Help! File recovery software?

stevednmc · Mar 13, 2011

Anyone have any suggestions on good software to recovery as much data as possible from an accidentally erased hard drive? Workin on a client pc and it seems he took it to geek squad once and they may have erased the hdd. Preferably a freeware one but ill pay if necessary. This guy has tons of photos from his tour in Iraq and they are priceless! if i can recover at least some it will be worthwhile for him....and me!

stevednmc · Mar 13, 2011

Anyone?

Jack Doph · Mar 13, 2011

Try Recuva and see how you go.
It's free btw

slyfox2151 · Mar 13, 2011

Jack Doph said:
Try Recuva and see how you go.
It's free btw

+1

every thread that comes up with file recovery.... recurva is the most quoted program to use. even mussels promotes it.

(iirc

)

stevednmc · Mar 13, 2011

Thanks much, ill give it a shot!

95Viper · Mar 13, 2011

If Recuva doesn't fit the bill there are more out there.
Here are a few others:

Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier A nice one.

UNDELETE 360
Free File Recovery 1.1
Glary Undelete
UndeletePlus

Dirtypants · Mar 13, 2011

Gparted now has data recovery, I have used it a couple of times and it seems to work better then the Windows based tools.http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

stevednmc · Mar 15, 2011

Ok, so i tried all of these programs and it isnt finding anything on this drive. Here is what i had to do...lol:
So the drive i was trrying to recover was physically damaged internally. The write head arm broke. SO what i ended up doing(dont laugh!) is i took anothe drive i had laying around apart and removed the platter. I took the platter from the old drive and installed it into the other one i had. I hooked it up, and (i didnt expect this!) But my computer saw the damn drive!
So i scanned it with all the above software mentioned (Except Gparted, maybe im not smart enough for that one) and found only a few system files on it. Little tiny notepad type files and such. It shows all 55GB of the free space on the drive.
So my guess is it was repartitioned and/ or wiped with several passes then repartioned. I believe all is lost in this particular case...am I wrong?

Bot · Mar 15, 2011

i would file scavenger a try. it's free but limited, the full version is not too expensive.
the limited version will be able to tell you what it is capable of

http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm

Dirtypants · Mar 15, 2011

Try Hirens 13.1, I use it at work a lot to get data off drives, http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd. Hirens is all open source/freeware/shareware programs now, so no more pirated software anymore. Also a lot of other tools that are good to use as well. Just go to any torrent site to find it, shouldn't have a problem.

stevednmc · Mar 15, 2011

Ill give them both a shot! That Hirens Boot CD looks like a helluva thing! Alot of programs that do the same thing though which is a little odd..

Dirtypants · Mar 15, 2011

stevednmc said:
Ill give them both a shot! That Hirens Boot CD looks like a helluva thing! Alot of programs that do the same thing though which is a little odd..

Different programs have different results, think of it like the shotgun approach.

stevednmc · Mar 15, 2011

Good point. Would surely be useful to tote somthing like that around!

Mussels · Mar 15, 2011

I think we need a sticky on this, heaps of threads always asking the same questions, and getting the same answers.

stevednmc · Mar 15, 2011

I admit i didnt do a thread search, i should have.

Mussels · Mar 15, 2011

i made a new thread here , help me flesh it out

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Motherboard	Gigabyte x58A -Ud5
Cooling	Vantage ALC push pull/2x180mm fans/1x120mm silverstone
Memory	12GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's in Xfire
Storage	Ocz Vertex 3 Max Iops (OS) 300GB Velociraptor, 750 GB WD Black
Display(s)	Asus 23" VS238H-P
Case	Silverstone Ft01-BW Fortress
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX-850
Software	W7pro SP1

System Name	TheBruise
Processor	i7-960
Motherboard	Gigabyte x58A -Ud5
Cooling	Vantage ALC push pull/2x180mm fans/1x120mm silverstone
Memory	12GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's in Xfire
Storage	Ocz Vertex 3 Max Iops (OS) 300GB Velociraptor, 750 GB WD Black
Display(s)	Asus 23" VS238H-P
Case	Silverstone Ft01-BW Fortress
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX-850
Software	W7pro SP1

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Processor	Intel i7 2600K (@ stock)
Motherboard	Asus P8Z68-V
Cooling	Corsair H100
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 4x4GB DDR3 @ 1866MHz
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Storage	Samsung F3 1TB HDD
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Audio Device(s)	Creative Labs X-Fi Elite Pro
Power Supply	Corsair HX850
Software	Windows 7 Pro - 64-bit

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Motherboard	MSI Gaming Plus
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Memory	64GB 3600mhz
Video Card(s)	GTX3060
Storage	1TB SSD
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Case	No Case... just sitting on cardboard :D
Power Supply	Antec 650w

System Name	TheBruise
Processor	i7-960
Motherboard	Gigabyte x58A -Ud5
Cooling	Vantage ALC push pull/2x180mm fans/1x120mm silverstone
Memory	12GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's in Xfire
Storage	Ocz Vertex 3 Max Iops (OS) 300GB Velociraptor, 750 GB WD Black
Display(s)	Asus 23" VS238H-P
Case	Silverstone Ft01-BW Fortress
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX-850
Software	W7pro SP1

Help! File recovery software?

stevednmc

stevednmc

Jack Doph

slyfox2151

stevednmc

95Viper

Super Moderator

Dirtypants

stevednmc

Bot

Dirtypants

stevednmc

Dirtypants

stevednmc

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

stevednmc

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

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