How do I retrieve data from very old (one is circa 1998) laptop drives? They contain a lot of interesting history from my time in Silicon Valley before the tech crash that I vowed I would one day retrieve.
[more inside]
posted by zaebiz
on Sep 18, 2012 -
3 answers
Data recovery tools: What are the best free tools that are currently available? Also, I have this hard drive that is being a jerk.
[more inside]
posted by Mister Fabulous
on Jul 19, 2011 -
4 answers
Hardware-level hard drive data recovery. Anyone in the business care to share for a DIY attempt?
[more inside]
posted by zippy
on Jun 3, 2010 -
13 answers
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
