Save some data on a dead (IDK) hard drive.

[Labob]

So I have a hard drive die yesterday an older QWd cavair green WD20EARS . Was used in my server. It has about 1.5 terribits of tv shows and movies a back up of my music and photo's. Would like to get it all back. Be so much easyer then finding out what was all on it. It will not redo the MBR Its in a usb case right now thats not doing shit. File explore does not see it but In Computer managment disk manager see's it but not a thiong I can do to it from there. I've hit it with a few oteh rprograms but they do not seem to see the drive. Any Ideas ?? 

[TheLastColdBeer]

Had some success using Partition Magic under Linux. Set the old HD under slave & see if the OS can see into it. Windows just doesn't like looking at crashed drives. One Maxtor died, and putting it into the system under windows just causes blue screens, even as a slave. Booting Linux with a live drive is easy, and it won't change anything on your system. All else fails, dead drives make nice paperweights. 

[KaptCrunch]

i had samething after a MS update

2Tb winblows not seeing files 

seems any audio or video media was wiped ,  had to  re-backup files  

from a mirrored drive 

question  what you mean die ?  not seen ? or not even spin up when powered ?  or head is slapping when power up

no spin replace PCB 

i have another same drive swap controllier board

 

 

[TheLastColdBeer]

Typed that incorrectly, it was Parted Magic that I used. Powerful tool, but like LInux, not forgiving, either command line or GUI. It will give you an opportunity to look things over, but it won't ask you if you're sure. It just executes, right or wrong. I've lost two hard drives in my career, which proved to me backup is your friend. Stuff I've lost, life goes on, and it couldn't have been that important if I didn't copy it somewhere else.

[Labob]

Most was backed up say except last few months. My problem is I have 5 hard drives and there is no order to whats on either ither except movies music ect ect. So this one was an over run HD it had tv movie and photo's. I just have to figure out what was on it. Be so much faster to see the files than to try and replace them. The hard Drive itself can be seen by windows disk management but it does not have a letter assigned. So with out that  command lines do not work. Still have not given up on this. Photos are easy I have 2 more back ups. The rest imagine when the kids sit down tommorrow to watch there fav show and its not there.  I know I lost all my Mash shows and its was a lot of work using handbrake to get them off the dvd. 

[LOCO]

i always had luck running it as a slave on another pc or you can buy one of those usb hard drive adapters which i used to get the data back when the pc option doesnt work

[TheLastColdBeer]

Yep, that one is going to be tough to sort out. RAID arrays are wonderful, depending on how data is stored across them. Losing one in a RAID 0 setup kinda leaves you screwed. If you do salvage data, windows is not going to be helpful in associating files where they can be useful again. I feel for ya, I use Handbrake for video conversion too, and it's not a rapid process. Most of my video collection is on a portable, connected to a Blu-ray player in my bedroom.

[KaptCrunch]

LoCo  correct use a USB adapter to retrive data 

[Labob]

I have it in a usb drive. It see it but with no drive letter assigned . With out a drive letter I cannot go forward on that route. Even spinrite (OMG how long would that take on a 2 tb drive ) needs a drive letter.