Q. My old hard drive is corrupted and I want to salvage the files on it using a data recovery program I've downloaded. However getting the program to read it is difficult. Do I need to reformat the hard drive? When I go to reformat it says this will erase all data on the disk, but according to other websites I've read it should be fine and I should still be able to salvage files. Which is correct?
A. If you do a full format, all the data on the disk will be overwritten with the formatting data - and you will lose the data you want to retrieve.
There is a type of formatting called "quick format" but that erases all the folder data, and that means you will have even more problems finding the data you want.
You say getting the program to read it is difficult. If the hard drive is failing, then you will have enormous problems getting any program to work right.
If the only problem is corrupted folder structures, then a quick format *might* work to erase all of the corrupted data, leaving the other data. Then your data recovery program would have to scan the entire hard drive.
I use the free Recuva program from Piriform to recover data, but I don't know how it would work in your situation. Recuva has the ability to scan all the hard drive sectors, it is an option. If you can get it to work, you will need another drive to have a place to copy the selected data.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Wikipedia article about Recuva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva
There are programs available that will read the data directly off the sectors of the hard drive and present it in hexadecimal format, but that doesn't mean you can make enough sense out of the data to be able to recover it. The better programs also cost money.
Monday, March 8, 2010
There is a type of formatting called "quick format" but that erases all the folder data, and that means you will have even more problems finding the data you want.
You say getting the program to read it is difficult. If the hard drive is failing, then you will have enormous problems getting any program to work right.
If the only problem is corrupted folder structures, then a quick format *might* work to erase all of the corrupted data, leaving the other data. Then your data recovery program would have to scan the entire hard drive.
I use the free Recuva program from Piriform to recover data, but I don't know how it would work in your situation. Recuva has the ability to scan all the hard drive sectors, it is an option. If you can get it to work, you will need another drive to have a place to copy the selected data.
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
Wikipedia article about Recuva:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recuva
There are programs available that will read the data directly off the sectors of the hard drive and present it in hexadecimal format, but that doesn't mean you can make enough sense out of the data to be able to recover it. The better programs also cost money.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Does formatting an external hard drive erase the data?
Q. I need help I accidentally formatted my external hard drive, I remembered I did a quick format* but anyways all my pictures are gone from my external hard drive idk what happened to them or where they went! Can someone PLEASE helppp mee! I know I can download a data recovery but idk what i should download. And What drive i should look in!
A. Formatting a disc leaves the data intact but resets the links to that data so that the system thinks that the disc is empty.
There are a few free data recovery programs around. I have one that I have paid for but a free one that I have tried works well. Download Recuva from http://www.piriform.com/recuva
There are other download sites if you want to google it.
Install and run Recuva as long as you have not written a lot of data to it after the format you should recover most of your data.
Run the program in wizard and Deep Search mode.
When you see data you want to recover, recover it to another device as it may overwrite the data you are recovering.
There are a few free data recovery programs around. I have one that I have paid for but a free one that I have tried works well. Download Recuva from http://www.piriform.com/recuva
There are other download sites if you want to google it.
Install and run Recuva as long as you have not written a lot of data to it after the format you should recover most of your data.
Run the program in wizard and Deep Search mode.
When you see data you want to recover, recover it to another device as it may overwrite the data you are recovering.
How can I tell if a computer's hard drive is physically damaged?
Q. I am having boot problems with XP and several Recover command prompts are turning up bad results:
FIXMBR - " . . . The disk may be damaged"
FIXBOOT - "The boot sector cannot be fixed"
CHKDSK - "The specified drive is not valid, or there is no disk in the drive."
Also, I heard the hard drive clicking/crunching when I ran FIXBOOT.
So is my hard drive physically shot? How can I tell for certain?
P.S. - Luckily I had recently placed all of my valuable data on an external hard drive, so data recovery is not an issue for me.
FIXMBR - " . . . The disk may be damaged"
FIXBOOT - "The boot sector cannot be fixed"
CHKDSK - "The specified drive is not valid, or there is no disk in the drive."
Also, I heard the hard drive clicking/crunching when I ran FIXBOOT.
So is my hard drive physically shot? How can I tell for certain?
P.S. - Luckily I had recently placed all of my valuable data on an external hard drive, so data recovery is not an issue for me.
A. Find out the manufacturer and model of the drive. Then go out to the manufacturer's site. Look for a diagnostic utility that's usually a free download. Run a full test of the drive to be sure.
You can also try the drive in another PC as a slave, then run Windows scandisk on it, but the diagnostic utility is the most thorough.
You can also try the drive in another PC as a slave, then run Windows scandisk on it, but the diagnostic utility is the most thorough.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
