7 Responses to “What is the best way to recover data from a dead hard drive?”

1. chfields on July 24th, 2009 6:40 pm
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: Well, you have 2 options
   1. Connect it to another computer as a slave drive and see if you can access that way.
   2 If that doesn’t work, then you need to take it to a professional and that can be expensive.
2. Michael V on July 26th, 2009 6:36 am
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: You can get an usb or sata enclosure for your HD (try newegg.com). Install your HD into it and connect to another computer. Work quickly once it is connected you don’t know how long you have.
   Good luck!
3. Julian R on July 27th, 2009 7:17 am
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: buy an external harddrive kit for small hardrives. connect the messed up harddrive and your pc should pick up the drive quickly. Go into the drive and recover what you need.

   here:http://www.censuspc.com/2.5-inch-Drive-Case-External-Enclosure-Ultra-Light-Aluminum-USB2.0-Smart-Drive-Enclosure.-SKU-HD-ESU25-pr-2656.html
4. Michael B on July 28th, 2009 4:54 am
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: i took mine to Best Buy because it was the easiest way and it only cost me $60-$90 and that worked for me

   P.S. even though i dislike this store it still comes in handy to have around lol
5. kendra on July 28th, 2009 2:59 pm
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: more than likely it is toast i am not trying to be mean but it can cost up to 10000 dolars to restore info off a bad hard drive i have seen companys pay up to 50000 dolars for a hard drive capture so i sugest backup backup backup next time
   it may be restored if it is your pc and not actualy the hard drive
   like mickell b or the guy above me
   best of luck to you
6. Mark L on July 30th, 2009 9:23 am
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: The SMART definitely indicates a hard drive failure.
   You can try putting the drive in a hard drive enclosure and see if you get something.. there are no guarantees once you get the SMART errror… good luck..

   BTW.. look for external hard drive enclosures you can slip in your drive into one of these enclosures and attach it to the usb drive of a working computer..

   use these links :
   see the “hard drive enclosure” link on the left side..

   OR
7. Dexter D on August 1st, 2009 10:48 pm
   

   Data Recovery Feedback: USB hard drive enclosures are the best option available for you. You have to determine first if your hard drive is either a SATA or an IDE, then buy the appropriate USB hard drive enclosure. Make sure that it’s for a portable hard drive, with the correct type (SATA/IDE). If you can retrieve your data without problems using this method, then good for you.

   But if your drive is failing because of the SMART error message and you couldn’t retrieve data from this proceedure, you have two other options. You can either take it to data retrieval companies like Drivesavers, but this will be very expensive. The other method is using using software that is also built for this purpose. One such software that I have confidence in (and was featured in Screensavers) is SpinRite6. The software is very useful and even claims that it can bring bad sectors back to life if the sector isn’t truly bad. It can even retrieve most, if not all data from bad/unreadable sectors. Just check out their website, and even watch the video clips also found in their website.

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