Hard Drive Data Recovery

[Gonzalez]

Freeware Data Recovery Programs

If you have deleted partitions by accident, do not create another partitions, just leave it blank.

If you have deleted files from the recycling bin and you realize you needed it, do not save anything to that drive. Because Hard drives do not actually erase data or partitions. When you erase a file from the operating system, it just marked on the drive as deleted. When your system needs to store more data on that drive, it will consider files on the drive marked Deleted as being free space, and it copy over them. If that happens then you are in big trouble.

This rule also applies for partitions, since partition information just presents the operating system with a way of addressing the space available on that drive. If you delete a partition, everything from will be gone. because there is no partition information, no data can be read by the operating system. Your data will be on the hard drive but operating system can not see that. Data-recovery programs can see that data by scanning hard drive.

The Best thing to do in a data loss situation is to make sure no more data is written to that drive. If you have just the one partition and it's fried, you can't boot normally to the operating system.

The best option is to transfer your hard drive to another computer. Transferring the Hard disk drive to another computer is best because it will prevent the drive from being over written, and potentially allowing you to retrieve files from the disk just by using Windows Explorer to look through file structures. If you have damaged or erased important operating system files, but the partition information is still readable Windows will not boot.

If you can not physically transfer the hard disk to another computer, The simplest way to gain access to the files on your hard disk drive with a DOS boot disk and then use a DOS compatible file recovery program.

If you have only one hard drive with a single partition that is no longer bootable, file recovery becomes more difficult. Because most recovery programs will need a place to copy recovered data, and if you are using the same drive which has the lost data on it you will be destroying more data than you save.

It is a better idea to install a new hard drive onto the current system and save the recovered data on new hard drive..

There are several programs such as Ontrack Easy Recovery, Winternals Disk Commander, Active Partition Recovery and Active Uneraser that will boot your system straight into DOS, then perform file recovery.

If you have installed your damaged hard drive into another computer, or if you have put a new drive with a separate Operating System into your current machine, you now have a many advantages:

You can attempt to access your lost data normally through Windows File Explorer. This will not work if the partition information has been changed, since the OS will not 'see' the logical drives.

Now you can safely play with recovering your files, since you now have a completely separate hard disk drive on which to put recovered data without compromising the damaged hard drive drive.

There is one problem with the area of data recovery software, Software companies know that a good recovery program is something that people will pay good money for. So most freeware and shareware programs comes with very basic functionality.

NTFS Reader

Features:

Can be saved and run from bootable floppy

Displays complete physical and logical drive information

Supports IDE / ATA / SCSI drives

Supports large (more than 8GB) Hard Drive

Supports NTFS, NTFS5 file systems for reading

Supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 file systems for data writing

Supports compressed and fragmented files on NTFS

Supports partitions created in MS-DOS, Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98, 95

Displays non-english and long file names

Ability to preview file(s)/folder(s) before copying

Supports search by file name or mask

Disk Viewer displays content of the file in Hex/Text mode

The limitation of this program is that it can't read from drives with damaged partition tables or from partitions that has damaged boot sectors, because it needs to be able to see the NTFS partition before it can copies data from it.

Active@ Data Recovery Service (The company that made this software) has a commercial version, Active@ Partition Recovery, this software has ability to search the drive for lost partitions and copy data from damaged hard drive, so it is a complete recovery tool.

Please Note: NTFS reader will work under MS DOS, Windows 9x/ME but not on Windows 2000 or Windows XP, because this program uses Direct Disk Access and these Operating systems does not allow that.

[nixdorf_cry]

eu am un hdd de 320gb portabil care a suferit un mare shock.Ma uitam la filme in timp ce mi s-a facut sete.Am agatzat din greseala cablul cu piciorul si a cazut de pe masa jos.Aproximativ 0.5m inaltime.Am revenit grabit sa imi continui vizionarea si nu mai mergea...se tot chinuia el acolo sa citeasca dar nu mai mergea.

Am desfacut cutiutza aia si am schimbat hdd-ul intern sa vedem daca merge.A mers fara probleme.Deci era clar de la hard.L-am pus pe un calculator direct si aceasi treaba...il recunoaste dar nu merge.

Va rog frumos sa imi recomandati o solutie pentru el daca mai exista...

Sunt foarte suparat pentru asta si voi fi mult timp...aveam acolo toate pozele din ultimii trei ani(7-8 gb) si astea nu mai am de unde sa le iau multe.Va rog frumos daca stiti o solutie sau pe cineva care imi poate desface hdd-ul si sa mai recupereze ceva din informatii sa imi spune-ti , v-as fi foarte recunoscator.Daca e nevoie chiar platesc si ma deplasez cu el personal orinde in romania.

Va multumesc anticipat pentru tot ajutorul