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Hello everyone,

I need a windows guru here ...

I have a very big HDD problem,
My HDD crashed on my main develop computer,
and yes I know a had have to make backups , but my last one is from 3 months ago ...

The HD is split in 2 partitions of 1TB each.
I don't know if they are NTFS, FAT, or other ...

So, what is a good recover software I can try to use ?

win 10 x64 home
it is a seagate 2TB HDD 2.5 inch
windows find the 2 partitions but no names anymore.


I'm not a windows specialist ...
Thanks,
marc

Check the "device management" console of windows, if the partitions are visible.

If Windows recognized the partition letters, we use in our shop the program File Scavanger (Paid Software) to extract data, if there are readable (this can take a very long time).
Other programs like Recuva (Freeware) may also help.

Test-Disk (a little freeware tool to recover data on flash cards) is also a very good solution to recover partitions and datas ....

Hi Bisonte,

First at all, thanks for your help.

[Check the "device management" console of windows, if the partitions are visible]

Well I don't have any windows anymore ??
So, I can't install any software also...

What i did till now...
- I purchased an external SATA to USB3.0 box.
- I removed the HDD from the main computer
- I installed the HDD inside the external box

- Now I need a second (windows) computer to install the recover software

My question:
Do I need a second HDD to restore the old data on,
or is the recover software store the old data on the old HDD ?

Marc

The company Ontrack is pretty good and they also have a software only product with a trial now. Ontrack DIY Data Recovery. If you need more serious service, they also offer recovery services themselves.

marc_256 wrote: Sat Jul 22, 2023 9:13 am My question:
Do I need a second HDD to restore the old data on,
or is the recover software store the old data on the old HDD ?

You should always use a different disk for restoring the data.

General tips for everybody else:

If a hard disk is about to die (only sometimes working, Bootup problems with 'klicking' of the drive mechanic), you immediately need to do a 1:1 drive image. Because the drive will be inaccessible very soon and then the costs to recover data will rise a LOT.

Whenever you hear a drive dieing or have the feeling it could happen - immediately do a 1:1 drive image so you can recover the data from that image. It often happens that the drive can be imaged that way but you have to act very quickly.

An emergency bootup utility usb stick with linux and DD is all you need in those cases.

The real essential tip is to create backups - an old IT saying was "backup early, backup often!".

Linux data recovery / rescue distros are for example Finnux or Rescatux but Knoppix works fine too, if you are an advanced user.

So what now? You did the 1:1 image that strange guy on the net suggested and the drive died.

The super easy way is to get the exact same hardware as replacement drive, Then just use dd again to write back the image and tada - everything is back like nothing happened. That's the moment you need to think hard about your backup strategy for the future

The next best thing is to use mostly similar hard disk to the original one. For example a bigger drive of the same manufacturer with a compatible drive controller. Keep the differences as small as possible to avoid problems with drivers, If this simple writing back does not work for some reason, you write the image back to a different drive that is just a bit larger. You should be able to use it to boot maybe with a little hickup and driver fallback to some slow device mode for example, but it will come online again. You can then create a traditional backup with an imaging software like Acronis Trueimage and they include tools to recover onto different hardware nowadays. Do that to recover the data and installation into a stable useable state.

Keep in mind that this kind of data recovery is a bit of a hack and the OS might not like it (driver problems of different hardware). It is only meant to recover data in fatal cases like this.

Hi,

TL;DR : Backup all days especially if you're a developer!

Every day, I see this kind of thing... so now I don't try to convince users of the benefits of automatic backups.
Just in case, here's my method (nothing lost in 40 years of computing)
- A backup that doesn't happen automatically is a backup that will one day be forgotten.
- An HDD can fail at any time without warning.
- An SSD will make no suspicious noise and show no sign of failure before it fails.
- Every machine must have at least two physical hard disks.
- A third backup should be made (automatically if possible) on an external medium in the event of theft (laptop), fire on the premises, etc.
- A fourth backup on an inert medium (DVD, USB key, magnetic tape) is welcome. This backup should also be kept in a different location.
- There's no point in backing up the entire disk (disk image) beyond the initial backup. If everything is broken, it's an opportunity to make everything new again, and get rid of old, useless programs.
- Back up %AppData% first and foremost, and get into the habit of putting your data in a subdirectory of %AppData% to avoid forgetting any.
- There are a number of free programs that copy, synchronize and so on. The best known is RoboCopy (included with Windows since 2000). If you want something simple, lightweight (like PB), reliable and fast , my current favorite is SyncFolders (not an ad, it's freeware): once configured, you can ask it to make an automatic copy (using Windows schedule) once a day. It's very fast because it builds up a database of directories. It can also log file versions (so, for example, several states of your PB sources).

PS. Backup now!

Hello,
Are you sure your disk is dead?
You can try to create a bootable USB key and boot from it to see if you are offered to re-install Windows while keeping your data and applications.
https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/softwar ... /windows10
https://www.microsoft.com/fr-fr/softwar ... /windows11
You download the tool MediaCreationTool corresponding to your OS and you run it.
In the end you get a bootable USB key that allows you to install or recover your PC

You can also turn the PC on and off 3 times in a row to see if it offers you automatic repair.

You can also press F11 or F12 at startup to get a special menu that may allow you to recover your PC

Gérard / cage from the French forum

I had this problem years ago too. I used Recuva and could recover most stuff. Don't know whether this will help in your case.

Just to mention one thing: If you can afford it, buy a small NAS and work on it. Let the NAS do the backups regularly to an attached usb device or via network to another device. If you can afford more, take a NAS with more than one HDD and use self repair methods.
I have a huge NAS which synchronizes immediately to another NAS and makes snapshots every 8 hours. But I know, this is not cheap.

Use LiveCD. You may even have a working Windows. First you will see the disks, check them for errors, you can use the ChkDskGui program, then check your Windows boot again. But even if it does not boot, you will already have access to the disks. Usually, disks have to be used for a very long time to break, and read errors often appear at first, but the disks are healthy.

2. You may need to clean the contacts of the hard drive and cable.
3. Sometimes in the BIOS you need to switch to AHCI

Thanks everyone for the reactions,

@Bisonte,
@Bitblazer
@Marc56us
I just downloaded [SyncFolders]...
@Gérard
@jacdelad
@AZJIO

Thanks to all, for helping me here,

I didn't sleep much the last days, so a quick update.

1) tested the HDD with Recuva for almost 11 hours, with bad results.

2) I found the SeaTool software from seagate to analise the HDD.
It runned for more than a day to do all short and long tests.
Some short tests passed well, the long ones failed, and the [FIX ALL tool] message FATAL FAIL.

In one of the result lists I found an error message:
Airflow temperature: Failed in past
I don't know what this means ??

3) If I use [Computer Management] -> [Storage] -> [Disk Management]
I see the HDD, the 2 partitions,

Partition 1
(E:)
931,52 GB RAW
Healthy (Basic Data Partition)

Partition 2
(F:)
931,52 GB RAW
Healthy (Basic Data Partition)

And when I click on partition [E: or F:]
and then [Explore]
Message box: [The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.]

Can it be a hardware problem (how do you call it, MBR/GPT, sorry not my world)

Conclusion:
Yes, I lost a lot of my work of the last months ...
And yes, it is again a big lesson for the future.
I have a least my backup from some months ago.

Since corona, to save my company, I'm working on a (very) low budget,
And purchasing a new NAS was one of my next goals.
But with 4 computers ... 12TB is not an of
But my 12TB HDD is full so I wait for financial better times to buy a new NAS ...

And yes, waiting was an big mistake !#@$#%%&^
As I need at leased (4 computers at 4TB HDD each) = 16 TB NAS
And yes, a 32 TB NAS in RAID 1 => 16 TB is very expensive.

MY NEXT QUESTION:
What is the best solution,
- NAS (can be in RAID 1 mode)
- External USB SSDs 4TB

If NAS is the best solution, what is a good NAS company to purchase from ?

Thanks again,
Marc

Maybe you can use my Win10XPE project. That's what it's designed for

Win10XPE will help you build a lightweight desktop Windows 10 or Windows 11 Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) for performing tasks or troubleshooting a Windows OS while it is Offline or for installing a Windows OS. It can be booted via USB drive, CD-ROM, or hard disk.

Uses of WinPE:

Set up your hard drive and prepare it for installing a Windows OS
Troubleshoot problems with the OS
Clone or Image a Windows system and later Restore it
Make changes to the Windows OS, when needed
Perform Recovery operations
Recover data from unbootable devices

It comes with AOMEI Backupper, Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Partition Assistant, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1, CheckDisk GUI, Recuva, and more.

If your work is very valuable, consider to hire a specialiced service to recover the data is a expensive service, but many times solve your problem.
I used a service like that many years ago with a harddisk literally burned (fire) and they recover almost everything.

This advice may sound not objective, but... IMHO Seagate hard disks are very bad election they have a huge historial of failures (much larga than other brands).

Hi ChrisR,

I'm not a windows guru, I'm only a 2D/3D programmer.
But I just downloaded it and will try to use it.
Thanks very much.

@Caronte3D
I think you are right, my HDD is only 2 years old,
and my warranty is expired since march 2023 (just a few months)

thanks,
marc

Hello marc-256,

I bought 2 software for my personal use, but also to help friends and family.
1) https://www.diskininternals.com/linux-reader/
2) https://www.easeus.fr/partition-manager/index.html

Linux-Reader is free and functional for everyday use while partition manager is just a demo

I was able to save a 1TB hard drive 2 weeks ago and reassign it to the original D: letter.

For my backups, I use the service https://www.pcloud.com/fr/eu where I bought a lifetime license for 500GB (122.50€)
cage

You can use Linux. Here is my sample Grub2 configuration. That is, you can start directly from the iso file and see the disks. For example, using gParted.
You can install Grub2 from Windows on a flash drive: Previously I used make-pe3 from wimb.

There is no need to repair what is not broken. Broken Windwos is not the same as "broken hard drive"

Hello,

This is my last status on my HDD problem ...

What I learned form my HDD problem:

First, there are two kinds of problems,
- Hardware problem, Software (data) problem.

1) If your HDD makes a lot of abnormal noises or clicking noises,
Stop the use of your computer as fast as possible.
Contact a specialized company for help you to recover your data.


2) If your HDD makes NO abnormal noises,
but its only your PC who is not finding your HDD, this is a better problem than the hardware problem.

A) I bought a SATA to USB external box.

B) I uninstalled the HDD (2TB) from the (defaulted) PC

C) I bought a file recovery program.

D) I bought a external USB SSD (4TB), (bigger as my old HDD) to recover my data on.

E) When I run the recovery program (on an other PC), after some hours, it found my 2 partition parts, and all my files.
And a message, that my GPT list was corrupted.

F) After selecting the files I wanted to recover from partitions 1 and 2, it run more than 24 hours to recover al my files.
It did not repaired my GPT file on the old HDD, but I'm very happy that I have all my files/sources back.

G) When the recovery program was running for hours on the external HDD box,
It became very, very hot and it needed some cooling with an air ventilator.

H) I installed the SSD in my PC,
there where some problems that the desktop icons, did not found the .exe files, but I restored these,
and all is working well now.


After long searches on the internet, this is my conclusion:
So, what was the cause of my problem,
my PC was running at night when I was felt asleep next to it.
There was probably a power failure/interruption, just at the time that the PC was writing some stuff to the HDD.
And so I lost the GPT list (data) on the HDD.


MY CONCLUSION:
If your data/sources are important for you ...
Even if you have no money (low budget as I'm), it is the most imported thing on earth
to invest in a good BackUp system, and even better in more than one backup system.

I lost more than a week of work now, and learned a big lesson, again ...
I'm looking for a RAID1 backup system to bye ... ASAP.
And later (better budget), an UPS power battery backup system.


I hope this can help someone later ...
Greetings,
Marc