Recording drive finally failed *FIXED

[lithium630]

The drive I use for recorded TV stopped working. The drive is recognized by Windows, but says it needs to be formatted. Is there any way to recover the terabyte of recorded tv I have on it? I moved it to another computer but get the same message. None of the error checking programs I tried will work until the drive is formatted. Ugh..

[STC]

I've had success with GetDataBack. As long as the heads move on command and there aren't any major bad sectors, a 1TB drive will take a while to scan and recover any data.

[Beradon]

If the drive is no longer spinning, Two methods i know of to try to recover data from a dead drive are either to stick the drive in the freezer or to drop it from about a foot or so onto a solid surface (repeatedly if need be).

Obviously the freeze method is a little safer.

If the drive is still spinning don't do the drop method.

[Scallica]

This program works really well:

http://www.recoveryfix.com/recover-windows-data.html

[lithium630]

The drive still spins fine, and doesn't make any noise. Windows just doesn't seem to recognize the partition. I have GetDataBack running now. 13 hours to go. The silver lining is now I have an excuse to get a bigger drive. 1.5 Terabytes just fills up too quickly since the kids learned how to record.

[STC]

Just a heads-up: If you can recover data using GetDataBack you need somewhere other then the knackered drive to port it to. If you want to try and get 1TB's worth of data back, you'll need 1TB's worth of free working space somewhere.

[lithium630]

Just a heads-up: If you can recover data using GetDataBack you need somewhere other then the knackered drive to port it to. If you want to try and get 1TB's worth of data back, you'll need 1TB's worth of free working space somewhere.

I have a new 2TB drive ready to go. Have you tried recovering recorded tv? I'm just wondering if the meta data will be intact. I've recovered deleted files in the past and usually the file names are lost.

[STC]

I have not recovered .wtv files before, sorry, but the files I have recovered were intact (docs, pics, photos etc.) from a drive that exhibited similar behavior to the one you have. It all depends on the file system 'damage' you have as to what your results will be. It should scan sector by sector I recall, and list found files as it goes? It's been a while since using it. Then it compiles the results (another wait), then it will ask you your destination, and finally start recovering the data.

Good luck!

[lithium630]

Unfortunately after running all night, GetDataBack did not find any files. After searching around the net I found that this problem is fairly common. Something happens to the drives and Windows is no longer able to read the partition size correctly. There is a tool out there but it is 32bit only, which I don't have. I downloaded EaseUS Partition Magic and was able to search through the files on the drive with no problem. I copied the entire partition on to the new drive and it works great. Sweet!

[barnabas1969]

It's good that you got your data back. I've never heard of the freezer solution. What I have heard of from a co-worker who has actually done this with a drive that has a stuck platter is to put the drive out in the sun (or in an oven for a little while) to heat it up... and then plug it in to retrieve the data. Of course, this is only for a drive where the platter will not spin up.

[duncane]

I guess either way makes some sort of sense, heat or cold will make some of the components expand or contract and perhaps free them up.
I have tried the freezer before with no luck. However, the quick sharp banging of the drive on my desk did!
If it's going in the bin anyway they are all worth a go.
This is what I've used many times when the drive is actually spinning but not not booting http://www.handyrecovery.com/
Ewan