Files gone from external hard drive

Quarrybaby

I was having trouble with my external hard drive. It was working really slowly and some files wouldnt open. I ran the error checking tool, but after nearly 5 hours it wasnt even a fraction of the way completed so I stopped it. But when I went to look at the files on it the hard drive afterwards they had all gone Does anyone have any ideas on what might have happened, any how I can get them back???? Hundreds of photos..... gone :mad:

Thanks

Kevster

Hi,

This happened to my own external disk recently and I strongly suggest that you back-up whatever you can from the disk ASAP. It sounds like a hardware fault, and you will probably have to buy a new one. My old disk was 40GB, but I bought a new 500GB one for half the price I bought my old one.

Quarrybaby

Well thats my problem, I have no files to back up they are all gone.

Kevster

Ah, bugger - I missed that line. You should get yourself recovery software then. I bought a program called Recover My Files years ago for an unrelated 'mishap', and it saved my life. you should keep an eye on this thread too:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055500795

Quarrybaby

Yeah i've been downloading programmes like that all day but to no avail..... might as well try one more

I googled and seen a few places on line that say they can recover the files.....ranging in price from 300 to 1000 :eek: hopefully i can avoid that cost :mad:

Kevster

I actually went and bought Recover My Files for around 80 Euro. It was that important that I recovered my files that I just decided to buy a professional piece of software and not bother trying to download something illegally.

Are you in Dublin? I suggest going into Peats or Maplins around the Parnell / Henry street area to see what they say. You never know - they MIGHT be cheaper than the quotes you're getting online.

Kevin

CHW

When you plug the disk in, can you see any files at all? If not, when you check the properties of the disk, is it showing the correct size?

It's possible that there is a problem with the caddy/enclosure that the disk is in. Would be worth connecting directly to the IDE/SATA connection inside a PC, and seeing if you get the same results.

Quarrybaby

I havent downloaded anything illegally!!!!!!

I tried a few 'Free' file recovery programmes, where you see if they can find your files, and if they do, you pay for the full version which will recover them, but so far none of them have found any files!!!!! Yeah I work in Dublin so I think I will go into Maplins tomorrow and see what they say.

CHW i'm afraid I have no idea what the IDE/SATA connection is!!! I'm a novice when it comes to that sort of thing

CHW

Have you tried the demo version of File Scavenger? Give it a go if you haven't. http://www.quetek.com/download.htm If it can see files, then there is a chance. If it can't, well don't loose hope yet, it could be a hardware issue with the enclosure or even the cable connecting the enclosure to the PC.

I presume the hard drive is being detected when you plug it in? If it is, go into Windows Explorer, right-click the drive, select Properties, and see if it's at least showing the correct size.

Don't worry about IDE/SATA just yet. Do you know the brand/model number of the hard drive?

Quarrybaby

The brand is Maxtor.... 250GB. The drive is showing in explorer, but when I right click on it the timer icon comes up for ages and then it stops responding so I cant check if it is seeing it as the right size.

Quarrybaby

Oh there is hope!!!! I downloaded fils scavenger, and I kept getting messages about bad sectors, but when it stopped some of my lost files were there to preview!!!!! Any idead what bad sectors are???

CHW

Quarrybaby wrote: »

Oh there is hope!!!! I downloaded fils scavenger, and I kept getting messages about bad sectors, but when it stopped some of my lost files were there to preview!!!!! Any idead what bad sectors are???

Bad sectors are bad news. Likely that the hard drive inside is dying. You may have limited times that the disk will work before it dies completely. It could last months, weeks or minutes; you can't depend on it. You want to get what you can off it asap (storing it away without powering it up is fine, it's the amount of times you try to power it up that could be critical).

Quarrybaby

Oh crap. I just plugged it out!!!!!!! I just recovered some of the files with file scavenger, and saved them to a new folder, not on the problem drive, so when i opened the folder to view them the pictures were all there, but then they all changed to this [URL="[URL=http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unknown000008.jpg][IMG]http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/1985/unknown000008.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

CHW

Could be part of the evaluation version that the pictures are incomplete. Were you able to see complete previews of any of your pictures?

With bad sectors, some of your pictures may be irrecoverable, but you may be able to get some of them back.

meglome

Kevster wrote: »

Ah, bugger - I missed that line. You should get yourself recovery software then. I bought a program called Recover My Files years ago for an unrelated 'mishap', and it saved my life. you should keep an eye on this thread too:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055500795

Had to use Recover My Files about a month of so ago and it saved my life. Well it at least saved me crying in public for not backing up some critical files.

Quarrybaby

It's weird, when I open the folder the pictures are all there, I can see them perfectly, but when they have all loaded, they change to the image that I have posted above???? This happens every time I open the folder....

I just rang my local PC World and the guy that answered the phone seemed pretty clueless, but he said they do a data recovery service for 50 euro.... seems a bit cheap compared to some of the other places I have seen online.... Do u think it could be too good to be true and they might mess it up even more!!!

Quarrybaby

meglome wrote: »

Had to use Recover My Files about a month of so ago and it saved my life. Well it at least saved me crying in public for not backing up some critical files.

I really do feel like crying :mad: Just for future reference, how do you back up your files?? I have mainly .jpeg and .avi files on it. I stupidly presumed they would be safe enough on the external memory.... So do you have yours backed up on to a second external memory..???

CHW

Quarrybaby wrote: »

It's weird, when I open the folder the pictures are all there, I can see them perfectly, but when they have all loaded, they change to the image that I have posted above???? This happens every time I open the folder....

Could be because the software is a demo and restricted. Are they all cropped like this?

Quarrybaby wrote: »

I just rang my local PC World and the guy that answered the phone seemed pretty clueless, but he said they do a data recovery service for 50 euro.... seems a bit cheap compared to some of the other places I have seen online.... Do u think it could be too good to be true and they might mess it up even more!!!

Sounds about right, about being clueless! I have no idea how detailed their recovery methods are, but I'd doubt it's much beyond recovering from the recycling bin. Probably too good to be true, but I'd ask them exactly what they plan on doing before letting them loose with your hardware.

Quarrybaby

I've been given a CD called ImageRecall that may recover my pictures, but when I try to run the programme I get this [URL="[URL=http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshota.jpg][IMG]http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2808/screenshota.th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]"][/url]

I'm really not having much luck with my computer these days.... Any ideas what this means...??

Thanks

CHW

Looks like a visual basic control that's missing from your computer. If you google the filename, you should be able to find it an download it to your computer. Check your private messages. Might be on the disk you were given, but may have to be installed somewhere in the windows directory or subfolder.

Quarrybaby

When I go to download, it is a .rar file.... not sure what programme to open it with?

CHW

7-zip is a free decompressor, the file you want will be compressed inside the rar file. You can get 7-zip from here: http://www.7-zip.org/

Adder1

you could try "pc inspector file recovery" download from http://www.convar.com/
One other thing don`t allow your anti virus to scan the drive as it could tip it completely over the edge also cancel the auto play don`t let it try to display files on disc ect.you could try to run check CHKDSK on the drive (after recovery) to do this
1 right click on the disk in my computer
2 select properties
3 click on tools
4 click on check now
5 in the popup box tick both options
6 click start

Let us know how you get on
sorry just remembered you said you ran error checking no harm to try again but first try recovery. duffman85`s utility looks a good option I haven`t seen this one before but have downloaded it just now thanks duffman85! the error checking will take a long time especialy as it is on usb at least it did with some discs I ran it on for friends

duffman85

hi OP,

You could try TestDisk/Photorec.

It's a free open source piece of software for recovering files from damaged or deleted partitions. Photorec is for recovering photos from memory cards,hard drives,cds etc

Download:http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
PhotoRec Step By Step
Just FYI for the step by step - for disk selection you should be able to tell which disk to recover by the sizes listed (it may have the drive letter C:,E: etc as well)
for Partition Table Type - Select Intel

for Source Partition

Unless you have partitioned your external hard drive there should only be one partition. It should say NTFS or FAT32.

If you're unsure about anything post a screen grab and your question here.

Quarrybaby

Thanks very much for the replies. I plugged the whole lot out for a while yesterday, partly because I was totally fed up and I dunno maybe I thought a little breather might magically fix it, but when I turned it back on again, it was not even appearing in windows explorer

I spoke to my dad and he knows of someone locally who apparently knows about these kind of things and doesnt charge an arm and a leg so he is gonna take a look at it for me. Fingers crossed.