HELP! Recovering data from my dead hdd.

[UBoF]

Hello guys,

 

I hope someone can give me an advise. I just purchased an SSD (kingston A400 120 GB) so that I can set my PC to use hybrid HDD and SSD combo. When I got home, I plugged in my DVD drive to make a backup of my files before installing windows onto an ssd and for some reasons I could no longer boot up to windows. It said it was checking my pc and doing repairs but at 60% a blue screen of death appears. So I waited for it to restart and it did the same thing. Tried to boot to safe mode > no go. It managed to bootup one time so I took the opportunity to do a check disk but after restarting, it would no longer boot up and is returning a bios message "disk read error". I tried to repair it using the windows installer disc but it always hanged up. The HDD LED is not blinking but the drive spins , no clicking sound or anything. I guess my HDD is dead. 

 

I tried to put it as a slave drive on a different machine and the machine just hangs on windows logo for hours until it boots up stating that the drivers for my slave drive cannot be installed properly. No slave drive. Since my bios can still see the drive, I tried to reload windows but the installation hangs up on setup starting. 

 

I guess its life has ended however, I have important family images and videos in it and since the bios can still recognize it, I am hoping that I can still recover them. I hope there is a way, If anyone has an idea I would really appreciate your help. 

 

Lesson:Always create a back up

 

Thanks guys in advance. 

 

The HDD is a WD 320 GB Blue. 

[Swealteek]

You can use recuva it saved my bacon and its free  

 

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

 

1. Install windows on the SSD  (and wait til its done)

2. format the HDD to NTFS

3. Run the program

4. may take some time

5. recuva.... the inportant stuff the the ssd first

[UBoF]

1 minute ago, Swealteek said:

You can use it saved my bacon and its free  

 

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I will try this when I get home later. I hope this would save me too. 

[Swealteek]

Just now, UBoF said:

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I will try this when I get home later. I hope this would save me too. 

Did it show up in the bios ?

[UBoF]

3 minutes ago, Swealteek said:

Did it show up in the bios ?

yes, the drive is showing up in bios. 

[Imbellis]

I can vouch for Recuva. I've used it a couple of times to get lost data.

[Swealteek]

2 minutes ago, UBoF said:

yes, the drive is showing up in bios. 

Good than its a REALYYY big chance that you wil recuva the data... ok ill stop know.

[UBoF]

Just now, Swealteek said:

Good than its a REALYYY big chance that you wil recuva the data... ok ill stop know.

By the way, how do I run it if the drive does not boot up and I cannot use the drive as a slave drive? 

[Swealteek]

2 minutes ago, UBoF said:

By the way, how do I run it if the drive does not boot up and I cannot use the drive as a slave drive? 

The HDD is not the main boot drive the SSD is. "slave drive" how old ar you thats before i was born and im 20  

 

Just install windows on the SSD it will be fine trust my.

 

[UBoF]

Just now, Swealteek said:

The HDD is not the main boot drive the SSD is. "slave drive" how old ar you thats before i was born and im 20  

 

Just install windows on the SSD it will be fine trust my.

 

yes. however, when I use the hdd as the "slave drive" I am 24. windows would not boot even if it is in ssd. 

[Swealteek]

2 minutes ago, UBoF said:

yes. however, when I use the hdd as the "slave drive" I am 24. windows would not boot even if it is in ssd. 

You can reconnect the HDD wen in windows (just make sure it has power before booting) and reconnect sata wen your on the windows desktop. But thas it boot wen only a singel ssd connectet ?

 

I don't recommend this to do normally do. 

[UBoF]

Just now, UBoF said:

yes. however, when I use the hdd as the "slave drive" I am 24. windows would not boot even if it is in ssd. 

so what happens is I attach the hdd to the pc as well as the ssd as my main boot drive. When I fire it up, bios > reads both > windows boot scree > stuck there for hours (this is an ssd) > when it boots up, does not read the hdd. 

[UBoF]

Just now, Swealteek said:

You can reconnect the HDD wen in windows (just make sure it has power before booting) and reconnect sata wen your on the windows desktop.

Oh I didn't know that. I thought of it before but I was afraid that it would short out the drive. I guess I will try that later. 

[UBoF]

2 minutes ago, Swealteek said:

You can reconnect the HDD wen in windows (just make sure it has power before booting) and reconnect sata wen your on the windows desktop. But thas it boot wen only a singel ssd connectet ?

 

I don't recommend this to do normally do. 

SSD boots up fine and fast when it is alone. 

[Swealteek]

Just now, UBoF said:

Oh I didn't know that. I thought of it before but I was afraid that it would short out the drive. I guess I will try that later. 

leave the sate power on the HDD so its spins and powers on and reconnect the data kabel wen in windows.

 

Als why das it read bevore the HDD and SSD wen booting ? normal it wilt only read form the SSD until windows is fully loaded

[UBoF]

1 minute ago, Swealteek said:

leave the sate power on the HDD so its spins and powers on and reconnect the data kabel wen in windows.

 

Als why das it read bevore the HDD and SSD wen booting ? normal it wilt only read form the SSD until windows is fully loaded

not sure but thats what happens. I wonder why as well. maybe I will try to boot to windows first before inserting the sata cable and see how it goes. 

 

[UBoF]

21 hours ago, UBoF said:

not sure but thats what happens. I wonder why as well. maybe I will try to boot to windows first before inserting the sata cable and see how it goes. 

 

right,

 

 

so i have tried the suggestions here but nothing seems to work.. too bad for me.

 

 

things i tried.

 

1. tried to plug the power connector to the hdd and boot to windows

hdd spins.

 

2. when in windows, i plugged in the sata cable to the hdd. however nothing happens.

 

3. checked device manager to see if the hdd was read. none.

 

4. installed recuva and obviously, it did not detect the hdd.

 

a progress though is I tried to shut the system off and plug in the hdd with the power and sata then booted to windows. of course i had to wait.

 

windows now detects the drive and gives it a D: label. however I cannot open it. Device manager sees it to with the latest drivers installed.

 

when i try to rigt click open d drive error "location is not available: D: is not accessible The parameter is incorrect.

 

 

[UBoF]

Case solved.

 

The drive became RAW. I used M3 Data Recovery software to scan and recover the most important files I needed. Then I used EaseUS Partition Master to format the drive back to NTFS. Checked the drive health with Hard Disk Sentinel and it is 85%. I will replace it though. 

 

Making my backups at the moment.