How can I figure out what file a particular FAT32 sector belongs to? [more inside]
posted on Jul 20, 2008 - 3 answers

Can you save data from an iPhone, in any manner, once it has entered "recovery" mode and iTunes informs you that you need to restore the phone? [more inside]
posted on May 11, 2008 - 3 answers

Got a 2000 server with PCI SCSI RAID card (Mirror) and the mobo seems to have died. I just want to recover the data and host it on another machine. How do I do that? [more inside]
posted on Jan 18, 2008 - 4 answers

How do I pull data from an old Windows 98 HD using Vista? [more inside]
posted on Nov 19, 2007 - 13 answers

My windows didn't want to boot up, so I bought a new hard disc installed Windows on it and made the old one slave. The old hard disc reads as completely empty. Why? [more inside]
posted on Nov 4, 2007 - 15 answers

How do I recover music from an iPod that has suddenly reset itself? [more inside]
posted on Oct 14, 2007 - 10 answers

What is the easiest way to make a bit-perfect copy of a potentially failing laptop hard drive? The copy target would be a new 2.5" drive that I'd then install in the same laptop. [more inside]
posted on Aug 11, 2007 - 37 answers

I was going to repartition an external USB hard drive in Mac OS X 10.4 in Disk Utility, and after I clicked Partition, I thought I clicked Cancel when I learned it would result in data loss. I guess I actually clicked OK, and then I quickly quit Disk Utility and disconnected the drive (it had already been unmounted). Now, when I reconnect the drive, it shows up as having been repartitioned, and all of the data on there is gone. Can I get my data back? [more inside]
posted on Jul 7, 2007 - 6 answers

Does anyone have experiences with Gillware for recovering data from a dead hard drive, aside from user bhance? They are cheaper than the big enterprise-level data recovery companies, but I'd like to see comments from more than one person if possible.
posted on Jun 17, 2007 - 3 answers

How do I get Knoppix to read .doc files? [more inside]
posted on May 7, 2007 - 15 answers

I accidentally formatted my NTFS drive with HFS and wrote some data on it. Now how do I recover whatever is left? >>>Any filesystem experts around here? [more inside]
posted on Apr 26, 2007 - 6 answers

I clobbered a file by saving a downloaded file with the same name. Options? [more inside]
posted on Apr 24, 2007 - 5 answers

How can I run a dictionary attack against a password-protected disk image file on OS X? [more inside]
posted on Sep 24, 2006 - 16 answers

My hard drive died and I want to recover a great deal of the data that (hopefully) still exists on it. After reading the Metafilter Wiki, I know this question has been asked before, but my question relates more to the process of recovering the data than the actual possibility of doing so. [more inside]
posted on Sep 18, 2006 - 16 answers

My motherboard died, and now I need to hook the harddrives up to another PC to get the data off. Problem: Some of it was in the "My Documents" folder, and I can't get to it without being logged on to an admin account. I have no way of doing that, since I can't boot from the old windows installation anymore. [more inside]
posted on Sep 16, 2006 - 4 answers

Firefox-Is-On-CrackFilter: I deleted a non-default Firefox profile and things got deleted from my desktop...not just icons, but folders that I was storing there. How do I recover them? [more inside]
posted on Sep 15, 2006 - 10 answers

I tried to "clear" a selected portion of my Google Desktop Scratch Pad, and it cleared the entire contents. I can't figure out any way to restore it ("undo" didn't do anything, and there's very little documentation). I have some hope, because Google describes the Scratch Pad as "automatically" saving as you type. But has it saved over whatever file it uses with a blank slate now? Please help!
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - 2 answers

Can I recover data (pictures) from a bad DVD-R? [more inside]
posted on Jul 31, 2006 - 8 answers

Data recovery in target disk mode: what are the pitfalls? [more inside]
posted on Jul 30, 2006 - 8 answers

My 12" Powerbook G4's hard drive has gone belly up. Help me figure out my options. [more inside]
posted on Jul 25, 2006 - 10 answers

My hard drive recently started sparking, then smoking and burning. I quickly turned off the computer, but now I need to recover my data. I can see the spot on the hard drive that is black, so I know where the problem is. Is it safe for me to spend thirty minutes or so backing data off of this damaged drive? Alternatively, is it possible to repair the drive, at least enough to backup my data? Or have I lost everything? [more inside]
posted on May 31, 2006 - 35 answers

DIY data recovery from failed disk drive: what low level diagnostics can I run? [more inside]
posted on May 22, 2006 - 8 answers

Recommended data recovery places in New York City, specifically Manhattan? It shouldn't be a huge problem, but I don't want to just pick a name from the Yellow Pages. There is, of course, [more inside]
posted on Feb 28, 2006 - 11 answers

Is there any good way to try to recover a journal that was on Diary-X? [more inside]
posted on Feb 26, 2006 - 3 answers

My camera recently ate a month's worth of intense picture-taking! About 90% were salvaged by imgsave, but of course the remaining 10% are the best or most important. Each of those broken images completely draws as a thumbnail, but only partially renders when opened. There is no apparent consistency to how much is drawn or which pictures were eaten. [more inside]
posted on Feb 17, 2006 - 9 answers

Is there any hope for my dying/dead Serial ATA drive? [more inside]
posted on Feb 8, 2006 - 9 answers

Partition Magic Tragic destroyed a partition on my hard drive, is there anyway to get the data off of it? [more inside]
posted on Jan 28, 2006 - 9 answers

WinXP SP2: Forcing hibernate to resume from old hiberfil.sys [more inside]
posted on Jan 8, 2006 - 8 answers

DataRecoveryFilter : Computer died. Internal hard drive saved and put in an external usb enclosure (Maxtor). Tried to read user data (Documents and settings\user): Access denied. Windows Xp. Don't have a computer in which I can put the saved harddrive (and boot from). What can I do? [more inside]
posted on Jan 4, 2006 - 22 answers

Can anyone recommend a data recovery service in Ottawa? [more inside]
posted on Nov 2, 2005 - 5 answers

I just lost a month's worth of journal entries in a locally saved plaintext file. Is there any way to get them back? [more inside]
posted on Oct 29, 2005 - 11 answers

I have a badly fragmented drive that, even after repeated defrag runs with Diskeeper, remains heavily fragmented. I think as a consequence some of my directories have become inaccessible because when I try to access them i get an "I/O device error." Does this mean I have bad sectors (and if so, what do I do)? Is the data in those directories lost for good? Should I try and copy what I can and dump the drive? [more inside]
posted on Oct 23, 2005 - 11 answers

I've been asked--nay, commanded--to recover an image from a web site that recently went offline. [more inside]
posted on Sep 7, 2005 - 5 answers

Retrieving data from fire-damaged hard drives. [more inside]
posted on Aug 8, 2005 - 9 answers

Help me recover data off a (seemingly) dead laptop hard drive. [more inside]
posted on Aug 2, 2005 - 5 answers

Data recovery from a secondary hard drive. I downloaded a demo version of some recovery software which lets me see which files are still there. I'm looking for recommendations of free alternatives (XP pro, primary HD NTFS, secondary HD FAT32). [more inside]
posted on Jul 29, 2005 - 7 answers

Can you help rescue my digital photographs from their silver grave? [more inside]
posted on Jul 12, 2005 - 3 answers

HELP! A laptop died, the drive is fine, I put it in a usb enclosure I have so that I could access the data. The problem is, I can navigate the drive up to the directory I need. At that point I get told I don't have permission. I'm logged in to an XP Pro SP2 box as an admin. The files I need are in the My Documents directory of the administrator account installed on the disk. How do I access them?
posted on Apr 19, 2005 - 9 answers

Miracle Filter: I'm trying to make sure I've covered all of my options and while I hope that this hasn't happened to you, I secretly hope it happened to someone. My hard drive is dead. [more inside]
posted on Apr 6, 2005 - 14 answers

Can anyone recommend a very good data recovery tool? After installing a new secondary HD, XP decided that my tertiary drive was corrupted and "fixed" it for me.
posted on Jan 14, 2005 - 6 answers

My 4gb MicroDrive died. Of course, I have about 100 pictures on it from a paid photo shoot. Must. Get. Pictures. Back.

Any recommendations on trustworthy data-recovery shops?
posted on Dec 12, 2004 - 3 answers

Data recovery, OS X, on an accidentally initialized hard drive. The guy at the shop has informed my brother that files are basically unrecoverable under those circumstances - something to do with how OS X installs a new system or some such. Is this so?
posted on Nov 27, 2004 - 8 answers

OSX: Is it possible to recover something that was deleted from the trash? Please.
posted on Nov 17, 2004 - 9 answers

DVD reading problem. One of my backup DVD-Rs refuses to read - Nero disc info says it has 1 session and 1 track at 4.6Gb UDF (mode 1). My DVD-ROM is an Lite-On 411s, but I think it was burnt on an LG 4040b. Any tips on getting the movies off the disc?
posted on May 19, 2004 - 1 answers

Yet Another Hard Drive Failure: My laptop started hanging periodically, and eventually stopped booting. Suspecting a hard drive failure, I swapped drives, and sure enough, it works fine now. Except, of course, for the old hard drive. I've put that in a USB enclosure and I've been able to recover some of the data in fits and starts. However, it continues to lock sporadically while the data is being read, and XP will occasionally drop the drive, no longer showing it in explorer. Is there a better way to recover my data, given the inability to stay connected to it via USB?
posted on Apr 20, 2004 - 9 answers