how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?

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  1. Posts : 6,458
    x64 (6.3.9600) Win8.1 Pro & soon dual boot x64 (6.1.7601) Win7_SP1 HomePrem
       #31

    ding-ding-ding-ding-ding ... Can I select a prize from the third shelf?

    Glad it worked.

    Now jumanji can guide you through the rest of his plan.

    Back to the sidelines for me, good luck - you have some excellent help on the thread already.

    Bill
    .
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #32

    Canuck67 said:
    .......what do you want me to plug in the usb port?
    Any USB drive say a pendrive, external HDD
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  3. Posts : 74
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #33

    Yes, it gives me option 4. USB
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  4. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #34

    OK, we have hit the gold mine, thanks to Slarty.(.( I don't want Slarty to retire from this thread. I want him to strike me on my knuckles if I go blatantly wrong as we proceed and the tinkerer ICit2.....LOL too :))

    Now back to business. The real work starts now.

    Our intention is to run Partition Wizard from a bootable pendrive and try our luck to resurrect the hard drive. ( I have to refresh myself by going back on this thread since too many things have gone in various threads that I may get easily confused but I will refresh later.)

    Now have an empty pendrive ready. Backup all data in it elsewhere for it will be lost now.

    Download Partition Wizard Home Edition bootable CD version 48.34MB from Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

    Download Rufus 1.4.9 (615KB) from Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

    By default these will be downloaded into the Downloads folder.

    how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?-17-06-2014-08-04-59.jpg

    Plug in your empty pendrive and click on Rufus to run. Check that your correct pendrive is shown on it.

    Leave most of the settings to default and with "Create a bootable disk using" select "ISO Image" from the drop down arrow and then click on the drive icon next to it.

    In the ensuing dialog box, navigate to the Downloads folder and click on the pwhe811.iso to select it.

    Check "Using ISO: pwhe811.iso" appears at the bottom of the Rufus Screen.

    Click on Start. Don't relax.

    how do I recover data from a non responsive hard drive?-17-06-2014-08-10-12.jpg

    In the ensuing dialog box, click on Yes. Rufus will automatically download the new vesamenu and use it to create the bootable pendrive.

    Wait for it to complete writing the bootable ISO to the pendrive.

    When completed close Rufus, safely remove the pendrive.

    Now you are ready to boot from the pendrive and run PW.

    I hope you have already plugged in your HDD back into where it was as an internal drive.

    Run PW from Windows. If Windows fumbles and tumbles as before, plug in the pendrive, reboot, select USB in the onetime bootmenu and allow Partition Wizard to boot.

    You may do it tom morning after your sleep.
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  5. Posts : 74
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
    Thread Starter
       #35

    okay, I'll do all of that.

    Assuming I have to boot from the usb .... what do I do then?

    If everything goes well, will PW allow me to copy files from the dead drive to my working drive? Or are there other steps I need to take first?
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 6,458
    x64 (6.3.9600) Win8.1 Pro & soon dual boot x64 (6.1.7601) Win7_SP1 HomePrem
       #36

    I won't retire from the thread, but I am just about to retire for the day. :)

    @Canuck67: It sounds to me as though jumanji is preparing you for all contingencies.

    If you read the end of post# 34, it ends (and I'm paraphrasing)
    "safely remove USB from computer, try PW from Windows, if it staggers because of the faulty drive, boot from pen drive."

    I want to emphasize that the HD should be returned to the machine as an internal drive and not attached as an external when you attempt PW. This would be true for the 1st attempt using Windows PW again or if you resort to the portable PW on the pen drive. It just makes things easier and has averted other issues in some cases.
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  7. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #37

    Canuck67 said:
    .....Assuming I have to boot from the usb .... what do I do then?

    If everything goes well, will PW allow me to copy files from the dead drive to my working drive? Or are there other steps I need to take first?
    To boot from the PW pendrive:

    Shut down your PC.

    Plugin the PW Pendrive.

    Power on the PC.

    At the first screen which you said lasts only for half-a-second hit Shift+F8, right?, to bring the one time boot menu.

    In the ensuing boot devices menu, use the up/down arrow keys on the keyboard to highlight USB and press Enter Key.

    Hopefully it will boot from the pendrive.

    It may take sometime for the boot process to complete so just watch and wait. Finally Partition Wizard wil kick in. It is the same as you see when you run it on Windows - nothing different except it now runs on Linux from the pendrive.

    Post the screenshot. ( You have to take a camera snap. Try if you have a good camera tuned to closeup or Micro.Turn off the autoflash and use available light including the room lights. The more the light the better. You may also try a mobile phone camera. The shot I posted earlier showing the first Bios screen was taken by my lowly camera and I am no expert photographer :).Don't bother if you can't get a good and intelligible shot. Just describe in detail what you see and we will question you if we need more info than you described and give instructions on how to proceed further.)

    PW will not allow you to copy files. But if it succeeds showing all the partitions after we go through a quick/deep scan and rebuild MBR exercise we may restore it to its original condition as before to access the data as usual. If it proves not possible, we have to resort to data recovery options. At the moment we really do not know what is the cause so we are only trying a known technique that has been successful in many cases and also not successful in many cases. We are still probing.
    Last edited by jumanji; 18 Jun 2014 at 09:22.
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  8. Posts : 21,004
    Desk1 7 Home Prem / Desk2 10 Pro / Main lap Asus ROG 10 Pro 2 laptop Toshiba 7 Pro Asus P2520 7 & 10
       #38

    Go on your knuckles LOL!! I just woke up and getting ready for wrok when I saw the breakthrough - good on you Slarty!! and soem stuff for Jumanji to work on.

    I was goig to suggest just start tapping the DEL key before powering up which is what I do with those pesky quick posts but thngs are on the move. I am just glad for Canuck that there has been movement. :)

    PS Meant to mention if I didn't before the Ubuntu will let you or should do into that drive and you can copy / paste etc etc if you want to another drive even if it is really on it's last gasp.
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  9. Posts : 6,458
    x64 (6.3.9600) Win8.1 Pro & soon dual boot x64 (6.1.7601) Win7_SP1 HomePrem
       #39

    jumanji said:
    At the first screen which you said lasts only for half-a-second hit alt+F8, right?, to bring the one time boot menu.
    Shift+F8

    No knuckle busting, my friend jumanji.

    Bill
    .
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #40

    yep, Shift+F8. My bugle call to you to watch and catch worked .Thanks for sparing my knuckles :). Edited.
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