# Want files off of corrupt hard drive; help?



## WinterSin (Sep 22, 2012)

Okay, so, I'm going to say, maybe a year or so ago, my computer suffered a massive problem and it, flat out, died. I had a friend try to install windows 7 on it for me but something went wrong and now if the hard drive is in a workable computer, it cannot load up windows. I took the hard drive to Geek Squad in whom confirmed there's still data on it...

Is there a way to get it off the drive WITHOUT paying these guys 100$?! I don't have 100$ To be spending on that sort of thing, so if I can do this myself (between my brother and I, I'm sure we can figure it out, we're decently tech savvy) I'd really be appreciative of it. There's some pictures I really would like to have again off there, like the one I have of a deceased friend and some old artwork. Some of the work and photos I had I'd really like to have again, because some of them have a good deal of meaning...

Thanks in advance to those who help.


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## cobalt-blue (Sep 22, 2012)

If you have a working desktop computer you can open it up and connect the bad hard drive in one ot the cables used for the cd drive if you have one. You may have to set the jumpers for the bad drive to slave. Boot up the pc and use windows explorer to see what is left on the drive.  There is also a number of manufacturers that have hard drive to usb units.  Just hook them up per the instructions and see whats left on the H/D.  These are nice as you don't have to do anything to your good working computer.


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## CrazyLee (Sep 22, 2012)

If it's just the OS on the hard drive and not the hard drive itself you can hook it up to an external enclosure as well, and copy the files off.

If it's a hard drive software/firmware problem (like the file system is shot) you may be screwed but I think there may be utilities out there that can fix file systems or possibly identify files on the HD without the file system.

If it's a hard drive hardware failure, you're probably screwed.


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## Ricky (Sep 22, 2012)

You might be able to pull stuff off it using dd (or equivalent) reading the drive as a stream if you had a way to parse it and try to isolate the files.  There is probably software out there specifically for this purpose.

A lot of the time it won't be the HD itself, like with FAT if the file allocation table is fucked the computer might not be able to even recognize the drive but the data might still be there in a somewhat consistent state.


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## toastedtruth (Sep 23, 2012)

If the Geek Squad confirmed there's data still in the hard drive, then it works or they could be lying. 

1. Assuming it's SATA and not IDE (connector), then you can connect it to a new computer using a spare power and data cable. As said above, you could take it off of the DVD/CD drive. 
2. Boot up as standard, make sure in the BIOS you are booting to your normal HDD, not the corrupt one. 
3. If there is any data on it then you'll find it by looking into the HDD in Windows Explorer. 

For XP, user data is under
 X:/Documents and Settings/Username/

Vista, 7 and 8: 
X:/Users/Username/

Where X is the letter of the corrupt HDD. 
On Windows 7 you may need to grant privileges to see inside those folders. 

If Windows can't detect the HDD it's likely the PSB on the drive is damaged, thus unrecoverable without another hard drive. 
If Windows does detect it, there is hope 

Sorry if my technical terms bemuse you ^^


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## Elim Garak (Sep 23, 2012)

GetDataback and Recuva can pull files off damaged file systems. This only works with HDDs with defective sectors rather than other problems.
Data can always be recovered by professionals though but that costs lots of money, so if it's only 100 they say..try recuva.


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## WinterSin (Sep 24, 2012)

Yes, it's the OS as far as I know. My friend tried updating the OS for me and failed, but apparently got files on there.  Something tells me he booted the OS from a disk. 

I'll try to spend a day with my brother on this when we both have a day off. Thanks guys!


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