Windows 7 Recovering Lost Data Question (Advanced)

[zvit]

This question is not a "Google" question. It's for people who are experienced in data loss recovery.

Among the many programs I have used in the past for data recovery, I have found EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional to be most successful. I have had high success rates in recovering data from many HDDs. Now I myself have a question...

I have an external HDD (WD MyBook) that fell from a height of about 7 inches. The computer(s) will recognize it but say it's not initialized which means the boot records are fine. There are no grinding or any kind of noises at boot-up so the needle and platter seem to be ok.

I started a complete recovery in EASEUS, but it's been 2 hours and it only found 54 files so far. (I know there are hundreds). Usually, on formatted drives, the number of "total files found" add up pretty quickly on this software and it is able to scan a 1TB drive in about 5 - 6 hours. This is the first time that I'm seeing such a slow reading of the drive. (Which makes me wonder again if it's physically damaged).

My question is, since it's know that the best method of recovery is to start the recovery process as soon as possible, for any usage of the drive will reduce the success rate of recovery. But I'm thinking that if I just allow Windows to initialize the disk and format it with a quick format, that the only thing I'm ruining is the table, which EASEUS doesn't care about since it analyzes the disk by sectors.

What I think would speed up the recovery process and what I'm asking your advice on is if I should initialize the disk and give it a quick format and then run EASEUS. I would normally never do this but like I said... 2 hours and 54 files.... I don't have a month to wait and EASEUS is pretty good at recovering formatted disks too.

What do you think?

 

[zvit]

Update: HD Tune reports that the problem is in the "Reallocated Sector Count" so I'll start from there. Still open to suggestions.

 

[Joe S]

These drives are pretty easy to damage physically. Just tipping one over on it's side on the desk can be enough. These videos can be informative for people that don't know much about the inner workings of HDs.
Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 1 - YouTube
Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 2 - YouTube
Advanced Hard Drive Data Recovery Part 3 - YouTube
There may be more in the series I just stumbled on these.
Joe

 

[zvit]

Thanks for the share. I've seen those videos a long time ago. I have also successfully disassembled and fixed HDDs. That's why I wrote in the title "Advanced". Meaning that it's not about a guide about data recovery since I have a lot of experience there. But thanks for the help!

Update:
HDD Regenerator: Master Boot Record of this hard drive is damaged. Now I'm getting somewhere.

 

[Joe S]

I posted those links mainly for anybody else following this post and interested in expanding their knowledge. I assume you've had to deal with is the hardware encryption on some of these WD externals. Thanks for posting this I find this interesting and maybe I'll be able to help somebody else.
Joe

 

[zvit]

Yes, of course, post anything that can help me or anyone else. I appreciate the help. If you think or hear of any other helpful advice, please post it too.

 

[sdanny66]

Hi,
In case if you have not made any backup of your data and lost all your important files because of formatting or by any other means, then Link Removed software such as Remo Recover software can be used. This software is capable of recovering files from different file types and from different data loss circumstances.

You can download the demo version of this application to check the ability of the software in recovering deleted files from formatted hard drive.

 

[MarryWilson]

There are so many data recovery softwares are there but i will tell you one which is the best option for retrieving your lost data from any storage media, you can recover your data using Kernel for windows data recovery software, it can quickly repair and recover all the data from the corrupted, formatted or deleted partition of hard drive.

 

[scoostraw]

I have a 1TB Western Digital "My Passport" external HD. Recently it failed on me. The result of chkdsk is "The type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted."

I downloaded the trial version of "Recover My Files". The files all seem to be there, as it "sees" over 30,000 files. But when running, it is only "finding" jpg, exe, zip etc. file types. The majority of files n this drive are flac. (I stopped the program after a couple of hours)

Does anyone know if this program recognizes flac files? (I called their tech support line. Got voicemail which promised a prompt call back - which never came.) Or have a better idea on how I can go about recovering the data from this drive?

 

[Saltgrass]

You did not mention it, so I was wondering if you had tried running chkdsk or fsutil on the drive. Since it seems to show as uninitialized, chkdsk might not work, but possibly the fsutil fsinfo and some of those sub commands might yield something.

I believe the OEM type disk checking utilities will possibly wipe the drive during that process, so I suppose that would not be a good idea.

I suppose you might get the impression I would be looking at the health of the drive prior to doing data restore operations.

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil
---- Commands Supported ----

8dot3name 8dot3name management
behavior Control file system behavior
dirty Manage volume dirty bit
file File specific commands
fsinfo File system information
hardlink Hardlink management
objectid Object ID management
quota Quota management
repair Self healing management
reparsepoint Reparse point management
resource Transactional Resource Manager management
sparse Sparse file control
transaction Transaction management
usn USN management
volume Volume management

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo
---- FSINFO Commands Supported ----

drives List all drives
driveType Query drive type for a drive
ntfsInfo Query NTFS specific volume information
sectorInfo Query sector information
statistics Query file system statistics
volumeInfo Query volume information

 

[scoostraw]

You did not mention it, so I was wondering if you had tried running chkdsk or fsutil on the drive. Since it seems to show as uninitialized, chkdsk might not work, but possibly the fsutil fsinfo and some of those sub commands might yield something.

I believe the OEM type disk checking utilities will possibly wipe the drive during that process, so I suppose that would not be a good idea.

I suppose you might get the impression I would be looking at the health of the drive prior to doing data restore operations.

Yes I ran chkdsk. The result was "The type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted."

 

[Saltgrass]

Sorry scootstraw, but when I respond in this forum, I always assume that response to be directed to the OP. I know it can be confusing because different forums are set up different ways.

I will however, assume your response is the same I might have gotten from zvit.

 

[scoostraw]

Sorry scootstraw, but when I respond in this forum, I always assume that response to be directed to the OP. I know it can be confusing because different forums are set up different ways.

I will however, assume your response is the same I might have gotten from zvit.

Yes I realize this is an old thread.

I guess my biggest need at this point is in regard to recover-my-files, or if another recovery program might be more suitable?

 

[Saltgrass]

Yes I realize this is an old thread.

My apologies, I did not realize it was an old thread.... should have checked first.

Since zvit never responded with a solution, he probably did not find one. But I have no info on the flac question.

I have had flash drives, when changed from one system to another would show the uninitialized message. In at least one instance, after a period of time, it did show as initialized. Possible leaving it connected allowed the NTFS system to repair the problem.

 

[davidhk129]

1. This thread started on Jan 2012. The last reply was on Nov. 2013. It is safe to say this issue is a past history as far as those people who posted here are concerned.

2. It would be nice if you mentioned that Windows Data recovery Software is NOT free. It costs $49.
Although there is a "trial" version, but the trial version does not save the recovered files. Which means one will have to buy the full version in order to restore the files.
excerpt.....
The free evaluation version of Windows Data Recovery software works perfectly but restricts you to save the recovered data.
http://www.nucleustechnologies.com/Windows-Data-Recovery-Software.html

 

[Abel Martin]

Recoverydatatools - Windows data recovery tool to recover lost and damaged data from Windows PC. It can also recover data from deleted partition and also missing partitions. Windows Data Recovery Software restores from almost all storage devices.

 

[davidhk129]

Recoverydatatools - Windows data recovery tool to recover lost and damaged data from Windows PC. It can also recover data from deleted partition and also missing partitions. Windows Data Recovery Software restores from almost all storage devices.

IF people are willing to pay $49 for it.