My Toshbia Harddrive died. How can I get the data back?

[RATEDRKO]

My toshiba harddrive died after a few months of receiving it. I got it for Christmas last year. The original harddrive died in June and was replaced with a new one within two weeks. In September the new harddrive crashed and died. I took it to a local shop to get the data, but they were unable to get the data.

I really need this data back. It has a lot of important files. What can I do to get the data?

 

[mjf]

That's really bad luck!
Assuming the drive is still in the computer and will spin up you could try booting to a live linux CD. A good free one would be puppy linux.
Get a friend to download it and burn to a CD. Boot your laptop from the CD and see if you can browse to the "dead" HDD and pull files off to an external USB HDD.
There are businesses that recover data but I think it is an expensive service.

 

[RATEDRKO]

The local repair shop said that the drive will not spin up. My friend said I should take it to another shop who he said is better, but I don't want to lose more money.

Toshiba is not taking responsibility of giving me a bad harddrive. What a terrible repair job they did!

 

[LiquidSnak]

If the hard drive is toast and won't spin up (if it doesn't, it won't hurt to try mjf's suggestion) then the option is to send it to a data retrieval company, who will pull the platters and use their equipment to get your data. Last HDD I fried I looked into this, and it was, at the time, around $1200.

 

[Tepid]

correcet, if the HDD will not spin up, then it is toast and the only ones who have a chance and retrieving data but is still not guaranteed to be any good,,, is a Data Recovery company which will charge you from $300 to $3000 + to recover the data.

 

[belikexp]

Unless the data is REALLY REALLY important just move on and learn a lesson. Make backups.

I tried getting data recovered and paid $500. What a mistake...

Do one or more of the following:

1) make a clone of your drive to back up
2) sync important drives to an external drive.
3) make backup to an off line company
) make backups to a DVD.

 

[mjf]

Yes to backups of course.
I suggest you buy a cheap (eg. WDElements 500GB portable USB) drive.
(small convenient little thing)
The Windows built in backup will let you do 2 things
- backup files and folders. Plus you may also put stuff on usb flash sticks etc.
- make an image of the whole laptop disk (very simple). If your HDD dies again! You just reimage back to the new one. Absolutely essential thing to get used to.

Work on the worst case scenario: next time you turn on the PC it may not work but you have your important data.

 

[RATEDRKO]

I have two external drives. I was just too over confident in the new drive. I wasn't expecting it to die in 2 months. Lesson well learned.

 

[Tepid]

There are 2 groups of people in this world.....

Those who HAVE lost data

And those who WILL lose data

It is inevitable

 

[eldinv]

Had that happen some important documents and about 200GB of Media. Every since, imaging is my best friend.

Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Forums

 

[belikexp]

I use clonezilla Clonezilla to clone my drives to backups. Takes about an hour to do 320gigs.

 

[pat247]

Go to toshiba dot com, plug in the serial # for the laptop and if found you can purchase backup CD/DVD of the laptop. I repaired a toshiba laptop for a friend using this method and was able to restore the laptop to factory new.

 

[karlsnooks]

My toshiba harddrive died after a few months of receiving it. I got it for Christmas last year. The original harddrive died in June and was replaced with a new one within two weeks. In September the new harddrive crashed and died. I took it to a local shop to get the data, but they were unable to get the data.

I really need this data back. It has a lot of important files. What can I do to get the data?

Several things:
1. As pointed out, sending the hdd off to a company which provides the data recovery service is expensive. To pay $1000 and more is to be expected.


2. Try this: but I make no guarantees-- put the hdd into a ziplock bag. Put into the refrigerator. Leave there for at least 8 hours (some say to put into the freezer compartment). Remove and immediately connect and try to use. If it works, wonderful. If it doesn't nothing lost except for a little time.

3. Use the best backup and restore software for Windows 7, namely, Win 7 Backup and Restore. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

4. Since no doubt, you will have questions on other matters at some point in time, please complete your system specs so that we can better help you.

​

HOW TO FILL OUT YOUR SYSTEM SPECS


In the line at the top of www.SevenForums.com you will see UserCP.
That is an abbreviation for User Control Panel.
Click on UserCP.
In the left-hand column, under Your Profile you will see Edit System Spec.
Click on Edit System Spec
You can copy and paste from the output of Speccy, Speccy - System Information - Free Download to fill out much of the info. Be sure to use the Other Info section of your System Specs for such info as your optical drive, your wireless adapter, your speakers, etc.

​

 

[ukgovsucks]

This may sound daft, but I had a 1Tb Samsung SATA Drive go a knacker last year and I too had some data that I did not back up. (Learnt my lesson since! lol). However what I did was remove the board from underneath another hard drive of the same make/model/size and temporarily swapped it with the knackered drives board. Hooked everything up, and ta daaa, it worked! Got all my data off it then put the board back to the original drive.

Might be worth a go if you are really that desperate. You could see if you can get a faulty drive off ebay for dirt cheap and take a gamble that their drive don't have the same fault? I'm not guaranteeing anything here, but it worked for me!

 

[mjf]

This may sound daft, but I had a 1Tb Samsung SATA Drive go a knacker last year and I too had some data that I did not back up. (Learnt my lesson since! lol). However what I did was remove the board from underneath another hard drive of the same make/model/size and temporarily swapped it with the knackered drives board. Hooked everything up, and ta daaa, it worked! Got all my data off it then put the board back to the original drive.

Might be worth a go if you are really that desperate. You could see if you can get a faulty drive off ebay for dirt cheap and take a gamble that their drive don't have the same fault? I'm not guaranteeing anything here, but it worked for me!

Good idea. But does this control board actually affect the disk spinning up?
Is the Fix-it man giving the OP the correct info when he says the disk won't spin up - Can you actually hear the disk spinning?

 

[LiquidSnak]

Well, a bad board could not spin the disk up. Again, this is an inexpensive suggestion that might have the solution to your problem.

I would try:

• Booting from CD and attempting to pull your info.
  
• Swapping the boards if you feel you can
  
• Data recovery.

 

[mjf]

Well, a bad board could not spin the disk up. Again, this is an inexpensive suggestion that might have the solution to your problem.

I would try:

• Booting from CD and attempting to pull your info.
• Swapping the boards if you feel you can
• Data recovery.

Read all the thread

 

[LiquidSnak]

I know all those were suggested, but an organised list sometimes helps me out.

 

[ukgovsucks]

This may sound daft, but I had a 1Tb Samsung SATA Drive go a knacker last year and I too had some data that I did not back up. (Learnt my lesson since! lol). However what I did was remove the board from underneath another hard drive of the same make/model/size and temporarily swapped it with the knackered drives board. Hooked everything up, and ta daaa, it worked! Got all my data off it then put the board back to the original drive.

Might be worth a go if you are really that desperate. You could see if you can get a faulty drive off ebay for dirt cheap and take a gamble that their drive don't have the same fault? I'm not guaranteeing anything here, but it worked for me!

Good idea. But does this control board actually affect the disk spinning up?
Is the Fix-it man giving the OP the correct info when he says the disk won't spin up - Can you actually hear the disk spinning?

I suppose it depends on the fault.
My dodgy drive didn't spin, in fact it was stone cold too. So as far as I was concerned at the time it was dead! But as I was so desperate for the data I just tried what I previously said and it happened to work. lol.
Hey, anything is worth a go, as long as you don't gamble with too much money.