HDD Crashed, how to restore data?

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hello Guys,

A few weeks ago my WD 1TB external Hardrive crashed, so the only way to rescue my data i thought was to take this HDD out of the Chase and connect it directly to my computer.
The HDD starts and Windows 10 says there is no data and no partition.
so i looked into the management and saw the Data Typ is Raw, so i thought the best way is to quick format the hdd and after that running a Data Rescue Software. Yea Yea, not the best idea!

24 hours later and many programs and no one find anything.
So, actual situation is, i deleted the index with quick format and now i don´t know what to do to rescue my data.
I hope someone can help me.

#2

You formatted hdd; not sure if you can recover data. There is an Open Source software, TestDisk, it might help. See http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

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#3

Here is a list of some utilities for the purpose…

I have used “undelete” before and it worked for me

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#4

Thanks for all replys, but nothing works. There is data, but only cryptic data. Html files, text files and blank pictures.
And only 3000 files, i had 800gb on this hdd.
There must be a way to recover this files.

#5

If you have tried all of those programs I listed, but with no success, then there may still be a way. But, it will involve handing over hard cash, either for an advanced level of program for this purpose or for a high level professional to do it for you. Even then, though, there are no guarantees. Is the stuff on the HD critical stuff? If it is, you have my deepest sympathies. I can tell you now, this happened to me in 2005, eight years after finishing my degree. I lost my entire degree’s work, the most important three years of my life, plus all of my personal digital photo collection and lots of other stuff too numerous to mention. At the time, it was a disaster of unparalleled proportions.

And yet, it taught me a very valuable, albeit cruel, lesson. The thing is, a couple of weeks after I had lost all hope of recovering the data and finally come to accept its inevitable loss I noticed that when I got up in the morning the sun still rose in the sky, my wife and kids were still okay and the world was still turning. This didn’t mean that losing that data was any less of a disaster. But, it put it into context. Life goes on.

I don’t know if it helps sharing my own experience. But, there it is. Good luck.

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#6

@Bonekit,

if you are using Windblows, try this app (Recuva), it might well save your pics and vids although I’m not sure about docs etc?:

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

#7

@stevecook172001
Thanks for sharing your experience. It is and was very important for me and my family.
more than 100gb of videos from my daughter from the beginning and many pictures.
And other not so important stuff. But you´re right, life goes on.
The last test is running with testdisk.

@wolfman
Recuva found nothing, but thanks for the tip.

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#8

With a lot of patience (1 TB!), testdisk should be able to detect the original hard disk partitions, or perform a deeper search if no luck. I wrote a guide which will be similar to this case:

Most importantly, avoid writing anything back to that disk!

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