Topic Wiki

Ok so my rule of determining the level of difficulty in data recovery is really 2 questions.
#1 -  is it making any noise
#2 -  is it detected in the bios if you connect it directly to the mobo

If the answer to #1 is yes - then if you want any hopes of recovering the data do not attempt to continue powering it on. It can be making noise because the heads are broken or bent and if that's the case you will scrape the platters and kill the drive beyond any hope of recovery. (data recovery isn't like the way they show it in the movies you cannot actually remove a platter and recover any data off it) And please do not attempt the Freezer Trick - it doesn't work on current drives anymore and actually introduces condensation in the drive that can kill the platters.
If its detected in the bios we can try a couple of things - and i can usually recover the data for about $250 - $799 - over 50% of the time its about $300.

DH Data Recovery
718.509.9211

« Last edited by etech0 on November 08, 2018, 02:55:58 PM »

Author Topic: Data Recovery - Any Questions?  (Read 175282 times)

Offline chucksterace

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 6880
  • Total likes: 19
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 40
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
    • LYNX IT Consulting
  • Location: Chicago, Jerusalem
  • Programs: AA Exec Plat; UA Premier 1K; ; LY Plat; Hyatt Platinum; Hertz President's Circle; Avis President's Club
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #200 on: September 08, 2013, 09:35:38 AM »

Hi,

Just put my 500gb wd external hard drive into computer, and nothing is showing up. Are all my files lost?

The light on the hd powers on when connected, but nothing shows up..

What type of computer you using?
You may not hold me responsible for any actions taken that were recommended from my account or username.

Offline Yaalili

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 12764
  • Total likes: 473
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 157
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: Crown Heights, NY
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #201 on: September 08, 2013, 10:13:17 AM »
Nothing is showing up - what does that mean?
Do you see the drive as being connected on the computer?

Meaning usually i connect it and it just pops up on the screen, or i go to my computer and it shows up there, now it does neither, can't access my hard drive in any way.

What type of computer you using?

Using windows xp, and didn't work on my windows 7 laptop either.

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #202 on: September 08, 2013, 03:00:23 PM »
Meaning usually i connect it and it just pops up on the screen, or i go to my computer and it shows up there, now it does neither, can't access my hard drive in any way.

Using windows xp, and didn't work on my windows 7 laptop either.
Right-click on My Computer, Select 'Manage Computer'.  On the screen that comes up, in the left column, click on 'Disk Management'.  In the right column, do you see the drive?

Offline DH Data Recovery

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 4543
  • Total likes: 6
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 64
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #203 on: September 08, 2013, 04:46:49 PM »
Can be software issue (virus, file corruption) or hardware issue.

First check if drive is detected. Do you get a drive letter in My Computer? Do you see a drive detected in device manager?

Offline Yaalili

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 12764
  • Total likes: 473
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 157
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: Crown Heights, NY
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #204 on: September 08, 2013, 04:48:30 PM »
Right-click on My Computer, Select 'Manage Computer'.  On the screen that comes up, in the left column, click on 'Disk Management'.  In the right column, do you see the drive?

Followed those steps and i don't see it there. All i see is the C: and D: built in drives.

Offline Yaalili

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 12764
  • Total likes: 473
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 157
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: Crown Heights, NY
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #205 on: September 08, 2013, 04:49:32 PM »
Can be software issue (virus, file corruption) or hardware issue.

First check if drive is detected. Do you get a drive letter in My Computer? Do you see a drive detected in device manager?

Drive is detected by computer, you hear the beep when connected. But it won't show up in my computer.

In the device manager it is detected. There is something WD and something WDC there.

Offline DH Data Recovery

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 4543
  • Total likes: 6
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 64
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #206 on: September 08, 2013, 07:57:26 PM »
I assume this is a WD Portable drive, these drives are known to have major firmware issues.

Try checking disk management and see if it shows up there.

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #207 on: September 08, 2013, 08:42:43 PM »
I assume this is a WD Portable drive, these drives are known to have major firmware issues.

Try checking disk management and see if it shows up there.
See a few posts up...he already tried that.
He said it shows up in device manager as unknown USB device.  So, if the drive is spinning, then you are probably correct about firmware.

Offline Yaalili

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 12764
  • Total likes: 473
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 157
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: Crown Heights, NY
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #208 on: September 08, 2013, 09:42:50 PM »
See a few posts up...he already tried that.
He said it shows up in device manager as unknown USB device.  So, if the drive is spinning, then you are probably correct about firmware.

Right, so does that mean i lost everything? :(

I assume this is a WD Portable drive, these drives are known to have major firmware issues.

Which company would you recommend as oppsed to WD?

Offline DH Data Recovery

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 4543
  • Total likes: 6
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 64
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #209 on: September 08, 2013, 09:45:14 PM »
the problem is most of the new usb 3.0 portable drives have these issues. I try to get drives like the seagate drives as most of them use a separate piece to connect the drive to the usb cable

Offline smurf

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Sep 2010
  • Posts: 4525
  • Total likes: 276
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 8
    • View Profile
  • Location: NJ
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #210 on: September 09, 2013, 01:41:24 PM »
How would you rate the Toshiba canvio desktop drives? I'm thnking of getting this 3TB one from amazon gold box, also is $100 a good price for it?

ETA: I see that the seagate expansion is also $100, which would you recommend?
« Last Edit: September 09, 2013, 01:51:05 PM by smurf »

Offline DH Data Recovery

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 4543
  • Total likes: 6
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 64
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #211 on: September 09, 2013, 02:03:49 PM »
Toshiba has pretty bad reviews...

Offline smurf

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Sep 2010
  • Posts: 4525
  • Total likes: 276
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 8
    • View Profile
  • Location: NJ
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #212 on: September 09, 2013, 02:10:07 PM »
Toshiba has pretty bad reviews...
does that mean the Seagate is good ?
 reminds me of the story with the esrog dealer and the rav.

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #213 on: September 09, 2013, 03:39:52 PM »
Right, so does that mean i lost everything? :(
1.  You mentioned that you also tried connecting the hd to a Windows 7 computer.  Had you previously connected the hd to this computer?  If so, try connecting to a computer that you have never used.
2.  You can remove the hd from its current enclosure and put it in another USB enclosure (you can find them on Amazon for around $10).  This is not a definite fix, but it is worth a shot.

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #214 on: September 09, 2013, 03:44:04 PM »
Obviously, these are on the more expensive end, but I have set a few of them up.  They work great.
http://buffalotech.com/products/desktop-hard-drives/drivestation/drivestation-duo-1

Offline SPLP

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1616
  • Total likes: 8
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 2
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #215 on: September 11, 2013, 01:44:09 PM »
I use office 2000 --it serves my purpose very well and am familiar with it, when I save  excel-word to Drop Box it changes them to  office 2010 starter , I do not want to use office  2010 --ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED

also I use paper port 11 and and it has picked up "every document and photo " in my computer  --- b4 all this paper port showed only what I scanned into paper port  --- now I have so many  unnecessary  documents in paper port --example -- all my word documents now show up in paper port --- I also lost all my documents that i had scanned

Offline SPLP

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2011
  • Posts: 1616
  • Total likes: 8
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 2
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #216 on: September 11, 2013, 01:46:30 PM »
RE above post --also I use paper port 11 and and it has picked up "every document and photo " in my computer  --- b4 all this changed --- paper port showed only what I scanned into paper port  --- now I have so many  unnecessary  documents in paper port!!! and impossible to manage 
--example -- all my word documents now show up in paper port ---

I also lost all my documents that i had scanned -- HELP PLEASE

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #217 on: September 11, 2013, 02:32:15 PM »
RE above post --also I use paper port 11 and and it has picked up "every document and photo " in my computer  --- b4 all this changed --- paper port showed only what I scanned into paper port  --- now I have so many  unnecessary  documents in paper port!!! and impossible to manage 
--example -- all my word documents now show up in paper port ---

I also lost all my documents that i had scanned -- HELP PLEASE
Regarding the last item, from your desktop (not the paperport program) try going to 'My Documents' and looking for a folder called 'Paperport' or 'My Scans' or 'Scans', etc.  Look in that folder for your scans.

Offline churnbabychurn

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jul 2012
  • Posts: 7355
  • Total likes: 301
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
  • Location: Lakewood
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #218 on: September 11, 2013, 02:35:59 PM »
I have "Live mail" in outlook 2013 currently its a POP3 connection. I want to switch to IMAP.
The way I think I would do this is by deleting the current account from outlook (and thereby deleting the data files also) and then setting up a new IMAP account.
Is there any risk of me losing the thousands of emails that are on the server?

Offline notanonymous

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: May 2013
  • Posts: 2111
  • Total likes: 2
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Data Recovery - Any Questions?
« Reply #219 on: September 11, 2013, 02:37:35 PM »
I use office 2000 --it serves my purpose very well and am familiar with it, when I save  excel-word to Drop Box it changes them to  office 2010 starter , I do not want to use office  2010 --ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED

also I use paper port 11 and and it has picked up "every document and photo " in my computer  --- b4 all this paper port showed only what I scanned into paper port  --- now I have so many  unnecessary  documents in paper port --example -- all my word documents now show up in paper port --- I also lost all my documents that i had scanned