1. #1
    Scarab Lord Azgraal's Avatar
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    Question copying a failed HDD

    A couple days ago my gf's laptop's hdd failed and now it can't boot.

    I used a pen drive with the latest ubuntu build to boot it and try to manually copy all important data she had on it, but the OS wont let me access to said hdd because it detects it is failing/failed. (when i try to boot windows up the error it prints is related to the hdd's write function not working)

    Now, i know there are tools to clone failed hdds to another drive, ive found a couple of those tools, but almost all of them are unsupported for win7 64bit, my gf's laptop original OS.

    I have an external HDD laying about that could be used as recipient of the cloned data, but thing is, it too has important things on it and i cant afford to erase/move them. ( even with all this data on it, the external HDD has more than double free space than the size of the failed hdd). Is there any way i can clone the failed hdd into a folder on the external hdd without having to erase it?

  2. #2
    um

    well thats dependant on the cause of the failure. if its just an os/data corruption failure. or a failure of the laptop hdd controler. you should be able to just pull it out. hook it up to a IDE/SATA to USB adapter and pull the data off from any windows machine

    if its an out right physical failure. unless you can get it to run long enough. only option would be a data recovery service. or pulling the platters out and putting them in another HDD. which i would not recommend doing unless that is something you do for a living to begin with.

    data recovery software only works if there is no physical failure of the drive.

  3. #3
    Epic!
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    Try turning off SMART detection in your BIOS if that's an option, otherwise I suspect the other poster is correct and you'd need to go to DriveSavers or a similar service.

    Also this is the perfect thread to promote simple weekly backups. Take your time to buy a 2TB external USB 2.0 HDD and just run Windows Backup once weekly. If you have multiple machines, Western Digital offers external HDDs with ethernet connectivity...or you could get a storage enabled router like a Linksys E3200.

  4. #4
    I always forget SMART for some reason

    as for data backups. if you really want some extra sense of security. and don't care about dropping the money. i fully support 2 raid 5 NAS devices storing system backups and critical/non replaceable files. with 1 NAS replicating all data to a second NAS of site. also handy for backing up hosts on the other end. its how i keep my systems and my moms systems backed up with data stored off site.

    yea its overkill but i work in data backup in restore so its expected. plus im a strong beliver in 3 backups of any file. local copy. backup copy and remote backup copy.

  5. #5
    Scarab Lord Azgraal's Avatar
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    Ill try the SMART solution. Regarding the idea of connecting the hdd to another pc it wouldnt be a good idea because my gf rang the laptop's company and they said "at the moment" they couldn't provide a data recovery service, even thought the laptop is still under warranty. They just offered to replace the broken piece of hardware. So due to that, i can't open it without voiding the warranty, something my gf doesn't want.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Migas11 View Post
    Ill try the SMART solution. Regarding the idea of connecting the hdd to another pc it wouldnt be a good idea because my gf rang the laptop's company and they said "at the moment" they couldn't provide a data recovery service, even thought the laptop is still under warranty. They just offered to replace the broken piece of hardware. So due to that, i can't open it without voiding the warranty, something my gf doesn't want.
    I've personally never seen a void indicator attached to the HDD bay of a laptop. and most laptop HDD"s are one screw to remove the cover. and then either pull or maybe 4 more inside holding it that you remove to lift out. so they shouldnt even be able to tell the HDD was removed. depending on when the warrenty is up on the laptop i'd prob still go forward with it. as if you have to ship the laptop off just for a new HDD your looking at prob atleast 3 weeks with it being gone . just my thoughts., I'd do some web research on the particular model to see if anyones ever indicated a warrenty void indicator.

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