My plea for help to recover lost data

[crashwg]

Ok, so the situation is this.  I had a HDD in my computer.  120 gb.  Just today it started to become extremly slow.  Figguring that it was failing I attempted to back up the most important data but that failed.  I then powered down and relocated the drive to the secondary IDE chanel as the master and rebooted only for WinXP to tell me that the drive is not formatted.

I'm currently looking into a couple data recovery services out there datarecovery.net and salvagedata.com but from what I see data recovery is usually in the hundreds of dollars which is beyond my means right now

Is there anyone on the boards that works for a company with data recovery capabilities?  Perhaps you know someone who does?

On the drive are the only copies of pictures of my daughter's birth through today at 7 months old.  If I don't get those back they are gone forever and that bites the big one. 

As a last resort I will gratefully accept any donations toward the cost of data recovery but right now I'm exploring all other options.

[AtomSmasher]

Theres an old program called Lost and Found that is supposed to be able to recover data even if the harddrive has been formatted.  The company that made the program went out of business (or was bought out or something) and decided to release it for free before they closed their doors.  Heres a copy I downloaded at that time:
http://www.atomic-train.com/misc/lf106%20-%20Lost%20Hard%20Drive%20Saver%20-%20Even%20recovers%20if%20reformatted.zip

I've never used it, so I have no idea if it works, but its worht a try.
(if your wondering about that file name, I named it that so I wouldn't forget what it was  )

[lokki]

I would suggest you keep looking...
There are a lot of recovery software out there. And most of them will tell you what they can recover before you buy. some even charge according to how much data they can reocover. (the more they recover the more expensive but you should be able to recover a few gigs for a 10-20 Bucks.

Try this

http://www.woundedmoon.org/win32/driverescue19d.html

See if it will work.

[AtomSmasher]

I would suggest you keep looking...

I'm curious why you don't like Lost & Found?  Its free and comes from the once popular utility company PowerQuest (Partition Magic, DriveImage, etc).  The software claims that if the disk is still spinning, it can recover the data, which sounds pretty good to me.

[lokki]

Sorry did not mean he should not use lost and found.
I meant he should keep looking for free tools before going the Commercial route.
He should try lost and found but if that does not do the trick. Keep looking for something else.

The only problem with old tools (Like the one I mentioned and possibly lost and found) is that they do not typically support large partitions and/or SATA.

[cdbrown]

one trick I have used to get a failing drive to work was to take the drive out the pc, put it in a freezer bag the put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.  Take it out and put it in the pc as quick as you can and get it going.  The coldness helps shrink the platters and hopefully allow the needle to free itself (won't last for too long)

[crashwg]

While a appreciate your input AtomSmasher and lokki, I'm fairly confident that the problem is hardware malfunction and no software solution will help.  Experimenting with different programs is certainly not something I'm going to try on a HDD with irreplacable data because I don't want to do more harm than good.

cdbrown's advice on the other hand may be of some use and I am concidering it.  No offense to you cd but I think I'll wait for additional opinions before I try anything.

[lokki]

While a appreciate your input AtomSmasher and lokki, I'm fairly confident that the problem is hardware malfunction and no software solution will help.  Experimenting with different programs is certainly not something I'm going to try on a HDD with irreplacable data because I don't want to do more harm than good.

cdbrown's advice on the other hand may be of some use and I am concidering it.  No offense to you cd but I think I'll wait for additional opinions before I try anything.

Try the software solutions. The ones I tried do not do anything to the HD. They copy the data to a different HD. So if it does not work you have lost nothing.
The software works even for some hardware issues.

Note they recover data. Not fix HD

[cdbrown]

If there's a physical defect preventing the reading like some dust on the platters, or the needle won't even move then software won't help.  If there's bad sectors but the drive still "works" then the software option would do it.  You could try to gently tap the case of the hdd to free up any problems.

[crashwg]

Try the software solutions. The ones I tried do not do anything to the HD. They copy the data to a different HD. So if it does not work you have lost nothing.
The software works even for some hardware issues.

Note they recover data. Not fix HD

I know that they won't be able to fix the HD and I can live with that.  As for using software, I would rather not in fear of the drive becoming more damaged than it currently is and the data being lost forever.

[lokki]

Try the software solutions. The ones I tried do not do anything to the HD. They copy the data to a different HD. So if it does not work you have lost nothing.
The software works even for some hardware issues.

Note they recover data. Not fix HD

I know that they won't be able to fix the HD and I can live with that.  As for using software, I would rather not in fear of the drive becoming more damaged than it currently is and the data being lost forever.

Good Luck

[NightGod]

The freezer trick is a valid method-it's usually considered a last-ditch effort to save data off of a drive. Just be aware that it usually only 'fixes' the drive for about 10 minutes and usually only works once, twice if you are extremely lucky. So know exactly what you are going to move off of the drive and be ready to do it quickly.

Personally, I'd second trying the software solutions first-if nothing else, you will be familiar with the programs as you may have to use a combination of freezer + software to get anything.

[JackTucky]

Suggest you ask for advice and follow some of it.  See if that recovers your hard drive.

Jacktucky

[NinjaEpisode]

This was your slave drive on your primary IDE channel?
did you attempt to go into Disk Management and Activate the drive after moving it to the secondary IDE channel?

[mrhowell]

If the drive is spinning, find an identical drive and replace the board on it.  That has worked for me in the past.  FWIW the only data that can be called important is data that has been backed up.  Good luck.

[shardian]

FWIW the only data that can be called important is data that has been backed up.  Good luck.

See, I just wasn't mean enough to rub in this 20/20 hindsight nugget of info. Thanks for finally putting it out there and relieving the rest of us the urge. 

[NightGod]

I've been doing field tech support for a few differnt companies for about 20 months now and lemme tell you, I have gotten REALLY good about making regular backups after hearing all the horror stories of what people are losing when their hard drive dies.

[Dervacumen]

Same thing happened to me.  check this site for ideas:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-6255-5029761-7.html
I tried a lot of stuff and nothing worked.  Then I bit the bullet and did the freezer thing.
It worked for about 15 minutes, but that was enough to get the critical stuff off it.  Keep in mind, it will kill your drive for good.
Good luck.