSD (to attempt recovery from), and copy the 'image' (or 'backup' SSD) to the recovery SSD, and then use recovery software or do any file copying using a file manager on the recovery SSD.

If anything goes wrong, or you learn a better recovery method, you can always recreate another copy to SSD and start again.

If the Clonezilla cloning fails due to being unable to read parts of the broken HDD, have a look at the recovery options as you can do things like continuing the copy anyway but ignoring any failed HDD reads.

[#4]

@the_groundsman 

There will probably be recoverable data on the disk but it comes down to the type of fault and the tools/time/cost of recovering it.

If it’s an intermittent fault it might be worth warming/cooling the caddy to see if that helps. I would try both.

[#5]

Thanks - It's not intermittent now. The HDD doesn't show up in the bios of the old machine and it isn't recognised in working PCs.

I will take a look at Clonezilla and see if anything is possible there.

[#6]

@Anonymous If the HDD cannot be seen on any machine, how is Clonezilla going to be able to 'find' it?

[#7]

@the_groundsman 

Can you hear/feel that it's spinning?

[#8]

I suspect you're going to be proved right and its a wild goose chase.

Its only a blank DVD - so worth a go. 

[#9]

As others have said, the drive could fail completely at any time, possibly due to failing to spin up.  If that's the case, as well as warming or cooling the drive, another method of getting the drive to spin is to hold it in a horizontal plane and give a sharp twist of the wrist.

I've had success cloning several failed hard drives, often which refuse to be seen by Windows or BIOS, by using my Inateck Docking Station and it's native in-built 'Offline Clone' option, which seems to be more persistent in attempting to read 'unreadable' sectors than some other methods.

e.g.  Inateck Docking Station

[#10]

Not at all sure what happened here.

I tried the Clonezilla and it took around 90 minutes to do its thing, but utimately failed to copy anything and ended with an error. I was encouraged that at least it tried to do something and recognised that there was a drive and partitions. I tried the cooling and warming and shaking and twisting but no luck there either with windows.  Last chance was to try it on a couple of very ancient machines one running Bodhi linux where i couldn't mount the dodgy drive, and finally one running Lubuntu. On the Lubuntu the HDD was recognised in a caddy and I am now copying the data over.

Big thanks to all who offered me help.

[#11]

Try these people https://www.cheadledatarecovery.co.uk/

I’ve used them on several occasions - you only pay if they can recover the data.

[#12]

Is there any sound emanating from the HDD (or could be from the HDD). A rythmic 'click'?

AKA - the 'click of death'. The heads on the HDD get 'stuck' and won't unpark. If that is the case then it is (highly) specialised data recovery (taking the disk apart in a clean-room environment, etc.).

And you really don't want to know the cost of that.

[#13]

Think I have got all the data safely off it now. Thanks

[#14]

@greygit1

That all depends on the value you put on the data. The last one I got recovered was less than the price of a full car service - circa £300.

Whilst others have had donor parts, extensive work, not been successful and not cost a bean.

[#15]

Good to know, @the_groundsman   👍

@greygit1 Note that the OP has sorted his problem.