Stupid computerfilter: I didn't back up, and now the external drive seems dead. Options? [more inside]
posted by neewom on Oct 10, 2009 - 6 answers

Yesterday, my portable hard drive got knocked over while it was being read from and began making a vicious gurgle. My husband unplugged it before I could try to disconnect it. When I turned it back on, it's still sounds terrible. [more inside]
posted by droomoord on Sep 11, 2009 - 19 answers

I am trying to recover data from a WD3200ME-01, a WD 320GB USB-powered drive but the physical drive does not have SATA or IDE connection - only a mini USB connection soldered to the circuit board - and the drive is not recognized via USB anymore. [more inside]
posted by dozo on Jul 16, 2009 - 9 answers

Anyone ever have any experience with Drive Fish? It's a data recovery company. [more inside]
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Jun 22, 2009 - 9 answers

Hard drive recovery: my external USB hard drive is mounting fine on both my mac and PC, however, all the files are showing up as garbage characters. [more inside]
posted by mike_bling on Jun 1, 2009 - 4 answers

How can I figure out what file a particular FAT32 sector belongs to? [more inside]
posted by harkin banks on Jul 20, 2008 - 3 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 by A! on Nov 4, 2007 - 15 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 by killdevil on Aug 11, 2007 - 37 answers

Data recovery in target disk mode: what are the pitfalls? [more inside]
posted by mds35 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 by maxreax 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 by gd779 on May 31, 2006 - 35 answers

DIY data recovery from failed disk drive: what low level diagnostics can I run? [more inside]
posted by StickyCarpet 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 by booksandlibretti on Feb 28, 2006 - 11 answers

Is there any hope for my dying/dead Serial ATA drive? [more inside]
posted by Venadium 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 by Mijo Bijo on Jan 28, 2006 - 9 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 by aroberge on Jan 4, 2006 - 22 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 by JohannStrauss on Oct 23, 2005 - 11 answers

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

Help me recover data off a (seemingly) dead laptop hard drive. [more inside]
posted by killdevil 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 by sailormouth on Jul 29, 2005 - 7 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? [more inside]
posted by monju_bosatsu on Apr 20, 2004 - 8 answers