Recovering data from a laptop HDD

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brandonkick

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I have a laptop that I'm trying to recover data from. It's an HP DV6000 special edition.

The laptop won't boot into windows vista anymore (didn't when I got it either).

When I load my ubuntu live CD, the drive is unmountable.

Running photorec doesn't seem to be working worth a darn.... it gets to a certain sector count and then basically starts over working back up to that sector again and starting over again.... did this for over an hour.

I tried a MBR fix program from the hirens CD but that wouldn't allow it to post either.

What are your steps from trying to recover files from an unmountable disk?

I know the files are recoverable, one of the utilities I was trying showed me a file listing but wanted me to pay for the software to recover with. I'd like to recover these files without spending the $50 or whatever dollars it was asking for as I'm not making a dime for doing this.
 
First stop what you are doing immediately!
Second, make an image using DDRescue
Third, mount the IMAGE and attempt your data recovery from that instead of the original drive.

Even if you are "not making a dime" this will be good practice for future jobs.

Just to add, if you are not comfortable with the Linux command line, check out "Bootmed" which essentially gives you a gui for DDRescue among other things.
Thanks to Jim for posting about Bootmed recently. I had no idea that it even existed.
 
Last edited:
You could try Easeus Data Recovery Free version, which lets you recover up to a GB of data. If there is more then 1GB of data, run it multiple times, I guess--but that gets old pretty fast, I would imagine. As said, if you are in this business, you should really buy a commercial product. I find Get Data Back NTFS and FAT are terrific value and very effective.
 
brandonkick said:
What are your steps from trying to recover files from an unmountable disk?
Click to expand...

step 1 is diagnose it.. Have you done that? Are you assuming the drive is fine even though it can't mount in ubuntu?

I pull all suspected bad hard drives out and hookup to a bench machine - A)so I can hear if the drive is clicking/grinding at which point I stop, and give the customer professional data recovery options, and B) you could be dealing with a bad sata controller/port/cable/board/etc.. If they want to continue with me or it isn't clicking, then you image it second as others have said.

Running random programs on a dying hard drive isn't doing anyone a favor.
 
The advice here is really good. I guess I know better then to try to work on a drive that might be failing like this.

I'm going to pull it and make an image with DDRescue. Then go from there.

I think easus is what I tried before, and the problem was with the 1 Gb limitation.


Thanks guys!
 
JustInspired said:
First stop what you are doing immediately!
Second, make an image using DDRescue
Third, mount the IMAGE and attempt your data recovery from that instead of the original drive.

Even if you are "not making a dime" this will be good practice for future jobs.

Just to add, if you are not comfortable with the Linux command line, check out "Bootmed" which essentially gives you a gui for DDRescue among other things.
Thanks to Jim for posting about Bootmed recently. I had no idea that it even existed.
Click to expand...

Bootmedplus includes the gui for ddrescue. You have to pay for that.

Regards,
 
JustInspired said:
Yeah, a pittance which actually goes to a good cause.
Click to expand...

What is the drive model (from hard drive label) and symptoms (clicking, noisy, not spinning, etc)? I can let you know if it may have some typical problem. If DDrescue can see the drive then that is probably your best bet.
 
Data recovery is a good business, this is an area you can charge a little extra but don't price yourself out of the market, what do you charge for data recovery.
 
We actually charge a little "less" instead of "extra" :) Our charge is usually $300 (and in this case it would be $300). You can find all our rate details on our website (link in signature). Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Brian
 
Do no harm!

Whenever you deal with a customer's machine one of your conscious efforts should be to "do no harm". If a tech even suspects a drive problem then communicating with the customer should be the first step. If they care about their data or if they have no recovery media then making a clone should be the next step because losing the customer's data due to a mistake is the ultimate in delivering poor service. Then do your recovery efforts on the clone as mentioned here already.
 
Background story:

This machine is a personal laptop from one of the secretaries at work. She had her husband take it to work and some guy there told her the drive was dead. I told her I'd look at it just to make sure if she wanted. She said that was fine, nothing crucial on the drive just some photos of the family that she would like to save. She isn't really even sure the photos are on there or how many there may be.

I took the drive and found it wouldn't boot into the OS. I listened for clicking or grinding and there was none. I threw in a Live CD and tried to view the files but the drive is unmountable. I try a few of the hiren utilities and none of them get the drive booting again or allow me to recover the files. It seemed like easeUS was going to work but had a limitation of 1GB. The point is though that easeUS showed me that there were indeed files on the drive. I think the partition got scrapped somehow but I couldn't recover it.


I haven't gotten paid for data recovery. I've only ever attempted it twice before, both successfully and both times the people didn't want to pay. I only did it because I wanted to learn more about and expand my skills in data recovery. I more then likely won't get paid for this either, again I'm doing it because I like doing this kind of stuff. I've made it known that I offer services to the office at great prices and only one has taken me up on it. They were very happy with the service, the others would ask questions and basically try to get me to fix it without asking me to or paying me to but wouldn't pay me the low price I offered.

So this is just a little challenge for me, nothing that I'm going to make money off of. Just something I want to do because I enjoy it.
 
brandonkick said:
I haven't gotten paid for data recovery. I've only ever attempted it twice before, both successfully and both times the people didn't want to pay. I only did it because I wanted to learn more about and expand my skills in data recovery. I more then likely won't get paid for this either, again I'm doing it because I like doing this kind of stuff. I've made it known that I offer services to the office at great prices and only one has taken me up on it. They were very happy with the service, the others would ask questions and basically try to get me to fix it without asking me to or paying me to but wouldn't pay me the low price I offered.

So this is just a little challenge for me, nothing that I'm going to make money off of. Just something I want to do because I enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Not to bash to much, but if you gave them the data without being paid, wtf? That's just bad business and low value of your skill and knowledge.
 
He's doing a favour for an acquaintance, learning in a field he obviously isn't very familar with. He's doing the right thing by not charging because he doesn't not yet have the skills to charge for. Well done OP, good one to learn on.
 
I've recovered the data using EaseUS. I just did it twice as there was only just under 2GB of real usable data that they wanted (pictures).

I then formatted the drive, reloaded windows vista home premium and started to get it set back up to find out that this drive is crapping the bed big time. I've learned my lesson about imaging drives first before attempting recovery.


As far as not getting paid: I knew they weren't going to pay before I offered. This woman might give me something for my time, but it won't be anything significant. About one out of every four photos was messed up I'm guessing due to whatever happened to the drive but I did also notice that many times there were duplicates of the photos some messed up and some not. They will have to sift through them and keep the good ones they want.

I also do a lot of work as a favor to friends and family because I know the economy is tough. I try to help people when I can or when it can help me. I'm working out a deal right now to trade some computer repair services for some paint repair work on my car.

It's a little different when this stuff isn't your main source of income.
 
Simple. Tell her you can recover it with software that she needs to purchase. I don't understand why it is being discussed if it is recoverable with software.

Good luck
 
Recovery complete. The hard drive is dying.

I got all of the .jpeg files off of the machine with easeUS by running it twice due to the 1GB limitation.

I then formatted it and tried to reload vista, but it was acting rather wonky. Running a disk check took hours and made no difference.

Called it a bad drive. The only bad thing about the recovery is that it took a ton of picture files that were crap like cached files from the internet and so on. They have to sift through a few thousand pics to get the ones they want, but hey it's better then nothing.
 
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