Random

My laptop hard drive decided to die. Most of the data is still readable, but the FAT died.

I can get to all of my old files, but the stuff I had been working on for the last 3 weeks is gone. Mainly the HA website, and all of my Hyundai photos! eek! suicide suicide

I need to find a good hard drive recovery software that is Affordable. www.ontrack.com has some GREAT sofware, but it's $499!!!!!!!

Can anyone come up with some suggestions/reccomendations? sad.gif

BTW....the drive was formatted XP Fat32

[ February 20, 2003, 07:51 AM: Message edited by: Random ]

Skitzo

"If you need a product for DOS, 95, 98, Nt, Me, 2000 and XP, please look at the Hard Drive Mechanic Gold, Which is also currently on SALE for 69.97 and includes Drive2Drive and the File Harvester."

http://www.highergroundsoftware.com/

I've personally never tried this stuff, but seems great to try for only $70.

DJ Nogo

maybe get the ontrack.com software off of kazaa?

Random

tried...couldn't find it.

Skitzo

do a search for software developer "ontrack". I just got 4 hits for the professional ver 5 and a bunch for their other software...

turbulence

kazaa isn't the only place to look. actually, it's one of the worst places to look for warez. i used to be heavy into the scene, but have lost most of my contacts. www.warez.com has a search feature that's pretty useful. the links are good and the popups are minimal one some of the links you follow. on others, there are no popups.

DJ Nogo

i hate warez searching on the net b/c most sites are half warez sites, half *adult* sites.

iTiburon

Well if the drive still spins.... pickup a 2.5" --> 3.5" IDE adapter to allow you to hook it up to a desktop PC.

Then remove the drive from the laptop, put it in the freezer for about two hours, remove and immediately hook up to the PC and try to copy your critical files off.

I've used this process successfully on three hard drives and unsuccessfully on about 10 others, so...

Good luck... oh and I don't know any place to "get" any sort of software recovery. What exactly is wrong, is the file table corrupt? Or are there bad areas on the drive.

Sorry man.... wish I could be more help!

Oh... PC Connection and I'm sure many others sell that 2.5-->3.5 adapter.

Random

I've got a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, and I was able to "aquire" a copy of some decent recovery software.

It didn't recover EVERYTHING, but I guess I'll just have to cope. That's what I get for not doing regular backups of critical data.

Thanks for all your help everyone! smile.gif

AllBlackTibby

Whoa, iTib...Don't forget to mention to put the hard drive in a zip lock bag.......otherwise you run the risk of moisture damage. Also, this trick only works on old drives with worn out heads. Generally what happens is the read heads will warp and stretch. Freezing it shrinks the head thus making the drive readable for a short period of time.