need to recover hard drive

[starbuck]

Installed vista 64 on my pc(prev had 32bit via raid 0 on 2 500gb drives). When I installed vista 64 I decided to ditch the array as it wasn't that much faster and wanted to lessen the risk of failure.

I backed up all my video and music files onto sep hard drives. Prob is, my 320gb maxtor drive which was in my pc as a storage drive when I had raid is now not accessible unless I format it(which is what windows keeps asking me to do.

I need the contents of that drive as it contains loads of irreplaceable video files(family etc).

Any idea how I can do it?

[Splash]

Was that drive part of any kind of array (be that a Windows RAID, other software or hardware RAID)? How did it fit into your previous build?

[Jay]

try and run a chkdsk in DOS that may help. Hate it when this type of thing happens! Don't worry I am sure you will be able to get the stuff back

[Vibein]

Don't use the drive in the meantime and do not install anything on there.

Seems like a separate storage drive, strange how it stopped being recognised if not part of the original raid.

GetDataBack worked a treat for me, not freeware.

[starbuck]

it was a separate drive and not part of the array. I found it strange as well that it stopped working.

[Splash]

try and run a chkdsk in DOS that may help. Hate it when this type of thing happens! Don't worry I am sure you will be able to get the stuff back

If you do this DO NOT run it with the /r switch unless you can clone the disk first (better still, clone the disk and recover data from the clone)

[peterb]

If you do this DO NOT run it with the /r switch unless you can clone the disk first (better still, clone the disk and recover data from the clone)

I would echo that - the worst case scenario is that the disk has failed mechanically or electronically, in which case you only realistic chance is a data recovery company - megabucks - although many offer a "no fix-no fee" policy.

Better case is that disk is about to fail, but the data is in an unknown condition. Cloning the disk (ie a bit by bit logical copy) gives you a known good working disk to play with.

As for the data...

Worst case - file system is corrupt and Windows can't make any sense of it - but some (or all) data is present - somewhere. A data recovery company may well get it back - expensive, but not megagbucks - or you could try it yourself using one of the many tools available. Another Hexite reported using one of these with some success.

Better case - partition table is corrupt and file system is intact - there is a very good chance of recovering the data again using some of the tools available.

But cloning the disk at the first opportunity at least preserves what you have if the disk itself is at fault (with the proviso that if the head mechanism is dragging on the surface of the disk - you run the risk of trashing the interface completely - but the only way to mitigate that is by sending it to a recovery specialist with a clean room = megabucks.

I haven't used either of these, but others have with reportedly good results

Data Recovery Software - Hard Drive Recovery - RAID Data Recovery
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