Is It Possible To Recover Files From A Burned External HD?

DumNDuMMer

Question is as simple as the title of the thread itself, Is It Possible To Recover Files From A Burned/Failed External HD? It's a Western Digital 320GB (only that Windows just sees 298GB ) I've had it for about 2 years and it only had 2GB left.

Thrax

A 320gb drive is about 298gb. However how is an HD burned? The question doesn't make any sense.

Is it dead? Does it power on? Does it make any noises?

DumNDuMMer

Well, the lights turn on and it makes does make some noice like when it would start up before.

Leonardo

What is the problem? What doesn't work that worked before? What is different. So far, we have "burned/failed" and "makes does some noice."

Slow down, and in plain, simple English, please tell us what is wrong. We really want to help, but it's like the patient telling the doctor "something's wrong."

Esso

Start with testing your hard disk drive, using the test software from WD.
http://support.wdc.com/download/?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=2

Siggy

Basic answer is that if the hard drive does "turn" and power up - then yes you can recover SOME of the data.

It can be very expensive depending on what is actually wrong with it, if it is not too badly corrupted you can pay a few hundred dollars for a software program that will recover a lot of data for you, if it is truly fried you can pay thousands to get a little bit of data.

I wouldnt run a diagnostic test on it, because the test may cause you to lose more data. I have a few programs that I have used in the past to recover lost data for people, I

will post a new post that has excellent brteakdown on what is required to recover data.

Siggy

From the program:Drive Rescue - I hope this helps and doesnt confuse!


Drive Rescue - Tips for a successful recovery



1. How does the program work?
2. Undeleting
3. Quick-formatting recovery
4. Lost files/directories (including root directory)
5. Lost drive (drive is missing)
6. Drive is not accessible


1. How does the program work?

To access all drives the program divides them into 'logical' and 'physical' drives. A 'physical' one is the drive as whole (the drive as hardware you can see in the computer). Each 'physical' drive contains one or more partitions (volumes). These are the 'logical' drives (often identified as drive letters). Dependent on the file system (FAT/NTFS), the recovery process is slightly different.

The program is divided into three independent processes:

• a sector-by-sector search on a physical drive ('Find logical drives')
• a cluster-by-cluster search on a logical drive ('Find lost data')
• an undelete recovery



The sector-by-sector search ('Find logical drives') will try to find the following data:

• a FAT/NTFS boot sector to gain access to a lost drive
• a FAT and FAT directories to rebuild a directory tree of a damaged drive






The cluster-by-cluster search ('Find lost data') will try to find the following data:

• FAT directories (including root) and files to rebuild the directory tree of an existing drive with damaged directories




Since the cluster-by-cluster search is using more information of the drive (boot sector, FAT), it is recommended to first use this function and - if this fails - the sectory-by-sector search. For a successful recovery both functions can be combined.


2. Undeleting

Requirement: The drive is working properly and can be accessed via Windows OR the drive was found through the function 'Find logical drives'.

FAT: The information about the array of the file (=>FAT) is lost after deleting. Most files are stored unfragmented on drives, so the chances of retrieving 100% of the file's data are very good.
Remember to save the data with option 'no FAT'. If the restored data is not readable by the application, maybe the file has been fragmented or the data has been overwritten.

NTFS: Even if the files are fragmented, the information of the array of the file is stored on the drive. Only the freed data of the file may be overwritten.


3. Quick-formatting recovery

Requirement: The drive is accessible through DOS/Windows

FAT: Quick-formatting deletes the FAT and the root directory. Most data will be recoverable by the function 'Find lost data'. Remember to save the data with option 'no FAT'.

NTFS: Quick-formatting may delete the root-directory information. The quick-formatted data appears as deleted data.


4. Lost files and directories (including root directory)

Requirement: The drive is accessible through DOS / Windows and may contain no data

FAT: The function 'Find lost data' has to be applied. A found root directory is identified as 'cluster xxxx (root)'.


5. Lost drive (drive is missing)

Cause: Lost boot sector resulting of bad partition table information
Requirement: The underlying physical drive is working properly

FAT / NTFS: Apply the function 'Find logical drives' on the underlying physical drive. All found boot sectors are identified as 'DRIVE (without bootsec)'.

FAT only: A drive that is rebuilt using the FAT directory information is identified as 'DRIVE (rebuilt)'. If this found drive does not contain all data use also the function 'Find lost data' on that drive.


6. Drive is not accessible

Cause: Partially formatting, system crash etc.
Symptoms: E.g. if a this Windows-message appears: 'Drive is not formatted. Do you want to format this drive?'

Requirement: The underlying physical drive is working properly

FAT: If the program detects the drive at startup select it and save your data. Otherwise apply 'Find logical drives'. All found boot sectors are identified as 'DRIVE (without bootsec)'. A drive that is rebuilt using the FAT directory information is identified as 'DRIVE (rebuilt)'. If this found drive does not contain all data use also the function 'Find lost data' on that drive.


Do you have any further tips for a successful recovery using
'Drive Rescue'? Please send it to driverescue@yahoo.de and many
people will appreciate your help!




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