The Four Stages of Hard Drive Recovery

Hard Drive Recovery Emails and Articles

I have a 932GB Seagate ST1000VX000-1CU162 installed in my Dell Inspiron PC but since I have tried to change it so that it works as a slave as opposed to a master all sorts of strange things have happened. At first I thought it was something that I had done so I changed it all back to the way it was and all was fine for a time. Then a few days back when I booted the machine up the hard drive suddenly started making this noise as though there was something metal stuck in it. It refused to do anything other than sit with a cursor on the black screen and no matter what I have tried since nothing works. I think perhaps through my own desire to boost my pc that maybe I have killed it unintentionally which makes me sad. I thought I had some idea as to what I was doing. Anyway my problem now is that I have a drive just shy of 1GB that won’t let me near it and I have tried everything I can think of to get it running. The best I get is an attempt to get to the Windows logo screen then failure. Is the drive knackered or is there any way of retrieving my info and putting it down to a bad job?

I have been trying to partition a SATA drive so that I can use it as both the bootable disk and the storage device on my computer. My computer is a Dimension 390 and I have been doing this so that I can move over from Windows XP (which I like a lot) to Windows 7 because a lot of the software I use no longer functions with XP. I was working well with the task until I tried restarting the drive and nothing. The BIOS says the disk is there but beyond that when I try and progress to installing Windows 7 all I get is a message telling me there is no drive. The drive is functioning because I can hear it and I don’t think it would be dead if the BIOS picks it up. Although I might be wrong and probably am. So I went from having a disc that was working to having a disc that seems to want to but can’t and I don’t know what I’ve done. I stupidly didn’t do a backup because I thought it was simply a case of creating a partition and plonking Windows 7 on it. To my cost I have lost a great deal of imagery (I work for Highway Maintenance and have to record everything in pictures) so I need to get it back if I can before having to tell my boss I’ve made a monumental mess. Anything to be done?

The Four Stages of Hard Drive Recovery

Hard Drive Failure
If you have been experiencing problems with your hard drive then you should consider performing hard drive recovery. The recovery process is used to recover any damaged, deleted or lost data. The recovery process can be performed by an experienced computer owner. However, if you are not familiar with the recovery process you should contact a professional for assistance. Often enough simple software issues are mistaken for hard drive failure. Proper diagnostics can be performed to determine the true cause of hard drive failure.

Common Hard Drive Issues
There are several common hard drive issues that may occur, many are caused by connector issues, user error, software issues, bumped or dropped hard drives, virus-contaminated hard drive, and shock events. Some hard drive issues can be avoided; others are natural and unforeseen events that have occurred. Some issues are non-operational shock (when the unit is turned off) and operational shock (when the unit is turned on and the hard drive is reading or writing data).
Typically there are four stages of hard drive recovery. The four stages are: fix or replace the hard drive, recover missing file data, mirror the drive image to a new drive, and repair the damaged files that were retrieved. Once you have discovered that you have an issue with your hard drive you should begin troubleshooting to determine the cause.

Hard Drive Recovery – Fix or Replace the Hard Drive
The first step to troubleshooting is running a system diagnostic test. Also, you should document any error codes, messages, symptoms, noises and failure ids returned from the diagnostics test. If the hard drive has failed the diagnostic test you may need to replace the hard drive.

Mirror Old Hard Drive Image to New Hard Drive
If the hard drive has to be replaced you should mirror the information from your old hard drive to your new one. The mirroring process is quite complicated for inexperienced users. This is why it is commonly recommended that hard drive recovery should not be performed by inexperienced persons, only by professionals. The mirroring process will aid in the recovery of any deleted files that are missing and may have caused the hard drive to fail in the first place. You should only modify the new hard drive during the hard drive recovery process. The new hard drive contains an image of the old, so the old hard drive is no longer needed.

Recover Missing File Data
The next step in the hard drive recovery process is to recover all missing file data from the new hard drive image. This can be done by using software or using a simple search function to find the data you need.

Repair the Damaged Files That Were Retrieved
The last step in the recovery process is to repair any files that may have been damaged during the recovery process. Most files that have become corrupt or damaged can be repaired through the appropriate software. This process is necessary in order for you to be able open the file, but depending on the damage you may only be able to access a portion of the file contents.