HDD possibly dead, can i still backup my data?

Hi Sevenforums.

I have recently had problems with my laptop. I believe that my HDD is about to die, or is dead, but im not sure. (Im not much of a HDD specialist).
Suddently my laptop froze completely. I had a lot of things going on, and then it just froze. There was nothing i could do, but hold the power button, to force it to shut down. When i restarted it, my nightmare began.
I could no longer boot normally, it would run VERY slow, when i tried to repair.
I have tried several attempts to regain control of my HDD.
First i had CHKDSK running, throughout the night, and it solved a bunch of errors. As i though that i have fixed the issue, it became even worse! Now i could not even boot up into the repair mode, it simply just could not boot. (The loading bar, with the Microsoft Corporation (R) was stuck in forever). As i tried different attempts i ended up with this error message:
"SMART Failure Predicted on Hard Disk 0: ST9500325AS-(S1)" and it told me to backup my data asap. But since i could not boot it up to save my data, i fetched another HDD, and reinstalled my Windows 7 (Home Premium 32-bit, as the one before). I then tried with a USB connection, to connect my old HDD to my laptop. It showed up in My Computer, as the E drive, but would not load. I only had it for 10 minutes, before i gave up. The HDD is pretty filled (80-90%), so should i give it another chance and wait for longer?
Nevertheless, then i started to Google again, (Many times stumbling upon this forum, with users with similar issues, but none helped me), but i found this Paragon Rescue Kit 11 Free Edition. So i put back my old HDD, loaded up the program.
Then as i tried to search for boot problems on the HDD, it first had this issue: "I/O", something like that. I tried to reboot, and the error disappeared. Well, then this error appeared "No HDD installed".
And this is where i am now, stuck at this point, i just want to rescue my data, but im afraid its too late.
Does someone in here have healing hands(solutions), i would be very happy!

Thanks in advance
-kx4

Golden said:

Lets see if you can rescue the files. Try this tutorial especially developed for this sort of situation:
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...cy-backup.html

I will try this solution right away, thank you very much!

I'll post later about the results of this.

Okay so i have fiddled a little bit with Peppermint 4, but with absolutely no luck.
When i boot into it, i get this message:

ISOLINUX 4.01 debian-20100714 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot: _

I have tried to format my USB into Fat32, and Fat. No luck.
I have tried to rename some of the files (I Googled the errormessage, and that solution came up). No luck.
I have tried to type this boot parameter: "mboot.c32 -c boot.cfg". No luck.
But neither of them worked. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Also, i can not exclude the possibility of virus/malware being the cause. So that might be a factor as well.

mjf said:

Another light weight linux distro is Puppy linux (don't let the name put you off). You can boot from a CD or USB flash drive like the advice given above.
Puppy Linux Community Home - Getting Started

Try Puppy Linux as mjf suggested.

Download Lucid Puppy Ubuntu-Compatible Build lupu-528.005.iso (132.6MB) Download latest Puppy Linux release

Create your bootable USB pendrive with Rufus v1.4.1 (534 KB) Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Boot your system with it.

How-to : Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

Kx4 said:

Okay so i have fiddled a little bit with Peppermint 4, but with absolutely no luck.
When i boot into it, i get this message:

ISOLINUX 4.01 debian-20100714 ETCD Copyright (C) 1994-2010 H. Peter Anvin et al
No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!
boot: _

I have tried to format my USB into Fat32, and Fat. No luck.
I have tried to rename some of the files (I Googled the errormessage, and that solution came up). No luck.
I have tried to type this boot parameter: "mboot.c32 -c boot.cfg". No luck.
But neither of them worked. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Also, i can not exclude the possibility of virus/malware being the cause. So that might be a factor as well.

On the Peppermint issue, you perhaps didn't do it right.

Download Peppermint 4 32 bit from 1. Download and Install | Peppermint | The Linux Desktop OS. The only difference is you will be now downloading Peppermint 4, the latest version.

Use Rufus to create your bootable pen drive. ( I think you didn't create it that way as detailed in Golden's tutorial.)

You need not format your pen drive prior to using Rufus. Rufus will format it automatically once you show the location of the ISO and click on Start. ( Yep, if you have any valuable data on the pen drive, backup prior to Rufus formatting it, for you will lose all of it.)



Boot from the pen drive using the one-time bootmenu.



In the menu, highlight "Try Peppermint OS Live" - if not selected already - and press Enter.

You may have to wait a few moments, for the OS to load.

Hello
Thank you for your responses so far.
I am sorry i have not been able to reply, but i finally found time to try to revive this old bud.
As of right now i am downloading Lucid Puppy, and i'll again return with the outcome of this.
Thanks to everyone trying to help me, greatly apreciated!

@jumanji I did do everything right, freshly formated the drive(FAT32), and then installing the .iso with Rufus, but it didnt work. I hope im luckier with Lucid Puppy :)

I'm afraid there is nothing to save. This error showed up while trying to access my folders:

I can see all the different folders on my drive, though everyone has that "!" Marked on them. Except the Windows folder, which opened does not show any content at all.