Recovery Software - That Can Recover From Sections Of The Failed Hd?

[joko]

my laptop HD has failed - wouldnt boot up and was saying there was no OS installed, and a short DST failure. None of the recovery options worked - there is a recovery partition on it but it couldnt access it.
i did have a malware attack just before it happened, i restored the machine to a previous state but i dont know if that is the cause of this issue - whether its a hardware or software issue.
the drive usually runs with just a soft whirring noise and then when it gets to the dodgy bit, it starts to make little popping noises, like its trying but being prevented from whirring.

ive taken it out and tried it on another machine.
the other laptop doesnt 'see' it - but various recovery software ive tried, can access the drive and bring up loads of my data for me to recover - thousands of items that look fine and uncorrupted.
however there seems to be a small corrupted section of the drive which eventually causes the data search to stop or freeze or stop reading it - as i dont know where the section is, i cannot isolate it and just access the rest of the drive.
I cannot yet seem to save what it finds up to that point.

does anyone know of any specific software that can divide up the drive in sections - or even partition off the corrupted bit so i can save the rest?
I've fairly tech savvy so open to getting stuck in and sorting it out if i can.

once i've salvaged what i can, i will reformat etc in case i can save the physical drive.

NB: most of the stuff is backed up, i have 12 1TB external H drives, full of most of my stuff - but itd been a wee while since i last backed anything up, and there are some items i would like to recover if possible.

Thanks :)

[Kidas]

Yuk.

There may be other alternatives, but it sounds like you are following the best path - take the disk out of the machine, install it in an external case and try to extract the data.

Windows doesn't like having two system disks attached, so it might be easier if you can attach the thing to either a linux or a Mac-based machine. Macs can read NTFS, but can't write to them - so not a problem.

I have no idea if the thing is failing because of the malware attack, or if it is a hardware thing. It sounds like hardware, but it seems like too much of a coincidence.

I have found with hardware issues that storing the disk in a freezer for a few hours before trying to hook it up to another machine can help to squeeze a bit of life out of an otherwise dead disk.

However, it does sound as though that sector is truly dead.

Formatting or partitioning is likely to destroy more data.
But you already knew that....

Good luck!

[Buenchico]

I know what I'd try but, as I've never actually done it, I certainly can't say whether it would work or not:

I'd want to get away from Windows altogether and boot whichever computer the drive is currently in using a Linux Live USB drive. See here for how to make a Ubuntu Live USB drive: https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0
(NB: You might need to go into the computer's BIOS to persuade it boot from a USB drive. If memory serves me correctly, you actually need to tell your computer that it's a hard drive).

Then I'd install and play with these tools to see what I could get from them:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15761/recover-data-like-a-forensics-expert-using-an-ubuntu-live-cd/

(I'm sorry that's a bit vague but it's quite some time since I last created a Linux USB drive and I've certainly never used the 'forensics' tools in my link).

[joko]

Thanks all

at the moment, the drive claims it doesnt have an operating system installed... it did have, but obviously thats not working.
it tells me to install one
i dont know if the other machine can tell it has an OS on it - and thats why it wont access it itself as a separate drive, or that it just cant access it, or whether that has just gone now.

I will try the ubuntu thing though.

[Buenchico]

Just an additional thought:
If you take a drive out of one computer and insert it into another then, even if Windows can access it, you won't (in the first instance) be able to view all of the data on it. You need to 'take ownership' of the drive first. Have you actually done that?

http://preyerplanning.com/take-ownership-of-entire-hard-drive-in-windows-7.pdf

[joko]

thanks, i havent done that, as the laptop cant even see its there - it knows something has been plugged in but nothing shows up in the drives etc window.
so far i have only been able to access it through recovery software

[Hymie]

When I have had similar problems with PC hard drives, I have used something like this to sort it out:-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIRENS-BOOT-DISC-FIX-REPAIR-RECOVERY-CD-DVD-FOR-WIN-XP-VISTA-7-8-8-1-10-PC/112319636137?epid=1488655971&hash=item1a26c5a2a9:g:FQIAAOSwgZ1XuhyV

The disk contains a number of open source programs that boot up under DOS and allow you to interrogate the PC disks and make very low level changes to the disk system (including wiping everything – so use with care) – without having to boot from any drive.
But you may need to access the BIOS, to set it to boot from the CD/DVD disk drive.

I have purchased a couple of these disks – that come with a number of common programs which pay for themselves after one use.

A number of ebay sellers have compiled these disks containing open source programs – some containing more programs than others – you need to read the listings carefully.

[david1345]

There are many Data recovery software which you can actually buy online. This software will help you to recover any kind of lost data which you may have deleted unwillingly. You can recover data from Hard Disk as well as any removable drive. Recuva is the best data recovery software that is available for download online. You have to purchase it for accessing the full features of the software. In the free version, you can see the lost data but you cannot recover all. If you need more support you can check https://microsoftsupport.co/microsoft-support-uk