RAW HDD - Recovery Options

[SUVE]

Hello Folks,

I have several spare HDD lying some of which are being flashed across my laptop as 'RAW' HDD (when either added as a secondary HDD internally or externally) even though prior to that 'RAW' they had full working operating system with all associated files & programs. I need the information back from each of these respective HDD.

I have ideas on what I could do to get myself out of this scenario; however I wanted to run this issue past you guys so as to seek a wider opinion base on any particular recovery software or solutions any of you've had found that you'd recommend/endorse. Or any particular methods or measures you have used successfully.

I'd be interested in your input on this undoubtedly common issue that strikes most computer users at some point.

[Artann]

What kind of information are you trying to recover from those HDD?

[MM78]

If you need to recover data from your HDD, I do suggest R-Studio. It takes a while but it will work as long as the HDD is functioning.

[SUVE]

Artann
I am trying to recover some computer based Training (CBT) applications & a few specialist ISO software images on there & the rest would be word/excel based documents backdating a few thousand man hours worth of work on them.

marysman78
I appreciate your suggestion. I will be looking at R-Studio this weekend to review its features & capabilities, I had heard of it but I have never used it before.

I am pondering which is the 'BEST' package to use for these recovery purposes, there are so many....at the moment I am thinking O&O DiskRecovery looks like one of the 'best' () to use....but I am open to suggestions/opinions on here.It was one the reasons I opened up this post.

I have one 'dead' disk that will have to be professional recovered by a specialist data recovery firm, the rest of the HDD are pretty much 'RAW' graded HDD.

[yotano211]

You could check if the hard drive with bad with using HDtune. They have a section tab that will tell you if you have bad sectors.

[SUVE]

I could try that, that is one option worth exploring I guess.

I think most of the issues are due to the HDD being manually handled & moved around as I usually have several HDD for the same laptop; I continually swap in & out these various HDD as either a primary or secondary HDD on the laptop.

[Elijah]

Try GetDataBack. I had this issue recently; one day the HDD just decided to report "RAW" file system. I panicked but then tried GetDataBack and it recovered every file.

[rsot]

I had a corrupted HDD about 6 years back due to virus attack - I had info from it physical removed for about 300. Was a specialized recovery company. Or costed me 150 - was a bit high but nowhere near the mid 3-digit or 4 digit range.

[GreenBean]

I would be concerned about letting outsiders 'touch' my gear.

Tin hat type.

[rsot]

True - I did not have anything on it that was privy to outsiders at least.

[SUVE]

Interesting replies.

I will review all the various recovery programs mentioned so far, me still biased towards O&O though.

RSOT, I appreciate you sharing your experience, I sense your HDD was not 'dead' though ??? ......I would say that 6 years is a long time in computer terms & I am certain that in that time period some very advanced data recovery programs have come to the consumer market or even specialists kits can be found if you looked hard enough (I think that O&O is professional grade recovery software), some of which are mentioned on this thread which would do the trick.

I am a bit like GB in my way of thinking with regards to being guarded/protective of my data, esp it being handed over to any third party....I do have one 'dead' HDD that will need to be outsourced but the others are within my expertise & understanding to recover them.

I appreciate the replies.